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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38470-8.txt b/38470-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c2303a --- /dev/null +++ b/38470-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9319 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord John in New York, by +C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lord John in New York + +Author: C. N. Williamson + A. M. Williamson + +Release Date: January 2, 2012 [EBook #38470] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD JOHN IN NEW YORK *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + + + + +LORD JOHN + +IN NEW YORK + + + +BY + +C. N. & A. M. WILLIAMSON + + +AUTHORS OF "THE LIGHTNING CONDUCTOR" + + + + +METHUEN & CO. LTD. + +36 ESSEX STREET W.C. + +LONDON + + + + +_First Published in 1918_ + + + + + BY THE SAME AUTHORS + + The Lightning Conductor + The Princess Passes + My Friend the Chauffeur + Lady Betty Across the Water + The Car of Destiny + The Botor Chaperon + Set in Silver + Lord Loveland Discovers America + The Golden Silence + The Guests of Hercules + The Demon + The Wedding Day + The Princess Virginia + The Heather Moon + The Love Pirate + It Happened in Egypt + A Soldier of the Legion + The Shop Girl + The War Wedding + The Lightning Conductress + Secret History + The Cowboy Countess + This Woman to this Man + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +EPISODE I + +THE KEY + + +EPISODE II + +THE GREY SISTERHOOD + + +EPISODE III + +THE GIRL ON THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR + + +EPISODE IV + +THE DEATH TRYST + + +EPISODE V + +THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT + + +EPISODE VI + +THE CLUE IN THE AIR + + +EPISODE VII + +THE WATCHING EYE + + +EPISODE VIII + +THE HOUSE OF REVENGE + + +EPISODE IX + +THE BELL BUOY + + + + +TO A CERTAIN KING + +OF A CERTAIN CINEMA COMPANY + +WHO PUT + +"LORD JOHN IN NEW YORK" + +ON THE SCREEN + + + + +LORD JOHN IN NEW YORK + + + + +EPISODE I + +THE KEY + +"More letters and flowers for you, Lord John," said my nurse. + +Not that I needed a nurse; and, above all things, I needed no more +letters or flowers. The waste-paper basket was full. The room smelt +like a perfume factory. The mantelpiece and all other receptacles +having an army of occupation, vases and bowls were mobilising on the +floor. This would, of course, not be tolerated in hospital; but I was +off the sick list, recovering in a private convalescent home. I was +fed up with being a wounded hero; the fragrance of too many flowers, +and the kindness of too many ladies, was sapping and mining my brain +power; consequently, I could invent no excuse for escape. + +The nurse came in, put down the lilies, and gave me three letters. + +My heart beat, for I was expecting a note from a woman to whom somehow +or other I was almost engaged, and to whom I didn't in the least wish +to be engaged. She would not have looked at me before the war, when I +was only a younger brother of the Marquis of Haslemere--and the author +of a successful detective story called _The Key_. Now, however; simply +because I'd dropped a few bombs from a monoplane on to a Zeppelin +hangar in Belgium, had been wounded in one arm and two legs, and +through sheer instinct of self-preservation had contrived to escape, I +was a toy worth playing with. She wanted to play with me. All the +women I knew, not busy with better toys, wanted to play with me. My +brother Haslemere, who had been ashamed of my extremely clever, rather +successful book, and the undoubted detective talent it showed, was +proud of me as a mere bomb-dropper. So, too, was my sister-in-law. I +was the principal object of attraction at the moment in Violet's zoo--I +mean her convalescent home. She had cried because men were not being +wounded fast enough to fill its expensively appointed rooms; I was +captured, therefore, to make up for deficiencies and shown off to +Violet's many friends, who were duly photographed bending beautifully +over me. + +There was, as I had feared, a letter from Irene Anderson; there was +also--even worse--one from Mrs. Allendale. But the third letter was +from Carr Price. On the envelope was the address of the New York +theatre where the play he had dramatised from my book would shortly be +produced. He had come to England a million years ago, before the war, +to consult me about his work, which would have been brought out in +London if the war had not upset our manager's plans. I like Carr +Price, who is as much poet as playwright; a charming, sensitive, +nervous, wonderful fellow. I gave his letter precedence. + + +"DEAR LORD JOHN," he began, and I judged from the scrawl that he wrote +in agitation--"for goodness' sake, what have you done to Roger Odell +that he should have a grouch on you? It must have been something +pretty bad. I wish to Heaven you'd given me the tip last summer that +you'd made an enemy of him. Roger Odell, of all men in America! I +suppose the brother of a marquis can stand on his own feet in his own +country, but even if his brother's an archangel his feet are apt to get +cold in New York if Roger Odell turns the heat off. + +"The facts--as I've just heard from Julius Felborn--are these. +Yesterday Odell sent for Julius, who went like a bird, for he and Odell +are friends. Odell's money and influence put Julius where he is now, +as a manager, up at the top, though still young. What was Julius's +horror, however, when Odell blurted out a warning not to produce any +play dramatised from a book of yours, because he--Odell--would do his +best to ruin it! Julius asked what the dickens he meant. Odell +wouldn't explain. All he'd say was, that he'd be sorry to hurt Julius +and had nothing against me, but _The Key_ would get no chance in New +York or any old town in the United States where Roger Odell had a +finger in the pie. + +"Well, you must have heard enough about Odell to know what such a +threat amounts to. There are mighty few pies he hasn't got a finger +in. Not that he's a man who threatens as a rule. He's _made_ a good +many men. I never heard of his _breaking_ one. But when he decides to +do a thing, he does it. Julius is in a blue funk. He's not a coward, +but even if he felt strong enough to fight Odell's newspapers and other +influence, he says it would be an act of 'base ingratitude' to do so, +as he'd be 'walking on his uppers' now but for Odell's help, tiding +over rough places in the past. Julius took all night to reflect, and +rang me up this morning. I'm writing in his office at the theatre now, +after our interview. He says Odell would have put him wise before, but +he saw the pars (in his own papers!) for the first time yesterday +morning on the way back from the West Indies, where he'd been on a +short business trip. Queer place for such a man to go on a business +trip! But the whole thing is dashed queer. Now he's off again like a +whirlwind to England for _another_ 'short business trip,' so he told +Julius. But J. let drop one little item of information about a woman, +or rather a girl. _Can_ that be where _you_ come in on this? _Have +you taken this girl away_? Anyhow, whatever you've done, the +consequences seem likely to be serious. Julius is inclined to call a +halt, bribe, wheedle or bluster the star into throwing up his part at +the first rehearsal, by way of an excuse, and to put on Chumley Reed's +_Queen Sweetheart_, which he kept up his sleeve in case _The Key_ +failed. But, of course, it _couldn't_ fail, unless it was burked. The +whole cast was wild over _The Key_. Julius himself was wild, and is +sick at having to turn it down. But Odell's too big for him. And I +guess O---- has offered to stand the racket for the loss of wasted +scenery, which has been begun on an elaborate scale. (Think of the +great casino act at Monte Carlo!) Unfortunately, I'm constituted so I +can't help seeing both sides of the shield and putting myself in +others' places. I'm sorry for Julius. But I'm twenty times sorrier +for Carr Price. For you, too, my dear fellow, of course. But I stand +to lose more than you do on this deal. + +"I told you confidentially last June just what depends on the success +of _The Key_, and I've counted on that success as certain. So did +_she_. I wish to Heaven she weren't so conscientious--yet no, I love +her all the better for what she is. I shan't ask her to break the +promise she gave her father, who, you may remember, is Governor of my +own State, not to be engaged definitely till I've made good. But if +I'm to have even my _chance_ to make good snatched away, it's hard +lines. I wish to the Lord my dear girl weren't such a howling swell, +with such an important parent! No use hustling around to other +managers. Your book went like hot cakes here. So would your play, but +no man will pit himself against Roger Odell, if Odell means fighting. +And there's no doubt he does mean it--unless you can undo whatever the +fool thing is you've done. + +"Probably this letter will go to England in the same ship with Odell. +If you're well enough by the time it reaches you, to crawl about, can't +you see him? I've told Felborn that when you set your wits to work +you're as much of a wonder as your Prime Minister in _The Key_. I've +worked him up to some sort of superstitious belief in you. The next +thing is, to make him merely _put off_ the rehearsal on some pretext, +and do nothing one way or the other till I get a cable. I shan't sleep +or eat till I hear whether there's any hope of your straightening +things with Odell.--Yours, C.P.". + + +"Straightening things with Odell!" That might have been simple, if +things had ever been crooked with Odell. But I had never met, I had +never seen him. All I knew was what I had read, and vaguely heard from +Americans: that Roger Odell was a millionaire, still a young man, a +popular fellow who had made most of his money out of mines and had +bought up an incredible number of newspapers in order to make his power +felt in the world. But what grudge had he against me? How did he know +that I existed? I decided that I owed it to myself as an expert even +more than to Price and his girl, who was a "governor's daughter," to +turn on the searchlight. + +It was nearly my time for an outing. Lady Emily Boynton was coming in +about an hour to collect me in her car, take me to the park and there +let me try a combination of legs and crutches. But in my room was a +telephone. In general I cursed the noisy thing. To-day I blessed it. +I 'phoned to the doctor that, instead of his coming to me, I should +prefer to call on him, explaining my reason when we met. Next I rang +up Lady Emily to say that I was going to Harley Street. She mustn't +trouble to send, as I was ordering a taxi in a hurry. And lest she +should disobey, I hobbled off before her car could arrive--my first +independent expedition since I had been interned by Violet. + +I hoped that Roger Odell might be caught at some hotel in London, and +resolved not to stop going till I found him. I began at the Savoy, and +it seemed that luck was with me when I learned that he had arrived the +night before. He had gone out, however, directly after breakfast, +leaving no word as to his return. This was a blow, especially as it +appeared that he had hired a powerful automobile; and even American +millionaires do not hire powerful automobiles to run about town. + +They take taxis. + +I gave myself a minute's reflection, and decided that it would be +tempting Providence to intern myself again before seeing Odell, or else +definitely failing to see him. I refused to leave my name, saying that +I would call later; and on the way to keep my Harley Street appointment +stopped my taxi at a post office. Thence I sent a cable to Carr Price-- + + +"Count on me to make everything right with Odell. Postpone rehearsals +if necessary, but assure Felborn he can safely prepare production. +Will wire further details.--JOHN HASLE." + + +Perhaps Price and Felborn would have considered this assurance +premature had they known the little I possessed to go upon. But I had +confidence in myself, and felt justified in rushing off a cheerful +message. Delay and uncertainty were the two fatal obstacles to our +scheme. It seemed fair to presume that, as I've never met nor harmed +Odell, his objection to me must be founded on some misunderstanding +which a few frank words ought to clear up. All I had to do was to see +him; and I _would_ see him if I had to camp at his door for a week. + +Having got off my cable I called oh the doctor, explaining to him, as +man to man, that I was being killed with kindness, buried under flowers +and jellies, as Tarpeia was buried under shields and bracelets. "I +must get out from under," I said, "or I shall fade like a flower or +dissolve into a jelly myself. Can't you save me?" + +"I thought you were enjoying life," he replied. "You're well enough, +as a matter of fact, to do almost anything except go back to the front. +Your legs won't run to that, my boy, for the next six months at least. +If you're such an ungrateful beggar that you want to leave Lady +Haslemere's paradise and all its lovely houris, save yourself. Don't +put the responsibility on me." + +"Coward!" I said. (I would have hissed it, but, except in novels, it +is physically impossible to hiss the word "coward.") + +"The same to you," he retorted. "Get someone to send you on some +mission and I'll back you up. I'll certify that you're strong enough +to undertake it, if it doesn't depend on your legs, and is not too +strenuous." + +"I may need to run over to America," it suddenly occurred to me to say, +as if by inspiration. "I should have to depend on brains, not legs. +Would New York be too strenuous?" + +"I hear they're pretty strenuous over there, but--well----" + +"You don't know what I go through every day at that confounded home for +milksops when your back is turned," I pleaded, as he hesitated. That +settled it. We both laughed, and I knew he'd see me through. Five +minutes before nothing had been further from my mind than a trip to New +York; but now I felt that it had been my secret intention from the +first. It was strongly impressed upon me that I should have to go. +Why, I could not tell. But the thing would happen. + +It was two o'clock and luncheon time when I got back to the Savoy, but +Odell had not returned. I wired (I would not 'phone lest I should be +unearthed like a fox from his hole) to the convalescent home, saying +that all was well and I had the doctor's authority to stop out as long +as I liked. I then ate a substantial meal and inquired again at the +desk. No Odell. I said I would wait. Would they kindly let me know, +in the reading-room, when Mr. Odell arrived? I being wounded and in +khaki, they waived suspicion of a nameless caller. I was given the +freedom of the Savoy, and I waited. I waited three hours, and read all +the magazines and papers. Then I wandered into the foyer and ordered +tea. While I was having it, up trotted a sympathetic clerk with a +flurried manner to inform me that Mr. Odell was not coming back at all. +A telegram had just been received, saying that important business +called him home at once. He was on his way by automobile to Liverpool, +whence he would sail next morning on the _Monarchic_. His luggage was +to be forwarded by messenger in time to go on board the ship. + +For a few seconds I felt as if what remained of my tea had been flung +in my face, scalding hot. But by the time I'd thanked my informant, +paid my waiter and picked up my crutches, I knew why I had had that +presentiment. I taxied to Cook's and learned that, owing to the war, I +could get a cabin on any ship I liked. From Cook's to the doctor's; +found him going out, dragged him home with me, and utilised his +services in wrestling with the matron and nurses. "The play of my book +is being produced in New York, and I must be there, dead or alive," I +explained. This seemed to them important, even unanswerable. It would +not to my sister-in-law. But she was having influenza at home, and I +sneaked off before she knew (having got leave from the War Office), +sending her a grateful, regretful telegram from Liverpool. + +Even the amateur sleuth doesn't let a ship carry him away to sea +without making sure that his quarry is on board. Roger Odell's name +was not on the passenger list, but neither was mine; we were late +comers. Nevertheless, I knew he was certain to have a good cabin, and +I inquired casually of a steward on the promenade deck whether he had +"Seen Mr. Odell yet?" He fell into my trap and answered that he had +not, but his "mate" would be looking after the gentleman who was in the +bridal suite. + +I pricked up my ears, remembering that, according to Carr Price, there +was a girl in the case. Something unexpected had happened to upset +Odell's plans in England. Could he be running off with anybody's wife +or daughter? + +"I didn't know that Mr. Odell was on his honeymoon," I ventured as a +feeler. + +The steward looked nonplussed, then grinned. "Oh, you're thinking of +the bridal suite, sir!" he patronised my ignorance. "There's nothing +in _that_. Probably the gentleman wired for the best there was. He's +alone, sir. Do you wish to send word to him? I can fetch my mate----" + +I broke in with thanks, saying that I would see Mr. Odell later. No +doubt I would do so; but how I should recognise him was the question. +Meanwhile, I limped about the deck, hoping to come across a chair +labelled "Odell," and vainly searching I met a deck-steward. He took +pity on my lameness, and offered to get me a chair at once. "Where +would you like to sit, sir?" + +I wanted to say, "Put me next to Mr. Roger Odell," but that was too +crude a means towards the end. I looked around, hesitating and +hoping--in a way I have which sometimes works well--for an inspiration, +and my wandering eyes arrived at a girl. Then they ceased to wander. +She was extraordinarily pretty, and therefore more important than +twenty Roger Odells. She was just settling into her deck-chair. To +the right was another chair, with a rug and a pillow on it. To the +left was an unfilled space. + +"There's room over there," I said. "It seems a well-sheltered place." + +"It is, sir," replied the steward. Without allowing an eye to twinkle, +he solemnly plumped down my chair at the left of the girl, not too +near, yet not too far distant. She glanced up, as if faintly annoyed +at being given a neighbour, but seeing my crutches, melted and gave me +a brief yet angelic look of sympathy. If she had been a nurse in my +sister-in-law's home I should never have left it. For she was one of +those girls who, if there were only half a dozen men remaining in the +world at the end of the war, would be certain to receive proposals from +at least five. She was the type of the Eternal Feminine, the woman of +our dreams, the face in the sunset and moonbeams. Perhaps you have +seen such a face in real life--just once. + +The girl had on a small squirrel toque and a long squirrel coat. She +was wrapped in a squirrel rug to match. She had reddish-brown hair. +All the girls who can take the last men in the world away from all the +other women have more or less of that red glint in their hair. Yet she +seemed far from anxious to take the man who came striding along the +deck and stopped in front of her as the ship got under way. + +What she did was to look up and cry out a horrified "Oh!" Her cheeks, +which had been pale, flamed red. She half threw off her fur rug, and +would have struggled out of her chair if the man had not appealed to +her mercy. + +"Don't run away from me, Grace," he said, "after all these months." + +The name "Grace" suited the girl, or rather expressed her. The man +stared with hungry eyes. I was sorry for him. Somehow, I seemed to +know how he felt. He had an American voice and looked like an +American--that good, strong type of American who can hold his own +anywhere: not tall, not short, not slim, not stout, not very dark, not +very fair; square-jawed, square-shouldered; aggressive-featured, +kind-eyed; one rebellious lock of brown hair falling over a white +forehead. + +"But--I _have_ been running away from you all these months. I've been +doing nothing else. I could do nothing else," she reproached him. +They had both forgotten me. Besides, I was not obtrusively near. + +"Don't I know you've been running away--to my sorrow?" he flung back at +her. "I heard of you in the West Indies. I went there to hunt you +down. You'd gone. I dashed home. You hadn't come back. I was +told--I won't say by whom--that you were in England. I ran over and +got on your track yesterday; flashed off to Bath in a fast auto; +reached there just as you'd left for Liverpool to sail on this ship. +So now I'm here." + +She looked up at him, tears on her lashes. "Oh, Rod!" was all she +said. It did not need that name to tell me who he was, but eyes and +voice told me something more. She was not flirting with him. She was +not pretending to wish that he had not come. With all her heart and +soul she did wish it, yet--_she loved him_. I wondered if he knew +that, or if not how much he would give to learn it. + +"You can't get away from me this time," he said, not truculently, but +pleadingly, as if he were afraid she might somehow slip out of his +hands. "We'll have five days and a half--I hope six--together. If I +can't persuade you in five days and a half----" + +"You couldn't in five hundred years and a half! Rod, what do you +_think_ of me? Do you suppose I want you to _die_?" + +"Do you suppose I'm _afraid_?" + +"No. But I am--for you. Nothing on this earth can induce me to change +my mind. You only make us both miserable by keeping on. Oh, Rod, here +comes Aunt Marian! This is her chair." + +Roger Odell glanced in the direction the girl's eyes gave him. I did +likewise. A woman was coming, a tall woman in brown. A generation ago +she would have been middle-aged; in our generation such women are +young. She looked about thirty-eight, and so I put her down as ten +years older. She was dusky olive, with a narrow face, banded black +hair, and a swaying throat: rather a beautiful Leonardo da Vinci sort +of woman. + +Evidently she was as much astonished to see Odell as the girl had been, +but she had a different way of showing it. She did not seem to mind +his presence when she got over her surprise. She shook hands and let +him put her into her chair, tucking the brown fur rug around her body +and under her slim feet. I thought she seemed more Italian than +American. She was very agreeable to Odell, in a cool, detached way, +but when she inquired if he ought not to be going below to lunch, even +a man of his determination was obliged to take the hint. "We are +having something brought to us on deck," she explained. "Come back if +you like when you have finished." + +My lameness gave me an excuse for troubling the deck steward, who +fetched me a plate of cold chicken at about the time when more +elaborately furnished trays were placed before the two ladies. They +had more to eat than I, but they finished sooner; at least, it was so +with the younger. There was no sea on, yet she left her luncheon +almost untouched, and after five minutes' playing with it went indoors. +No sooner had she got safely away than Odell came back to accept the +invitation given by "Aunt Marian," only to find it no longer worth his +acceptance. (Recalling her words, I realised that she had never +expected "Grace" to stay.) Odell asked for a chair, nevertheless, and +had it put next to hers, evidently meaning to annex the place +permanently. These were the right tactics, of course. Even I should +have adopted them; but they were opposed to a more subtle and deadly +strategy. "Grace" proceeded to prove that being on board the same ship +with her did not mean being in her society. She did not appear on deck +again. Odell was forced to realise that he had made the girl a +prisoner in her cabin. + +That afternoon the list of passengers was given out, and I searched +eagerly for her name. I had not far down the alphabet to go. There +she was among the "C's"--"Miss Grace Callender." The name was an +electric shock; and seeing it I could guess but too easily why the girl +might love a man and run away from him. + +Nobody who read the newspapers three years ago could have helped +knowing who Grace Callender was; and if they forgot, she would +certainly have been recalled to their minds a year and a half later. +I, at least, had not forgotten. I owed to the "Callender-Graham +Tragedy" one detail which had helped to make the success of my novel, +and had suggested its name, _The Key_. Miss Callender was (and is) an +American heiress, but England has its own reasons for being interested +in American heiresses. Therefore, at the time of the two great +sensational events in Grace Callender's life, London papers gave long +paragraphs to the story. + +Her parents--cousins--were both killed in a motor accident in France +while she was a schoolgirl at home in charge of her aunt, a half-sister +of the father, Graham Callender. Both parents were rich, having, for +their lifetime, the use of an immense fortune, or rather the income +derived from it. The principal could not be touched by them, but +passed to their only child. This arrangement had come about through a +family quarrel in the previous generation; but, as Graham Callender and +his wife were of opinion that injustice had been done, they wished +their daughter to atone for it by her marriage. Half the money ought +rightly to have gone to Philip Callender-Graham, a cousin who had been +disinherited in their favour. He had died poor, leaving a couple of +sons a few years older than Grace. The two had been educated at Graham +Callender's expense, and had spent their holidays at his houses in town +and country. Grace had grown up to look upon both almost as brothers, +though they were only her second cousins. She was fond of the pair--a +little fonder of Perry, the elder, than of his younger brother Ned. As +for the brothers themselves, it appeared later that both were in love +with Grace; but Ned kept his secret and let Perry win the prize. The +engagement of Grace Callender and Perry Callender-Graham was announced +on the girl's nineteenth birthday. One night a few months later, and +just one week before the day fixed for the wedding, Perry +Callender-Graham was found dead in a quiet side street near Riverside +Drive. + +There were no marks of violence on his body, and apparently he had not +been robbed. In his pockets were several letters which could have no +bearing on the cause of his death, an empty envelope, a sum of money, a +jewel-case containing a diamond pendant, probably intended as a gift +for his fiancée, and two keys which seemed to be new. Both were +latchkeys: one rather large and long, looking as if it might belong to +the front door of a house; the other was small, not unlike the key to +the door of the dead man's flat. Neither fitted any door of the +private hotel in which he lived, however, and consequently suggested +mystery. But as three specialists certified death by natural causes, +the police came to regard the keys as of no importance. The doctors +testified to a condition known as "status lymphaticus," which cannot be +diagnosed during life, but which may cause a slight shock to be fatal. +It was thought that Callender-Graham--whose body lay close to a street +crossing--might have started back to save himself from being run over +by a swift automobile suddenly turning the corner, and in the shock of +falling have died of heart failure. + +Grace Callender was grieved and distressed, but not prostrated with +sorrow, as she would have been over the loss of an adored lover. +Everyone who knew her knew that she had been going to marry her cousin +not because she was in love, but in order to give him the fortune +wrongfully diverted from his father. In these peculiar circumstances, +many people prophesied the thing which happened a year later: her +engagement to Ned Callender-Graham, through whom the restitution could +equally well be made. He seemed to be a popular fellow, even better +liked in general than his dreamy, poetical brother; and as his friends +guessed that he had unselfishly stood in the background for Perry's +sake, all were pleased with his good fortune. The engagement went on +for six months; and then a week before the wedding was to take place, +Ned Callender-Graham was found dead in the same street and almost on +the same spot where his brother had fallen a year and a half before. + +This extraordinary coincidence was rendered even more remarkable by the +fact that nearly every detail of the first tragedy was repeated in the +second. Not only had the brothers met their death in the same street, +and almost on the eve of marriage with the same girl, but, according to +doctors' evidence, they had died in the same way and at practically the +same hour. Ned, like Perry, was afflicted with status lymphaticus. +There was no trace of violence on his body. He had not been robbed, +for his pockets were full of money. He carried his brother's watch +which Perry's will had left to him--the watch which Perry had worn on +the night of his death--and two or three letters, together with an +empty envelope. Stranger than all, perhaps, he had in his possession +two new latchkeys--duplicates of the keys found in his dead brother's +pocket. + +This time, owing to the almost miraculous resemblance between the +cases, foul play was suspected. But it seemed that the brothers had no +enemies and, so far as could be learned, no serious rivals with Miss +Callender. The girl and her aunt clung to the belief that Perry and +Ned had died natural deaths, and that the ghastly coincidence was no +more than a coincidence. Miss Marian Callender's theory was that Ned +had fallen a victim to his love for his brother, a too sensitive +conviction of guilt in taking Perry's place, and an unhappy +superstition which he had confided to her--though, naturally, not to +her niece. He believed himself to be haunted by his brother's spirit, +which influenced him to do things he did not wish. He said one day +that he doubted if Perry would ever let him marry Grace, but would +contrive to break off the engagement in some way, even if all went well +until the last moment. Miss Marian Callender suggested that the +apparently mysterious keys were the same keys which Perry had +possessed, they having been given, with other souvenirs of the dead +man, to his brother; that it was characteristic of Ned to keep them by +him, as well as the watch, in a kind of remorseful loyalty to the +brother he had superseded; and that the same half-affectionate, +half-fearful superstition had led him that night into the street where +Perry had fallen. Once there--at an hour the same as that of Perry's +death a week before his appointed marriage--in all probability Ned had +imagined himself confronted by his brother's accusing ghost. The two +were known to be temperamentally as well as physically alike, though +Ned was undoubtedly stronger physically. It was not strange if Perry +had a peculiar weakness of the heart that Ned should have the same; and +the shock of a fancied meeting with Perry's spirit at such a time and +such a place might easily have been too great for a man already at high +nervous tension. Others than Miss Marian Callender talked freely with +reporters and detectives, repeating her story that Ned Callender-Graham +had felt oppressed with a sense of guilt, that he had worried himself +into an emotional state which he had tried to hide, and that he had +attended spiritualistic séances. All this, together with the fact that +there was no evidence of murder, caused the second verdict to be the +same as the first. But Grace Callender found herself so stared at and +pointed at, and gossiped about wherever she went, that her life became +a burden. She knew that terrible nicknames were fastened upon her, +that she was called "Belladonna" and "The Poison Flower," as if her +promise to marry had brought death upon her lovers. She heard women +whispering behind her back, "If I were a man I simply shouldn't _dare_ +be engaged to her in spite of her millions"; and what she did not hear +she imagined. She in her turn grew superstitious, or so it was said. +She began to feel that there must be something fatal about her; that a +curse which the father of Perry and Ned was said to have pronounced on +her parents in his first fury at losing a fortune had been visited on +her. Though she had twice come near her wedding she had never yet +deeply loved a man; nevertheless, because of the "curse" and in fear of +it, she resolved to give up all hope of happiness in love, never to +marry, nor even engage herself again. + +All this I remembered distinctly, not alone because my memory is a +blotting-pad for such cases, but because the story had captured my +imagination, and because I had used the detail of the keys for my own +book, only substituting one for two. + +"By Jove!" I said. "The key! Now, can that be the clue to Roger +Odell's veto?" + +I set myself deliberately to think the matter over from this new point +of view. Evidently he was desperately in love with Grace Callender. +Could the mere fact that I had named a book of mine _The Key_, and +turned my plot upon a mysterious key found in a dead man's pocket, +have inspired Odell with revengeful rage? Except for the title, and +the key in the pocket, there was nothing in my book or in Carr Price's +play which bore even the vaguest likeness to the Callender-Graham +tragedy. I didn't see how the most loyal lover could feel that I had +"butted in" upon what to him was sacred; still, the new idea had some +substance in it. Not only had I hit on a possible clue to the man's +enmity, but into my mind from another direction suddenly flashed so +astounding a ray of light that I was almost blinded. I could hardly +wait to try weapons with Odell. + +How to get at him and hold him, so to speak, at my mercy was the next +difficulty. I had to think that out too, and I did it by process of +deduction. For reasons of my own, I had not yet secured a seat in the +dining-saloon, but now I limped down below with my inspiration. Others +had made their arrangements and gone, but I managed to catch the head +steward. + +"I suppose you're assigning seats for people who want to sit alone at +these small tables?" I began. + +"We have assigned only one such, sir," he cautiously admitted. "All +we're able to give." + +"Why all?" I wanted to know. "There are plenty of tables and only a +few passengers." + +"Yes, sir, that's true. But also, there's only a few stewards. We +haven't enough to spare for scattering around." + +"Is Mr. Roger Odell the one fortunate person to whom you've been able +to give a table to himself?" I threw out this question like a lasso. + +"Why, yes, sir, as a matter of fact he is," the caught steward +confessed. "We've several tables with parties of two or three, but for +one alone----" + +"I may wish to be alone just as much as Mr. Odell does," I argued. +"But the next best thing to being alone is to sit with another man who +wants to be alone. Then there's no fear of too much conversation. Put +me at Mr. Odell's table." As I spoke I slipped a five-pound note into +a surprised but unresisting hand. (I had to bribe high to outbribe a +millionaire.) Even as his fingers closed mechanically on the paper the +steward's tongue began to stammer, "I--I'm afraid he may object, sir." + +"He may at first; but not after three minutes. All I ask is to be put +at the table when Mr. Odell is seated, and without his knowing +beforehand that he's obliged to have a companion. If he still objects +after three minutes of my company I've had my money's worth. I'll +leave him in possession of the table; you can put me where you like." + +It was a bargain. The steward pointed out the table selected by Odell. + +I was dressed and ready for dinner before the bugle sounded, but did +not go down until I thought that most of the passengers would be +already seated. Hovering in the doorway, I saw that Odell was already +in his place. Then I made straight for the table and sat down in the +chair opposite his. + +He had been gloomily eating his soup, and looked up from it with a +glare. + +"I think you must be making a mistake," he remarked with an effort at +civility. "I asked to be alone." + +"So did I," I said. + +"But not at this table." + +"At this very table." + +"Then I'll leave it to you." + +"Please don't," I said. "If one of us goes, I'll be the one, as I'm +the last comer. But will you meanwhile be kind enough to answer two +easy questions? First, are you Mr. Roger Odell of New York?" + +"Yes, to question number one. If the next's as easy, perhaps I'll +answer that too." + +(He looked faintly amused. The space between his straight black +eyebrows was growing visible again. I had still two minutes and a half +out of the three.) + +"Thank you," I said. "The next should be even easier. Why have you +warned Julius Felborn that if he brings out Carr Price's play, _The +Key_, you'll quash it?" + +The man's face changed. From half-amused boredom it expressed white +rage. "You are that fellow John Hasle," he said. His voice was low +and in control, but his look was vitriolic. All the same, I liked him. +He was a man, and I had a man's chance with him. + +"Yes, I'm that fellow John Hasle. Let me introduce myself," I replied. + +"You've hunted me down. You said you wanted to sit alone. That was +not true." + +"I said, 'I asked to sit alone.' I wanted to sit with you. It was my +way of getting to do it. I took not only the table and the +opportunity, but my ticket to New York with the same object. I think I +have the right to inquire what's your motive for wishing to injure me +and to expect that you'll answer. If you think differently, I'll get +up at once and go. But I believe I shall have succeeded in spoiling +your appetite." + +"You're a cool hand," he said, with no softening of the eyes which gave +me look for look. "Sit still. If you get up and hobble away on those +crutches you'll have the whole room gaping at us." (Not for the first +time were my crutches a blessing in disguise:) "Whether you've a right +to question me or not, I don't mind telling you that I think Americans +are better at detective literature than any Englishman, speaking +generally, and a whole lot better than John Hasle, speaking +particularly." + +"I think," said I, "that I shall be able to prove my detective powers +to you later on, speaking very particularly." + +"Ah, indeed! In what way?" + +"'Later on' was what I said." + +"All right. I'm in no hurry." + +"I am. Because several matters have got to be settled before I can +progress much further. For one thing, you haven't answered my second +question. Your opinion of my book or my British limitations as a +detective has nothing to do with your attitude toward the play." + +"If you know so much, perhaps you know more." + +"Frankly, I don't. I ask you to tell me the rest as frankly." + +"Very well. Perhaps the medicine will go to the spot quicker if you +understand what it's for. It sounds sort of melodramatic, and maybe it +is so; but my wish--my intention--to strangle your play at birth, or +crush it afterwards, has revenge for its motive." + +"Revenge for what?" + +"For the cruel act of a member of your family to a member of mine." + +"There's only one other member of my family beside myself--my brother." + +"Exactly! That's the man. There's only one other member of _my_ +family beside myself. That's my adopted sister. I care more for her +than anyone else in the world--except one. Through your brother, my +sister's health and her hopes are both ruined. If you didn't know +before, you know now what you're up against." + +"I assure you I didn't know," I said. "This is the last thing that +occurred to me. I admit I thought of something else----" + +"Oh, is there something else? It's not needed. Still, you may as well +out with it, so I can put another black mark against the name." + +"I'll tell you, when I'm ready to talk of the detective test I spoke +of. But about my brother injuring your adopted sister. There must be +some mistake----" + +"Not on your life, if you're Lord John Hasle and your brother's the +Marquis of Haslemere." + +"I can't deny that." + +"It's a pity!" + +"So _he_ often says. He's not proud of me as an author. He'd be still +less proud of me on the stage. You'll be doing him a real service if +you prevent _The Key_ from being produced, and so keep the family name +out of the papers in connection with the theatre." + +"Oh, will I?" Odell echoed. He looked rather blank for a moment; then +gathered himself and his black eyebrows together. "You're mighty +intelligent, aren't you?" he sneered. + +"I've always thought so. I'm glad you agree. But there's no use our +rotting on like this. We're wasting time. Will you tell me what +Haslemere can possibly have done?" + +"Yes! What he positively _did_ do!" the man broke out fiercely, then +controlled himself and glanced quickly round the room as if looking for +someone. But not even Miss Marian Callender had come into the saloon. +Both she and her niece must have been dining in their own suite. "Lord +Haslemere wrote a letter to your British Lord Chamberlain, or whatever +you call his High Mightiness, and caused him to have my sister's +presentation at Court cancelled three days before it should have come +off in May last year." + +"Good heavens!" I exclaimed. "What an extraordinary thing to do!" + +"What a monstrous, what a beastly thing to do! A defenceless girl. A +beautiful girl. One of the best on earth. It broke her heart--the +humiliation of it, and the shock. She wasn't very strong, and she'd +been looking forward to making her bow to your Royalties. Lord knows +why she should have cared so much. But she did. She loved England. +She has English blood in her veins. She had a sort of loyal feeling to +your King and Queen. That is what she got for it. She's never been +the same since, and I doubt if she ever will be. All her friends knew +she was going to be presented--and then she wasn't. The damned story +leaked out somehow, and has been going the rounds ever since. That's +why, if your play is produced in New York, I shall see it gets what it +deserves--or, anyway, what your family deserves." + +"How do you know Haslemere wrote that letter?" I asked. + +"My sister got it from a woman who was to present her--a friend of Lord +Haslemere's wife. She'd seen the letter." + +"Then she must have seen some reason alleged." + +"She did. That to his certain knowledge Miss Madeleine Odell wasn't a +proper person to be introduced to their Majesties. Maida not a proper +person! She's a saint." + +"What lie about her could have been told to my brother?" + +"I know what lie was told, because it has been told to others. It's +blighted her life for years, go where she would on our side of the +water. She hoped it wouldn't have got so far as England; and if it +hadn't, she'd have settled down in that country to enjoy a little +peace. But there it was, like a snake in the grass! The thing I'd +give my head to find out is, _who spread the lie_?" + +"You don't know, then?" + +"No, I don't. It's a black mystery." + +"Better let me use my despised detective talents to solve it." + +"Oh, _that's_ what you've been working up to, is it?" + +"No. How could it be, as I hadn't heard the story when I began to +work? But I'm willing to take it on as an extra by and by. My brother +and I are scarcely friends. I'm not responsible for his act, and +whatever the motive, I don't excuse it. Why go out of his way to hurt +a woman? Yet I may be able to atone." + +"Never!" + +"Never's a long word. But just here the time has come to mention the +two things I promised to tell you 'later on.' I thought what you had +against me might be the name and the plot of my book, dramatised by +Carr Price." + +"What the devil is the name or plot of your play to me?" + +"Ah, that was what I wanted to know. It occurred to me as possible +that you resented the incident of a key being found in a dead man's +pocket, and the title of the book and play which might recall a certain +double tragedy to the public mind." + +The blood rushed to the man's face. He understood instantly, and did +not choose to pretend ignorance. "How dare you presume that I have a +right to resent any such reference?" he challenged me. + +"I dare, because of the second of the two things I reserved to tell you +later: the wish I have to prove my detective powers for your benefit. +I couldn't help seeing to-day your meeting on deck with Miss Callender. +I couldn't help hearing a few words. Because I play at being a +detective I keep my wits about me. Also I have a good memory for names +and stories connected with them. Mr. Odell, will you separate me in +your mind from my brother and give Carr Price's play a chance for its +life if I tell you who killed Perry and Ned Callender-Graham, and prove +to Miss Callender that there's no reason why she need be afraid to give +her love to any man?" + +Odell stared as if he thought I had gone mad or he was dreaming. + +"Who _killed_ Perry and Ned Graham?" he repeated. "No one killed them." + +"You are wrong," I said quietly. + +"That's your opinion!" he blurted out. + +"That's my opinion. And if I'm right, if those two were murdered, and +if the murderer or murderers can be found, won't Miss Callender feel +she may safely marry a man she loves without delivering him up to +danger?" + +"Yes," Odell admitted. "Great Heaven, _if_ you were right!" + +"Supposing I am, and can prove it?" + +"There's nothing on God's earth I wouldn't do for you." + +"Well," I said, "I believe there's something in that opinion of mine. +Don't dream that now I am getting at this truth I would bury it even if +you did worse than crush my play. I'll go on, anyhow, but----" + +"You say you are getting at the truth," he broke in. "What do you +think--what do you know? But how can you, a stranger, _know_ anything?" + +"A stranger to you and those connected with the case, but not to the +case itself. You may thank that despised detective instinct of mine +for my keen interest in its details." + +"If you thought you'd unearthed the clue to a mystery, why didn't you +advertise yourself by pointing it out to the police a year and a half +ago?" + +"I certainly should if I'd got hold of it then, though not for the +motive you suggest, Mr. Odell. My publishers were giving me all the +publicity I wanted. As it happens, I picked up the clue in question +only--a short time ago." + +"Only a few hours ago" were the words which all but slipped out. I bit +them back, however. My line with a keen business man like Roger Odell +was not to give away something for nothing. It was to sell--for a +price. + +He tried to keep his countenance, but his eyes lit. I saw that my +hint, like a spark to gun-cotton, had set him aflame with curiosity. +Already, in spite of himself, he began to look on me less as an enemy +than an agent; perhaps (a wonderful "perhaps" he could not help +envisaging) a deliverer. + +"For God's sake, speak out and say what you mean!" The appeal was +forced from him. He looked half ashamed of it. + +"I can't do that--yet," I returned. "I might tell you my suspicions; +but that wouldn't be fair to myself, or you, or--anyone concerned. I +must land first. Once off the ship, twenty-four hours are all I shall +need to find--I won't say the '_missing_ link,' because I have reason +to think it will not be missing, but the link I can't touch this side +of New York. I will make a rendezvous with you at the end of that +time, either to tell you I've put two and two together with the link, +or else to confess that the ends of the chain can't be made to fit." + +Odell stared at me hungrily. + +"You want only twenty-four hours to do what the best police in the +world haven't done in a year and a half," he growled at me. "You think +something of yourself, don't you?" + +"You see, I've known myself for a long time," I said modestly. "You've +only just been introduced to me, and were prejudiced to begin with. +About that rendezvous--do you consent to my appointing the place?" + +"Yes," he agreed. "Your hotel?" + +"No. In the manager's private office at the Felborn Theatre; the time, +twenty-four hours after we get away from the dock. That will be the +most convenient place for both of us in case of my success, for Julius +Felborn and Carr Price can be called in to fix a date for the first +rehearsal of _The Key_." + +The man could not keep back a laugh. It was harsh and short; but it +was a score for me and he knew it. "The Felborn Theatre let it be," he +said grimly. + +The weather was fine and we made almost a record trip in point of time. +There was nothing for Odell to regret in the briefness of the voyage, +for Grace Callender remained in her cabin till he sent a message by her +aunt, promising not to try for a word or a look if she came on deck. +After that she appeared again, as if to show appreciation, and Odell +didn't abuse her confidence. He kept himself to the other side of the +deck; but there was no reason why I should give up my place near the +two ladies. After the first night's dinner _en tête-à-tête_, Odell and +I had no more meals together; consequently, the Misses Callender, aunt +and niece, were unaware of our acquaintanceship. They had no reason to +shun their lame neighbour, and my crutches gave me their sympathy, as +they have given me various other blessings. Instead of my picking up a +dropped book, as a man usually contrives to do if he yearns to know a +girl on shipboard, Grace Callender retrieved one for me. After that, I +was permitted, even encouraged, to draw my deck-chair closer to theirs +and "tell them things about the war." I noticed that the girl caught +eagerly, nervously, at any subject which could hold her attention for a +moment, even that of my book and Carr Price's play. I, having the +secret clue, guessed that she was for ever trying to escape from a +thought too engrossing. Her aunt, Miss Marian Callender, had the clue +also; and often I caught her long dark eyes--eyes like those of La +Gioconda--fixed with almost painful intentness on Grace. "She knows +that her niece is thinking about Odell," I told myself. Evidently she +approved the girl's decision to put him out of her life. If she had +been Odell's friend and sympathiser, a woman of her superior age and +strong personal charm (for she had a sort of hypnotic charm, like a +velvet-petalled flower with a penetrating perfume) could surely have +influenced an impressionable girl, especially one so devoted to her as +Grace Callender was. + +It was nine o'clock on an April morning when we escaped from the +custom-house men and spun away from the White Star docks in a +glittering grey car. When I say "we," I refer to myself and the two +Misses Callender. They had befriended me to the extent of recommending +me to an hotel and offering to motor me to it; and I was malicious +enough to hope that Odell might see me going off with them. There was +little doubt in my mind that he did so, and none at all of what +feelings must have been roused by the sight. These would have been +still more poignant had he known that it was Grace who impulsively +invited me, Marian who merely followed with a polite echo. They lived +in a large old-fashioned house in Park Avenue, where the car dropped +the ladies and by their order took me on to the Hotel Belmont. There +Carr Price was waiting, for when--the day before our landing--the +Callenders had mentioned the Belmont I marconied him to meet me at the +hotel. + +"Why did you wire 'Don't come to the dock?'" he asked almost +resentfully. + +"Because I thought it might annoy Roger Odell if I dangled you under +his nose," I explained. + +"Roger Odell's nose!" Price gasped. "Where--where----" + +"Was it? On the _Monarchic_. And I didn't pull it; neither did he +pull mine. I even have hopes that the two features may come to terms. +To-morrow, at exactly this hour, you're due to know why. But meanwhile +I want you to promise me patience, blind faith and--unquestioning help. +There's no time to waste over it, so here goes! Who's the most +influential man you know in New York?" + +"George Gould," he said. + +"Pooh! a mere millionaire. He's no use to me. Do you know anyone in +the police force--high enough up to do you a favour?" + +Price pondered for an instant. "I know Sam Yelverton. Is that name +familiar to you?" + +"It is. Think we'll find him in now if you take me to call?" + +"If this is our lucky day we shall." + +"Let's put it to the test. I've noticed that New York has taxis as +well as London." + +"And you'll notice the difference when you've paid for one. But this +is on me." + +The omen of luck was good, for we found our man at the police +head-quarters, and, true to his promise, Carr Price sat as still and +expressionless as an owl while I did the talking. I had been +introduced to the great Sam Yelverton by my own request as the author +of _The Key_, and it really was a stroke of luck that he had read and +liked it. He looked interested when I said that I'd got an idea for my +book from a _cause célèbre_ in New York--"The Callender-Graham affair," +I explained. + +"Ah, the latchkeys in the dead men's pockets!" he caught me up. + +"Exactly. Now it's a question of a play by Mr. Price, on the same +lines as my book and with the same title, soon, _very_ soon, to be +produced at the Felborn Theatre. It will be of the greatest assistance +to him and to me in working out an important detail if I can have Ned +Callender-Graham's latchkeys--anyhow, the smaller one--in my hands for +a few hours to-day. Indeed, I'm afraid we can't get much 'forrarder' +if you refuse." + +(This was the literal truth, for, unless I could obtain the more +important of those two keys and do with it what I hoped to do, I should +be unable to "deliver the goods" to Roger Odell. I should stand with +him where I had stood before the "hold up" interview, and the play +would be pigeon-holed indefinitely. Price's eyes were starting from +his head, but he kept his tongue between his teeth.) + +Mr. Yelverton seemed amused. "I guess I may be able to manage that," +he said, "if one or both of those keys are still in our hands, as I +believe they are. If I do the trick for you I'll expect a box for the +play on the first night, eh?" + +"It's a bargain, isn't it, Carr?" said I. + +The dazed Price assented. + +"Oh, and by the way, Mr. Yelverton"--I arrested the famous man as he +picked up the receiver of his desk telephone--"if the letters and the +empty envelopes found on the bodies of the two brothers are still among +your police archives, would it be possible for me to have a look at +them?" + +Yelverton--a big man with a red face and the keenest eyes I ever saw, +deep set between cushiony lids--threw me a quick glance. "You do +remember the details of that case pretty well, Lord John!" he said. + +"I'm an amateur follower in your famous footsteps," I reminded him. He +smiled, called up a number and began telephoning. I admired the clear +way in which he put what he wanted--or what I wanted--without wasting a +word. He asked not only for the keys, but for the whole dossier in the +double case of the Callender-Graham brothers. Then came a moment of +waiting in which my heart ticked like a clock; but I contrived to +answer Mr. Yelverton's mild questions about our weather on shipboard. +At last a sharp ring heralded an end of suspense. + +"Sorry, Lord John," the big man began, taking the receiver from the +generous shell of his ear. "They're sending round the dossier, but our +chaps have got none of the Callender-Graham 'exhibits in their +possession--haven't had for nearly a year. I feared it was likely to +be so. You see, there was no proof that any crime had been committed +on either of the two brothers; in fact, the theory was against it. +When the police definitely dropped the case--or cases--the family was +entitled to all personal property of the deceased. Everything found on +the body of Ned Callender-Graham was handed over to the relatives by +their request, as had been done a few weeks after the elder brother's +death, even the letters and those empty envelopes you were intelligent +enough to single out for observation. We had done the same, naturally, +but, in every sense of the word"--he grinned--"there was nothing in +'em." + +"The keys on Ned's body were handed over to the Misses Callender, +then?" I inquired, stiffening the muscles of my face to mask my +disappointment. + +"Yes. Perhaps, as you remember so much, you recall the fact that the +first two keys were given to the relatives. Miss Marian Callender and +her niece believed that Ned had Perry's keys in his pocket, which would +mean there were but the two. The Callender ladies are the sole +surviving relatives, or, anyhow, the nearest ones. But I've saved my +bit of good news from head-quarters till the last. They 'phoned that +there are duplicate keys. I thought I recalled something of the sort. +Not sure but I suggested making them myself. That pretty millionairess +girl might get herself engaged a third time, and if there were any more +dead men found with latchkeys in their pockets, sample specimens might +be very handy for our fellows." + +Sam Yelverton finished with a laugh; but I couldn't echo it. I thought +of Odell, of Grace Callender's lovely face and her young, spoilt life. +I remembered the cruel nicknames "Belladonna" and "Poison Flower." If +even the police prepared for a third tragedy, in case she thought again +of marriage, no wonder the poor girl refused the man she loved. + +"Will duplicates do for you, or do I lose my stage-box?" the big man +asked. + +I said aloud that I thought duplicates would answer my purpose, and +silently to myself I said that they must do so. + +Ten minutes later a policeman of some rank (what rank I couldn't tell, +he being my first American specimen) brought in a parcel of +considerable size. It contained many affidavits concerning the +Callender-Graham tragedy; and on the top of these documents was a +small, neatly labelled packet containing two keys. + +The larger was entirely commonplace; and even the smaller one was at +first glance a rather ordinary latchkey, of the Yale order. To an +experienced and observant eye, however, it was of curious workmanship. + +"Not a Yale, you see," said Yelverton, taking a magnifying glass from a +small drawer of his tidy desk and passing it on to me. "What do you +make of the thing?" + +"Foreign, isn't it?" I remarked carelessly. + +"Yes, we thought so. German--or Italian. Both the brothers had +travelled abroad. On a Yale you would read the words 'Yale +paracentric,' and a number. There's neither name nor number on that." +He flung a gesture toward the key in my hand. + +"May I take it away and keep it till to-morrow morning, to work out my +plot with?" I asked. "The big one I don't care about. I give you my +word I'll send this back in twenty-four--no, let's say twenty-five +hours. I have an engagement for the twenty-fourth hour." + +"All right," replied Yelverton good-naturedly. "You might bring the +box-ticket with you. Ha, ha!" + +"I will," I laughed. "And as to the dossier, may I sit somewhere out +of your way and glance through it in case there's anything we can work +up to strengthen the realism of our scenario? Of course, we'll +guarantee to use nothing that might recall the Callender-Graham case to +the public or dramatic critics." + +"You can sit in the outer office and browse over the bundle till +lunch-time, if you like," said Yelverton. "There's a table there in a +quiet corner. I shall be off on business before you finish, I expect. +See you later--at the Felborn Theatre, your first night. Wish you +luck." + +I thanked him and got up. Carr Price followed suit. + +"Weren't you a bit premature mentioning the Felborn?" he reproached me +in the next room, beyond earshot of Mr. Yelverton's secretaries and +stenographers. + +"No," I reassured him. "To-morrow, at this time or a little later, +you'll know why. Meanwhile, don't worry, but take my word--and a taxi +to the theatre. Tell Felborn I'm on the spot, and there's a truce +between Odell and me, an armistice of twenty-four"--I pulled out my +watch--"no, twenty-two and a half hours. Ask him to lend me his +private office to-morrow morning from nine till ten o'clock. After +that time you and he had better hold yourselves ready to be called in +to discuss dates." + +"You're either the wonder child of the British Empire or its champion +fool," remarked Price somewhat waspishly, as he prepared to leave me +alone with the Callender-Graham dossier. + +"You've got till to-morrow to make up your mind which," said I, sitting +down to my meal of manuscripts in order not to waste a minute out of +the twenty-two and a half hours which remained to me. It would not +have been wise to add that I didn't know which myself. + +Many of the papers I passed over rapidly. Others gave me information +that I couldn't have got from Odell without a confession of ignorance, +or from the Misses Callender without impertinence. Among the latter +was one summarising much of the family history; and, profiting by some +smart detective's researches, I learned a good deal about Miss Grace +Callender and her almost equally interesting aunt. + +Even before the girl reached the age of sixteen, it seemed, she had +begun to have offers of marriage. After her parents' death, when she +was not quite fifteen, she had lived for a while with Miss Marian +Callender at the house in Park Avenue left to her by her father. She +had been taught by French governesses, German governesses and English +governesses, but all had failed to prevent a kind of persecution by +young men fascinated with the child's beauty or her money. At last +Miss Callender senior had sent her niece to a boarding-school in the +country where the supervision was notoriously strict, and had herself +gone to Italy, her mother's native land, for a few months' visit. +Eight or nine years before this Marian Callender had fallen in love +with an Italian tenor, singing with enormous success in New York. The +lady's half-brother--Grace's father--had objected to the marriage, and +for that reason or some other the two had parted. Gossips said that +the singer, Paolo Tostini, had not cared enough for Marian Callender to +take her without a _dot_; and all she had came from her millionaire +half-brother. At Graham Callender's death Marian's friends were +surprised that she was left a yearly allowance (though a magnificently +generous one) only while she "continued unmarried and acted as Grace's +guardian." In the event of Grace's marriage, the girl was free to +continue half the same allowance to her aunt if she chose. This was +generally considered unjust to Marian, and the only excuse for the +arrangement seemed to be that Graham Callender feared Paolo Tostini +might come forward again if the woman he had jilted were left with a +fortune. + +The police of New York had apparently thought it worth while to ferret +out further facts in connection with the singer, who had not again +returned to America. They learned that the once celebrated tenor had +lost his voice and had spent his money in extravagance, as many artists +do. He was living in comparative poverty with his father (a skilled +mechanician and inventor of a successful time lock for safes) and his +younger brother in Naples at the time of Miss Marian Callender's visit +to Italy, and Grace's school life. Although these facts were inquired +into only after some years had passed, and the two brothers +Callender-Graham had died, Marian's movements must have been easily +traced, for it was learned that she had openly visited the Tostinis at +their small villa between Posilipo and Naples. The family had also +called and dined at her hotel, where they were not unknown. After that +their circumstances had apparently improved, and it appeared not +improbable that Marian Callender had helped her late lover's people. + +When she returned to New York it was to find that Grace was being +bombarded with love letters at school, and that the hotel in the +village near by had for its principal clients a crowd of young men +whose whole business in life was lying in wait for the heiress. In +consequence, Marian brought her niece back to the house in Park Avenue; +and soon after, before the girl had been allowed to come out in +society, Antonio, the younger brother of Paolo Tostini, arrived in New +York. His business was that of an analytical chemist. He had +first-rate recommendations, and was an extremely brilliant, as well as +singularly good-looking young man, some (who remembered the tenor) +thought even handsomer than Paolo. Antonio Tostini, thanks to his own +ability and the introductions he had from Miss Callender and others, +got on well both in business and society. No one was surprised, and no +one blamed her, when Marian Callender threw the clever young Italian +and Grace Callender together--except that the girl was young to make up +her mind, and her dead father had favoured a match with one of the +disinherited cousins. + +From these rough notes, crudely classifying Antonio Tostini's courtship +of Grace Callender, I gathered that the young Italian had fallen +desperately in love with the girl. He had assured friends whom they +had in common that even if, to marry him, she were obliged to give up +her fortune, he would still think himself the happiest man on earth to +win her. Grace's aunt, who had tried to keep the girl out of other +men's way, evidently favoured her old love's brother. She chaperoned a +yachting party, of which Grace and Antonio were the most important +members, a party in which the Callender-Grahams were not included, +though they wished for invitations. This match-making effort on +Marion's part stifled all suspicion that she discouraged Grace from +marrying in order to retain a charming home, a large, certain income, +and all kinds of other luxuries for herself. She had taken Grace's +refusal of Antonio Tostini almost as hard as he had taken it himself. +She had even been ill for several weeks when for the third time Grace +had sent him away, and he returned in despair to Italy. It was not +long after this affair (the dossier informed me) that, in accordance +with her father's desire, the girl engaged herself to Perry +Callender-Graham, and Marian consented to the inevitable. Her +affection and support during the tragic experiences that followed had +given great comfort to Grace, and, so far as was known, Antonio Tostini +had had the good taste never to appear on the scene again. + +Here were many details which I had been anxious, but not decently able, +to learn, as the Misses Callenders' shipboard friendship had confined +itself to lending me books, telling me what to do in New York, inviting +me to call, listening to talk about the war or the play, and allowing +me to snapshot them on deck. + +Having looked through the dossier, I took my departure with the key. +It was only a duplicate, yet I couldn't rid myself of a queer, +superstitious feeling for the thing, as if it were offered to me by the +unseen hand of a dead man. + +I taxied back to my hotel and mentioned to a clerk that I wanted to see +houses and flats in the direction of Riverside Drive. Could he direct +me to an agent who would have the letting of apartments in that +neighbourhood? If my foreign way of expressing myself amused him, he +hid his mirth and looked up in a big book the addresses of several +agents. + +I had not cared to be too specific in my questions, but I chose the +address nearest the street I wanted, taxied there, found the agent, and +inquired if there were anything to be let. It was the street in which +Perry Callender-Graham and Ned, his brother, had met their death. + +"I have been recommended to that particular street by an American +friend in England," I said. "He has told me that it's very quiet. +There are several apartment houses in it, are there not? + +"Yes," replied a spruce young man who looked willing to let me half +residential New York. "But it's a favourite street; I'm afraid there's +nothing doing there now. As for houses, they're all owned, or have +been rented for many years. A little farther north or south----" + +"Hold on," I pulled him back. "Somebody might be induced to let. My +friend was telling me about a charming flat--oh, apartment you call +it?--in that street which a friend of _his_ took---let me see, it must +have been three years ago or thereabouts. Anyhow, not later. He had +reason to believe I might get that very flat. Stupid of me! I can't +remember the number or name--whichever it was--of the house. I know +the flat was a furnished one, however; and if your agency----" + +"Oh, if the apartment was furnished, and changed hands three years ago, +there's only one it _could_ be, if you're sure it's in that street?" + +"I'm sure," I replied. I staked all on that sureness, though +logically---- But I would not let my mind wander to any other +deduction than the one to which, for better or worse, I pinned my faith. + +"We had the letting of a furnished apartment in the Alhambra, as the +house is named, put into our hands three years ago on the 30th of last +month," said the youth, referring to a book. "To my certain knowledge +no other furnished one was to be had in the street at that time, and +there hasn't been since. Isn't likely to be either, so far as I can +see. That was the grand chance. German-American lady and gentleman, +Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Lowenstein, going unexpectedly to Europe, and glad +to get rid of their apartment to a good tenant at a nominal price." + +"You found the good tenant?" I asked. + +"We did, sir--or the tenant found us. Wanted a furnished apartment, +not too large or expensive, in a quiet street, quietness the great +consideration. Above all, the proprietors mustn't want to use the +place again for at least five years. That just fitted in, because our +clients were anxious to let for seven years; the husband had a business +opening in Hamburg. The new tenant took the place for that period; and +as there's a long time to run yet, I shouldn't have thought there was +much hope for you. However, your friend may have private information." + +"Does the new tenant live there altogether?" I wanted to know. + +"Only comes up from the country occasionally. Expensive fad, to rent a +New York apartment that way. But what's money _for_? Some people have +it to burn." + +"Quite so," I admitted. "Have you ever met the tenant?" + +"Only once--when the apartment was engaged; fixed up in one interview. +The rent comes through the post." + +"It must be the apartment my friend talked about!" I exclaimed. + +"Can't be any other. Is the name of your friend's friend Paulling?" + +"Why, yes, I have the impression of something like that. By the way, I +might be able to find an old photograph, to make quite sure. Would you +recognise it?" + +"I might--and I mightn't. Three years is a long time." + +"Well, I'll do my best through some acquaintances," I finished. "If +we're speaking of the same person, you may be able to introduce me and +save the delay of communicating with my friend in England." + +Each was flattering himself on his discretion, the whole catechism +having been gone through without the question on either side, "Is the +person a man or a woman?" Eventually we parted with the understanding +that I should return later if, after looking at the Alhambra from the +outside, I fancied it as much as I expected to do. And then I was to +bring the photograph with me. + +So far so good. But the next steps were not so simple. + +I stopped my taxi at the corner (not to advertise myself with +unnecessary noise) and limped the short distance which Perry +Callender-Graham and his brother Ned must have travelled on the secret +errands that led them to their death. The Alhambra was neither as +picturesque nor as imposing as its name suggested. It was just a +substantial brick building, six or seven storeys in height, with +facings of light-coloured stone, and large, cheerful windows. Luckily +for my lame leg, the entrance was but a step above the street level. +As I arrived the door was opened by a chocolate-brown negro in +chocolate-brown livery. He helped a smart nurse to pass out with a +baby in a white and gold chariot, and while he was thus engaged I +hobbled into the hall. A hasty glance at a name board on the wall +opposite gave me the list of occupants and the floor on which each +tenant lived. Evidently there were two flats to each storey. T. +Paulling had an apartment on the third, so also had G. Emmett. I had +to risk something, and so when the brown hall-porter turned to me +(which he did with embarrassing swiftness) I risked inquiring for Mr. +Emmett. I believed, I added, that he was expecting me. + +"That's all right, sir. He's in," was the welcome reply, with a +compassionate grin at the crutches which guaranteed the harmlessness of +an unknown visitor. "I'll take you in the elevator." + +Up we shot to the third floor, where I feared that my conductor might +insist on guiding me to the door of Mr. Emmett. Fortunately, however, +someone rang for the lift and the porter shot down again, directing me +to the right. + +The instant he was out of sight I turned to the left, and, with the +police key in my hand, I stood before the door of T. Paulling. + +My blood leaped through my veins, and the hand that tried the key in +the lock shook with the rush of it. I heard its pounding in my ears, +and through the murmurous sound the question whispered, "What if the +key won't fit? Down goes the whole theory. You'll have to confess +yourself a fool to Roger Odell." + +As I blundered at the lock in haste and fear that someone might pass, +or that this might be one of T. Paulling's rare days at the flat, I was +aghast at my late self-confidence. Face to face with the test, it +seemed impossible that my-boast to Odell and Carr could succeed. I +felt callow and stupid, altogether incompetent. The key seemed too +large and the wrong shape, which meant that the mystery of the +brothers' death was closed to me, like the door. A voice not far off +made my nerves jump, and--the key slipped into the lock! From +somewhere above or below came the sound of voices, but I could not be +seen from the lift. Almost before I knew what I was doing or what had +happened, I was on the other side of the door, in a dark and stuffy +vestibule. + +The sound of voices was suddenly stilled. It was as if with a single +step I had won my way into another world. I drew a long breath of +relief after the strain, for the silence and darkness said that the +tenant was not at home, and I might hope to have the flat to myself. + +I groped for an electric switch, touched it, and flooded the vestibule +with light. It was small, with nothing to distinguish it from any +other vestibule of any other well-furnished flat. Beyond led a narrow +corridor which, when lit, showed me several doors. I opened the +nearest, switched on another light, and found myself on the threshold +of a moderate-sized sitting-room or study, with bookshelves ranged +along one of the walls. The window was so heavily curtained that I had +no fear of the sudden illumination being noticed from the street. The +air was heavy and smelled of moth powder. The mahogany table in the +centre of the room and the desk under the window were coated with thin +films of dust, but everything was stiffly in order: no books lying +about, no woman's work, no trace of cigarette ash, dropped glove, nor +pile of newspapers with a tell-tale date. + +I walked over to the desk and, pulling out the swivel chair, sat down. +In the silver inkstand the ink had dried. In a pen-rack were two pens, +one stub, the other an old-fashioned quill, both almost new, but +faintly stained with ink. Neither, it struck me, could have been used +more than once or twice. There were several small drawers; all were +empty. No paper nor envelopes, no sealing-wax nor seal, not so much as +an end of twine. But the blotting-pad--the only movable thing on the +desk beside the inkstand and pen-rack--was more repaying. It also +appeared to be nearly new. Just inside the soft green leather cover +lay two sheets of plain, unmonogrammed grey-blue paper with two +envelopes to match. I annexed one of the latter and made a mental note +that, in the police dossier of the Callender-Graham case the empty +envelope found in the pocket of the younger brother was said to be +blue-grey in colour and of thick texture. No record had been kept +concerning the colour of the envelope in Perry's pocket, as little +importance had been attributed to it, until the coincidence of the +second envelope was remarked later. + +The blotting-pad was as new-looking as the pens. The two uppermost +sheets were of unspotted white, but the middle pages had both been +used, and traces were visible of two short notes having been pressed +against the paper while the ink was still very wet. Apparently these +documents had had neither heading nor signature, and consisted of a few +lines only. On another page a longer letter began "Dearest," and had +been signed with an initial. There was no mirror in the room in which +to reverse these writings, and, carefully separating the used sheets +from their unsoiled fellows, I folded and slipped them into an inner +pocket. There was nothing else in the room which could help me, with +the exception, perhaps, of the books; and most of these were in sets, +bound in a uniform way. These had a book-plate and the monogram +"M.L.," no doubt meaning Maurice Lowenstein. Of new novels or other +publications there were none: an additional proof (if it had been +needed after the clue of the dried ink and almost unused blotter) that +the new tenants were seldom in the place. + +Having deduced this fact, I then went through the remaining six rooms +of the flat without any discoveries, and finally reached, in its due +order, the problem I had left for the last. This was the examination +of the lock which the dead brothers' latchkeys had fitted. The work +had to be done with the door open, and therefore I waited until the +hour when most people lunch. It would look like burglarious business, +what I had to do, and it was important not to be interrupted or +arrested. + +The hands of my watch were at one o'clock as mine were on the latch +which, if I were right, could with a single click solve the +Callender-Graham mystery. If I were wrong, not only were four out of +my twenty-four hours wasted, but my theory fell to the ground and broke +into pieces past mending. + +I opened the door of the flat and made sure that, for the moment, no +one was in the hall. Then, bending down with my back to possible +passers-by, I whipped out a magnifying glass and pocket electric torch +which I had bought on my way to the agent's. + +During the next five minutes I had good cause to thank Heaven for the +mechanical bent that had turned my mind to motors and aeroplanes. + + +The same evening, at a little after six, a "commuter's" train landed me +at the station of a small Long Island town almost too far away from New +York to be labelled suburban. Big automobiles and small runabouts were +there to meet the tired business men who travelled many miles for the +sake of salt breezes and the latest thing in Elizabethan houses. I was +more tired than any business man; also, I had encountered as many +setbacks as successes, but nobody and nothing came to welcome me. I +was able, however, to get a place in an old-fashioned horse-drawn +vehicle whose mission was to pick up chance arrivals. There were +several of us, and as my rate of locomotion was slow, by the time I had +hobbled off the platform the one seat left was beside the driver. I +was not sorry, as the other men appeared to be strangers in Sandy +Plain, and having said I would go to the hotel (for the sake of saying +something), I asked my companion if he knew anybody named Paulling. + +"There's two families of that name hereabouts," he replied. + +"My Paullings," I hazarded, "are retiring people, don't make friends, +and are away a good deal." + +"Ah, they'd be the Paullings of Bayview Farm!" returned the driver. +"There's no others answer that description around here that I ever +heard of, and I've lived at Sandy Plain since before the commuters +discovered it." + +"Yes, I mean the Paullings of Bayview Farm," I caught him up. + +"The farm's about a mile and a half past Roselawn Hotel," my seat mate +went on. "I can take you there after I drop the other folks." + +I thanked him and said he might come back for me if he cared to after I +had dined, and inquired casually if the Paullings were staying at their +farm just then. + +The driver shook his head. He didn't know. Few persons did know much +about the Paullings, who weren't old residents, but had rented Bayview +Farm two or three years ago. Maybe the hotel folks might be able to +tell me whether I was likely to find them. + +They could not do so, I soon learned. Mr. Paulling was said to be an +invalid, though he never called in the local doctor. He was often at +home alone for weeks together, except for a man-servant, a foreigner as +reserved as himself, whom he had brought with him to Sandy Plain. +There was another servant sometimes--a woman--also a foreigner; but +when the Paullings were both away a Mrs. Vandeermans, a country +dressmaker who lived in a cottage near by, looked after the house, +going in occasionally to see that all was well. + +I asked as many questions as I dared, but learned little; and as soon +as dusk had begun to fall I started off in the nondescript vehicle +which had returned for me. The driver spent most of the twenty minutes +it took him to reach the farm in explaining that it wasn't really a +farm except in name. Nothing was left of it but the house and two or +three acres of orchard; all the rest had been sold off in lots by the +owner before he let it to the Paullings. What "city folks" admired in +it was beyond the knowledge of my companion, but when we arrived at the +gate and saw the far-off house gleaming white behind a thick screen of +ancient apple trees, I realised the attractions of the place, +especially for such tenants as I believed the Paullings to be. The +farm-house, with its wide clapboarding, its neat green shutters, and +its almost classic "colonial" porch hung with roses, had the air of +being on terms of long familiar friendship with the old-fashioned +garden and the great trees which almost hid it from its neighbours and +the road. Its front windows, closed and shuttered now, would look out +when open over sloping lawns and flowerbeds to distant blue glints of +the sea; and altogether Bayview Farm seemed an ideal retreat for +persons who could be sufficient to themselves and each other. + +Those shuttered windows, however, hinted at disappointment for me. Not +a light showed, behind one of them, and when I had rung the bell of the +front door, and pounded vainly at the back, I had to make up my mind +that the Paullings were either away or determined to be thought so. +"Mrs. Vandeermans 'll know all about 'em," my conductor comforted me. +"She lives next door, a quarter of a mile farther on." + +We drove the quarter mile, only to be struck by another blow. The one +person at home in Mrs. Vandeermans' cottage was that widowed woman's +mother, very old, very deaf, half blind, knowing little about anything, +and nothing at all about the tenants of Bayview Farm. + +"My darter's gone to my son's in Buffalo," she quavered when I had +screamed at her. "He's sick, but she'll be back to-morrow to look +after me. She knows them Paullings. You come again to-morrow +afternoon if you want to talk to her." + +"You seem sure disappointed," remarked my companion, as he drove me and +my crutches back to Roselawn Hotel. + +"I am," I admitted; but the words were as inadequate as most words are. +I was bowled over, knocked out, or so I told myself in my first +depression. Nothing was of any use to me after to-morrow morning at +nine o'clock. + +On my way back to New York in a slow train I gloomily thought over the +situation. Certain startling yet not unexpected discoveries made early +in the day had elated me too soon. I had collected evidence, but only +circumstantial evidence. I had no absolute proof to give Roger Odell, +and nothing less would suffice. I had counted on getting hold of proof +at Sandy Plain, from which place on Long Island (I had learned from the +agent) cheques came regularly each quarter to pay the rent of the flat +in the Alhambra--cheques sometimes signed T. Paulling, sometimes M. +Paulling. One had arrived only a few days before with the former +signature, so I had reason to hope that T. Paulling might be unearthed +at Sandy Plain. + +I could, I told myself, write to Roger Odell and ask for a delay, but +that would kill such feeble faith in me as I had forcibly implanted in +him. He would think me a fraud, and believe that I had been trying to +gain time in order to spring some trick upon him. Besides, the +Paullings might come to New York, if they were not already there, and +discover that some person unknown was on their track and had been +tearing sheets out of their blotting-book. No, I must keep my +appointment with Roger Odell or face the prospect of complete failure. +But how to convince him of what I was myself convinced, with the +disjointed bits of evidence in my possession? Just as my train came to +a stop with a slight jolt in the Pennsylvania station, I saw as in an +electric flash a way of doing it. Perhaps it was the jolt that gave +the flash. + +I could not wait to get back to my hotel. I inquired of a porter where +I could get a messenger boy. He showed me. I begged two sheets of +paper and two envelopes. They were pushed under my hand. I scratched +off six lines to Roger Odell: "Don't think when you get this I'm going +to ask you to put off our interview. On the contrary, I ask you to +advance it. Please be in Julius Felborn's private office at a quarter +to nine instead of nine. This is vitally important. If he has a large +safe in his office, get the key or combination so that you can open it. +Small safe no use.--Yours hopefully, J.H." + +I finished this scrawl and sent it away by messenger to the club where +Odell had said I might 'phone, if necessary, up to one o'clock that +night. It was only just eleven. + +The second letter was longer and more troublesome to compose. It was +to Grace Callender, and I trusted for its effect to the kindness she +professed for me. Her aunt also had been friendly and had shown +interest in the prospects of Carr Price's play. Neither, however, +dreamed that success depended in any way upon Roger Odell. + + +"DEAR MISS GRACE," I wrote,--"You will think the request I'm going to +make of you and Miss Callender a very strange one, but you promised +that if you could help me you would do so. Well, extraordinary as it +may seem, _you can make my fortune if you_ will both come to the +Felborn Theatre at the unearthly hour of nine to-morrow morning, and +ask to be shown into Mr. Felborn's private office. I shall be there, +waiting and hoping to see you two ladies arrive promptly, as more than +I can tell depends upon that. You happened to mention in my presence +something about dining out to-night and returning rather late, so I +feel there is a chance of your getting this and sending me a line by +the messenger to the Belmont. He will wait for you, and I will wait +for him.--Yours sincerely, JOHN HASLE." + + +An hour later the answer came to my hotel. "Of course we'll both be +there on the stroke of nine. Depend upon us," Grace Callender replied. + +"Thank Heaven!" I mumbled. Yet I was heavy with a sense of guilt. If +it had been only for punishment, or only for my own advancement, I +could not have done what I planned to do. No man could. But Grace +Callender's happiness was at stake. + + +Roger Odell was five minutes before his time in Felborn's office next +day, yet he found me on the spot. I saw by his face that his +well-seasoned nerves were keyed not far from breaking-point. But he +kept his rôle of the superior, indifferent man of the world. He hoped +I didn't see the strain he was under, and I hoped that I hid my +feelings from him. Each probably succeeded as well as the other. + +"Well, what have you got to tell me?" he asked, when we were alone +together in Julius Felborn's decorative private office. + +"I've nothing to tell you," I said. "Nevertheless, I believe you will +hear something if you've done as I suggested. Have you got the key or +the combination of that big safe in the wall behind the desk?" + +"I have the combination for to-day. Felborn was at the club last night +when your letter came, and I asked him for it. There aren't many +favours he wouldn't grant me. But what has Julius Felborn's safe to do +with the case?" + +"Please open it. We haven't much time to spare." I looked at my +watch. In a quarter of an hour the Misses Callender ought to be +announced. If they failed me after all--but I would not think of that +"if." + +Odell manipulated the combination, and the door of the safe swung open. +I saw that there was room for a man inside, and explained to Odell that +he must be the man. "It's absolutely necessary for you to hear for +yourself," I insisted, "all that's said in this room during the next +half-hour. If you didn't hear with your own ears, you'd never believe, +and nothing would be said if you were known to be listening." + +"You want me to eavesdrop!" he exclaimed, ready to be scornful. + +"Yes," I admitted. "If you can call it eavesdropping to learn how and +by whom Perry and Ned Callender Graham were done to death." + +Without another word Odell stepped into the safe. + +"With the door ajar you can hear every word spoken in this room," I +said. "In a few minutes you'll recognise two voices--those of Miss +Grace and Miss Marian Callender. I tell you this that you mayn't be +surprised into making an indiscreet appearance. Remember your future's +at stake and that of the girl you love. All you have to do is to keep +still until the moment when the mystery is cleared up." + +"How can it be cleared up by either of those two?" Odell challenged me, +anger smouldering in his eyes. + +"It will be cleared up while they are in the room," I amended. +"Further than that I can't satisfy you now. By Jove! there goes the +'phone! I expect it's to say they're here, though it's five minutes +before the time." + +My guess was correct, and my answer through the telephone, "Let them +come up at once," passed on the news to the man behind the door of the +safe. I went out to the head of the stairs to meet my visitors, and +led them into Felborn's office. The two were charmingly though very +simply dressed, far more _les grandes dames_ in appearance than they +had been on shipboard, and their first words were of amused admiration +for the Oriental richness of Julius Felborn's office. It was evident +that, whatever their secret preoccupations were, both wished to seem +interested in their bizarre surroundings and in my success which they +had come to promote. I made them sit down in the two most luxurious +chairs the room possessed. Thus seated, their backs were toward the +safe, and the light filtered becomingly through thin gold silk curtains +on to their faces. I placed myself opposite, on an oak bench under the +window. If the door of the safe moved, I could see it over the +fashionable small hats of the ladies with their haloes of delicate, +spiky plumes. + +When I got past generalities I blurted out, "I've a confession to make. +I won't excuse myself or explain, because when I've finished--though +not _till_ then--you'll understand. On shipboard I talked of my book, +and told you it was called _The Key_, but I didn't tell you that the +title and one incident in the story were suggested--forgive my +startling you--by the murder of Perry and Ned Callender-Graham." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Grace, half rising, "you asked us here to tell us +_that_? It doesn't seem _like_ you, Lord John." + +"Give me the benefit of the doubt and hear me to the end," I pleaded, +grieved by her stricken pallor and look of reproach as she sank into +the chair again. Marian was pale also, even paler than usual, but her +look was of anger, therefore easier to meet. + +"You must not use the word 'murder,'" she commented, a quiver in her +voice. "Your doing so shows that you've very little knowledge of the +case." + +"I beg your pardon," I said. "On the contrary, it precisely shows that +I have knowledge of it. The brothers were murdered by the same hand, +in the same way, and for the same motive." + +Marian rose up, very straight and tall. "It would be more suitable to +give your theories to the police than to us. I cannot stay and let my +niece stay to listen to them." + +"I shall have to give not my theories, but my knowledge, my proof, to +the police," I warned her; "only it's better for everyone concerned for +you to hear me first." + +"You've brought us to this place under false pretences!" Marian cried, +throwing her arm around the girl's waist. "It's not the act of a +gentleman. Come, Grace, we'll go at once." + +"For your own sakes you must not go," I insisted. "If you stay and +hear me through some way may be found to save the family name from +public dishonour." + +"Dearest, we _must_ stay," Grace said steadily, when the older woman +urged her toward the door. + +Marian looked at her niece with the compelling look of a Fate, but the +girl stood firm. Gently she freed herself from the clinging arm and +sat, or rather fell, into the big cushioned chair once more. Her aunt +hesitated for a moment, I could see, whether or not to use force, but +decided against the attempt. With a level gaze of scorn for me, she +took her stand beside Grace's chair, her hand clenched on the carving +of its high back. I realised the tension of her grip, because her grey +suede glove split open across a curious ring she always wore on the +third finger of her left hand, showing its great cabochon emerald. I +had often noticed this stone, and thought it like the eye of a snake. + +"Say what you wish to say quickly, then, and get it over," she sharply +ordered. + +"The double murder was suggested and carried out by a man, but he had +accomplices, and his principal accomplice was a woman." (Miss +Callender's command excused my brusqueness.) "They had the same +interest to serve; purely a financial interest. It was vital to both +that Miss Grace Callender shouldn't marry--unless she married a person +under their influence who would share with them. They preferred some +such scheme, but it fell through. That drove them to extremes. Now +I'll tell you something about this couple--this congenial husband and +wife. Afterwards I'll give you details of their plot. They were +married secretly years ago, and lived together when they could, abroad +and on this side. The man was rich once, but lost his money--and the +capacity to make it--by losing his health. Life wasn't worth living to +either unless they could have the luxury they'd been used to. They +took an old house on Long Island--Bay View Farm, near Sandy Plain. The +man lived there for several months each year under the name of +Paulling. His wife paid him flying visits. She provided the money, +and had a banking account in the town. At Bay View Farm, when Miss +Grace first engaged herself to her cousin, the two thought out their +plot to suppress Perry. It took them some time to elaborate it, but a +week before the wedding they were ready. The woman, still under the +name of Paulling, engaged a furnished flat in New York, near Riverside +Drive. She took this flat for a term of years, realising it might be +needed more than once as time went on. In this apartment, in a house +called the Alhambra, she sat down one day at her desk and wrote an +anonymous letter to Perry Callender-Graham. She asked him to call at +that address at midnight the next night and learn a secret concerning +his cousin Grace's birth, which would change everything for them both +if it came out. Her handwriting was disguised by the use of a quill +pen, which used so much ink that most of the words left traces on the +blotter. The envelope and paper were blue-grey, and thick. Inside was +enclosed a small latchkey and a key to the front door of the house, for +the hall-porter would be in bed by the time she named. Perry +Callender-Graham could not resist the temptation to keep the +appointment. He went to the Alhambra, let himself in, was seen by +nobody, walked up to the third floor, and fitted the latchkey into the +door on the right side of the hall. As he tried to turn the key +something sharp as a needle pricked his forefinger. He was startled, +yet he went on trying to unlock the door. The key turned all the way +round, but the door stuck. It seemed to be bolted on the inside. He +began to feel slightly faint, but he was so angry at being cheated that +he pushed the electric bell, determined to get in at any cost. No +answer came, however, and at last he gave up in despair. Some vague +idea of warning the police and of going to see a doctor came to his +mind, but he was already a dying man. Before he got as far as the +street corner he fell dead. Exactly the same thing happened in the +case of Ned, when every effort to frighten him into breaking his +engagement had failed, when his love for his brother, his sensitive +conscience and his superstitious fear had all been played upon in vain. +Even the same formula was used for the anonymous letter, with a +slightly different wording. That was safe enough, for if Perry had +mentioned the first letter to Ned he would have told the police at the +time of Perry's death; it would have been a valuable clue. It wasn't +necessary to make new keys, for the two originals had been +returned--'to the family.' They were sent anonymously to Ned as they'd +been sent to Perry, and he also yielded to curiosity. + +"The same ingenious lock, made for the plotters by a skilled +mechanician (whom they had reason to trust), shot out its poisoned +needle at the first turn of the latchkey in his hand. As for the +poison, it, too, was supplied by a trusted one---one who had something +to gain and vengeance to take as well. As the mechanician specialised +in lock-making, so did the chemist employed specialise in poisons. The +one he chose out of his repertory had two virtues: first, it began to +stop the heart's action only after coursing through the blood for +twenty or thirty minutes. Anything quicker might have struck down the +victim in front of the door and put the police on the right track. +Secondly, the poison's effect on the heart couldn't be detected by +post-mortem, but presented all the symptoms of status lymphaticus, +enlargement of the thyroid gland and so on. As for the lock, the +second turn of the key caused the needle to retire; and for a further +safeguard, an almost invisible stop, resembling a small screw-head, +could hold the needle permanently in place inside the lock, so that the +door might be opened by a latchkey and the existence of a secret +mechanism never suspected, except by one who knew how to find it. The +mechanism is in working order still, ready for use again, in case Miss +Grace Callender should change her mind and decide to marry." + +"Who is it you are accusing, Lord John?" Grace stammered in a choked +voice. + +I glanced from the drooping figure in the chair to the tall figure +standing erect and straight beside it. Marian Callender no longer +grasped the oak carving. The hand in the ragged glove was crushed +against her mouth, her lips on the emerald which had pressed through +the torn suede. The woman gave no other sign of emotion than this +strange gesture. + +"I accuse Paolo Tostini, with his father, his brother, and his +wife--known still as Miss Marian Callender--as his accomplices," I said. + +Grace uttered a cry sharp with horror, yet there was neither amazement +nor unbelief in the pale face which she screened with two trembling +hands. The story I had told--hastily yet circumstantially--had +prepared her for the end. But the keen anguish in the girl's voice +snapped the last strand of Odell's patience. He threw the iron door of +the safe wide open, and in two bounds was at Grace's side. I saw her +hold out both arms to him. I saw him snatch her up against his breast; +and then I turned to Marian Tostini, who had not moved from her place +beside the big carved chair. She was staring straight at me, her dark +eyes wide and unwinking as the eyes of a person hypnotised. The hand +in the torn glove had dropped from her lips again and clasped the +carving. She seemed to lean upon the chair, as if for support. Her +fingers clutched the wood. The grey suede glove was slit now all +across its back, but the snake-eye of the emerald had ceased to shoot +out its green glint. The stone hung from its setting like the hinged +lid of a box, showing a very small gold-lined aperture. + +"There need be--no stain on the name of--Callender--if you are as +clever in hiding the secret as you've been--in finding it out," she +said, with a catch in her breath between words. + +"What have you done?" I asked. + +"You know--don't you--you who know everything? The ring was my Italian +mother's--and her mother's before her. Who can tell how long it has +been in our family? It was empty when it came to me, but----" + +"But you put into it some of the same poison Antonio Tostini made up +for Perry and Ned Callender-Graham?" + +"Do you think you can force me to accuse the Tostinis? You shall not +drag a word from me. When Paolo hears I am dead he will die also, +before you can find him. Antonio you cannot touch. He is in Italy. +Thank Heaven their father is dead! And now I think--I had better go +home or--or to my doctor's. Grace and Roger Odell--wouldn't like me to +die here. It might--start scandal. I am feeling--a little faint." + +"Aunt Marian!" Grace sobbed. But Odell held the girl in his arms and +would not let her go. + +"Take Miss Callender away, Odell--quickly," I advised. "I'll attend +to--Mrs. Tostini." + +Like one who walks in a dream I shut the safe on my way to the desk, +and telephoned downstairs for a taxi. "One of the ladies who called +has been taken ill, I must drive her to a doctor's," I explained. + +"You think of everything," Marian Tostini said. She laughed softly. +"My heart has always been weak." + +"Taxi is here, sir," a voice called up through the 'phone. + +"Very well. We'll be down at once. Tell Mr. Felborn his office is +free. Now, Miss Callender--I mean Mrs. Tostini, let me help you." + +"I'm afraid I must say 'Yes,'" she smiled. "My heart--beats so slowly. +Tell me, Lord John, as we go--how did you find out--the secret? It +seemed so--well hid!" + +"I guessed part, and bluffed the rest. I had to," I confessed, half +guiltily. The woman could make no ill use of such a confession now. +"I found the flat--and the lock--and two sheets of blotting paper. I +made out the anonymous letters, and one to your husband. I showed the +snapshot I got of you on shipboard to the house-agent. But he couldn't +be sure--said Mrs. Paulling wore a veil when he saw her. The name +'Paulling' was a clue too--enough like Paolo to be suggestive. Some +criminals love to twist their own names about. And Paolo Tostini is a +criminal. He has brought you to this----" + +"If there is guilt, I am the guilty one," she said calmly. "So sorry. +I have to lean on you a little. Ah! it's good to be downstairs--and in +the air. My doctor's name is Ryland. His address is The Montague, +East 44th Street. It's so near--we can get there, I think, in time. +You'll tell him--nothing?" + +"I'll tell him nothing," I echoed. + +As I put her into the taxi I noticed that she had snapped the emerald +back in its setting, and the green snake-eye glinted up harmlessly once +more from the limp hand in the torn glove. + + + + +EPISODE II + +THE GREY SISTERHOOD + +LORD JOHN'S FIRST ADVENTURE IN LOVE + +When applause forced the curtain up again and again on the last scene +of our play--Carr Price's and mine--I wasn't looking at the stage, but +at a girl in the opposite box. The box was Roger Odell's, and I was +sure that the girl must be his adopted sister Madeleine. But because +of the insult she had suffered through my brother, I might not visit +the box uninvited. + +If Grace had been with her husband and sister-in-law there might have +been hope. But the wedding had been private, because of Miss Marian +Callender's death, and it was not to be supposed that the bride would +show herself at the theatre, even as a proof of gratitude to me. I was +in Governor Estabrook's box, with him and Carr Price, and the girl +whose engagement to Price depended, perhaps, on the success of this +night; but I thanked my lucky stars--that I was invited by Grace to +dine after the theatre, _en famille_. + +"Surely I shall meet _Her_," I tried to persuade myself. "She's here +with Roger, to show that she bears no grudge against my family. She +can't stop away from supper when I'm to be the only guest." + +This hopeful thought repeated itself in my head whenever I was thwarted +by finding my eyes avoided by the girl--the wonderful girl who, with +her lily face, and parted blonde hair rippling gold-and-silver lights +was like a shining saint. She was so like a saint that I would have +staked my life on her being one, which made me more furious than ever +with Haslemere. I felt if she would give me one of her white roses +lying on the red velvet of the box-rail, it would be worth more to me +than the Victoria Cross I was wearing for the first time that night. + +"Author! Author!" everybody shouted, as the curtain went down for the +tenth time. I heard the call in a half-dream, for at that instant +Madeleine Odell dropped the opera-glasses through which she had been +taking a look at the audience. They fell on the boxrail among the +roses, and pushed off one white beauty, which landed on the stage close +to the footlights; but I had no time to yearn for that rose just then. +I had thought only for the girl, who shrank back in her chair as if to +hide herself. Startled, Roger bent down with a solicitous question. +Thus he screened his sister from me, as a black cloud may screen the +moon; and my impulse was to search the house for the cause of her alarm. + +The audience as a whole had not yet risen, therefore the few on their +feet were conspicuous, and I picked out the man who had seemingly +annoyed Miss Odell. Just a glimpse I had of his face before he turned, +to push past the people in his row of orchestra chairs. It was a +strange face. + +"That man has some connection with the mystery of Madeleine Odell's +life!" was my thought. I knew I had to follow the fellow, and there +wasn't a second to lose, because, though he was perhaps twice my age, I +had to get about with a crutch and he had the full use of his long, +active legs. Before I'd stopped to define my impulse I was on my feet, +stammering excuses to Governor Estabrook and his daughter. + +"You mustn't leave now. We're wanted on the stage!" Carr Price caught +my arm; but a muttered, "For God's sake, don't stop me," told him that +here was some matter of life or death for me, and he stood back. After +that, I must have made the cripple's record; and I reached the street +in time to see the quarry step into a private car. I knew him by the +back of his head, prominent behind the ears and thatched with sleek +pepper-and-salt hair; but as he bent forward to shut the door, he +stared for half a second straight into my eyes. His were black and +long--Egyptian eyes, and the whole personality of the man suggested +Egypt; not the Arabianised Egypt of to-day, but rather the Egypt which +left its tall, broad-shouldered types sculptured on walls of tombs. He +made me think of a magnificent mummy "come alive," and dressed in +modern evening clothes. + +After the meeting of our eyes the man turned to his chauffeur for some +word, and the theatre lights seemed to point a pale finger at a scar on +the brown throat. The length of that thin throat was another Egyptian +characteristic, and though the collar was higher than fashion decreed, +it wasn't high enough to cover the mark when his neck stretched +forward. It was the queerest scar I ever saw, the exact size and shape +of a human eye. And on the white neck of Miss Odell I had noticed a +black opal with a crystal centre, representing the eye of the Egyptian +god Horus. This fetish was the only jewel she wore; and if I hadn't +already been sure of some association between her and the man now +escaping, that eye would have convinced me. + +Roger Odell had forced on me the gift of an automobile, and Price and I +had motored Governor Estabrook and his daughter to the theatre; but as +it was waiting in the procession which had just begun to move, my only +hope of following the man was to hail a passing taxi. I was about to +try my luck, when a hand jerked me back. + +"Good heavens, Lord John, are you going to leave us in the lurch? The +audience are yelling their heads off!" panted Julius Felborn. + +I would have thrown him off, but the second's delay was a second too +much. The dark car was spinning away with its secret--which might be a +double secret, for I caught a glimpse of a grey-clad woman. Somebody +grabbed the taxi I'd hoped to hail, and it was too late to do anything +except note the licence number. Since my war-experience and wounds, +I've lost--temporarily, the doctors say--my memory for figures. It is +one form which nerve-shock takes; and fearing to forget, I made a note +with a pocket pencil, on my shirt cuff. + +"A man like that is no needle in a haystack," I consoled myself. "I +can't fail to lay my hand on him if he's wanted." Then, making the +best of the business, I allowed Felborn to work his will. He dragged +me back into the theatre, and on to the stage, where I bowed and +smirked at the side of Price. Queer, how indifferent the vision of a +girl made me to this vision of success! But I'd never fallen in love +at first sight before, or, indeed, fallen in love at all in a way worth +the name. + +The vision was still there when I looked up, though it would soon be +gone, for Roger had put on his sister's cloak, and both were standing. +The girl shrank into the background; but as I raised my eyes perhaps +the S.O.S. call my heart sent out compelled some faint answer. Miss +Odell leaned forward and it seemed that she threw me a glance with +something faintly resembling interest in it. Perhaps it was only +curiosity; or maybe she was looking for a rosebud she had lost. I +couldn't let the flower perish, or be collected by some Philistine; so +I bent and picked it up. I trusted that she would not be angry, but +when I raised my head the vision and the vision's brother had both +disappeared. + +This was the happiest night of Carr Price's life, because Governor +Estabrook had journeyed from his own state with his daughter to see the +play. If he could, he would have kept me to supper in order that I +might talk to the Governor while he talked to the fascinating Nora; but +I had yet to learn whether there was a chance of its being the happiest +night of my life, and I flashed off in my new car at the earliest +moment, to find out. Down plumped my heart, however, when only Grace +and Roger appeared to welcome me. + +As soon as I dared, I invented an excuse to ask for the absent one; or +rather, I blurted out what was in my mind. "I hoped," I stammered, "to +see Miss Odell again--if only for a few minutes. I felt sure it was +she at the theatre. And I wanted to beg--that she'd let me try to +atone--to compel Haslemere to atone." + +"Oh, she's sorry not to meet you," Roger broke in, "But she's not +strong. And she--er--was rather upset in the theatre. She doesn't go +out often; and she never takes late supper. She's probably in bed by +this time----" + +"Oh, Roger, do let me tell him the truth!" exclaimed Grace. "Think how +he helped us in our trouble? What if he could help Maida? You must +admit he has a mind for mysteries, and if he could put an end to the +persecution which has spoiled her life, Maida wouldn't join the +Sisterhood." + +"She's going to join a Sisterhood?" I broke out, feeling as if a hand +had squeezed my heart like a bath sponge. + +"Yes," said Grace, glancing at Roger. "You see, Rod, it slipped out!" + +"I suppose there's no harm done," he answered. "Only, it's for Maida +to talk of her affairs. Lord John's a stranger to her." + +"But," I said on a strong impulse, "I've taken the liberty of falling +in love with Miss Odell, without being introduced, and in spite of the +fact that she has a right to despise my family. This is the most +serious thing that's ever happened to me. And if she goes into a +Sisterhood the world won't be worth living in. Give me a chance to +meet her--to offer myself----" + +"Great Scott!" cried Roger. "And the British are called a slow race!" + +"Offer myself as her knight," I finished. "Do you think I'd ask +anything in return? Why, after what Haslemere did----" + +"Oh, but who knows what might happen some day?" suggested Grace. "Rod, +I _shall_ make Maida come down." + +Without waiting to argue, she ran out of the room. She was gone some +time, and the secret being out, Roger talked with comparative freedom +of his adopted sister's intentions. The Sisterhood she meant to join +was not a religious order, but a club of women banded together for good +work. At one time the Grey Sisters, as they called themselves, had +been a thriving organisation for the rescue of unfortunate girls, the +reformation of criminals, and the saving of neglected children; but the +Head Sister--there was no "Mother Superior"--had died without a will, a +promised fortune had gone back to her family, and had not a lady of +wealth and force of character volunteered for the empty place, the +Sisterhood might have had to disband. The new Head Sister had +persuaded Madeleine Odell to join the depleted ranks. They had met in +charity work, which was Maida's one pleasure, and the mystery +surrounding the woman had fired the interest of the girl whose youth +was wrecked by mystery. The New York home of the Sisterhood had been +given up, owing to lack of money, but the new Head Sister, whose life +and fortune seemed dedicated to good works, had taken and restored an +old place on Long Island. More recruits were expected, and various +charities were on the programme. + +"It's a gloomy den," said Roger, "and stood empty for years because of +some ghost story. But this friend of Maida's has a mind above ghosts. +They're going to teach women thieves to make jam, and child pickpockets +to be angels! No arguments of mine have had the slightest effect on +Maida since she met this foreign woman. + +"The child has vowed herself to live with the Sisterhood--I believe it +consists at present of no more than five or six women--for a year. +After that she can be free if she chooses. But I know her so well that +my fear is, she _won't_ choose. I'm afraid after all she's suffered +she won't care to come back to the world. And the sword hanging over +our heads is the knowledge that Maida's pledged herself to go whenever +the summons comes." + +If Roger's talk had been on any subject less engrossing, I should not +have heard a word. As it was, I drank in every one. Yet the soul +seemed to have walked out of my body and followed Grace upstairs. It +was as if I could see her pleading with my white-rose vision of the +theatre; but I was far enough from picturing the scene as it really +was. Afterward, when I heard Maida Odell's story, I knew what strange +surroundings she had given herself in the rich commonplaceness of that +old home which had been hers since childhood. + +"The shrine" adjoined her bedroom, I know now, and for some girls would +have been a boudoir. But the objects it contained put it out of the +"boudoir" category. There were two life-size portraits, facing each +other on the undecorated walls, on either side the only door; there was +also a portrait of Roger's father; and opposite the door stood on end a +magnificent painted mummy-case such as a museum would give a small +fortune to possess. Even without its contents the case would have been +of value; but behind a thick pane of glass showed the face of a +perfectly preserved mummy, a middle-aged man no doubt of high birth, +and of a dynasty when Greek influence had scarcely begun to degrade the +methods of embalming. When I saw these treasures of Madeleine's and +learned what they meant in her life, I said that no frame could have +been more inappropriate for such a girl than such a "shrine." + +Grace told me afterwards that she induced Maida to put on her dress +again and come downstairs, only by assuring her that "Poor Lord John +was dreadfully hurt." That plea touched the soft heart; and my fifteen +minutes of suspense ended with a vision of the White Rose Girl coming +down the Odells' rather spectacular stairway, with Grace's arm girdling +her waist. + +We were introduced, and Maida gave me a kind, sweet smile which was the +most beautiful present I ever had. How it made me burn to know what +her smile of love might be! + +Supper was announced; indeed, it had been waiting, and we went into the +oak-panelled dining-room where the girl was more than ever like a white +flower seen in rosy dusk. At the table I could hardly take my eyes off +her face. She was more lovely and lovable than I had thought in the +theatre. Each minute that passed, while I talked of indifferent +things, I spent in mentally "working up" to the Great Request--that she +would show her forgiveness by accepting my help. At last, after butler +and footman had been sent out, and words came to my lips--some sort of +inspiration they seemed--a servant returned with a letter. + +"For Miss Odell, by district messenger," he announced, offering the +envelope on a silver tray. + +"Is there an answer?" Maida asked, her face flushing. + +The footman replied that the messenger had gone; and with fingers that +trembled, Maida opened the envelope. Quite a common envelope it was, +such as one might buy at a cheap stationer's; and the handwriting, +which was in pencil, looked hurried. "I have to go to-morrow morning," +the girl said simply. She spoke to Roger, but for an instant her eyes +turned to me. + +"Oh, darling," cried Grace, springing up as Maida rose, "it's not +fair--such short notice! Send word that you can't." + +"The only thing I _can't_ do, dear, is to break my promise," the girl +cut in. "I must go, and she asks me to travel alone to Salthaven. +That's the nearest station for the Sisterhood House. She gives me the +time of the train I'm to take--seven o'clock. After all, why isn't one +day the same as another? Only, it's hard to say good-bye." + +To leave my love thus, and without even the chance to win her, which +instinct whispered I might have had, seemed unbearable. But there was +no other course. She gave me her hand. "Could it be that she was +sorry?" I dared ask myself. But before I had time to realise how +irrevocable it all was, I stood outside Odell's closed door. I stared +at the barrier for a minute before getting into my car, and tried to +make the oak panels transparent. "I won't let her go out of my life +like this," I said. "I'll fight." + +Before I'd reached my hotel I had thought out the first move in a plan +of action. But maybe there is another thing I ought to mention, before +I speak of that plan. Roger gave me, when I left him, an interesting +description of an electrical contrivance by which he protected the +chief treasure of his sister's shrine from burglars. He insisted on +giving me the secret in writing, also, because he would have to go away +shortly, and wanted someone to know what to do "in case anything went +wrong." The servants, though trustworthy, were aware only that such a +protection existed and was dangerous to meddlers. + +Consulting with West, the chauffeur, I learned that to reach Salthaven, +Long Island (the nearest village to Pine Cliff), passengers must change +at Jamaica. I told him to get to that junction in the morning without +fail, before the seven o'clock train was due, and we arranged to start +even earlier than necessary, to allow for delay. In the hotel office I +asked to be waked at five, in the unlikely event that I should +oversleep, and was going to the lift when the clerk at the information +desk called after me, "I believe, Lord John, a big box arrived for you. +It was before I came on duty, but you'll find it in your suite." + +Nothing seemed less important in that mood of mine, than the arrival of +a box. I had ordered nothing, expected nothing, wanted nothing--except +a thing it seemed unlikely I could ever have; so when I found no box in +my bedroom or small sitting-room, I supposed that it--whatever it might +be--would be sent next morning. Then I forgot the matter. + +I wished to sleep, for I needed clearness of brain for my task. But +sleep wouldn't come. After I had courted it in the dark for a few +minutes, I switched on the electric light over my bed, smoked a +cigarette or two; and when my nerves were calmer, began studying +Roger's electrical invention as described in two documents, a sketch of +Miss Odell's famous mummy-case, with the wiring attached, and a +separate paper of directions how to set and detach the mechanism. + +Suddenly, in the midst, a wave of sleep poured over me, sweeping me to +dreamland. I have a vague recollection of slipping one paper under the +pillow, and I must have dropped off with the other in my hand. I was +seeing Maida again, asking her permission to keep the white rose, and +receiving it, when some sound brought me back to realities. I sat up +in bed and looked around the room, my impression being that someone had +been there. Nothing was disarranged, however. All seemed as I had +left it--except--yes, there was one change! My eyes fastened upon the +shirt cuff on which I had written the licence number of the automobile. +I had flung the shirt over a low screen, and had forgotten, in the rush +of crowding thoughts, to copy the number in my journal. There hung the +shirt as I had left it, but the number, which I had written clearly and +distinctly, had become a black blur on the glazed linen. + +I sprang out of bed, and switched on more lights. Surely I had not +smudged the number by any clumsy accident. The noise I had heard--that +sound like the "click" of a lock? One swift look at the shirt cuff +came near to convincing me that a bit of rubber eraser had been used, +and then I remembered Roger's documents. The one I had slipped under +my pillow was gone. Fortunately it was useless to the uninitiated +without the other! + +I got to the door almost as quickly as if I'd never been wounded, but +found the key still turned in the lock. To have slipped out and locked +the door on the _inside_, meant a clever thief, a skilled _rat +d'hôtel_, provided with a special instrument; but that the trick could +be done I knew from hearsay. I threw open the door and looked into the +dimly lit corridor. No one was visible, except the flitting figure of +a very small child, in a sort of red-riding-hood, cloak, with a hood. +The little creature seemed startled at the noise I made, and ran to a +door which it had nearly reached. Someone must have been waiting for +its return, for it was let in and the door closed. + +"If anyone's been in my rooms, he's probably there still," I said, and +began to search in the obvious way--looking under the bed. What I +found sent me to the door again; for a curious, collapsible box, just +big enough to hold a small child, turned the innocent, flitting figure +I'd seen into something sinister. Quicker than light, thoughts shot +through my head; the arrival of a "big box," my failure to find it in +my room, the click of the lock, some knowledge of me by the man with +the scar, and a fear of my vaunted "detective skill." Slipping on a +dressing-gown as I went, I stalked down the corridor to the door which +opened to admit the child; and the knob was in my grasp when a voice +spoke sharply at my back. "Haven't you mistaken the room, sir?" the +night watchman warned me. + +I had met the man before, when coming in late, and he knew my number. +He was a big Irishman, twice my size. I foresaw trouble, but went to +meet it. "I've reason to believe a thief's been in my rooms, and taken +refuge here," I explained. "I want this door opened." With that I +rattled the knob and knocked threateningly. Almost at once the door +was unlocked, and the sweet face of a young woman in a neat, plain +dressing-gown peeped out. "Oh, what's the matter?" she faltered. "Is +it fire? We have a child here." + +"I _thought_ yuh was mistaken, sir!" cut in the watchman. "Two ladies +and a little midget came in late. I saw 'em. No, madam, there's no +fire. This gentleman thought a thief had slipped into one of your +rooms." + +"Indeed, he is mistaken," the young woman assured us. "We haven't +finished undressing yet. I'm the child's nurse. If necessary, I can +call my mistress, but she's very nervous." As she glanced back into +the room I caught a glimpse of a woman in grey who hadn't taken off her +hat. A sort of motor bonnet it seemed to be, with a long veil +attached. I got no sight of her face, for the nurse hastily shut the +door, all but a crack which scarcely showed her rather piquant nose. + +"That's enough, I guess, sir?" suggested the watchman. "These ladies +mustn't be disturbed. All the rooms along here are occupied by old +clients. You go back to your suite and if there's any thief we'll find +him. But maybe you was dreamin'?" + +I heard the key turn again in the lock; but I realised that unless I +wanted to risk a row and perhaps arrest for "disorderly conduct," I +must bow to circumstances. For a moment I was tempted to persist, but +I thought how much more important than anything it was to be free from +entanglements, and able to reach Jamaica before seven o'clock. "Spilt +milk," I said to myself, and took the watchman's advice. But outside +the forbidden door, I picked up a tiny rosetted slipper. + +In my own rooms, I searched again for traces of a hostile presence. +The collapsible box was a strange thing to find under a bed, but I +couldn't prove that Little Red Riding Hood had been in it. Neither +could I prove that a small pile of silver that I had poured out of my +pockets on to the dressing-table had diminished, or that two letters +which I had received--one from my brother Haslemere, one from Grace +Odell--had been stolen. Nevertheless, while putting off my principal +researches, I did telephone down to inquire who occupied rooms 212, +214. The man who answered from the office had "come on" since the +people arrived, but, the name in the hotel register was "Mrs. W. Smith, +nurse and child, Sayville, Long Island." Nothing could sound less +offensive; but next morning when I descended at an unearthly hour it +seemed that "the party" had already gone, by motor; and the man at the +door "hadn't noticed no child." All I could do then was to reserve +those rooms for myself, for two days, with orders that they should not +be touched until investigated by me. + +It lacked twenty minutes of train time when my chauffeur got me to +Jamaica. This made me feel almost cheerful, but my heart sank as I +reached the arrival platform. There were not many passengers, and even +if there had been a crowd one figure would have stood out +conspicuously--that of a tall woman in a grey dress, a long grey cloak, +and a close-fitting grey bonnet with a thick grey veil falling over the +face and breast. There was not a doubt in my mind but this was the +formidable directress of the Grey Sisterhood, come in person to meet--I +had almost said "her victim." If the woman had known of my plan she +could hardly have found a better way of thwarting it. + +As I glowered at the figure stalking up and down, I hated it. And I +wondered if there were more than a coincidence in the fact that this +was the third grey-veiled woman I had seen since last night. In the +car at the theatre there had been too brief a glimpse to be sure of a +resemblance, and the woman in 212 had left on my mind an impression of +comparative shortness. But then, it is easy to stoop and disguise +one's height, I told myself viciously, eager to find a connection +between this woman and the others. + +I could see nothing of her face, as we passed and repassed on the +platform; but she was hovering not far off when I learned that the +train from New York would be late. It was "hung up," a few miles away, +owing to the breakdown of a "freighter." Instead of regret at this +news, I felt joy. It gave me--with luck--a way out of my difficulty. +Here was the Head Sister, waiting for Maida Odell; but if my car could +get me to the delayed train before it was restarted only Maida herself +could keep me from saying what I had come to say. + +There wasn't a moment to waste, and I didn't waste one. Thinking I had +won the first point in the game, I hurried to my car without glancing +back at the veiled woman. I gave directions to West and was about to +get into the auto, when a look in the chauffeur's eye made me turn. +Close behind stood the grey lady. There was no doubt that her purpose +was to speak to me. I took off my hat and faced her; but it was like +trying to look at the moon through a thick London fog. + +"You are Lord John Hasle, I believe?" she said, in a resonant contralto +voice, with a slight suggestion of foreign accent. "I have heard of +you," she went on. "You have been pointed out to me, and I know of +your acquaintance with the Odells. You are going to motor back along +the line. Your inquiries told me that. I would thank you, and so +would Miss Odell, for taking me to her in your car." + +Here was a situation! Rudely to refuse a favour asked by a lady, +or--to lose, for ever, perhaps, my one hope? I chose to be rude. I +stammered that I meant to go at such a pace it would be risking her +life to grant the request. Very sorry; more lifting of the hat; a +sheepish look of feigned regret; and then West, thoroughly ashamed of +me, started the car. The next moment we had shot away, but not without +a startling impression. + +"The worst turn you can possibly do Miss Odell will be to prevent her +coming into the Sisterhood House. It is the one place where she can be +safe." Those were the words I heard over the noise of the starting +motor; and as we left the tall statue of a woman, the high wind blew +her thick veil partly aside. Instantly she pulled it into place; but I +had time to see that the face underneath was covered with a grey mask. +The effect on my mind of this revelation was of something so sinister +that I felt physically sick. What could be the motive for such double +precautions of concealment? Was it merely to hide a disfigurement, I +wondered, or was there a more powerful reason? I determined to tell +Miss Odell what I had seen. + +Fortunately there was little traffic on the country road at that hour, +and we did the eight miles in about eight minutes. I thanked my lucky +stars that the hold-up train had not moved; and my heart bounded when I +saw Maida among a number of passengers who had descended to wander +about during the delay. She in a grey travelling dress and small +winged toque, walked alone at a distance from the others. Here back +was turned to me, but she was unmistakable, with the morning sun +ringing her hair with a saint's halo. I tried not to frighten her by +appearing too abruptly, but she gave a start, and there was pain rather +than pleasure in her eyes. + +"Do forgive me!" I pleaded. "I _had_ to finish what I couldn't say +last night. I wouldn't intrude by travelling in your train from New +York without permission, but I thought if I came to Jamaica, maybe +you'd grant me a few minutes. Won't you let me atone--won't you let me +help? I feel that I can. Roger has hinted of trouble. If you would +trust me, I'd put my whole soul into the fight to save you from it." + +So I ran on, with a torrent of arguments and all the force of love +behind them. Something of that force the girl must have felt, for +slowly she yielded and told me this strange story. + +Roger Odell's father--Roger senior--had fallen in love with a girl who +afterwards became Maida's mother. He was a widower, and young Roger +was a boy of eight or nine at the time. Old Roger--he was not old +then--had acted as the girl's guardian, and she had promised to marry +him, when suddenly she disappeared, leaving behind a letter saying that +she was going with the only man she could ever love. + +Five years passed, and then one day she came back bringing a little +daughter four years old. Both the Rogers were away when she called at +the house in Fifth Avenue; one at his office, the other at school. A +housekeeper received the pair, realising that the mother was +desperately ill. She would say nothing of herself, except that they +had come from England; could not even tell her married name. She had +lived through the voyage, she said, to put her daughter under the +protection of her only friend. Some strange luggage she had brought, +on which were London labels. She forbade the servant to telephone the +master of the house. She would write a letter, and then she would go. +The letter was begun, but before it could be finished the writer fell +into unconsciousness. For a few days she lingered, but never spoke +again, and died in the arms of the man she had jilted. + +"If you ever loved me, keep my child as if she were your own," began +the written appeal. "She is Madeleine, named after me. Don't try to +find out her other name. Give her yours, which might have been mine. +Make no inquiries. If you do, the same fate may fall on her which has +fallen on her father and others of his family. It is killing me now. +Save my little Maida. The one legacy I can leave her is a jewel which +I want her to keep; a miniature of myself taken for someone I loved, +and an Egyptian relic which, for a reason I don't know, is immensely +important. I promised her father that this child should never part +with it. The one reward I can offer you is my grat----" + +There the letter broke off. + +Roger Odell, Senior, had obeyed every one of his dead love's requests. +The "Egyptian relic" was a mummy case, with the human contents +marvellously preserved; the jewel, an opal and crystal eye of Horus. +In taking out the miniature from its frame, to be copied in a large +portrait, Maida found the miniature of a man she supposed to be her +father, and had ordered that enlarged also, to hang in her shrine. Her +memories of the past before coming to America were vague; but her +childhood, happy as it had been in other ways, was cursed by the dream +of a terrible, dark face--a face appearing as a mere brown spot in the +distance, then growing large as it drew nearer, coming close to her +eyes at last in giant size, shutting out all the rest of the world. +Whether she had ever seen this face in reality, before it obsessed her +dreams, she could not be sure; but the impression was that she had. As +she grew older, the dream came less frequently; but once or twice she +had seen a face in a crowd which reminded her--perhaps morbidly--of the +dream. Such a face had looked up from the audience last night. + +This mystery was one of two which had clouded Maida's life. From the +second had come her great trouble; and she did not see that between the +two could exist any connection. When I heard the rest of the history, +however, I differed from her. Some link there might be, I thought; and +if I were to help, it must be my business to find it. + +One day, on leaving school for the holidays, when she was seventeen, +Maida, and a woman servant sent to fetch her from Milbrook to New York, +had met with a slight railway accident, much like that of to-day. It +was this coincidence, maybe, which inclined her to confide in me, for +she had been thinking of it, she said, when I came. A young man had +been "kind" to Miss Odell and her maid; had brought them water and +food. Later he had introduced himself. He was Lieutenant Granville, +of the Navy. Also he was an inventor, who believed he could make a +fortune for himself and his mother, if he could patent and get taken up +by some great firm an idea of his, in which he had vainly tried to +interest the heads of the Navy. This concerned a secret means of +throwing a powerful light under water, for the protection of warships +or others threatened by submerged submarines. Granville believed that +experiments would demonstrate immense usefulness for his invention and +so interested was Maida that she tried to induce Roger to finance it. +He refused, and did not like Granville when the girl brought them +together. + +This seeming injustice roused Maida's sympathy. She met Granville +occasionally at his mother's house, without Roger's knowledge. It was +the child's first adventure, and appealed to her love of romance. The +natural consequences followed. Granville proposed. She asked to +remain his friend. Then to give her "friend" a glorious surprise, she +worked to interest a great financier, a friend of the Odell family, in +Granville's undersea light. + +Unfortunately for her unselfish plan, millionaire Orrin Adriance had a +son, Jim, who had been in love with Maida since she was in the +"flapper" stage. This fact complicated matters. When Granville's +chemical formula, in a sealed envelope, was stolen from a safe in the +Adriance house, before business was completed between financier and +inventor, George Granville--already jealous of Jim Adriance--was mad +enough to believe that Maida had joined in a plot to trick him. He +accused the Adriances of wishing to get his secret without paying for +it, prophesying that a tool of theirs would presently "invent" +something of the kind, after they had refused to take up his +proposition. Pretending illness, he had induced his mother to send for +Maida, and she, only too anxious to defend herself, had gone to the +Granville house. After a cruel scene between her and the sailor, he +had locked the door, put the key in his pocket, and shot himself +through the heart. Mrs. Granville, who had heard a scream from the +girl, before the shot, swore to the belief that Maida had killed the +young man to defend herself against his love-making. + +Roger, learning of the tragedy, had stifled the lie as he would have +crushed a snake. How he had done this, Maida was not sure. He had +refused to tell. But her name had not been connected with Granville's +at the inquest. Mrs. Granville, who had been poor and lived poorly, +migrated to France and was reported to have "come into money through a +legacy." In any case she seemed to have been silenced. No word of +scandal could be traced to her, though detectives had been employed by +Roger. Nevertheless, the story had risen from time to time like the +phoenix from its own ashes. Maida's fellow school-mates had whispered; +her debut in society had been blighted by a paragraph in a notorious +paper, afterwards gagged by Roger. Then, last and worse, had come the +cancelling of the girl's presentation to the King and Queen of England. + +"You see now," she said, "why I shall be happier out of the world, in a +Sisterhood where I can try to help others even sadder than I have been." + +"But," I threw out the bold suggestion, "what if there's a plot to get +you into the Sisterhood--into this old house!" + +"Oh, but that's impossible!" she cried. "You wouldn't dream of such a +thing if you could meet the Head Sister and see what a splendid woman +she is!" + +There was my opportunity to tell about the mask, and I took it. But it +availed me nothing. The mask, Miss Odell said, was no secret. She +understood that the Head Sister, in saving a child from fire, had so +injured her face that for the sake of others she kept it hidden. +Another version had it that the motive for wearing the mask was some +"sacred vow." In any case, Maida assured me, it was an honour to the +good and charitable woman; and no arguments would break her resolution +to give the next year to work with the Sisterhood. After that year--if +I could solve the mystery of the stolen formula, and put an end for +ever to scandal--she would come back and face the world again. But how +could I, a stranger, do what Roger had failed to do? + +That was the question. Yet I made up my mind that it must be answered +in _one way_, or my life would be a failure. Not only would I solve +that mystery, I told myself--though I dared not boast to the girl--but +I would link together the old one with the new. The way to do this, I +told myself, was to learn whether an enemy of Maida Odell's father had +found her under her borrowed name, and had made the Granvilles and +Adriances his conscious or unconscious tools. + +This talk we had while the train stood still. We were sitting on a log +together, out of earshot from the other passengers, when--with the name +of the Grey Sisterhood on our lips--we looked up to see its veiled +directress. She had, she said, been put to much trouble in securing an +automobile to come for Madeleine, and see that she was not persuaded to +break a promise. Maida, embarrassed and protesting, assured her friend +that there was no thought of such disloyalty. Lord John--timidly the +girl introduced us--had come only to try and help her throw off an old +sorrow, as I had helped Roger and Grace. So she tried to "explain" me; +and the Head Sister, having triumphed, could afford to heap coals of +fire on my head by being coldly civil. Her one open revenge she took +by requesting me not to follow them to their automobile. The chauffeur +would fetch Miss Odell's hand luggage out of the train, and my +"kindness would no longer be needed." I was dismissed by the +conqueror; and left by the wayside with but one consolation: Maida had +said "au revoir," not good-bye. + +For a moment I stood crushed. Then a thought jumped into my mind: +"What if this woman is the one I saw in the auto outside the theatre?" + +I felt that I had been a fool to obey Maida, and took steps to retrieve +my mistake. But the veiled lady had been too clever for me. The car +was gone past recall. If it hadn't been for that viper-thought--and +the thought of what had happened in my rooms last night--I might not +have had the "cheek" to make my next move in the game. But things +being as they were I couldn't stand still and take a rebuff. + +Instead of motoring back to New York, I went to Salthaven, and +breakfasted at a small inn there. Of the Sisterhood I could learn +nothing, for it had but lately taken up its quarters near by. Of those +quarters, however, I was able to pick up some queer stories. The place +had been bought, it seemed, for a song, because of its ghostly +reputation, which had frightened tenant after tenant away. + +"What a good pitch to choose if any 'accident' were planned, and lay it +to the ghosts!" I thought. And I knew that I couldn't go without +learning more about the Sisterhood House than the landlord at Salthaven +could tell me. I must see for myself if it were the sort of place +where "anything could happen." + +I meant to wait until late, when all the Grey Sisters and their +protégées were safely asleep. Then, with a present of meat for a +possible watch dog, I would try a prowl of inspection. I made a vague +excuse of fancying the inn, and of wanting to rest till time to meet a +friend who would motor back with me to New York. I engaged a room in +order to take the alleged rest; but spent long hours in striving to +piece together bits of the most intricate puzzle my wits had ever +worked upon. + +"In an hour more now I can start," I said at ten, and composed myself +to forget the slow ticking of my watch. But suddenly it was as if +Maida called. Actually I seemed to hear her voice. I sprang up, and +in five minutes had paid the bill and was off in my car for Pine Cliff. + +I left West sitting in the auto at a little distance from the high +wall, which shut the old garden in from the rocks above the Sound. +Then I struck my crutch into a patch of rain-sodden earth, and used it +to help me vault over the wall. Just as I bestrode the top, a dog gave +out a bell-toned note. I saw his dark shape, and threw the meat I had +brought from the inn. He was greedily silent, and I descended, to pat +his head as he ate. Luckily he was an English bull, and perhaps +recognised me as a fellow-countryman. At all events, he gave his +sanction to my presence. + +The neglected garden, which I could dimly see, was mysterious in the +night hush. There was no sound except the whisper of water on the +shore outside. The substantial building with its rows of closed blinds +looked common place and comfortable enough. Lights showed faintly in +two or three windows. Not all the household had gone to bed. As I +stood staring at a low balcony not far above the ground, which somehow +attracted and called my eyes, the blinds of a long French window +looking out upon it were opened. I saw Maida herself, and a tall woman +in grey, wearing a short veil. They stood together, talking. Then +with an affectionate touch on the girl's shoulder, the Head Sister--I +knew it must be she--bade her newest recruit good night. + +The window was left open, but dark curtains were drawn across, no doubt +by Maida. Presently the long strip of golden light between these +draperies vanished. No scene could be more peaceful than the quiet +garden and the sleeping house. Still, something held me bound. How +long I stood there, I don't know: an hour, maybe; perhaps less, perhaps +more. But suddenly a white figure flashed out upon the balcony. So +dim was it in the darkness, I might have taken it for one of the famous +ghosts, but Maida's voice cried out: "_The face--the face_! God send +me help!" + +"He has sent help. I've come, to take you away," I called, and held up +my arms. + +Five minutes later she was with me in my car, rushing towards New York +and her brother's house. + + * * * * * + +"A gilded amateur detective," Roger Odell once called me in a joke. +But I knew he would listen to theories I'd formed concerning this +mystery which, like an evil spirit, had haunted his sister since +childhood. All night I spent in elaborating these theories and +dove-tailing them together. The girl had had a fright in the theatre. +I had seen a man with strange eyes and a scar, looking at her; and +through certain happenings at my hotel, I believed that a link between +him and Maida's "Head Sister" might be found. That, of course, would +free the girl from the promise she thought sacred. + +By eight-thirty in the morning I was in touch with Pemberton's Private +Detective Agency, and I had just been assured that a good man, Paul +Teano, would be with me in ten minutes, when my telephone bell rang +shrilly. It was the voice of Grace Odell which answered my "Hello!" + +"Oh, Lord John," she called distressfully, "isn't it dreadful? Maida's +going back to the Sisterhood House! The Head Sister has written her a +letter. Maida's answering it. She doesn't blame the woman for +_anything_. She thinks she herself was a coward to take fright at a +bad dream. Do come and argue with her. The child wants to start this +morning. That woman seems to have her hypnotised." + +My answer goes without saying. I determined to put off the detective, +but he arrived as I finished talking to Grace, and as his looks +appealed to me I spared him a quarter of an hour. His eyes were as +Italian as his name--with the shadow of tragedy in them. +"Temperamental looking fellow," I said to myself. + +My business with Teano had nothing to do directly with Maida. What I +had to tell him was the invasion of my rooms two nights before, but out +it came that I had been helping a woman, and that success in this case +might mean her safety. + +"I, too, work for a woman, my lord," the detective said. Though he had +spent years in America, I noticed how little slang of the country he'd +chosen to pick up. He spoke, perhaps in the wish to impress me, with +singular correctness. "Now you have told me this, I shall be the more +anxious to serve you. I turned detective to find her. I've been five +years trying. But every morning I think, 'Perhaps it will be to-day.'" + +There was no time then to draw him out as he would have liked to be +drawn out. I showed him what there was to work upon, in my rooms as +well as the two others, and then dashed off to Maida. + +As my car stopped in front of Roger Odell's home, out of the house +bounced a small boy--a very small boy indeed, with the eyes of an imp, +and the clothes of a Sunday-school scholar. He looked at me as he +flashed past, and it was as if he said, "So it's _you_, is it?" + +I had never seen the boy before, but I thought of the collapsible box; +and leaving a flabbergasted footman at the door, my crutch and I went +after the small legs that twinkled around the corner. The elf was too +quick, however. By the time I had got where he ought to have been, he +had made himself invisible. Whether a taxi had swallowed him, or a +door had opened to receive him, it was useless to wonder. All I could +do was to question the footman. The child had brought a letter to Miss +Odell, and had taken one away. "Meanwhile," the servant added, seeing +my interest, "he has entertained below stairs, making faces and turning +handsprings. Quite a acrobat, your lordship," remarked the man, who +hailed from my country; "and that _sharp_, though dumb as a fish! We +gave 'im cake and jam, but money seemed to please 'im most, an' his +pockets was full of it already. 'E's got enough to go on a most +glorious bust, beggin' your lordship's pardon." + +I gave it--and something else as well. Then I asked him for the plate +from which the child had eaten. It was to be wrapped in paper, and put +into my car--for Teano. (It has never mattered that a footman should +think his master, or his master's friends, insane!) + +If the child messenger from the Sisterhood, and the child-thief in the +collapsible box were one, the dumbness was an obstacle. Nevertheless +Teano might catch him, I thought, little dreaming how my desire and +his, working into one, were to be brought about. + +I was shown into Roger's den, and confessed the theft of the document +he had given me--luckily useless, without the plan. I told him also +the history of the night. "Two and two generally make four," I said, +"and though this affair is irritating, it may help eventually. The man +who frightened Miss Odell had the look of an Egyptian. Now, isn't it +more likely that a mummy should be wanted by an Egyptian than another? +Miss Odell's treasure is a mummy, in a painted mummy-case. You know +that several attempts have been made to break into the 'shrine,' as +Miss Odell calls it. With what other object than to get the mummy? +You've had its case protected with an ingenious system of electric +wiring. Now, you are going away with your wife. You give me the +secret of the mechanism. The same night somebody tries to steal it; +also he rubs off my shirt-cuff the number of the Egyptian-looking +fellow's car. Then, there's the directress of the Sisterhood. She +fascinates Miss Odell. She revives the glory of a dying order. She +takes an old ghost-ridden house by the seashore--where anything might +happen. And something _does_ happen. A dream--so vivid, that I +venture to believe it wasn't a dream but a trick. The woman tries to +induce a girl to bring all her possessions with her into seclusion. +'_All_ her possessions,' mind! That would have included the +mummy-case, if you hadn't put your foot down. Have I your leave to +repeat these ramblings to her?" + +"She has heard them, Lord John!" I turned, and sprang to my feet. +Maida was at the door, with Grace. + +"You were talking so fast, we didn't interrupt. And I _wanted_ to +hear. I thought you'd wish me to. You have a wonderful theory, but +it's _all_ a mistake so far as the Sisterhood is concerned. The Head +Sister is the _best_ woman I ever knew. I'm breaking my heart with +shame because I deserted my post. Oh, don't think I blame _you_ for +bringing me away, Lord John. I blame only myself. You were splendid. +And I'm grateful for everything. To convince you of that, I promise if +you can prove anything against the Sisterhood, I'll consider myself +free from my bond--even before the twelve months are up. That's a +_safe_ promise. You can't think what a beautiful letter the Head +Sister has sent me this morning. I'm eager to go back and earn her +forgiveness by helping in the work she'll give me to do. In justice to +her I _must_ tell you a secret. That mask you saw--which prejudiced +you--is to hide burns she got in saving a slum-child from death in a +great fife. The Sister wears it to spare others pain. As for the +_dream_--I have it everywhere, and often. Don't be anxious. I'll +write, and--_you_ can write if you will. Dear Roger, is the car ready?" + +"No," said Roger bluntly. "I hoped John would make you see reason." + +"I do see it," the girl answered. "I didn't last night." + +"How I wish you weren't over twenty-one!" her adopted brother growled. + +Maida laughed, almost gaily. "As it is, I'm an old maid, and must be +allowed to go my own way." + +"May I motor you and Roger to Pine Cliff, if you must go?" I begged. + +She gave me a long look before answering. Then she said, "Yes." + +I shall never forget that run from New York to Long Island. I made the +most of every moment; but my heart turned to ice whenever a voice +seemed to mutter in my ear, "You're going to lose her. You've failed, +John Hasle, in the big crisis of her life and yours." + +But I wouldn't believe the voice. So far as my own story was +concerned, I thought this chapter of it had come to a close with the +closing of the gate at the Sisterhood House between me and Maida Odell. +Yet after all it hadn't, quite. There was more to come. + +A little veiled woman had opened the gate at the sound of the +motor-horn, evidently expecting Miss Odell. And the same little woman +shut us out when the new sister had gone in. I noticed her +particularly, because she shrank from our eyes, though her face was +covered with the conventional mist of gauze. And it seemed that she +was glad to get rid of us. Not rudely, but with eagerness, she pushed +the gate to; and as she did so I noticed her hand. The left hand it +was--small, daintily shaped, with delicate, tapering fingers; but the +third finger was missing. + + +Teano was not in my rooms when I arrived once more at my hotel; but +opening the door of 212 I found him at the telephone. So absorbed was +he that he did not hear me enter, and I stood still in order not to +disturb him. I supposed that he had called up the Agency, and was +talking of my business. + +"If I could get out of the job, I would," he almost groaned. "But +they'd put another man on, and that would be worse for Jenny. Everyone +heard of 'Three-Fingered Jenny' at the time of the gang's getaway. The +only thing I can do is to keep her out of the business at any cost, and +go along on other lines. I'll call you up again, Nella, if I get +anything on my _own_, about Jenny." + +"Who, pray, are Nella and Jenny, Mr. Teano?" I asked, realising that he +meant to play me false. + +He jumped as if I had shot him, and dropped the receiver. "I--thought +I'd locked the door," he stammered. + +"It's a good thing you didn't," I said. "I've heard enough to guess +you came on some clue you didn't expect. That's why you forgot to lock +the door, before you called up 'Nella.'" + +"Nella's my sister," Teano blurted out. "She's employed in the +Priscilla Alden, the hotel where only ladies stay. She's the telephone +girl on the thirteenth floor." + +"Thanks for the explanation," I replied with more coolness than I felt. +"As for 'Jenny'--well, before I ask more questions I'll tell you what I +think. 'Jenny' is the woman for whose sake you took up your +profession. You'd lost, and wanted to find her. Now, you have found +her--or rather, her fingerprints--unmistakable, because they happen to +be those of her left hand. Rather than get her into trouble, you'd +sacrifice my interests." + +Teano remained dumb as the impish child, when I finished and waited for +him to speak; so I went on. "I don't want to hurt a woman; yet you see +I know so much I can carry on this case without you. Suppose we work +together? I'll begin by laying my cards on the table. I can save you +the trouble of a search if I choose. I know where 'Jenny' is, and can +take you to her." + +"You--you're bluffing!" Teano stammered. + +"I swear I'm not. Luckily you're a _private_ detective. The police +needn't get an inkling of this case, unless you fail me, and I turn to +them. All I want is to find out who instigated the affair of night +before last. Who carried it out isn't so important to me, though it +may be to you. And by the by, has 'Jenny' any personal interest in a +little boy of four or five who is dumb?" + +"My God!" broke out the detective. + +"Don't you think I can be as useful to you as you can to me?" I +insinuated. "Why not be frank about 'Jenny'? I promise to hold every +word in confidence. Hang up that receiver. You'd better sit down or +you'll fall! Now, let's have this out." + +The man was at my mercy; yet I knew he was no traitor. "Probably," I +reflected, "I'd have done the same in his place." + +We sat facing each other, across the bare little table; and Teano began +the story of Jenny. There was drama in it, and tragedy, though as yet +the story had no end. The sad music was broken; but I began to see, as +he went on, that he and I might find a way of ending it, on a different +key. + +Paul Teano and his sister had come to relatives in New York when he was +nineteen and she twelve. That was ten years ago. Paul was now a +naturalised American citizen, but at the time of the Italian war in +Tripoli he hadn't taken out his papers. There had been other things to +think of--such as falling in love. In those days Paul was a budding +newspaper reporter. He had gone to "get" a fire, and incidentally had +saved a girl's life. Her name was Jenny Trent. It was a case of love +at first sight with both. The mother took lodgers, and Teano became +one. In a fortnight, Jenny and he were engaged in spite of a rival +with money and "position"--that of a bank clerk. + +Mrs. Trent wanted Jenny to marry Richard Mayne, and Jenny had vaguely +entertained the idea before she met Teano. There was something +mysterious and different from the men she had known, about Mayne, which +piqued her interest. But the mystery ceased to attract her after the +Italian's appearance. Teano, afraid of Mrs. Trent's weakness for +Mayne--or his presents, would have married Jenny at once, and trusted +to luck for a living; but the girl's mother fell ill, and while Jenny +was nursing her, Italy's war broke out. Paul was called to the +colours, and sailed for "home" with thousands of other reservists. It +was hard luck, and harder still to be wounded and taken prisoner in his +first battle. Teano's adventures with his Arab captors would make a +separate story, as exciting as Slatin's though not so long, for he +suffered only a year and six months' imprisonment. At the end of that +time he escaped, made his way to Sicily, and thence back to America as +stoker in an Italian ship. His first thought was to see Jenny; but at +Mrs. Trent's he found himself taken for a ghost. The report had come +that he was dead; and Mrs. Trent had "thought it best" for Jenny to +accept Dick Mayne. "For Heaven's sake, keep away," pleaded her mother. +"She's not happy with Dick. There was trouble at the bank, and he lost +his job. Jenny's wretched. But she's got a baby boy to live for--a +poor little thing, born dumb. The sight of you will make things +harder." + +Perhaps Teano might have had strength to remain in the background if an +old fellow-lodger had not whispered what "people were saying about Dick +Mayne." It was asserted that for years he had led a "double life." +Nothing had been actually proved against him, except, that he was a +dope fiend. But gossip had it that he was a dope-seller as well, a +receiver of stolen goods, and a friend of thieves and gunmen. There +was likely to be an awful "bust-up" and then--Heaven help Jenny! + +Naturally Teano went to the address given him--that of a tenement house +a long way east of Fifth Avenue. There, Fate stage-managed him into +the midst of a scene destined to change the course of two lives and put +an end to one. His knock was unanswered; but something was happening +in the kitchen of the wretched flat. The door was not locked; it had +been forgotten. Teano burst in, to find Jenny fighting for her life +with a madman. Mayne had snatched a bread-knife from the table, and +Jenny's hand dripped blood. Without a word Teano sprang to her +defence; but Mayne slipped out of his grasp. Darting to an adjoining +room, he rushed back with a Colt revolver. To save Teano, Jenny flung +herself between the two men; but Paul caught and put her behind him, +leaping on Mayne with a spring of a tiger. Then came a life and death +tussle. The revolver went off as both fought to get it, and Mayne +fell, shot through the heart. + +"You'd have thought things couldn't have been worse with us than they +were," the detective groaned. "But you'd have thought wrong. We were +up against it, Jenny and me. If I stayed and gave evidence, she was +afraid of a scandal. If I made a getaway, she argued, she would be all +right, on a plea of self-defence; because it was known by the +neighbours what her husband was. I thought the same myself; and she +persuaded me for her sake to disappear. That was the mistake of my +life. What happened after I went, I don't know. I can only guess. +But something caused Jenny to change her mind. I got off without being +seen, and lay low to watch the papers. But if you believe me, for +three days there was nothing! Then came out a paragraph about Mayne's +body being discovered by some friend, who pounded in vain on the door, +and at last broke it in, to find the man dead. Doctors testified that +he'd been a corpse for forty-eight hours. The revolver lay beside him. +The verdict was suicide. He was known for his habits, you see; and +just by pulling the catch down, Jenny could get out, leaving the door +locked on the _inside_. Folks thought she'd deserted him--and that and +other troubles, brought on by himself, had preyed upon his mind. She +and I hadn't been cool enough to plan a stunt like that, in the minutes +before she forced me out of the place. But _somebody'd_ helped her; +and things that happened later put me on to guessing who. + +"Never a word or a line has Jenny sent me from that day to this. Do +you know why? Because a pack of thieves got hold of her and the child. +One of Mayne's secret pals must have come along and offered to save her +and the boy. I don't believe she knew what she was letting herself in +for, till she was in. But--well, a girl called 'Three-Fingered Jenny' +travelled with a gang of international thieves last year in France, and +I bounced over there like a bomb when I heard. You see, when I found +her struggling with Mayne, he'd been trying to cut off her finger, +because she _would_ stick to an old ring of mine; refused to give it +up. She'd just time to tell me that and show me what he'd done. I saw +the poor finger would have to come off. My poor little Jenny! She'd +loved her pretty hands! The European war broke out just as I was +getting on her track--or thought I was--and I lost her again. I'd +stake my life she never stole a red cent's worth. But they may have +forced her to act as a decoy--using the child to bring her up to time. +I've always felt the gang's game would be to train the boy for a dip. +It was a frame-up on Jenny from the first. Why, the little chap would +do star turns, and never spill. He's dumb. Made for the job. I've +seen babies in the business, sharp as traps! Now you see, my lord, +what a knockout I had, finding those finger-marks on the +window-sill:--three, of a small left hand, the third finger missing; +and traces that a child had been let out of the window by a rope. The +footprints are below in the court. 'Jenny and her boy,' I said to +myself. I've prayed God I might find them; but it's the devil has sent +them to me at last." + +"I'm not so sure of that," I said, and told Teano where and how I had +seen a slender little woman with big, scared eyes and a left hand with +its third finger missing. + +When I had explained my rapidly developed theory, we discussed the +means of proving it. We might as well batter at the gates of Paradise +as those of the Grey Sisterhood. We would be turned away, as with a +flaming sword. Trust the Head Sister for that! But we were not at the +end of our resources. + + +That evening towards dusk, two ruddy-faced coastguards left a somewhat +dilapidated car in charge of a local youth. They walked for a short +distance, where a group of pines on a promontory had suggested the name +"Pine Cliff." They rang a gate bell, although aware that tradesmen +were the only males of the human species allowed to cross the +threshold. When their summons remained unanswered, they tugged again +with violence, until a _grille_ opened like a shutter. "Who is there?" +questioned a timid voice. + +The elder of the coastguards, seeing his companion start at the sound +of her voice, answered, to give his comrade breathing space. They had +come, he announced, by order, to search the garden for a suspected +hiding hole of smuggled opium. Not that the Sisterhood was implicated! +This was an old place, and had been used by dope smugglers. The coast +police had received the "tip" that this had happened again. + +The veiled eyes behind the _grille_ vanished; and a moment later +another voice took up the argument. As Teano had recognised Jenny's +voice, I knew the Head Sister's. The idea was _absurd_, said the +latter. We could not be admitted. I stepped aside, not trusting my +disguise, and Teano held out a folded document to which we had given an +official semblance. + +"I don't want to make trouble for you, ladies, but----" he hinted. The +paper and a glimpse of a red seal said the rest. Bolts slid back +indignantly, and the gate was flung open. I beheld the Head Sister, +tall and formidable. Behind her I glimpsed a group of other forms less +imposing, among them Maida, flowers in her hands, and surrounded with +children. As for Teano, no doubt he saw only the shy figure retiring +from the gate. + +"This is preposterous!" exclaimed the Head Sister. "But search the +garden if you must. You will find _nothing_." She moved away to join +her satellites, motioning to the door-keeper that the gate might be +closed. Before the gesture could be obeyed, however, Teano put himself +between the tall woman and the little one. + +"Beg pardon, madam. I admit we've got in on false pretences," he said +sharply; "but we're detectives sent to arrest Three-Fingered Jenny, and +here's our warrant." + +He flourished the faked document. Before the mistress of infinite +resource had time to collect her forces--we had swept Jenny outside the +gate, and slammed it. We raced with her to Teano's waiting car, +and--cruel to be kind--stopped to explain nothing till Pine Cliff was +more than a mile away. + +I took the wheel and gave Paul a place by Jenny. I heard him plead, +"Don't you _know_ me, Jen?" But not once did I turn my head until +Teano spoke my name. + +"She's my Jenny," he said, "and she _cares_, but she doesn't _want_ to +be rescued! It's a question of her boy. She won't give him up." + +"Quite right," I agreed. "Why should she give him up? Has she left +him in the Sisterhood House?" + +"No, he's lost," Jenny answered. "I don't know where he is--since this +morning. But the House has been our home for weeks. The Head Sister +took us in, and promised to save Nicky from bad people and bad ways. +He'll go back there, and----" + +"But where is he now?" I cut in, having slowed down the car. "Can't we +head him off? The child has money, I know. Where would he go and +spend his earnings?" + +"I--can't tell," she stammered. "He's always wanted me to take him to +Coney Island--to some amusement park. But----" + +"To Coney Island we'll go," I exclaimed. + + * * * * * + +What followed was a wild adventure. I had never been to Coney Island. +But I seemed to have been born knowing that it was a place dedicated to +the people's pleasure. No doubt it was a toss-up which amusement +ground to choose. By hazard, we began with Constellation Park; and +almost at once came upon traces of Nicky. "A little dumb boy with +black eyes, all alone, with plenty of money, and a grin when asked if +he were lost?" Oh, yes, he was doing every stunt. We tracked him +through peanuts and ice cream, lions' dens and upside-down houses, to +the Maze of Mystery. + +The name was no misnomer. Hampton Court, and the Labyrinth of Crete +itself could have "nothing on it." In a bewildered procession Teano, +Jenny and I wandered through streets of mirrors, complicated groves, +walled concentric alley ways, with unexpected and disappointing outlets +until at last a pair of elf-eyes stared at me from a distant and +unreachable surface of glass. I cried out; so did Jenny and Teano, for +all of us had had the same glimpse and quickly lost it. + +"_Nicky_," gasped Jenny, just behind my back. "And, oh, _Red Joe's got +hold of him_! It's all up--if we can't get between them. It's Red Joe +I stole him back from when we went into the Sisterhood." + +I looked back to console her--and she was gone. Teano, too, had +suddenly separated from us, whether accidentally or for a purpose, I +could not tell. But the maze would have put any rabbit warren to +shame. When you thought you were in one place, you found to your +astonishment that you were in another, with no visible way of getting +out. + +Then again, eyes looked at me from a mirror which might be far off or +within ten yards. There were mirrors within mirrors, dazzling and +endless vistas of mirrors. Child's eyes, mischievous as a squirrel's, +met mine, peering from between crowding forms of grown-ups. The man +Jenny had spoken of as "Red Joe" (I picked him out by a ferret face and +rust-red hair) was trying to push past a fat father of a family, to +reach the child in grey. Whether Nicky knew that he was a pawn in a +game of chess, who could tell? There was but one thing certain. He +was having "the time of his life." + +"If I could get him for Jenny, what would Jenny do for me in return?" I +asked myself. It might turn out that she could unlock the door that +had shut between me and Maida Odell. + +A desperate, a selfish desire to beat Red Joe, seized me; but now the +mirrors told, if they did not deceive, that glassy depths of distance +between us were increasing in space and mystery. Suddenly I reached a +turning-point. Nicky was straight ahead. He paused, looked, made +ready to dart away like a trout from the hook. But--inspiration ran +with my blood. + +I pulled a wad of greenbacks from my pocket and smiled. Red Joe had +flattened pater familias unmercifully, and was squeezing past. A hand, +a thief's hand if I ever saw one, caught at Nicky's collar. But he +dipped from under, slipped between a surprised German's legs, and--I +grabbed him in my arms. + + + + +EPISODE III + +THE GIRL ON THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR + +When Teano first spoke to me of his sister, nothing was further from my +thoughts than a meeting with the telephone girl at the Priscilla Alden, +a hotel sacred to ladies. But unexpected things happen in the best +regulated lives, especially in New York, as anyone may learn by the +Sunday papers. Not many days after the gate of the Sisterhood House +shut for the second time between Maida and me, I changed my residence +from New York to a hotel about five miles from Pine Cliff. Roger Odell +and Roger's bride had gone to South America on one of those business +trips which financiers seem to take as nonchalantly as we cross a +street. His last words to me were: "You know, I rely on you to look +after Maida, as well as she can be looked after, under that brute of a +woman's thumb." + +I did the best I could; but whether my wounds or my love sickness were +to blame, the fact was that something had made me a bundle of raw +nerves. + +I slept badly, and my dreams were of some hideous thing happening to +Maida; or else of the mummy-case being stolen. In my waking hours I +chased back and forth between town and country, trying to find in New +York the "Egyptian-looking man" who had disturbed Maida's peace of +mind, and who had reasons for wishing me to forget the number of his +automobile: trying to make sure on Long Island if a connection existed +between this man and the head of the Sisterhood. + +At last I realised that I was in no fit state of nerves for a guardian. +The hotel people recommended me to a celebrated doctor practising on +Long Island; and one morning, ashamed of myself as a "molly-coddle," I +went to keep an appointment with him. Thorne was his name and he lived +in a grey-shingled house set back from the road behind a small lawn. +The place was outside the village; but since abandoning my crutch, I +had begun to take as much exercise as possible. I walked, therefore, +to the doctor's, rather than use the car presented to me by Roger. +This seems a small detail to note, but deductions following certain +events proved it to have been important. + +I was received by the keen-eyed Thorne, in his private office, and +during the catechism to which he subjected me, I thought nothing of +what went on in the outer room through which I had passed. I should +ill have earned Roger Odell's nickname ("the gilded amateur +detective"), however, if I hadn't ferreted it out afterwards and "put +two and two together." + +It was an ordinary room, with a desk at which sat a young woman who +answered the door and kept the doctor's appointments classified. I was +vaguely aware that I had interrupted her business of stamping letters, +which a boy would post. She had not finished when a few minutes later +the next patient arrived. This person gave his name as Mr. Genardius, +and confessed that he had no appointment; but his face--covered with +bandages--presented such a pitiful appearance that the girl agreed to +let him wait. "When the gentleman who's in the office now goes away," +she explained, "the doctor's hour for receiving is over. But he may +give you a few minutes." + +"Isn't the gentleman an English officer, Lord John Hasle?" inquired the +would-be patient, whose face as seen under a wide-brimmed, +old-fashioned felt hat, and between linen wrappings, consisted of +deep-set black eyes, wide nostrils, and a long-lipped mouth. + +"Why, yes, he is," admitted the young woman, to whom I had given my +name. "Do you know him?" + +"Not at all," replied Mr. Genardius, who appeared to her a rather +unusual figure in his quaint hat and an equally quaint overcoat. "But +as I got out of my automobile I saw him at the gate. I recognised him +from portraits in newspapers. He was an army aviator, I believe, who +got leave on account of wounds, and came over to see a play produced." + +"Oh, yes, _The Key_--a _lovely_ detective play," was the flattering +reply, as reported to me later. + +As she spoke, the young woman (Miss Murphy) gave the letters to the +boy, who went out, needing no directions. Hardly had the door shut, +when Mr. Genardius rose. "Oh, that reminds me!" he exclaimed, "I +should have wired to a friend! The doctor is sure to be engaged for +some moments. I'll step out and send my chauffeur with the telegram." +For an invalid, he walked briskly. The boy hadn't disposed of his +letters and parcels, or mounted the bicycle which leaned against the +fence, when Mr. Genardius reached the gate. Miss Murphy glanced from +the window, interested in the queer personage. She was unable to see +the motor from where she sat; but it must have been near, for the black +felt hat and the black caped coat came flapping up the garden path +again in less than five minutes. The thought flitted through Miss +Murphy's head that the bandages worn by the invalid wouldn't make a bad +disguise. Mr. Genardius returned to his chair, and selected a +newspaper. + +About this time came a telephone call, which Miss Murphy answered. And +though two days had passed before I realised the need of questioning +the young woman, she was able to recall a rustle as of tearing paper at +this moment. Her attention was occupied at the 'phone; but when +Genardius had departed, and she wished to glance at the theatrical +advertisements, she noticed that a page was gone from _The World_. Had +she not remembered the name of the paper, a link would have been +missing from the chain of evidence. As it was, I was able to deduce +that the torn page contained a news item "exclusive to _The World_." +Mr. Genardius had doubtless read some other newspaper at home, and it +had interested him that "Millionaire Roger Odell's Egyptian Present for +His Bride" was likely to reach New York that night on an Italian liner. + +How _The World_ had got hold of this story remains a mystery. It had +leaked out that Roger had bought for a great sum an opal "Eye of +Horus," supposed to be the mate of a curious ornament possessed by his +adopted sister, and the only other jewel resembling it, in existence. +Grace Odell (nee Grace Callender) had admired Maida's fetish. That was +enough for Roger. He made inquiries, and learned from a firm of +jewellers that a duplicate of Miss Odell's opal had been sold years ago +by a certain Sir Anthony Annesley to the Museum of Cairo. + +How it had come into Annesley's hands was not known; and he had long +ago died. Maida had been satisfied with her fetish, and did not covet +its fellow, but Grace's chance word caused Roger to cable an agent in +Egypt, and, after bargaining, the Museum authorities had consented to +part with the treasure. This information the newspapers had obtained, +but the time and the way of the opal's arrival in America had, Roger +thought, been kept a dead secret. + +In order that jewel-thieves, ever on the alert for a prize, should not +stalk the messenger, Roger's agent had engaged the services of a +private person. A relative of his, an American girl who had acted as +stenographer in Naples, was giving up her position to return to New +York. Taking advantage of this fact, and his confidence in her, the +agent had given Miss Mary Gibson charge of the Eye of Horus. Having no +connection with any jewel firm it was believed that she might pass +unsuspected. The curio being thousands of years old, was not subject +to duty, and could, it was hoped, be placed by Miss Gibson directly in +the hands of its owner, before anyone discovered that it had been in +hers. Roger Odell had intended to meet the young woman; but his +suddenly arranged journey upset that plan, and the day before my visit +to Dr. Thorne I had received the following cable: + +"Stenographer will go straight from ship to Priscilla Alden. If ship +late, meet her there early morning after. Will be expecting you." + +Had I not come to an understanding with Roger before he sailed for Rio +Janeiro, this message would have been gibberish. But he had asked me +to take over the jewel because he hoped thus to bring me into touch +with Maida. If I could bestow the opal in Roger's bank, Miss Odell +(whose vows did not bind her to absolute seclusion) might run up to New +York and compare it with her own curio. I had caught eagerly at the +plan. Gladly would I have waited hours on the dock for Miss Gibson, +but fearing I might be suspected as his agent, if thieves were on the +watch, Roger had thought it best for the young woman not to be met. In +order to avoid attention, she was to proceed as if she had been the +insignificant stranger she was supposed to be. She was to inquire on +shipboard for an hotel in New York, taking lady guests only. The +Priscilla Alden would be mentioned, and she would send a wireless, +engaging a room. As clients of the Priscilla Alden were allowed no +male visitors after ten p.m., my call would have to depend upon the +time the ship docked. Even before Roger's cable, I had ascertained +that the _Reina Elenora_ was likely to get in late, and I made up my +mind to spend the night at my own old hotel in New York. That would +enable me to present myself early next day at the Priscilla Alden. + +While I described my nightmare dreams to the doctor (keeping Maida's +name to myself), Miss Murphy left Mr. Genardius for a few moments. A +rich old lady patient drew up at the gate in an automobile and sent her +chauffeur to fetch the young woman. There was a verbal message to be +delivered, and while Miss Murphy committed it to heart, doubtless the +bandaged man listened at the keyhole. He heard enough to realise that +John Hasle was close upon the trail of Miss Odell's enemies. + +Thorne was sympathetic. He talked of nerve-shock in various forms, +from which most returning soldiers suffered. + +As he fumbled among medicine bottles he went on: "I'll prescribe you a +tonic; I keep a few things at hand here, and I can fix you up from my +stock. Some of the ingredients are rare. You couldn't get a +prescription made up nearer than New York. No, by George! there's one +thing missing from my lot! Luckily it's not one of the rare ones. Did +you come in a car? What, you walked? Well, I'll get the boy to sprint +into the village on his bike, to the pharmacy. He can be back inside +fifteen minutes. I'll write to the druggist." + +Thorne touched an electric button. No one came in response. +Impatiently the doctor flung the door open to glare at Miss Murphy. +Miss Murphy was not visible, however, and away dashed the master of the +house, leaving me in his private office to wonder at his absence. This +office being behind the outer room gave no view of the front gate, +therefore I could not see what Thorne saw. It wasn't until he appeared +that I learned why he had bolted. The boy whom he had intended to send +for the missing ingredients had been run down by a motor-car, while +bicycling to the post-office. The chauffeur had, through coincidence, +been despatched by a patient waiting for Thorne. He had taken a corner +too sharply, and knocked the boy off his bicycle, but Joey was more +frightened than hurt. He had been picked up by the chauffeur, a +foreigner, and when Thorne had looked from the window, it had been to +see the lad lifted half conscious from the returning car. At the gate +stood not only Miss Murphy, but the owner of the automobile, who had +hurried out on hearing the young woman's cry. So it was that the +waiting-room had been left empty. + +"Joey's as right as rain now, or will be when he's pulled himself +together," Thorne explained. "My new patient, whoever he is--a +stranger to me--seemed to feel worse than Joey. He gave the kid ten +dollars! It may have been as much the boy's fault as the chauffeur's. +Anyhow, I bet Joey won't complain. Your medicine will be ready as soon +as if nothing had happened, for the owner of the auto (Genardius, his +name is) offered to drive to the druggist's and back." + +It was Miss Murphy who presently handed the doctor a small, neatly +wrapped bottle. "That chauffeur brought me this," she announced. "It +seems that Joey's accident upset the invalid gentleman more than he +realised at first. He was taken faint at the pharmacy, and decided not +to consult you this morning. He'll 'phone, and ask for an appointment." + +Dr. Thorne tore the wrapper off the phial, and began pouring its +colourless contents into a bottle already two-thirds full, which he had +prepared. Suddenly he stopped. "I guess I'll let that do for this +time! Take a tablespoonful when you get home, and twice more during +the day; once just before bed." + +Dr. Thorne inspired me with confidence; and, as I was anxious to keep +my wits for Maida's sake, I intended to follow directions. Arriving at +my hotel, however, I found a cablegram in answer to one I'd sent +Haslemere, in London. I had demanded whence came the scandal which +darkened the life of Maida Odell. Replying, he refused details, but +deigned to admit that his informant was an American, the widow of a +naval officer, of "unimpeachable respectability." That word +"unimpeachable" was so characteristic of Haslemere that I laughed, but +the description answered closely enough to Mrs. Granville to excite me, +and I forgot the medicine. + +Later, I had remembered it once more when Teano called, bringing the +dumb child Nicky, now his adopted son. I set down the bottle and +thought no more about it, for I hoped to learn something of the man who +had frightened Maida. My hope that Nicky might turn informant seemed, +however, doomed to disappointment. It was difficult to elicit facts, +because of his dumbness; but Teano and I agreed that the imp took +advantage of his infirmity to bottle up secrets. "He's in fear of some +threat," pronounced the detective. "It's the same with his mother. +Jenny and I were married the day after you found her. She says she's +happy, and she ought to know I'm able to protect her. But she's afraid +to speak against the Sisterhood. I shouldn't wonder if they've made +her swear some oath." + +We talked long on the subject, and Teano produced a list of Egyptians +living in New York, obtained at my request. Some were rich. The +greater number appeared to be engaged in the import of tobacco and +curios, or Eastern carpets. A few were doctors; more were +fortune-tellers; while one extraordinary creature whose description +caught my fancy was a mixture of both: an exponent of ancient cults and +religions, and a qualified physician who treated nervous ailments with +hypnotism. This man gave weekly lectures on "Egyptian Wisdom applied +to Modern Civilisation," and was known as "Doctor" or "Professor" +Rameses. The name was, of course, assumed; but Teano had learned that +Dr. Rameses was more than respectable; he was estimable. Following his +religion, which claimed that each soul was a spark from the one Living +Fire, he aimed to help all mankind, and was apparently a true +philanthropist. + +When Teano spoke of returning to New York it was time for me to start. +I invited him into my car, and preparing to depart, I came upon the +forgotten medicine. Thorne had prophesied that I would prove a bad +patient; but I tried to atone by swallowing an extra large dose. The +bottle I slipped into my overcoat pocket, intending to take the stuff +again at bedtime. + +"Stop at the Priscilla Alden Hotel," I directed my chauffeur; and it +was only when Teano spoke of "Nella" that I recalled the sister +employed there. I had seen Nella's photograph at Paul's rooms, taken +with her fiancé, Maurice Morosini, and had pleased Teano with praise of +the girl's beauty. Morosini, too, was of an interesting type. I was +sorry to hear from the detective that he had been ordered to join the +colours, and would sail at dawn for Naples. + +"The worst thing is," Teano went on, as we sped toward New York, "that +those two can't even bid each other good-bye. Anywhere but at the +Priscilla Alden, Morosini might walk into the hotel, take the elevator +and go to her floor for a word." + +As Teano talked a pain behind my eyes began to run through my temples, +and into the back of my neck to the spine. + +Something queer was the matter. I was conscious that Teano was asking +alarmed questions, and that Nickey was staring. I was thankful that we +had got to New York before the attack overwhelmed me, for I must leave +the letter at the Priscilla Alden. As the motor slowed down in front +of the hotel I remember pushing Teano aside and stumbling out of the +car, the letter in my hand. I wasn't even aware of dropping the +envelope addressed to Miss Gibson. Only Nickey, peering from the +depths of the car, saw the fall, and would have darted to retrieve it, +had not a man grabbed the letter as it touched the pavement. Teano was +occupied with me, and so it seems was Maurice Morosini, who had been +wandering up and down before the hotel, in the hope that Nella might +come out. He sprang to help Paul, and there was no one for Nickey to +tell, in his queer way, by gestures and rough sketches on a slate, what +had happened. Afterward the detective did learn in this fashion that +the man who picked up the letter was a chauffeur from a car following +us, which had stopped when we stopped. But then it was too late for +the knowledge to be useful. + +Despite protests from the doorman, Teano and Morosini half carried, +half dragged me into the hotel. Once inside, they suggested that it +would be inhuman not to give me shelter; they made great play with my +name and title, and threatened reprisals if I should be turned out. + +"I suppose under the circumstances we'll have to give his lordship a +room and get a doctor in," groaned the manager. "But it's against +rules. However, we'll smuggle Lord John up to the thirteenth floor, +where there's a small room vacant." + +It's an ill wind that blows nobody good, and Morosini must have praised +the saints for my illness when he found it giving him the chance he +would have bought with half a year of life. He was going to the +thirteenth floor of the sacred Priscilla Alden; and on that floor was +Nella Teano! + +One glance he threw at Paul across my head, as the two helped me out of +the lift, and then his heart bounded with great joy, for close by was +the telephone window. + +"The only room disengaged to-night is farther down the corridor," the +manager explained. "I wish we could spare this one just opposite, but +there's a lady coming into it later," and he threw a regretful glance +at a door barred by a chambermaid, her arms full of linen and towels. +She had been getting ready Number 1313 for its next occupant, but in +her surprise dropped a wad of sheets and pillow-cases. Stooping to +pick them up, a sharp word from the manager sent her flying; and +Morosini noticed that she had forgotten to take her pass-key from the +lock. + +I had revived enough to walk mechanically, like a man in a dream, +without support, so Morosini left me to the guidance of Teano and the +manager, and ran back to the lighted window which framed his adored +one. She sprang to her feet as Morosini held out his arms. + +"Oh, Maurice!" she gasped. + +"Give me a kiss to take with me--perhaps to my death," he implored. +The girl gave it, leaning over the narrow edge of her window. Nella +Teano would have dared anything rather than refuse what might be a last +request; yet the danger was great, and she started at sound of the +lift. "What _shall_ we do?" she gasped. "You mustn't be seen----" + +But Morosini did not await the end of her sentence. For the girl's +sake he must hide. Besides, he hoped to snatch another moment when the +coast should be clear. With a bound he crossed the corridor, opened +the door of 1313, and shut himself in. Meanwhile the manager, +telephoning to the office from my room, had learned that the doctor he +wished to get was in the hotel, just leaving a patient. Out hurried +the manager to meet the doctor at the lift and discuss the case before +returning to my room. That room, as fate would have it, happened to be +on the other side of a narrow court, opposite 1313, the windows facing +each other. + +Poor Morosini had thought himself blessed by Heaven in his unhoped-for +chance to see Nella. He still thought the same, as he stood inside the +room across from the telephone bureau; but luck had turned. Hardly had +the door closed upon Morosini, when the chambermaid crept back to lock +number 1313, and regained the forgotten pass-key. Nella would +desperately have called the girl, making some excuse, or, if worst came +to worst, even telling her the truth. At that instant, however, the +doctor came from the lift, to station himself in front of the telephone +window. He could see the manager advancing, and so also could the +maid. In fear of meeting this awe-inspiring personage again, she +snatched the key with frenzy and fled, while Nella sat doomed to +silence. + +Morosini's first hint of trouble came with the grating of the key in +the lock. He dared not try the door at the moment, for he could hear +the voice of the manager. What could he do if Nella were unable to +open the door? If there were a ledge or cornice running under the +window, he might attempt to creep along it and find a way of descent by +a fire escape. He had switched on a light, and had seen the window, +covered with a dark blind, when a faint rattle of paper attracted his +eyes to the door. A white envelope was being slipped underneath. +Morosini seized it, and read in Nella's handwriting, "I'll try to get a +pass-key and let you out, but can't tell how or when. Turn off the +electricity. It can be seen through the transom." + +Meanwhile, in my room, while I lay in a half-doze on the bed, the +doctor listened to Teano's story of my sudden seizure. The medicine +bottle was found and produced, and as I had mentioned my visit to +Thorne, the detective could supply some information. The New York +doctor got into communication with the Long Island man over the 'phone, +and thus started the train which enabled us later to make valuable +deductions. The bandaged patient had doubtless tampered with the +bottle in the shelter of his automobile, and remained at the pharmacy +until the return of his chauffeur. The nature of the added ingredient +was discovered eventually by analysis; and had I taken one more of the +doses directed by Dr. Thorne, nothing could have saved my life. As it +was, the effects were temporary; and when some nauseous stuff had been +poured down my throat, increasing the heart action, consciousness of +surroundings came like the waking from a dream. Teano it was who had +run out with the hotel doctor's prescription and returned with it made +up. So great had been his haste that Nella's appeal detained him at +her window only for an instant. He had no time to give help, for my +life might depend on promptness, but he promised aid later. + +As it was, the effect of his treatment satisfied the doctor. He +stopped by my bedside till I crudely invited him to go, and let me +sleep. All I needed to restore me was a night's rest. My presence in +the hotel was not to be talked about, but the manager would look in +from time to time, and call the doctor if needed. I slept fitfully, +glad of the cool air blowing through the open window. Suddenly light +struck my eyelids. I was roused with a start, and sat up in bed. My +impression was that someone had come in and switched on the +electricity. But the room was dark, save for a radiant circle on the +wall at the foot of my bed. From a bright surface of crystal framed in +gold, a woman's face looked out. + +For a dazed second, I thought I had to do with a ghost. I realised +that what I saw was the reflection of a reflection. My narrow bed +stood with its back to the wall beside the window. Opposite the +window, and therefore facing the foot of the bed, was a round mirror in +a gilt frame. A dark blind had suddenly been thrown up, across the +narrow court, and a woman, pausing before the glass in her room, sent +into the dusk of mine her image. She was taking off her hat, looking +at herself; and there she was fantastically, at the foot of my bed, for +me to look at too. The effect was so extraordinary that it held me +fascinated, until another woman came into the room. + +When Maurice Morosini heard the sound of a key in the lock, it was +music to his ears. He believed that at last (hours had gone) Nella +found herself able to open his prison. But another second undeceived +him. A voice was saying, "One moment, madam. Let me find the electric +switch before you go in." + +All the young man's blood seemed to flow back upon his heart. The +thought in his mind was, that Nella would suffer disgrace. While a +hand groped for the switch he flung himself on the floor, and crept +under the bed. + +"My moment will come," he reflected, "when the woman falls asleep. +Then I can let myself out." + +But the occupant for whom 1313 had been reserved was in no hurry for +sleep. Morosini heard her moving about, and ventured to peep. He saw +a small woman, young and rather pretty, of what might be classified as +the "governess type." She did not undress, but seemed restless. +Fussing round the room, she shot up the green blind and opened the +window. Then she flew to the door. There had been a faint knock. +Maurice peered from his hiding-place, and saw another woman come in. +She, too, was plainly dressed, but older and with a harder, more +experienced face. + +"What _can_ Nella be doing?" the trapped prisoner wondered. If she +were still at the telephone bureau she must know that 1313 now had an +occupant. Poor girl! Her misery must be equal to his. + +Nella did know. She had seen the young woman go in. When no alarm +followed, however, the girl's stopped heart beat again. But the +situation had become impossible. She seized the first chance to call +Teano. "It's too late for you to help, even if you could get in +again," she whispered into the telephone, fearing to be overheard by +some one passing. "A lady has gone into 1313 for the night. And I'm +supposed to shut my window and go off duty in half an hour. Here comes +Shannon, the night watchman, now." + +As she spoke, a woman knocked at the door of 1313. Nella listened; +soon she could hear voices speaking earnestly. Then they grew loud and +shrill. "The women are quarrelling!" she thought. "Can it have +anything to do with Maurice?" The transom snapped shut as she asked +herself the question. The speakers were afraid of being overheard. +That, at least, proved they believed themselves alone together! + +"Well, here I am. I've given you time enough to make up your mind, +haven't I, Miss Gibson?" began the new-comer. + +"Yes, and I have made it up," answered the younger. "I don't say +you're not acting in good faith. The note you brought to the dock +looks like Mr. Odell's handwriting. And it's just as you said it would +be. I found no letter of instructions waiting here. All the same, +Miss Parsons, I won't give up the jewel till morning, when I've made +sure the person I expected is not going to call." + +"You _are_ silly!" cried the other. "Now, how _could_ I have known +there _was_ a jewel coming with a Miss Gibson on this ship, if I wasn't +all right?" + +"That's true," the younger woman admitted. "I don't see how you could +have known except from Mr. Odell. But I'm not taking chances! If +nobody else shows up before nine to-morrow morning, why then----" + +"I have to go west to-morrow morning," explained Miss Parsons, her +voice quivering with impatience. "I can't wait. I told you so on the +dock. You _must_ give me the thing now." + +"I won't--so there!" shrilled Miss Gibson. + +The older woman stared at the obstinate young face in desperate +silence. Then she broke out fiercely, all effort at suppression over. +"I believe you want me to _bribe_ you!" And she pulled from a velvet +handbag a roll of bank-notes. + +Mary Gibson drew in her breath with a gasp. "_Why_--you've got +hundreds and hundreds of dollars! I believe you're a _fraud_! You're +after me to steal the jewel. Get out of this room, you thief, or I'll +call----" + +The sentence broke off with a queer gurgle. The woman who called +herself Miss Parsons had snatched a long hatpin from the other girl's +hat on the table, and stabbed Mary Gibson through the heart. She fell +without a cry. + +This was the tragedy mirrored on my wall at the foot of my bed. I saw +the fall. I saw the murderess stoop; I saw her rise with something in +her hand--something that gleamed green and blue, like a wonderful +butterfly's wing. As I stumbled out of bed and groped for the +dressing-gown which Teano had unpacked, I saw the woman tiptoe towards +the door. Then a man's face came into the picture. + +The murderess turned and saw the face also. But instead of trying to +escape, she did a wiser thing. Wide open she flung the door and +screamed at the top of her lungs, "Help! Murder! A burglar has killed +my friend!" + +The big night watchman, who had paused on his round for a chat with +Nella, seized Morosini as the Italian sprang on the woman at the +threshold. + +"Maurice!" shrieked Nella, betraying her secret, yet caring not at all. +Her one thought was of the man she loved. "He's innocent. He came to +see _me_, not to steal, or murder." + +Morosini realised quickly how the case stood. He was lost if he could +not get free, he thought. And so it might have been, if that lighted +picture had not appeared on the wall at the crucial instant. I came +tottering around the corner in time to shout: + +"Don't let that woman go: she committed the murder. I saw it. I've +enough evidence to convict her, and the jewel she did it for is in her +hand now." + +Miss Parsons stared at me like a mad creature, flung from her the Eye +of Horus, and rushing back into the room of death, was out of the +window before we could reach her. + +Never before had the Priscilla Alden been smirched by scandal. The +managers were in despair. But the suicide from a window on the +thirteenth floor, and the story of my vision in the room opposite, +combined with the romance of Nella and Morosini, attracted new clients +instead of driving away the old. + +"Miss Parsons," identified in death, proved to be an ex-convict, who +had mysteriously disappeared from the ken of the police months before. +Thanks, however, to that page of _The World_, missing from Dr. Thorne's +office, her tragedy in an attempt to steal the Egyptian Eye of Horus +carried me one step further on my own quest. + + + + +EPISODE IV + +THE DEATH TRYST + +For me, one of the strangest things in a strange world is this: the +compelling influence exerted upon our lives by people apparently +irrelevant, yet without whom the pattern of our destiny would be +different. + +Take the case of Anne Garth and her connection with Maida +Odell--through Maida Odell, with me. Of my adventures in America while +attempting to protect Maida, that in which Anne Garth played her part +was among the most curious. + +It happened while Paul Teano, the private detective, and I were trying +our hardest to bring "Doctor Rameses" to book. We were morally certain +that he was the Egyptian who had, for a mysterious reason of his own, +persecuted the girl's family, and followed her (as its last surviving +member) from Europe to New York. Unfortunately, however, a moral +certainty and a certainty which can be proved are as far from one +another as the poles. We might believe if we liked that "Doctor +Rameses," controlling the Grey Sisterhood, intended evil to the girl +who had been induced to join it: but it was "up to us" to prove the +connection. So far as the police could learn, Doctor Rameses was as +philanthropic as wise. If, as we suggested, his was the spirit guiding +more than one criminal organisation in New York, he was the cleverest +man at proving an alibi ever known to the force. If we reported his +presence in a certain place at a certain time, he was invariably able +to show that he had been somewhere else, engaged in innocent if not +useful pursuits. As for Maida, her confidence in the veiled woman at +the head of the Sisterhood was apparently unbroken. Judging from the +little I could find out, she was irritatingly happy in her work among +rescued women and children, at the lonely old house on Long Island. No +doubt there were genuine cases cared for, which made it hard to prove +anything crooked, especially to a girl so high-minded. + +She had promised to remain for a year, and I had met her too late to +change that determination. The rules of the House did not permit the +sisters (of whom there were only six) to receive the visits of men, and +though now and then I contrived to snatch a glimpse of Maida, seldom or +never since our real parting had I had word from her except by letter. +How could I be sure the letters were genuine? + +While I was in the state of mind engendered by these difficulties, +Teano rushed in one morning to say that he was off to Sing Sing. +"There may be something for us," he said, and asked me to go with him. +It seemed that the Head Sister had departed at dawn in her automobile +from the Sisterhood House (Teano had someone always watching the place +night and day, in these times), and "putting two and two together" he +deduced that she might be en route for the prison. He had learned that +a notorious woman criminal was coming out that day, after serving a +heavy sentence. She had been a member of an international band of +thieves; and if the head of the Grey Sisterhood intended to meet her, +it could hardly be a case of "rescue." + +"I know a 'con. man' whose time is up," Teano went on, "and I shall +make an excuse of meeting him if I see the lady's head turned my way. +The same excuse would do for you, my lord. 'Twon't matter putting the +woman on her guard, for if she's going to meet Diamond Doll, they'll +have met before we give 'em the chance to spot us and we'll know what +we want to know." + +I was keen on the expedition, and offered my car for it. We overtook +the Head Sister, and our hearts bounded with hope: but, though we were +able to follow in her wake all the way, our hopes were dashed by +finding that she had come to "rescue" a person of a different class +from buxom "Diamond Doll." The latter was met at the moment of release +by a virtuous looking mother; and the tall grey form of the Head Sister +advanced toward a small, shabby young woman who might have been a +teacher in a Sunday-school. + +The latter, unless she were a good actress, could hardly have feigned +the start of astonishment with which she received the veiled lady's +greeting. She had been glancing about as if she expected someone but +that one was not the head of the Grey Sisterhood. She listened with +reserve for a moment, then brightened visibly. She had rather a tragic +face, as if she were born for suffering, and could not escape. +Evidently, so far, she had not escaped; but she was young, not more +than twenty-eight. Her oval face was pale with prison paleness, and +there were shadows under the deep-set grey eyes which held no light of +hope. + +Why should the Head Sister single this girl out? If her object were +charitable, there were other women being released who needed +encouragement; yet it was to this one alone that help was offered. + +As the veiled lady explained herself with the dignity of manner which +had won Maida Odell's admiration, a young man joined the two, with an +apologetic air. He had to be introduced to the Head Sister, and as he +pulled off his cap I recognised a vague likeness between him and the +girl. + +His decent, ready-made clothes were of the country, and proclaimed +themselves "Sunday best." His sunburnt complexion was of the country, +and his shy, yet frank manners were of the country too. + +The new-comer was out of breath, and apparently had hurried to make up +time lost. He kissed the girl; and presently, without seeming to +notice us, the Head Sister walked away with the two. She was +favourably known to the prison authorities for her "kindness" in +finding work for discharged women prisoners, and for her offers of +shelter in the Sisterhood House till work could be found. If we had +attempted to give warning against her, we should have been laughed at +for our pains, and there was nothing we could do but play watchdog. + +This we did, making ourselves inconspicuous, but not resorting to the +pretext Teano had suggested. We let the "con. man" go off to face the +world without a salutation, and devoted our attention to the friends of +the Head Sister. It was only the girl who went with her in the closed +automobile. The man bade them good-bye, but not with an air of sorrow. +He looked grave as he set off for Ossining station, but satisfied +rather than sad. Plainly it pleased him to think that the young woman +had a powerful protector. + +"Well?" I asked, when Teano and I had let the strapping figure stride +out of sight: for the detective had been trying to unearth some memory +of the girl's features. "Have you got her dug up?" + +"Yes, milord," said the Italian, grinning at my way of putting it. +"She'll be no use to the grey dame in any shady job. They say I have +'camera eyes.' When I see a face--or even a photograph--I don't +forget. Anne Garth is the girl's name. She was not bad at heart." + +"She doesn't look it," I said. "She'd be beautiful if she were +fattened up and happy." + +On our way back to Long Island Teano told me Anne Garth's story. She +was a country girl, ambitious to become a nurse. Somehow she had +worked her way up with credit in a New York hospital. There she had +fallen in love with one of the younger doctors; and when his engagement +to another woman was announced, she had waited for him outside the +hospital one day, and shot him. The wound was not serious, but Anne +Garth had spent two years in Sing Sing to pay for the luxury of +inflicting it. + +"Doran the doctor's name was," Teano remembered. "Not much doubt he +flirted with the girl and made her believe he would marry her. She +might have got off with a lighter sentence, but she wouldn't show +regret. The jury thought her hard. She doesn't look hard to me, +though! I expect the fellow we saw was the brother--her only relative, +I recall the papers saying. Let me think! Didn't he have some job in +the mountains? Something queer--something not usual! I can't bring it +to mind. But it doesn't matter." + +"I suppose not," I agreed. "Did Doran marry the other girl?" + +Teano shook his head. "No," he said. "After what happened, she was +afraid to trust him, or else--but there's no use guessing!" + +I agreed again. Neither was there much use in "guessing" the Head +Sister's object in taking Anne Garth into the Sisterhood House; but +there might be more use in trying to find out. During the weeks that +followed I did try, with Teano's help, but succeeded only in learning +that Miss Garth was employed as a nurse. She was seen in the garden by +Teano's watchers, wearing a nurse's dress, but she did not appear +outside the gates. + +A month later, I happened to hear talk of a fancy dress ball in honour +of an Egyptian prince visiting America. He was a relative of the +ex-Khedive, and being a handsome man with romantic eyes, was being made +much of by more than one hostess. The ball was to be given by Mrs. +Gorst, a rich "climber," a lady who was, I heard from Teano, one of the +hypnotist Rameses' devoted patients. She lived in the fashionable new +Dominion Hotel, where the ball would take place. Her guests would +dance, newspapers announced, in the "magnificent Arabian room, so +congenial in its Eastern decorations to the taste of the principal +guest, Prince Murad Ali." + +It occurred to me that Dr. Rameses was certain to be one of these +guests. I did not know Mrs. Gorst, but I knew some of her friends, and +to get an invitation was "easy as falling off a log." As it was only a +fancy dress affair, and no masks were to be worn, if Rameses were +present I ought to recognise him. I hoped to make sure whether he was +or was not the man with the scar, who had frightened Maida Odell at the +theatre on the night when I met, fell in love, and--lost her. Since +that night I had discovered Doctor Rameses' existence and had seen him +more than once, but without the clue of the scar it was impossible to +identify a man seen for a few seconds only. If Rameses' throat bore +the mark, there could no longer be room for doubt, and I determined to +lay hands on him if necessary. + +How I was to manage this, I didn't see: but that was a detail. I +secured the card, and 'phoned to my old hotel in New York for a room. +If I had dined there, everything that followed would have been +different, but I went with the man who had got me invited (a friend of +Odell's) to dine at his club. There I stopped till it was time to go +back and rig myself up as a Knight Templar: and taking my key from one +of the clerks I was told that a young lady had called. + +"A young lady?" I echoed. My thoughts created a white and gold vision +of Maida, but the clerk's next words broke it like a bubble. + +"She was dressed as a nurse," he explained. "She wouldn't give her +name; said you'd not know it--but she mentioned that she'd called first +at your Long Island hotel. When she told them there that her errand +was urgent they consented to give this address." + +"The errand was urgent!" I felt my blood leap. After all, the vision +might not have been so far-fetched. What if this woman were the nurse +from Sisterhood House--Anne Garth, whom I had seen come out of +prison--Anne Garth with a message for me from Maida? + +"What did you tell her?" I asked. + +"Well," the clerk hedged, "she seemed anxious to know where she could +find you--insisted it was a matter of life and death, so I suggested +you might be at Mrs. Gorst's ball for that Egyptian Prince." + +My first impulse was of anger. The man was a fool, not to have known +that I must come back to dress! But in a flash I realised that if he +hadn't known, it was my fault. I had left no word when I went out at a +quarter to eight. + +"I may see or hear from her later," I said, holding out a hand for my +key. With it, the clerk gave me an envelope--one of the hotel +envelopes, sealed and containing a thing which felt like a small +account book. It was addressed in pencil, evidently in haste. Inside +the flap I caught sight of something else hurriedly pencilled, luckily +discovering it as I tore the envelope, to extract a black-covered +note-book. "I was going to write a letter," I read, "but I fear I'm +watched. This is the best I can do, unless they let me in at the ball." + +There was no signature, not even an initial. + +I went up to my room, and opened the book under the light of a +reading-lamp. Its contents suggested a diary, with a number of +disjointed notes dashed down in pencil (the same handwriting as that +inside the envelope) with many blank spaces. + +"I never hoped for anything like this," were the only words on the +first page, under the vague date, "Wednesday." On the next page was +jotted: "It's like heaven after hell, and _she_ is an angel. I never +saw anyone so beautiful or sweet. Would she be as kind if she _knew_?" + +"This must mean Maida," my heart said. Certainly it could not refer to +the Head Sister! But, after all, how did I _know_ that the "woman +dressed like a nurse" was Anne Garth? So far, I merely surmised. +Eagerly I turned over the leaves. Often the writer spoke of herself, +or of things that had no special meaning for me. Then came a note +which held my eyes. "I've confessed to _her_ the truth. She says I +was more sinned against than sinning. Heaven bless her! She has +confided in me what is making her ill. The poor child suffers! I +never heard of one as sane as she, having illusions. I suppose they +_are_ illusions. She can have no enemies." + +Again, on the next page: "She has told me her history. What a strange +one! She _has_ enemies. But none of them can have got in here? I'm +glad she has a love story. I pray it may have a happier end than mine." + +A few blank leaves, and then: "There's a room with a locked door over +hers. Nobody sleeps in it. I wonder why they keep it locked? I +suppose it's a coincidence. If they wished her harm why should they +send for a nurse to take care of her, when she isn't ill, except for +dreams.... A beautiful thing she said last night. 'I should die of +horror if I didn't make _his_ face come between me and the wicked face. +His love saves me.' I envy her the _saving_ love! Through mine I was +lost. I wish I were allowed to sleep in her room. _She_ wouldn't ask, +because she thought it cowardly, but I did, and was refused. I'm +needed at night for the children's room." + +Further on, after more blanks: "It's against the rules for men to come +here, but I saw a man going upstairs--or a ghost. They say there _are_ +ghosts in this house. A woman told me that the room over my sweet +girl's is haunted. That's why it's locked. I wonder if the man-ghost +was going to it? I wish it hadn't been dark in the hall, so I could +have seen what he was like. He seemed a tall moving shadow." + +Later: "I hope there's nothing wrong with _my_ head! I was going to +the room of our H.S. for orders. I thought the message was for me to +tap at her door at nine o'clock, but before I had time to knock she +came out and met me. She shut the door as she asked what I wanted--the +first time she's spoken sharply! But I caught one glimpse of the room +inside. Opposite the door, there's a picture of the desert by +moonlight, and the Sphinx. It's in a carved black frame, set in the +middle of a bookcase. The frame is part of the bookcase. But as I +looked into the room this time--I didn't mean to look or spy--the +picture of the Sphinx _wasn't there_. It seemed to have opened out +like a door of a cabinet, and behind it was a white space with names +and dates written in red. On top was a sign like an eye, and +underneath I thought I saw the words, 'I watch, I wait.' Then came the +dates. I can't be sure what they were, but I think the first was 1865. +There was a General and a Captain, and a Madeleine or Margaret, all of +the same name, which I _think_ was Annesley. Anyhow, there were three +dates and four names, and opposite the fourth name--that of my +beautiful girl--was a question mark. A black line had been drawn +through the other names as if they were done with, but there was no +line through hers. + +"It's queer how quickly one sees things--all in a flash. I'd only time +to draw in my breath before the door of the room was closed, yet I kept +the impression, as one goes on seeing the sun with one's eyes shut. +Now, _could_ I have imagined the whole thing? I _did_ imagine things +at night in my cell, but I _knew_ they weren't there. They never +seemed as real as this." + +These notes, hastily pencilled, covered several of the blue-lined +pages. There were more blanks; and then, in a shaky hand was written: +"I'm frightened. I caught H.S. dropping something from a tiny bottle +into the glass of milk on the tray I was getting ready to take +upstairs. I'd turned my back to fetch a bunch of violets H.S. had +brought in for me to put with the breakfast. I don't know if she knew +I caught her, but she said she put phosferine for a tonic into the milk +twice a week, and asked if I approved. Perhaps I oughtn't to say I +'_caught_' her. Perhaps it's all right. But if we had a cat in the +house I'd have tried to make it drink the milk. I tasted it, and there +was a faint bitter tang, yet phosferine would give that. I dared not +drink more, because if anything were wrong, and I were ill or died, I +couldn't protect _her_. But I poured out the milk and got fresh, in +another glass, when I was sure H.S. was back in her study with the door +shut. This can't go on. If anything is wrong, I mayn't be able to +save _her_. And the fear is getting on my nerves. Yet I can't bear to +give the poor child a warning. She has enough to worry about. All day +this horrid thought has been in my head. Was _I_ chosen because if +_she_ died, I could be blamed--a prison bird, with a black heart too +full of evil to be reclaimed by kindness? If my darling girl will give +me the name of the man who loves her and where he is, I'll make some +excuse to get a day off--perhaps to meet my brother Larry--and tell her +lover what has been going on." + +This was the last entry in the book, and it gave me the certainty for +which I groped. The nurse must have come from the Sisterhood House and +from Maida; and--Maida cared for me more than I had made her confess. + +I could hardly wait to get to the ball. My first object in going was +forgotten in anxiety to find Anne Garth, to hear all she'd meant to +tell me when she called, and missed me. It was still important--more +than ever important, perhaps--to identify Dr. Rameses as a conspirator +against Maida; but I could no longer concentrate my thoughts upon him. +My fear was that Anne Garth might not have been admitted, lacking the +card of invitation which every guest was asked to bring. But I judged +that she would not give up easily. If her costume (which she might +make pass as fancy dress) and her determination did not get her into +the ballroom, I believed that she would think of some other plan. + +Though the Dominion Hotel is new, its Arabian room is famous. It might +be called "Aladdin's Cave," so gorgeous are its glimmering gold walls, +and the stage jewels which star the ceiling and the gilded carvings of +its boxes. Even its drapery is of gold tissue, embroidered with +jewelled peacock feathers: its polished floor gleams like gold, +reflecting thousands of golden lights, and its gold-framed +panel-mirrors repeat again and again a golden vision. I was an early +arrival, but there were many before me, because Prince Murad Ali had a +reputation for un-oriental promptness, and lovers of pageants wished to +see his entrance with his suite. If Doctor Rameses were present among +the gorgeous groups scattered like bouquets about the ballroom, my most +searching glances failed to pick him out. I had no intention of giving +up the quest, however; and wishing to be independent I tried to evade +my hostess's offer of pretty partners who "danced like angels." +Unfortunately, as I thought, fortunately as it turned out, the lady +conquered. I evaded a "Fox trot" on the plea that my wounded leg was +too stiff: but I could not refuse to sit out with a countrywoman of +mine, just over from England, who had "come to look on." We had known +each other slightly at home, and I was obliged to sit through a dance +telling Lady Mary Proudfit who people were. + +"At least," I tried to console myself, "if Anne Garth or that brute +Rameses comes along, I can see them." + +But the crowd increased, and with many dancers on the floor it was +difficult to distinguish faces. The Prince and his attendants arrived, +magnificent as figures incarnated from the "Arabian Nights"; and the +entrance of the principal guest was the signal for a charming surprise. +From hidden apertures in the carved ceiling, rose petals--pink and +white and golden yellow--began to flutter down, light as snowflakes. +The great room was perfumed with attar of roses, and silver ribbon +confetti, glittering like innumerable strands of spun glass, descended +on the laughing dancers. My companion and I were lassoed by the fairy +ropes, and looking up I was struck on the cheek with a rose thrown from +a box. + +The flower was thrown, not accidentally dropped. It came from a +distance, aimed by a woman dressed as a nurse. She was sitting in a +chair drawn close to the front of her box--a box in the second tier, +close to the musicians' gallery--and was leaning on the ledge in order +to take good aim. Behind her stood a tall man in chain armour, his +visor so nearly covering his face as practically to mask it. He was +bending over the nurse, as if to see where her rose fell. + +Before I could grasp the flower it had fallen to the ground, and I had +to stoop to pick it up. I was rude enough to have forgotten Lady +Mary's existence until--as I was unwinding the thread which bound a +thin bit of paper to the stem--she exclaimed, "A melodrama, Lord John! +The jealous husband's on your track. Be careful, or he'll see that +note--no, he's gone from behind her now. Perhaps he's coming down to +you." + +"Forgive me, Lady Mary," I said, "but this is serious. Not a love +affair, I assure you, but it may be a vital matter. I must go to that +box. I----" + +"Don't mind me!" She took the cue, and changed her teasing tone to +friendly common sense. "Here comes a man I know. He'll look after me. +Go along! Why, how odd! Your friend who threw the rose is pretending +to be asleep--or she's fainted!" + +I glanced up from the note I had been reading while my companion +talked. The nurse still leant on the broad ledge with its golden +fringe, but she had laid her head on her arm. Her face I could not see. + +I did not wait to make sure that Lady Mary had secured her friend in +need: but semi-consciously I heard their greetings as I turned away. +The entrance to the boxes was outside the ballroom, and there might +have been some delay in identifying the one I wanted, but for the note +attached to the rose. Anne Garth bade me come quickly to Box 18, as +she feared she had been followed. "I have a letter for you from +_her_," was added as a further inducement. + +On the door of each box was a number. I knew 18 was in the second +tier, and hurried up the narrow stairway which led to that row, almost +rudely pushing past a Harlequin and Columbine who were coming down. +Apart from them I had the stairs and corridor to myself. If the man in +chain armour had altogether deserted Box 18, he had made haste to +disappear--a fact so disquieting that I regretted not having smuggled +Teano into the hotel to help. Being alone, I had to obey orders and go +at once to the box, although I saw that keeping track of the man was +equally important. + +I knocked, and when no answer followed, opened the door of Number 18. +The nurse sat in the same position which Lady Mary had remarked, +bending forward from her chair across to the broad ledge and leaning +her whole weight on it, her head on her arm. + +"Miss Garth?" I said, knowing now for certain it was she, as in looking +up I had recognised the face seen outside Sing Sing prison. How she +had recognised me would have been a puzzle, had I not conceitedly +deduced that Maida had annexed a photograph given by me to Roger. But +it was not important to solve this puzzle. "Miss Garth?" I repeated, +raising my voice over the music. + +No reply: and a prickling cold as the touch of icicles shivered through +my veins as I laid a hand on the grey-clad arm. It was responseless +like her lips, and sick at heart I raised the limp figure in the chair. +The head in its long veil and close-fitting bonnet lolled aside, and +there was no consciousness in the half-open eyes. The girl had fallen +into a dead faint, or--she had been murdered, I could guess by whom. +But selfishly, my first thought was not for her. It was for the +promised letter, and in her lap half concealed by the folds of her grey +cloak--I found it: a blank envelope, unsealed, but evidently containing +a sheet or two of paper. + +"Thank God it's not been stolen!" I muttered, and pocketing the +envelope turned my thoughts to the thing which must next be done. + +No wound was visible, not even a drop of blood to cover a pinprick: but +I could feel no beating of the heart; and the swift vanishing of the +man in chain armour was ominous. I realised that, if the girl had died +by violence, I might come under suspicion, unless I could quickly prove +innocence. Needing my liberty in order to protect Maida, I could run +no risk of losing it, and I realised that with Lady Mary Proudfit lay +my best hope. There wasn't a minute to waste; and without a glance at +the letter I was dying to read, I peered through the sparkling of +ribbon confetti and rose petals. What a mockery the brilliance was, +and the gay ragtime melody in the musicians' gallery next door! Yet +the bright veil had its uses. It was like a screen of shattered +crystal hiding the tragedy in Box 18. + +Lady Mary, as I hoped, sat where I'd left her. I beckoned. Surprised, +but evidently pleased, she spoke to her companion, a British financier +on government business in New York. Instantly they began to thread +their way through the crowd, and less than five minutes brought them to +the box. + +"This lady had important news for me," I explained, "news of a dear +friend she has been nursing. It was as important for others that the +news shouldn't reach my ears. I fear there's been foul play, and I +want a doctor. Everything must be done quietly--and the girl can't be +left alone. But the police must be called, if she turns out to be +dead, and----" + +"Oh, I can bear witness that her head dropped suddenly on her arm, +while that man in chain armour bent over her--before you even left me. +He was in fearful haste to get away!" Lady Mary interrupted. + +"Hello, what's this!" exclaimed the financial magnate, Sir Felix +Gottschild, stooping to drag from under a chair, pushed against the +wall, a peculiar bundle. "Here is chain armour--a whole suit, rolled +up and tucked under the chair! By Jove, it tells a tale--what? You'll +be all right, whatever happens, Lord John. We'll stop till you get +back." + +I waited for no more, but went down to inform one of the men keeping +the ballroom door what had happened. The police and a doctor were +'phoned for, and arrived with almost magical promptness. The gold +tissue curtains were quietly drawn across Box 18 while two "plain +clothes" men took note of what Lady Mary Proudfit and I had to tell, +and the doctor probed the mystery of Anne Garth's condition. He was +soon able to pronounce her dead, but it was not till later that he +discovered the prick of a hypodermic syringe at the base of the brain. +The girl had been killed as sick dogs are suppressed with an injection +of strychnine. Pre-occupied as I was with my own affairs, I could not +help remarking the doctor's emotion. He was a young man, and at the +time I credited him with unusual sensitiveness and sympathy: but when I +learned that his name was Doran I was less sure that he deserved +credit. Poetic justice had gone out of its way to avenge Anne Garth by +ordering this coincidence. + +I told what I knew of the girl, beginning with the day I saw her leave +Sing Sing prison with the directress of the Grey Sisterhood, and going +on to the episode of the note dropped, weighted with a rose. I had +reason to emphasise Anne Garth's connection with the Sisterhood, hoping +to fasten suspicion upon it, and secure aid more powerful than +mine--that of the police--for Maida. I described the tall Harlequin +who had passed me in the corridor as I hurried toward Box 18, and urged +my theory that the murderer of Anne Garth had worn this disguise under +his chain armour. With the help of a confederate (the Columbine) +waiting in an adjoining box, he could have made the change, and so +escaped without drawing attention. I did not hesitate to suggest, +also, that the man was Doctor Rameses, the hypnotist: but the police of +New York had come to consider me mad on the subject of Rameses and the +Grey Sisterhood. I was assured that enquiries would be made: and they +were made. It was ascertained that Doctor Rameses had accepted Mrs. +Gorst's invitation, but at the last moment had telegraphed that an +attack of "grippe" had laid him low. Another alibi as usual! It was +proved (to the satisfaction of the police) that he had not left his +house that night. The disjointed diary of Anne Garth contained no +names, and was not even an accusation, still less a proof of evil +intent on the part of any member of the Grey Sisterhood. + +I heard early next day that the police had duly, if discreetly, visited +Pine Cliff, and learned that all was "above board." Anne Garth had +been impudent, and careless about her duties. She had been discharged +some days before the ball, her principal patient having gone away on a +visit, in order to "get rid of the nurse without a fuss." Some gossip +in the house must have turned the woman's thoughts to Lord John Hasle, +and she had seen a way of embarrassing the ladies of the Sisterhood. +As for the murder, a theory was suggested by a bundle of love letters +found among Anne Garth's effects, forgotten when she departed. From +these it appeared that she had been in the habit of meeting a man who +signed himself "Dick," whenever she was given a day off from her duties +at Sisterhood House. The last letters threatened reprisals if she +persisted in seeing a certain "Tom," otherwise unnamed. + +As for the Harlequin and Columbine, they were as impossible to trace as +ghosts. No one could be discovered who had seen them enter the +ballroom or leave it. Had it not been for Lady Mary Proudfit's +testimony, I might have floundered into serious difficulties, in spite +of the chain armour. Thanks to her (and perhaps a little to my own +position) I was free to come and go; which was well, because Anne Garth +had left me a tryst to keep for the following night. + +The one fact I hid was the existence of the letter found by me in the +dead girl's lap. It was typed, and unsigned: but Anne Garth's journal +proved to me, if not to the police, that she was loyal; and the note +tied to the rose promised a letter from Maida. "From _her_," the nurse +had written, expecting me to understand, and I had understood. I had +also believed, because I could see no reason why Anne Garth, risking +much to deliver the message, should deceive me. The man in chain +armour had had too great a need for haste to seek a letter, nor had he +reason to suspect the existence of one. His object, if I read it +right, was to prevent Anne Garth from telling her story. + +The note so fortunately hidden under the nurse's cloak was not in +Maida's writing, but had been neatly typed. It was not the first time, +however, that I had received typed letters from her. Sometimes I had +doubted their genuineness, but one of them explained that she had +learned to use a typewriter, to help the Head Sister with charitable +correspondence. After that I had felt more at ease about those clearly +typed communications. + + +"My dear Friend," the letter began (Maida never gave me a warmer +title), "I've been ill with grippe, which is an epidemic here. Now I'm +better, but so weak that I long for tonic air, and it has been decided +to send me up to the Crescent Mountain Inn. I'm looking forward to the +change after my hard work and illness. But how glorious it would be if +you could come to see me! I hope to start the day after you receive +this. If I can get off then, I shall arrive at the Crescent Mountain +railway station in the train which reaches there at nine-fifteen. I +don't know what time the train that connects with it leaves New York, +but you can find out--if you care to! At the station a team of dogs +with a driver who serves the Inn (his name is Garth) meets the train if +ordered. As my departure is a little uncertain, because I'm not +strong, no telegram has been sent so far, and the team is free for +anyone who wishes to engage it. If you _should_ do so, and I should +happen to be in the train, I'm sure you wouldn't mind having me for an +extra passenger! I've spoken only to one person about my brilliant +idea of our meeting. Yours ever, M." + + +Nobody who reads this can wonder that I didn't show it to the police, +or that I was ready to believe the letter genuine. Despite the gloom +cast upon me by the death of Maida's messenger, despite my annoyance +with the police, I was selfishly happy. I saw that I was in great luck +to have got out of a tangle which might have enmeshed me in bonds of +red tape; and it goes without saying that I telegraphed the Crescent +Mountain Inn, ordering a room, and Larry Garth the dog-driver to meet +me with his team. + +I remembered Teano's mentioning that Anne Garth's brother lived in the +mountains; and I 'phoned him to ask if the man were employed by the +Crescent Mountain Inn. The answer was, "Yes, he drives their +dog-team"; and I was the more firmly convinced that Maida and Anne +Garth had concocted the typewritten letter together. + +In deducing this, I belittled the Enemy's intelligence. But one lives +and learns. Or, one dies and learns. + +The Crescent Mountain Inn--as most people know--is one of the most +famous winter resorts in America. It is also an autumn and spring +resort for those who love winter sports, for snow falls early at that +great height, and rests late. Its comparative accessibility from New +York adds to the charm, and the sledge with a team of Alaskan dogs +(instead of an ordinary sleigh drawn by mere horses) was an inspiration +on the part of the landlord. + +I told no one but Teano of my intention. He, oppressively prudent +where I was concerned, wished to accompany me "in case of queer +business," but I discouraged this idea without hurting his feelings. +If there were hope of an "accidental" meeting with Maida in the train, +I didn't want even a companion. + +To my disappointment, I searched the train from end to end without +finding her. But enquiring of the conductor, I learned that the +morning train was preferred by ladies. Perhaps--I thought--she had +already got off, in which case Garth might bring a note to the Crescent +Mountain station. I hoped for Maida's sake it might be so, because if +she'd started early she would not have heard of her messenger's fate, +and I could break the news to her gently. As for the dead girl's +brother, it seemed improbable that he would be informed by telegram. +The pair were said by Teano to be alone in the world; and as Garth's +evidence wouldn't be needed--anyhow for days to come--in the affair of +Anne's murder, he would not be sent for post-haste. + +Again I underrated the intelligence of the Enemy. + +The train arrived on time at the little mountain station built for +clients of the famous Inn. As it was still early in the season (it is +only for Christmas that crowds begin going up), I wasn't surprised to +find myself alone on the platform. The mountain train (into which I'd +changed long ago from the train starting from New York) went no further +that night. Snow-covered shoulders and peaks glistened dimly in +half-veiled starlight, and I was glad to hear the jingle of bells. A +big sledge, capable of carrying several passengers and a little light +luggage, was in waiting with a fine team of impatient dogs: but the +driver who touched his fur cap with a mittened hand was not the +honest-faced country man who had met the released prisoner at Sing Sing. + +"You're not Garth!" I exclaimed, when he asked if I were Lord John +Hasle, and had been answered affirmatively. + +The dim yellow light from the little station building shone into his +face, and I thought it changed as if with chagrin. It was not as +pleasant a face as the one I remembered. In fact, it was not pleasant +at all. The eyes were brave enough, or anyhow bold; but the nose was +big and red as if the fellow warmed his chilled blood generously with +alcohol. He was older than Anne Garth's brother. The heavy features +framed in fur ear-laps might have belonged to a man of forty. + +"Oh, yes, I'm Garth," he assured me, in a voice roughened by the same +agent which had empurpled his nose. + +"You're not the Garth I've seen," I persisted. + +"That may be," he admitted. "We're brothers. I'm a bit older than +Larry. He had to go to New York. Between the two of us, we do the +driving for the Crescent Inn." + +This explanation was good enough, if Teano was wrong about the family. +"Have you a note for me?" I asked. + +"No note," was the reply. "But you're expected at the Inn all right." + +"They have other guests by this time, I suppose?" + +"Yes, a few. The last that came's a young lady. I took her up from +the afternoon train." + +This was what I had wanted to find out. My instinctive dislike of the +ugly-faced chap vanished. I felt almost fond of him. + +"Let's get on," I said. + +Another man had been looking after his dogs, a man also coated and +capped in fur--a big chap whose face I could not see, as he didn't +trouble to salute or look my way before climbing into his seat beside +the driver's place. The suitcase I'd brought from New York was +disposed of: I tucked myself into the strong-smelling rugs of rough +black fur, and the dogs flashed away like a lightning streak, their +forms racing with shadow ghosts on the blue whiteness of starlit snow. +Soon we came to a cross track, marked with a sign-post. A red lantern +on the top seemed to drip blood over the words "Crescent Mountain Inn. +Winter Sports." + +To my surprise, though the dogs made as if to swerve leftward and dash +up this beaten white way, the driver swore, and with his long whip +forced them straight ahead. + +"We take the short cut. 'Tisn't everyone who knows it," he deigned to +fling over his shoulder at me. + +I made no comment, and we sped along, until abruptly the dogs balked as +at something unseen. With oaths and savage lashings they were goaded +on through deep, new-fallen snow. The leaders yelped but obeyed. +Then, suddenly, the driver flung reins and whip full in my face. The +unlooked-for blow dazed me for a second as it was meant to do: but, as +in one of those photographic dreams which come between sleeping and +waking, I saw the two fur-coated figures in the front seat spring from +the sledge into snow drifts. I tried to follow suit, too late, for +down slid the team over the brim of a chasm dark as a cauldron, and +dragged the sledge in their wake. + + * * * * * + +Teano, it seems, though too polite to say so, did not like my mountain +expedition. As he was not allowed to join me, he decided that the next +best thing was to watch my interests in New York. He and his wife +Jenny (who had an exaggerated sense of gratitude for me) discussed, +according to their habit, what they would have done and what they would +do were they in the "Enemy's" place. + +"I'll tell you how _I'd_ have acted to begin with!" said Jenny, who +knew too well the ways of the underworld; "I'd have had a letter ready +to leave for Lord John on that poor dead girl's lap--a letter supposed +to be from Miss Odell. Typing's easier than forging! Then, if I +_found_ a letter there I'd take it away and leave mine. Supposing +_they_ did that? They could get Lord John to go alone to that mountain +place he told you about, and they could have him put out of the way, so +he'd never bother them again as he's always doing. They could bring +him to his death and make it seem an accident--they're so smart! +Suppose, for instance, they telegraphed that brother of Anne Garth's, +and told him his sister was murdered; why, he'd catch the morning train +for New York. The Inn folks would be in a fix, and grab anyone who +came along, and knew how to drive dogs." + +Teano had reason to respect Jenny's suggestions, and he thought enough +of this one to meet a train connecting with that which left Crescent +Mountain station in the afternoon. My train had been gone only a short +time, but--it had gone irrevocably. + +Jenny's forebodings were justified. Teano recognised Larry Garth and +accosted him, mentioning his own name and profession. Garth asked if +he had sent the telegram received that morning, and produced it from +his pocket. This told Teano, as the message was unsigned, that no +member of the police had wired. He explained to Garth the +circumstances of Anne's death, giving extra details which he had +ferreted out that day: the fact that the girl had asked to see young +Mr. Gorst (our hostess's son) privately, and begged to be allowed to +sit in a box, because she had a "very important appointment with Lord +John Hasle, and a letter to give him from a lady." It seemed certain, +therefore, that her desire to see me had been genuine. Teano told +Garth something of our suspicions, confessing however that nothing was +proved. Still, he impressed the young man so forcibly that Garth gave +up trying to see his sister's body, and instead was persuaded to return +at once to Crescent Mountain. + +There was no other train that day; but Teano, believing that my life +might be at stake, drew some of his savings out of the bank and paid +for a special. It reached its destination not ten minutes after the +9.15, but had to stop at a distance, owing to the presence of the +latter on the track. By that time both train and station were +deserted, but Garth quickly discovered the fresh traces of his dogs and +sledge in the snow. He and Teano, armed with an electric torch, +started on the trail. Reaching the cross road, Garth pointed to the +tracks which led away instead of towards the hotel. In the dull red +light of the lantern above, the two men looked into each other's eyes; +and snow, falling anew, was like pink-edged feathers in the crimson +glow. If evil deeds were doing, this new snowfall would help the +doers, for soon their footsteps would be blotted out of sight, and all +hope of tracing them might be lost for ever. + +For the moment the only tracks to be seen were those of the team and +the sledge-runners. Garth and Teano followed. Not far on a difference +in level in the white blanket of the earth indicated a seldom-used road +to a mountain farm. But the sledge had not taken that turn. It had +dashed straight on. + +"Good heavens!" stammered Garth. "That way leads nowhere--except to a +precipice. They call it 'The Lovers' Leap'!" + +The two hurried along, stumbling often, a strong cold wind blowing +particles of snow almost as hard as ice into their faces. The glass +bulb of the small electric lantern was misted over. Teano was obliged +constantly to wipe it clear. Suddenly Garth seized him by the arm. +"My God, stop!" he cried. "We're on the edge. The sledge has gone +over here. Two men have jumped clear--one each side the sleigh. Oh, +my poor dogs!" + +It was of me Teano thought. Clearing his lantern he examined the holes +where the men had jumped, so near the verge of a great gulf that they +had had to throw themselves violently back in the snow to keep from +falling over. His trained eye detected delicate markings in the snow +which proved that both men had worn coats of stiff fur. Also their +boots had been large and heavy. Teano knew that I had had no fur coat +when I started, and that my boots had not been made for mountain wear. + +"These two chaps were confederates," he announced confidently to Garth. +"They knew when to save themselves, and Lord John has gone down with +the sledge and the team." + +Garth blurted out an oath, swearing vengeance for his dogs rather than +for me, but Teano's face of despair struck him with pity. + +"There's hope yet," he said, "if your lord guessed at the end what was +up and had the wit to chuck himself out. Thirty feet down, just under +this point, there's a knob sticking up they call the Giant's Nose. +It's deep with snow now. It wouldn't hurt to fall on it--and there's a +tree stump he could catch hold of to save himself if he kept his +senses. But my poor dogs with the heavy sledge behind 'em wouldn't +have the devil's chance. A man wouldn't either, unless he jumped as +the sleigh went. Well, we shall see, when I've got the rope." + +"What rope?" Teano managed to move his stiff lips. + +"A rope we keep for the summer trippers," Garth explained. "More than +once some silly gabe has got too close and lost his head, lookin' over +the Lovers' Leap. It's a suicide place too--though we don't tell folks +that. If anyone's caught on the Giant's nose, we can fish him up. The +rope's in a hut near by, that's never locked." + +Teano is a smaller man than Garth, and it was Teano who, with the rope +in a sailor knot under his arms, was let down by the big fellow, to +look for me. I had kept consciousness at first, and had saved myself +in the way suggested by the mountaineer: but by the time Teano came +prospecting, I had dropped into a pleasant sleep. An hour or two more +in my bed of snow, I should have been hidden for ever by a smooth white +winding-sheet, and so have kept my tryst with Death. + +As it was, Death and I failed to meet. I lived not only to help avenge +Anne Garth, but to go on with my work for the girl I loved, and--living +or dead--shall love for ever. For a time after my adventure on +Crescent Mountain (where it's needless to say Maida had neither arrived +nor been expected) that vengeance and that work moved slowly. But so +also move the mills of the gods. + + + + +EPISODE V + +THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT + +I was bringing my journal up to date one day at my Long Island hotel, +when a page-boy brought me a card engraved with the very last name I +should ever have guessed: "Lady Allendale." + +"Is the lady downstairs?" I asked, dazed. + +"The lady is here!" answered a once familiar voice at the half-open +door of my sitting-room; and I jumped up to face a tall, slim figure in +widow's weeds. "I hope you don't mind my surprising you?" went on the +charming voice. "I wanted to see how you looked, when you saw my name." + +"How do you do?" I greeted her, as we shook hands, and the page melted +away and was forgotten. I tried to sound sincerely welcoming, for here +she was, and I didn't want to hurt her feelings. But I wasn't as glad +as some men would have been to see a celebrated beauty and charmer. + +She explained that she had found herself in need of rest after her war +work (the last time I had seen her was the day when I fled from the +private hospital in London of my sister-in-law, Lady Haslemere), and +she had thought a sea voyage might be beneficial. She added, with an +air of beautiful boldness, that perhaps she'd come partly to meet me +again. "I read that you were at the Belmont in New York; so I went +there. But they said you were staying on Long Island. Country air +will be as good for a tired nurse of wounded officers as it is for the +wounded officers themselves, _n'est ce pas_? And it will be nice +hearing your news, for we were rather pals!" + +"Don was my best friend," I reminded her. "Here's his picture." And I +took from the flat top of the desk where I had been writing, one of +several framed photographs. A flush sprang to her cheeks as the +husband's eyes looked into hers, and snatching the frame she dashed it +down so violently that the glass smashed on the parquet floor. + +"How cruel of you!" she cried. "He was a thief! He threw away my love +and made me hate him. I thank Heaven he died!" + +An impulse of anger shook me. If she had been a man I should have +struck her. I'm not sure I didn't want to, as it was, in spite of her +beauty--or even because of it, so did it flaunt itself like an enemy +flag. + +"It's you who are cruel," I said. "Not to me, but to Don's memory. I +could never believe he did what you thought. There may have been some +horrible mistake. And his death has never been proved----" + +"He's dead to me; and the proof's incontestable, or I shouldn't wear +these things," she almost sobbed, indicating with a gesture her black +dress and veil. + +In my secret heart I had thought in London, and continued to think, +that the motive for draping herself in black might be more complex than +she admitted. Sir Donald Allendale had sailed for America on strange +circumstances months ago; had disappeared, and a body found floating in +the East River had been (superficially, I thought) identified as his. +If widow's weeds hadn't been an effective frame for Irene Allendale's +dazzling beauty, I wondered if she would have mourned in so many yards +of crape for a husband she professed to hate? + +"Oh, well," I said, controlling myself, and realising that she had some +excuse to execrate Donald's memory, "let's not discuss Don now. There +were faults on both sides. He was jealous, and you made him miserable. +You were the greatest flirt as well as the greatest beauty in India +that year, and--but come to think of it, we needn't discuss that +either. The present's enough. You've arrived on this side, and----" + +"You're not glad to see me. No use pretending. I _know_, and--here's +the reason!" She darted forward and seized from the desk, close to my +open journal, the greatest treasure I had in the world--Maida Odell's +picture. + +Roger had given it to me, knowing how I felt towards Maida. It was a +miniature painted on ivory, and almost--though of course not quite--did +Maida justice, as no photograph could do. I kept it in a gold, +jewelled frame with doors like the doors of a shrine which could shut +the angel face out of sight. Usually the doors of the frame were not +only shut but locked. When I sat at the desk, however, and expected no +visitors, I opened and put it where each time I glanced up from my +writing I could look straight into Maida's eyes. Lady Allendale, +however, had come as a bolt from the blue, and for once I neglected to +shut the shrine. + +If I had been angry before, I was doubly angry now; but I said not a +word. Gently I took the frame, closed, and placed it in a drawer of +the desk. + +"Did you say you thought of spending a few days on Long Island?" I +asked, when I could control my voice. + +"I've engaged a suite at this hotel," Lady Allendale answered sharply. +"My maid's putting my things in order now. I do think, Jack, you're +being _horrid_ to me, and if it weren't too late to change without +making gossip I should give up the rooms and go somewhere else." + +I didn't want a scene, so I reminded myself how sweet she had been when +Don had brought her as a bride to India, and I had always been welcome +at their bungalow. I soothed her as well as I could; refused to talk +personalities, and when she decided that her visit to my sitting-room +had better end, I took her to the door. At that moment a face almost +as familiar as hers appeared at a door opposite--the face of Irene +Allendale's French maid who had come with her to India four years ago. +This woman (Pauline, I remembered hearing her called) was receiving big +trunks with White Star labels on them; and I realised not only that the +lady's new quarters were close to mine, but that she was provided for a +long stay in them! + +When she had gone, and the door of her sitting-room had been shut by +Pauline (whose personality I disliked) I picked up Don's photograph, +and sat down to look at it, reviewing old times. + +Poor Don! Whatever his failings might have been, fate had been hard on +him! + +He was among the smartest officers my regiment ever had, one of the +most popular--despite his hot temper--and the best looking. Everyone +said when Irene Grey came to India to be married, chaperoned on the +voyage by a dragon of a maid, that she and Donald were the handsomest +couple ever seen. The trouble was--for trouble began at once--that +Irene was _too_ pretty. She was a flirt too; and her success as _the_ +beauty went to her head. She ought to have understood Don well enough +to know that he was stupidly jealous. Perhaps she did know, and +thought it "fun." But the fun soon turned to fighting. They +quarrelled openly. She would do nothing that Don wanted her to do. In +black rage, he told her to live her own life, and he would live his. +Both were miserable, for she had loved him and he--had adored her. She +flirted more than ever, and Don tried to forget his wretchedness by +drinking too much and playing too high. So passed several years. I +left the regiment and India, and took up flying. Then came the +outbreak of war. Don was ordered to England. Irene sailed on the same +ship, though by that time they were scarcely civil to each other. Don +used influence and got ordered to America to buy horses for the army, +he being a polo man and a judge of horseflesh. + +I was in France then, but running over to England on leave, Irene sent +for me to tell the astounding news that Don had taken with him all her +jewellery. She had money of her own--not a great fortune; but her +jewels, left her by a rich aunt, were magnificent and even famous. +This scene between Irene and me, when she accused Don and I defended +him, lingered in my memory as one of the most disagreeable of my life: +and the maid Pauline was associated with it in my mind, as Irene had +called her, to describe certain suspicious circumstances. Later I +couldn't help admitting to myself, if not to Irene, that Don's +disappearance on reaching New York, before he had begun to carry out +his mission, did look queer. Search was made by the police of New York +in vain, until a body past recognition, but wearing a watch and +identification papers belonging to Captain Sir Donald Allendale, was +found in the East River. I induced Irene to give Don the benefit of +the doubt, not to blacken his memory by connecting him with the loss of +her jewels; and she seemed to think that yielding to my persuasions was +a proof of friendship for me. + +"Well," I said to myself, extracting bits of broken glass from the +frame of Don's portrait, "better let sleeping dogs lie. Irene'll get +tired of this quiet place before long, and be off to New York--or home." + +I felt that it would be a relief to have her go; but I had no idea that +it was in her power, even if she wished it, to do me harm. + +But while I was thinking of her presence in the hotel as a harmless +bore, the lady had instructed Pauline to make inquiries concerning me. +This I learned later: but had I guessed, I should have supposed there +would be nothing to find out. I had no idea that gossip about me and +my affairs was a dining-room amusement among the maids and valets of +the hotel guests: that all Lady Allendale's _femme de chambre_ need do +was to ask "What's the name of the girl Lord John Hasle's in love +with?" in order to have my heart bared to her eyes. That first day she +heard all about Maida--with embellishments: the beautiful Miss Odell, +adopted sister of a well-known millionaire who had lately married and +gone abroad with his bride: girl not fond of society: pledged to the +Grey Sisterhood for a year: the Sisterhood House being near Pine Cliff, +Lord John's reason for living in the one hotel of the neighbourhood. + +That was enough for Irene. Her anger having brought "to the scratch" +all the cat in her nature, she made herself acquainted with the +visiting days and hours of the Grey Sisterhood. Though men were not +received, ladies interested in the alleged charitable work of the +Sisterhood were welcomed twice a week, between three and five in the +afternoon. Maida was a valuable asset to the Head Sister, as a young +hostess on these reception days, for she believed in the genuineness of +the mission, and was enthusiastic on the subject of "saving" women and +children. In her innocence she could not have been aware that most of +those "saved" were hardened thieves protected in the old house at Pine +Cliff till their "services" should be needed in New York. It was a +splendid advertisement for the Sisterhood that so important a girl as +Miss Odell should be a member, and she was always bidden to show +visitors about, even if the veiled Head Sister were able to receive +them. + +So it fell out, while I was assuring myself of Irene's harmlessness, +that she was making acquaintance with the original of the portrait in +the gold frame. She wore, it seems, an open-faced locket containing a +photograph of me, painted to look like an ivory miniature: and seeing +Maida glance at it she asked if Miss Odell had ever met Lord John Hasle. + +The girl admitted that she had; whereupon Lady Allendale said, "We are +_very_ good friends," and purposely said it in such a way as to convey +a false impression. I had told Maida that I loved her, but she had +given me no answer except that, if I cared, I must care enough to wait. +Many weeks had passed since then, and it was long since we had set eyes +upon each other. Lady Allendale was the most beautiful woman she had +ever seen; and the miniature in the locket, the meaning of the smile +which went with the words, were too much for the girl's faith in my +constancy. She thought, "Why should he go on loving me when I've given +him no real hope? No wonder he forgets me for such a dream of beauty!" + +Perhaps no girl as lovely as Maida ever thought less of her own charm. +She believed that the one interest which had held her to the world and +given her strength to resist the Head Sister's persuasions was a false +star. It came into her mind that the best way to forget would be to +promise, as her friend the grey lady had begged her to do, that she +would become a life member of the Sisterhood. + +Maida made no irrevocable decision that day: but when the Head Sister +said next time (there were many of these times), "Dear child, how happy +I should be if I could count upon you in the future!" she answered, +"Perhaps you may. I don't feel the same wish to go out into the world +that I have had." + +She was praised for this concession: and it seems to me probable that +the grey lady set her intelligence to work at discovering the motive +for the change. She had seen Irene, and had without doubt noticed the +locket. She was aware that the visitor and the youngest, sweetest +member of the Sisterhood had talked in the garden. She must have put +"two and two together": and the thing that happened later proves that +she reported all she knew and all she guessed to that "great +philanthropist" Doctor Rameses. It was certain that, soon after Lady +Allendale arrived, he was informed of her presence at my hotel. There +were ways in which he could ascertain that my friendship had been for +Donald Allendale and not his wife: therefore the theatrical effect of +the locket would have been lost upon him. + +Irene and I were on friendly terms, but I manoeuvred to keep her out of +the way. This was comparatively simple, as I had a lot of work to do; +but I invented extra engagements, and was never free to go anywhere +with her. I even tried to take such meals as I ate in my hotel, at +hours when she wasn't likely to be in the restaurant: but one evening, +as I stepped out of my sitting-room dressed for dinner, she appeared at +her door. It was almost as if she had been on the watch! + +It was early, and I intended motoring to New York, for Carr Price and +his bride were there for a day or two. I had my overcoat on my arm, +and a hat in my hand, which advertised the fact that I was not dining +in the hotel. Lady Allendale also was dressed for the evening, and +Pauline was giving her a sable cloak. + +"How do you do, stranger?" Irene exclaimed, with a kind of spurious +gaiety, more bitter than merry. "I've been here a week, and this is +the fourth time we've met." + +As she spoke, and I composed a suitable answer, two messengers came +along the corridor. One was a seedy-looking individual who might, I +thought, be a messenger from Teano, and the other was a boy employed by +the Grey Sisterhood to run errands. My heart leaped at sight of an +envelope in his hand. It was of the peculiar dove grey used by the +Sisters: and I know now that it was recognised by Lady Allendale. +She'd sent money for the Sisterhood's charities, and had received their +thanks written on this paper. + +"No answer, sir," said the boy, giving me the letter, pocketing a +"tip," and passing out of the way to let the shabby man advance, +directed by a page. He, too, put a letter in my hand, with a mumble of +"This is pressing." + +Irene could not hide her curiosity; but she dared not stand staring in +the hall. She went on, as if to go to the lift: but I learned later +that she took refuge in the maid's room, to see (without being seen) +what I might do next. + +What I did do was to return for a moment to my own room. And there, +despite the alleged "pressing" importance of the second letter, I +opened Maida's first. + + +"Please don't feel in any way bound to me," she wrote. "Indeed, +there's no real reason why you should: but lest there should be the +slightest shadow over your happiness, I wish to tell you that most +probably I shall become a life member of the Sisterhood. I must write +Roger before deciding, but when he knows that after these many weeks I +have less longing than ever for the world, I think he will withdraw his +objections.--Yours ever sincerely, M.O." + + +This was a blow over the heart. I had hoped so much, since the +wonderful night when she had let me take her home to Roger! True, she +had gone back next day to the Sisterhood House, but I had thought I +might read between the lines of the message left for me, and other +messages since then. + +I did not think of any connection between Irene Allendale and Maida's +change of mind, but attributed the adverse influence wholly to the Head +Sister. I determined to see Maida somehow: and then remembered the +letter which I had not yet opened. Envelope and paper were of the +cheapest, and the handwriting was crude, most of the words being +absurdly spelt. + +"If yu haven't furgot yur old friend Donald Allendale and wud like to +help him in grate truble cum at wuns with the messenger and dont wate a +secund or it may be tu late." + +Nothing else could have taken me out of myself in a moment of deep +depression, as did this cry from the grave of a lost friend. I had +said to Irene "we have no proof of his death," yet I had hardly doubted +it: and it was now as if I heard the voice of a dead man. If I had +stopped to reflect I might have reasoned that the letter was more than +likely a trick of the "enemy," as I named the Egyptian doctor to myself +and Teano: but even if I had, I should have chanced it, for the call +was too urgent to admit of delays--such as telephoning Teano to meet +me, for instance. I ought to have seen (and perhaps did +sub-consciously see) that the appeal for haste was in itself +suspicious, framed in the hope of inducing me to do precisely what I +did do, rush off on the instant without taking any companion or leaving +word in the hotel that I was bound for an errand that might be +dangerous. + +The man who had brought the letter had prudently gone to wait outside, +where, if needful, he could make a quick "getaway." This detail seemed +of small importance at the time, but its influence on the fate of two +others besides myself was great. If Lady Allendale had seen me +starting with the messenger, she would have known that I was not going +out in answer to the letter written on grey paper--the letter she +believed to be from Maida Odell. Pauline's window overlooked the noisy +front entrance of the otherwise quiet hotel. From behind the curtains +Irene could see anyone coming or going. If the messenger had waited +outside my door, she would have seen us together: but as he stood close +against the wall, she could see only that I stopped to speak with +someone. She could not hear the man explaining that he had been +directed to travel back to New York in the taxi which had brought him +to Long Island, and that instead of accompanying, I was to trail him. +"Somebody's afraid I might get something out of you--what?" said I. +Since argument with such a person was useless, Irene must have heard me +order a taxi, and have telephoned down for one herself. If I'd +suspected the interest she still felt in my movements, I might have +been more on the alert, and have noticed a taxi always pursuing mine: +but my eyes were for the one ahead. + +When my leader's taxi drew up at last, it was the signal agreed upon +for me to do the same. The neighbourhood was unfamiliar, but as I +followed the man on foot I soon saw that we were in the heart of +Chinatown. It was agreed that I should not try to speak with him +again, but simply to go where I saw him go. He entered a Chinese +restaurant which made no pretence at picturesqueness for the attraction +of sightseers. I, close upon his heels, entered also, and had scarcely +an instant to take in the scene, so promptly did the man make for a row +of doors at the back of a large, smoke-dimmed room. Determined not to +be left behind, I too made for the little low-browed door he chose in +the row, and saw a private dining-room just comfortably big enough for +two. + +"This is where you're to wait," my man announced, "and where my part of +the business is done. Good night. I expect you won't be kept long." + +I offered him money, which he refused. "I've been paid, thank you," he +said; and touching his shabby cap with an attempt at a military salute, +returned to the main restaurant. He shut the door behind him, but not +quickly enough to prevent my recognising a face in the room outside: +the face of Donald Allendale's valet. + +"By Jove!" I heard myself say half aloud. I remembered now that the +man--Hanson or some name like that--had left his master in England, not +wishing, he explained, to go to America. Yet here he was; and I sprang +to the rash conclusion that it was he who had sent for me with this +mysterious ceremony. + +The door was shut in my face before I could even jump up from the chair +into which I had subsided; and when I threw the door open again to look +out, the face had vanished. A number of Europeans of middle-class and +a few Chinese, apparently respectable merchants, were dining at little +tables. Some were already going: others were coming in: and I saw at +the street door a tall woman in a long dark cloak and a kind of motor +bonnet covered with a thick blue veil. She had the air of peering +about through the veil, to find someone she expected to meet: and if I +had ever happened to see Lady Allendale's maid Pauline in automobile +get-up, when motoring with her mistress, my thoughts might possibly +have flashed to Irene. They did not, however, and I should have passed +the woman without remark if she had not darted at a man just making his +exit. I didn't recall Don's valet well enough from Indian days to be +as sure of his back as of his face, but I wondered if it were Hanson +whom the veiled woman sought. I was half inclined to step out and +accost him: but I knew by experience what errors arise from a change in +the programme when an appointment has been planned. Possibly Hanson +was not the person who should meet me here, and in following the valet +I might miss my aim. After a few seconds' hesitation I went back into +the tiny room and reluctantly closed the door. + +It was a dull little hole, though clean. The walls or partitions which +divided the place from others of its kind seemed to be of thin wood, +papered with red and hung with cheap Chinese banners. Even the back +wall was of wood, and boasted as decoration a large, ugly picture of a +Chinese hunter, in a bamboo frame. The only furniture consisted of two +chairs, and a small table laid for two persons. In one of these chairs +I sat, staring at the door, hoping that it might soon open for Hanson +or another. + +Hanson, I learned afterwards, had never intended to meet me or be seen +by me. His business in the restaurant concerned me, to be sure, but +only indirectly: and catching sight of my face in the door of the +private room, he had made a dash for the door of the street, to be +stopped by the veiled woman on the threshold. The veil was +impenetrable, but recognising the voice that spoke his name, he tried +to shove her aside and escape. She seized his arms, however, obliging +him to stop inside the restaurant or risk a street scene. She inquired +why he had come to America, and if he had been with Sir Donald. + +"No, your ladyship," the man stolidly answered to both questions, +doubtless longing to ask some of his own in return. He mumbled that he +had come to New York after his master died, for no object connected +with Sir Donald--merely wishing to "find a good job with some rich +American," a wish not yet realised. When asked if he had seen and +recognised in the restaurant his master's old friend Lord John Hasle, +at first he said, "No, he hadn't noticed anyone like him." But the +next words, following swiftly and excitedly, for some reason quickened +his memory as if by magic. + +"Well, he is there. I saw him go in!" the veiled Lady Allendale +insisted. "I believe you know he is there. I'm sure there's a _woman_ +in the case!" + +On this, Hanson admitted that he had seen "a man who looked a bit +_like_ his lordship," and there was a woman with him, _not_ the kind of +woman her ladyship would want to know. + +"I've got to get somewhere in a hurry," he added, "but if I might +advise, the best thing for your ladyship is to do the same--go +somewhere else, most _anywhere_ else, in a hurry too." + +With this, he took advantage of a relaxed hold on his arm, and was off +like a frightened rabbit, old custom forcing him to touch his hat as he +fled. + +He doubtless hoped that Lady Allendale would be terrified into +abandoning her project, whatever it might be: and intended to disclaim +responsibility if she lingered. As it happened she did linger, +summoning courage to enter the restaurant and take a table close to the +door where, for an instant, she had seen me appear. + +"He was looking for _her_!" Irene said to herself; and as no woman had +passed in while she talked to Hanson in the street, she determined to +wait close to the door. It was almost incredible that Maida Odell +should come from the house of the Grey Sisterhood to such a place as +this, but Lady Allendale was in a mood when anything seemed possible. +Anyhow, if it were not Maida, it was some other--some other about whose +existence she might let Maida know--since Maida continued to write +letters to the guilty one! Irene ordered food as an excuse to keep the +table; but when it came she did little more than pretend to eat. +Alternately she consulted her wrist-watch and frowned at the closed +door. + +All this time she supposed me to be sitting alone, fuming with +impatience for the arrival of an unexpected woman: but as a matter of +fact while she questioned Hanson the door had quickly opened and shut. +It had admitted a man: and that man was with me when Lady Allendale sat +down at her table near by to watch. + +In appearance he was a Chinaman, a very tall, respectably dressed +Chinaman with a flat-brimmed hat shading his eyes, and a generous +pigtail whipping his back. But his long dark eyes were not Chinese +eyes, though Eastern they might be. He was magnificently made up, so +well that my impression of his falseness came by instinct rather than +by reason. I would have given much if my brain had carried away a +clearer picture of the "man with the scar" from the theatre, on the +first night of the play. If I could have got nearer to him then, the +difficulty of identifying him with Doctor Rameses might have +disappeared altogether, despite the Egyptian's genius for establishing +an alibi whenever I clamoured to the police. Now, in trying to pierce +the surface calm of the dark eyes I should have had certainty to go +upon, one way or the other. As it was I could only ask myself, "Is +this the everlasting enemy? Or--am I a monomaniac on that subject?" + +If it were Rameses, I could hardly help admiring his impudence in +sending for and meeting face to face--even in disguise--the man whose +business in life it had become to ruin him. + +"Good evening, sir," he began politely, with the accent of an educated +man and a suggestion of Chinese lisp--or a good imitation. "I am part +owner of this place. I have come to know through my partner a sad case +of a client of his, a poor man who was a friend of yours in another +country. My partner is a good man but he is hard. He would have put +this fellow out and not cared; but I said, keep him and I will send +word to that friend he talks about, that Lord John Hasle. Maybe +something can be done to help. My partner did not wish me to do this +thing, because there might be danger for him, from the police. If you +go further, you will soon understand why. But I have been years in +England. I know Englishmen. I said to my partner, if this lord is +asked to come alone, in a hurry, for the sake of his friend, he will +not be a traitor. That is why I had to do things in a prudent way. I +was right. You are here. But this is not all you have to do. You +give me your word you will make no noise if I show you the secret of +our place?" + +"As to that, I give you my word," I said, curious, but far from +trustful. "The message I received hints that Sir Donald Allendale +didn't die. Is he here?" + +"He is downstairs," replied the alleged Asiatic. + +As he spoke, he touched one of the big, brass-headed tacks which +appeared crudely to keep in place the bamboo frame of the Chinese +Hunter. Instantly the picture moved out of the frame, like a sliding +panel, and showed an opening or door in the wooden wall at the back of +the room. + +I felt that the long eyes watched to see if I "funked," but I think my +features remained as noncommittal as those of Buddha himself. As a +matter of fact I was scarcely surprised to find myself in one of those +secret rabbit warrens of which I had read. I guessed that each of the +private dining-rooms in the row I had seen, possessed a concealed door +leading down to a hidden "opium den" underneath. I guessed, too, that +only certain trusted habitués of the restaurant were allowed to learn +the secret. Whether my being let into it were a compliment, or a sign +that I shouldn't get a chance to betray it, I was not sure. But I +wished that I had looked to the loading of my revolver which, so far as +I remembered, held no more than one cartridge. I fancied that my +Chinese friend was Rameses himself, and that he might indeed be a +financial "power behind the throne" in the business of this house. +Deliberately I went to the table and selected a steel knife which lay +beside one of the plates. The tall Chinaman watched me pocket it, with +a benevolent smile, such as he might have bestowed upon a child arming +itself with a tin sword to fight a shadow. As he stood statue-like +beside the aperture in the wall, two men in Chinese costume, dressed +like the waiters of the restaurant, came through the panel-door from +the mysterious dusk on the other side. Each had a small tray in his +hand, as if to serve at a meal. With a bow for my companion and an +extra one for me they moved along the wall, one on either side of the +room, passing behind us both, and ranging themselves to right and left +of the exit to the restaurant. + +It was obvious that they were ready to prevent my making a dash if I +were inclined to do so. They were big fellows, regular "chuckers out" +in size; and my host himself was more than my equal in height. All the +same, if I'd wanted to escape, I thought I could have downed the three, +unless they were experts in ju jitsu, where I was an amateur. No such +intention, however, was in my mind. I determined to see the adventure +to the end, in the hope of finding Allendale. He might have fallen +into such hands as these, and be held for some reason which I hoped to +learn. + +"After you!" I said politely to my guide who would have let me go +ahead. We bowed like Chinese mandarins, and then, as if to prove that +he meant no harm, he passed before me through the panel-door. Whether +the two men closed it again in case of a police raid (which must always +be dreaded in such a place) I don't know; but I guessed that they were +under orders to follow at a distance. + +There was just enough light in a narrow passage behind the panel to +prevent those who entered it from stumbling over each other. I saw +that it was a long, straight corridor running between the wooden back +wall of the row of private dining-rooms and the house wall. Such light +as there was came from the end of the passage, and from below, where it +could be turned off in case of danger. I followed my companion, our +feet making no noise on the matting-covered floor: and voices of those +in the private rooms were audible through the thin partition. I smiled +rather grimly for my own benefit as my fancy pictured a raid: how an +alarm would be sent to those below stairs: an electric bell, perhaps: +and how those in a condition to move would swarm up from secret, +forbidden regions underground, running like rats through this corridor +to take their places in the row of dining-rooms. There they would be +found, calmly eating and drinking: and unless the "sleuths" had certain +information concerning the concealed doors, there would be no excuse to +look further! + +At the far end of the passage, as I expected, there was a steep +stairway. My guide still went in advance, as a proof of good faith. +Having opened a baize door which muffled sound, he held it open for me +to pass into a large room lit by green-shaded electric lamps that hung +from the low ceiling. There was gas also, which could be used if the +electricity failed. Here, men were gambling, silent as gambling +ghosts. They played fan tan and other games: Chinese and Europeans, +both men and women. Nobody glanced up when we arrived. We might have +been flies for all the interest we excited. I looked over my shoulder +as we came to the head of a second staircase leading down another +storey, to see if the supposed "waiters" were behind us. They were not +to be seen: nevertheless I "felt in my bones" that they were not far +off. + +The floor below the gambling-room was devoted to the smoking of opium. +There were several doors no doubt leading into private rooms for those +who could pay high prices: and ranged along the two side walls were +rows of berths protected by curtains. Two "cooks" were at work making +the pills to fill the pipes, handed to customers by attendants. There +was practically no furniture in the large, low room, which was filled +with the peculiar, heady fragrance of cooking opium. + +Yet even then we had not reached our destination. A third staircase +led down to a deeper cellar; and I could but think as I continued the +game of "follow my leader," what a neat trap the fly was allowing the +spider to land him in! However, I went quietly on, consoling myself +with the thought that it's a wise fly who is up to the spider's tricks +and watching for the lid of the trap to fall. + +This last cellar was evidently for the cheapest class of customers. +There were berths here too, but the curtains were poor, or +non-existent, and many Chinamen lay about the floor on strips of +matting. The atmosphere was foetid, and thick with opium smoke. As we +moved towards a rough partition at the further end, our figures tore +the grey cloud as if it had been made of gauze. + +"Your friend lies very sick in a room there," said my guide, speaking +for the first time since he had stepped through the panel. "We have +paid for his keep a long time now." + +I made no answer, only following with my eyes the gesture he made, +pointing at the unpainted wooden partition. In this partition were +three doors, also of rough, unpainted wood. Two stood ajar, showing +small rooms which I fancied were used by the attendants and opium +"cooks." One door was closed. My companion opened it, indicating, +with a smile, that it possessed no lock, only an old-fashioned latch. +"You need not fear to go in and talk with your friend alone," he said, +in his low, monotonous voice. "You see, he is not a prisoner! And we +cannot make you one." + +I shrugged my shoulders, and passed him without a word, shutting the +door behind me as I entered the wretched den on the other side. It was +lit by one paraffin lamp, supported by a bracket attached to the wall, +and such light as existed brought out from the shadows the vague +lumpish shape of a mattress on the floor. Two or three odds and ends +of furniture lurked in corners, but I scarcely saw their squalor. My +one thought was for a dark form stretched on the grey heap of bedding. + +I bent over it, and a hand seemed to grip my heart. "My God, poor old +Don! What have they done to you?" I broke out. + +A skeleton in rags lay on the filthy mattress. The yellow light from +the bracket lamp lit his great eyes as they suddenly opened, in deep +hollows. Even his face looked fleshless. There were streaks of grey +in the dark hair at his temples, and an unkempt beard mingled with the +shadows under his cheekbones. This was what remained of Donald +Allendale, one of the smartest and handsomest men in the army. + +He stared at me dully for an instant, his eyes like windows of glass +With no intelligence behind them. Then abruptly they seemed to come +alive. "Jack!" he gasped. "Am I--dreaming you?" + +"No, dear old chap, no," I assured him, down on one knee by the +mattress, slipping an arm under his head. "It's Jack right enough, +come to take you out of this and make you the man you were again." + +As I spoke, slowly and distinctly, so that the comforting words might +reach his sick soul, I heard a faint, stealthy noise outside. There +was a slight squeak as of iron scraping against wood, and in a flash I +guessed what had happened. My guide had made a point of showing that +the door could not be locked; and I, like a fool--in my haste to see +Don--hadn't sought other means of fastening it, more efficient than any +lock. I guessed that a bar of wood or iron had now been placed across +the door, the two ends in rungs or brackets which I had passed +unnoticed. + +"Well!" I said to myself, "the mischief's done. No use kicking against +the pricks till I'm ready to kick. And I shan't be ready till I've +seen what can be done for Allendale." + +The worst of it was that as I'd allowed myself to be trapped, it was +difficult to see how anything could be done. My theory that I'd been +let into a secret, because I should never be in a position to betray +it, seemed to be the true one. But my fury at Donald's state gave me a +sense of superabundant strength. I felt like Samson, able to pull down +the pillars of the Temple. + +"You're--too late!" the man on the mattress sighed, his voice strange +and weak, sounding almost like a voice speaking through a telephone at +"long distance." "But I'm glad to see you, Jack! I've thought of you. +I've longed for you. Tell me--about Irene. Does she--believe I'm +dead?" + +"She's in New York, dear old boy," I said, evading his question. + +His eyes lighted. It seemed that a faint colour stained his ash-white +cheeks. "She came--to look for me! Oh, Jack, she did love me, then!" + +"Of course," I answered truly enough: for she _had_ loved him before +everything went wrong. Even if I hadn't been as sure of Don's loyalty +as of my own, I should have known by the radiance of his face. If he +had stolen her jewels, he would not be coming back from death to life +in the illusion that love had brought her across the sea. + +"Thank God!" he breathed. "I can die in peace--but no, not yet. +There's a thing I must tell you first, It's the thing they've kept me +here to get out of me. They've tried every way they knew--torture, +starvation, bribes of freedom; everything. They'd have killed me long +ago, only if they had they could never have got the secret. But--how +is it you're here? Is it another trick of theirs?" + +As soon as I heard the word "secret" the mystery was clear. I was the +catspaw with which the chestnuts were to be pulled out of the fire. If +Doctor Rameses was the man who held us both, his intention was +evidently to kill two birds, two rare and valuable birds, with one +stone. How he had got Donald Allendale into his clutches I didn't know +yet, though I soon should: but having him, and learning that he and I +had been friends, he saw how to trap me securely and through me learn +Don's secret. + +Almost without telling I knew that the secret must concern Irene's +jewels, which were worth at least twenty thousand pounds; a haul not to +be despised. Bending over Don, I lifted my head and looked around. I +was sure that a knothole in the wooden wall had come into being within +the last five minutes. If there'd been an aperture there, it had been +stuffed with rags, now noiselessly withdrawn. It was distant not a +yard from Donald's face as he lay on the mattress, and a person +crouching on the floor outside could catch every word, unless we +whispered. Somebody had deduced that the prisoner would open his heart +to me. The "secret" would thus become the property of those who +coveted it; and once it was in their possession Donald and I could be +suppressed. Thus the two birds would be felled with that one cleverly +directed stone--so cleverly directed that I was sure of the hand which +had placed it in the sling. + +It was a case of kill or cure, to startle poor Don; but there was no +other way, and I took the one I saw. "Yes," I said, "they got me here +by a trick, but I don't regret coming. On the contrary. They--whoever +they are--want to hear what you tell me. But we can prevent that. Let +me help you to the other side of the mattress farther from that +knothole, and you'll whisper what you have to say. If that annoys +anyone--I know there are people made nervous by whispering!--why, they +can come in, and get a warm welcome. Put the story into few words; and +then we'll be prepared for the next thing." + +It was a tonic I had given him. He threw a look of disgust and rage at +the knothole, which was dark because, no doubt, the lights had been +turned down outside to make our cubicle seem lighter. Sitting up +without my help, Don flung himself to the other side of the mattress; +and as I knelt beside him, whispered. Unless they had a concealed +dictaphone the secret was safe. + +As I advised, this man raised from the dead, told his story in few +words. On shipboard, coming to America, he had been taken over the +ship one day, by the first officer. To his astonishment, he recognised +Hanson, his valet, in a rather clumsy disguise, travelling second +class. Controlling himself, he appeared not to notice: but as Hanson +had refused to make the voyage in his service, there must be some +curious motive for this ruse. Don could not guess it, but he had once +overheard a conversation between Hanson and Pauline which told him that +they were more than friends. Don didn't like Pauline, and believed +that she had set her mistress against him. After a little thought, he +determined to spring a surprise on Hanson. He learned the name under +which the valet was travelling, found out that the man had a state-room +to himself; and the night after his discovery opened the door and +abruptly walked in. He expected to catch Hanson unawares and surprise +a confession; but the room was empty. Don was amazed to see under the +berth a dressing-bag which had belonged to Irene. He could not believe +she had given it to Pauline or to Hanson, as it had been a present to +her from a friend. It flashed into his head that the thing had been +stolen, and that it might have valuable contents. Acting on impulse, +he took the bag and returned to his own cabin. There he opened it with +one of his own keys, and found most of his wife's jewellery. + +This happened on the night when the ship docked. Don meant to +telegraph Irene next day; and was debating whether to have Hanson +arrested on board ship, or catechise him first. He determined upon the +latter course, as he wished to learn if Pauline were involved in the +theft. He wrote a note and sent it to Hanson, saying that his one +chance lay in confession and that he--Sir Donald--would talk with him +on the dock. The man kept the appointment, begged his ex-master's +forgiveness, told a long story of temptation, exonerated Pauline, and +promised to reform. Don, who had been fond of Hanson and valued him as +a servant, decided that, as he now had the jewels in his own +possession, he could afford to be generous. He bade the fellow "go and +sin no more": and as far as Hanson was concerned, considered the +episode closed. The dressing-bag he gave with other luggage to an +express man to take to his hotel, but the jewels (a rope of pearls, a +flexible tiara of diamonds, and a number of brooches, pendants and +rings) he had put (congratulating himself on his own prudence) into a +tobacco pouch in a pocket of his coat. He engaged a taxi, giving the +name of a hotel; and had no suspicion that anything was wrong until he +realised that, instead of leaving poor streets behind, he was being +driven through a maze of slums. Not knowing New York, he still hoped +that his chauffeur had chosen an unattractive short cut: but instinct +cried loudly that he was the victim of a trick. Fancying that the taxi +slowed down, he took the tobacco-pouch from his pocket and searched for +a place to hide it, in case of trouble. He happened to find a curious +repository. Lifting the leather cushion which formed the seat, he +discovered an inconspicuous rip in the leather binding of the lower +edge. He clawed out a piece of horsehair stuffing, threw it from the +window, and tucked the tobacco-pouch into the hole that was left. +Knowing the number of the taxi (Don was always great at remembering +numbers) he could inform the police if necessary! Whereas, if all were +well, and he found himself arriving safely at his destination he would +take out the bag and laugh at his own suspicions. + +No sooner had he hidden the valuables, however, than the taxi stopped. +The chauffeur civilly informed him that a tyre was down, and apologised +for having to stop in such a poor neighbourhood. The fellow seemed so +frank, that Donald was ashamed of his own timidity. He stuck his head +out of the window to speak with the man at work, and--remembered no +more, till he came to himself in his present surroundings. + +How long ago that was, he could not tell. He had waked to find severe +wounds on his head, and fancied that he had been delirious. He had +thought constantly of Irene, and bitterly regretted their quarrels. It +occurred to him (as to me in hearing the story) that Hanson had crossed +on Sir Donald Allendale's ship with the jewels, intending by the help +of Pauline at home, to throw suspicion on his master. + +My evasive answers and the news of Irene's presence in New York, gave +Don new life and courage to fight for it, believing that through all +she had kept her love and faith. I, alas, knew that this was not the +case; but I hoped that Irene's heart would turn to him again if his +innocence were proved. "You _must_ get out of this for her sake," I +urged. "Besides, I shan't try to escape without you. We stand or fall +together." + +"If I can find strength enough not to hinder instead of help!" he +groaned. "But there's little chance for either of us. For heaven +knows how long they've kept me chained to the wall. To-night, the +Chinaman who takes care of me after a fashion unlocked the iron ring +that was on my ankle. You can see the mark it's made! I wondered what +was up, but thought as I was so weak, it was no longer worth while to +waste the chain on me. Now I see they took it off because they didn't +want you to see at first glance that I was a prisoner, not a +_pensionaire_. The fact that they've left me free shows they've taken +their precautions, though!" + +"Perhaps they haven't taken enough," said I, still whispering as he +did, that ears outside might strain in vain. + +I rose from my knees, and began to look for the iron staple which I +knew must exist. I soon found it in the solid wall at the back of the +room; with the chain and the iron ankle-band attached. A heap of straw +and rags had been used to cover these from sight. No effort of Don's +wasted muscles could suffice to pull out the staple, as his gaolers +knew: and as for my strength, it had not occurred to them that I might +use it in that direction. Probably no one dreamed that blind Samson +would pull down the pillars! + +I made Don move to a position where his body blocked the knothole, and +unless there was another, which I failed to see, I could work without +being overlooked. Grasping the iron ring, with all my might I pulled +and jerked at the staple till I loosened it in the wall. The rest was +easy: and sooner than I'd dared hope I had in my hand a formidable +weapon. If there were a chance of smashing the partition and breaking +out on the other side, it lay in that. Also, it might be useful +afterwards, for if we got into the main cellar, our troubles would be +but just begun. Practically my one hope was that the men told off to +deal with us might be cowards. + +As for smashing the door, there was "nothing doing" there for us, +because of the bar certainly securing it. On examination, however, the +rough plank supporting the bracket lamp looked rotten. It had cracked +when the bracket was nailed up, and had never been mended. This was +good; and I had a plan too, in which the lamp itself was to play a +part. I took it from the bracket, and set it carefully on a rickety +stool which I propped against the back wall. Then I whispered to Don: +"Now for it! If I break through, I'll try and get hold of that bar +across the door. If I do, it will be another weapon: and besides, we +can make a quick dash. Here's my revolver for you. There's only one +cartridge in it; but nobody else knows that. And here's a knife I +stole upstairs. I'll have the iron staple and chain which will make a +good killing, and the bar too, if we're in luck." + +"They may shoot through the partition when they find what we're up to," +said Don. + +"They haven't got their precious secret yet!" I reminded him. "They'll +try and take us alive, and we'll give them a hot time doing it!" + +To weaken the cracked plank, I wrenched off the bracket, and had the +joy of hearing the wood tear as if a saw had bitten through. Then I +dealt blow after blow on the wounded spot, and when the wood began to +give I flung my weight against it. The noise drowned lesser sounds, +but I was conscious of a babble of voices like the chatter of angry +monkeys. Down went the upper half of the broken plank, and the one +next it gave way. It was close to the door, and reaching out an arm I +found the bar. Luckily it was held by a pair of wooden horns, for had +it been slipped into rings I could not have succeeded. As it was a +Chinaman jabbed at my hand with a knife: but I surprised him with a +smashing blow over the eyes, and seized the bar before he came at me +again. Instantly I had it out of the sockets, the door (which Don had +unlatched) fell open, and I burst through like a whirlwind, with him +behind me, carrying the lamp I'd yelled to him to bring. + +Half a dozen Chinamen stood lined up to beat us back. Two with +pistols, two armed with axes, and the one I had tackled brandishing his +carving-knife. I went for the pair with the pistols. My iron bar +cracked a shaved head like an egg-shell, and broke the hand of his +mate. One dropped his weapon without a groan, the other let his fall +with a yelp: and Don, unexpectedly darting forward, snatched up both +the pistols. Thrusting one into my free hand he kept the other. We +were thus doubly armed, and together made a rush for the stairs, I +keeping my eyes open for a surprise attack from my late guide. + +At the foot of the steps, I let Don lead with my revolver and the big +pistol, while I backed up stair by stair, keeping off the four Chinamen +who were still intact. It seemed too good to be true that we were to +get away so easily. Perhaps, I thought, the tug-of-war would come on +the floor above: but it was the enemy's game to finish us before we +gained a higher level. Here, the sound of shots could not reach the +street; and the witnesses of the fight were so besotted with their +drug, so lost to decency, that even if they woke to see strange doings, +all would be woven with their dreams. Above, there was more to fear; +some of the clients were still alive to human feeling: they might take +our part. An alarm might reach the police. Why then, if Rameses were +the hidden enemy, did he let his best chance go by? Almost +subconsciously I asked myself these questions, and half way up the +stairs, my answer came. Men shielded with mattresses flung themselves +upon us from above. They in turn were pushed forward by others and Don +and I fell back. I tried to use the iron bar like a battering ram, but +the weight I struggled against was too great. I stumbled, with Don on +top of me; there was a sound of shouting, and suddenly the lights went +out. I struggled in darkness with unseen enemies, as in a nightmare. + + * * * * * + +Two storeys above, in the restaurant, Irene Allendale sat pretending to +eat, and glancing at her watch until she lost patience. It occurred to +her that she had been a fool--that the woman she waited for might have +arrived before her, might already be in the little private room, dining +with John Hasle. She sprang up and on a furious impulse flung open the +door which she had so long watched in vain. To her astonishment the +room was empty. + +This seemed a miracle; for she knew that John Hasle had gone in and +hadn't come out. As she stood staring at the empty room which seemed +to have no second exit, the Chinese proprietor came to her with a +threatening air. "You do what we no 'low this place," he said +bullyingly. "That plivate loom. You no pay plivate loom. You no +light look in. You give me five dolahs you' dinnah, and you go 'way. +We no like spies. You go, if you no want I call p'lice." + +Already hysterical, Irene lost her head. "How dare you talk of +police!" she cried. "_I_ will call the police! You've very likely +murdered a friend of mine here and hidden his body." + +The man had threatened her in a low voice. She threatened him at the +top of her lungs. The diners at little tables jumped to their feet. +The Chinaman tried to catch her by the veil as she darted to the door, +but only pulled off her motor bonnet and loosened her hair, which +tumbled over her shoulders. In an instant the place was in an uproar. +An American in defence of a beautiful woman knocked the Chinaman down. +A policeman passing the restaurant window blew his whistle, and had +hardly dashed in before he had a couple of comrades at his heels. + +Nobody knew quite what had happened, but Lady Allendale gasped the word +"Murder!" and pointed to the open door of the private room. In jumped +two of the policemen, while the third tried to restore order in the +restaurant. A glance under the table in the little dining-room showed +that no corpse lay hidden there, but the lovely lady's persistence put +the idea of a secret entrance into their heads. One of them thumped +with his fist on the picture of the Chinese hunter. The hollow sound +suggested a space behind. An experienced hand passed over the bamboo +frame found a spring, and the panel slid back. Somehow the cry of +"Murder!" started by Irene flew from mouth to mouth. More policemen +appeared, and Europeans who had been peacefully dining in the +restaurant reinforced the courageous pair who had sprung through the +opening behind the picture. So the rescue-party reached us in the nick +of time, policemen's lanterns lighting up the darkness, revealing +stealthy flitting forms that would escape at any price, and a mass of +men struggling under and above a pile of mattresses. + +My first thought (after I had seen that Don was safe) rushed to +Rameses. But the tall Chinaman with the long dark eyes was not among +the prisoners. That night (the police gleefully informed me later) +Doctor Rameses was engaged in giving a lecture at his own house, and +could not possibly have been in Chinatown. As usual, he had known how +to save himself; and it was only long after that I learned the +remarkable way in which he invariably established an alibi. + + +My hope for the reconciliation of Don and Irene was fulfilled even +before the overwhelming proof of his truth was obtained by finding the +tobacco-pouch intact, still hidden inside the seat of the ancient taxi +whose number Don had never forgotten. The man who had driven it the +night of the attack had been discharged, and could not be found. +Hanson, too, contrived to elude the vigilance of the police, and +Pauline passionately denied all knowledge of him. She was watched when +Lady Allendale sent her away, but returned quietly to Europe, while +Irene remained in New York to help nurse Donald back to health. With +Hanson and his accomplice of the taxi missing, and the Master Mind past +pursuit, it was impossible to clear up the mystery of the corpse found +floating in the East River. But after all, that mattered only to the +police, now that Captain Sir Donald Allendale was alive and safe, and +happier than he had been for years. + +The day that Irene and he made up their differences, she sent for me. +"You won't tell Don that I said I hated him and threw his picture on +the floor, will you?" she asked me piteously. + +"Of course not!" I assured her. + +"Ah, if I could atone!" she sighed. + +"You have atoned. You saved our lives, and----" + +"Oh, but you don't know all. If you did, you'd loathe me." + +"I can think of nothing which would make me loath you, Lady Allendale." + +"I--made Miss Odell believe--that--that--I can't tell you _what_! +But--never mind. I've written to her now. I've confessed that it was +a lie. If you wouldn't press me with questions, but just wait to hear +from her, you'd be an _angel_, Lord John." + +How long I could have remained an angel at that price I'm not sure. +But a letter came to me from Maida next day to say that she had decided +_not_ to become a life member of the Grey Sisterhood. + + + + +EPISODE VI + +THE CLUE IN THE AIR + +If I had been fighting my own battle, not Maida's, against Doctor +Rameses, I might have sometimes admired his cleverness. There seemed +to be no way of catching him. + +The police theory was that some person, not Rameses, took advantage of +the "philanthropist's" conspicuous appearance to commit crimes in a +disguise resembling his peculiarities. This, they thought, might be +done not only as a means of escaping detection, but with the object of +blackmail. My theory was different. I believed that Rameses had a +confederate enough like him in looks to deceive an audience assembled +for one of his lectures, or patients undergoing his treatment. + +I did not hesitate to assert this opinion, hoping to provoke the man to +open attack. + +After the affair of the opium den, he lay low. Nothing happened in +which, by any stretching of probabilities, he could have had a hand. +Perhaps, thought I, he had learned that I was a hard nut to crack! +Two-thirds of the time for which Maida had promised herself to the Grey +Sisterhood passed. Her doubts of me had been swept away, and I hoped +to find at the end of the year that I hadn't waited in vain. Now and +then I saw, or believed that I saw, light on the mystery of Maida's +antecedents. Altogether I was happier than I had been and I was +serving my country's interests while I served my own. + +I had been ordered to buy desirable new types of aeroplanes, and +luckily got hold of some good ones. The "story" of my mission suddenly +appeared in the newspapers, and interest in my old exploits as a flying +man were revived embarrassingly. I was "paragraphed" for a few days +when war tidings happened to be dull; and to my surprise received an +invitation to demonstrate my "stunt" of looping a double loop at a new +aviation park, opened on Long Island. The exhibition resulted in +another compliment. I was asked to instruct a class of young aviators, +and was officially advised by the British Ambassador to accept. I did +accept: and was given a "plane" and a hangar of my own; but I kept on +my suite in the hotel near Sisterhood House, starting at an early hour +most mornings to motor to the aviation ground. + +After a few weeks of this, a big aviation meeting took place, and when +my part in it was over I found myself holding quite a reception in my +hangar. Friends and strangers had kind things to say: and while I +explained new features of my 'plane to some pretty women, I saw a +prettier woman gazing wistfully at me between hats. + +Her face was familiar. I remembered that tremulous, wistful smile of +eyes and lips, which (the thought flashed through my head) would be +fine stock-in-trade for an actress. Still, for the life of me, I +couldn't recall the girl's name or whether we had ever really met, +until her chance came to dash into the breach made by disappearing +plumes and feathers. She seized the opportunity with a promptness that +argued well for her bump of decision: but she was helped to success by +the tallest, thinnest, brightest-eyed young man I had ever seen. + +"You've forgotten me, Lord John!" the girl reproached me. "I'm Helen +Hartland. Does that name bring back anything?" + +"Of course!" I answered, remembering where and how I had met Helen +Hartland. She had made her debut on the stage several years ago in a +curtain-raiser of mine, my first and last attempt at playwriting "on my +own." Her part had been a small one, but she had played it well and +looked lovely in it. I had congratulated her. When the run ended, she +had asked for introductions to people I knew in the theatrical world, +and I had given them. She had written me a few letters, telling of +engagements she had got (nothing good unfortunately) and wanting me to +see her act. I had never been able to do so; but I had sent her +flowers once on a first night. + +Not trusting to my recollection, she reminded me of these things, and +introduced the tall, thin, bright-eyed young man. + +"You must have heard of Charlie Bridges, the California Birdman, as +everybody calls him!" she said. And then went on to explain, as if she +didn't want their relations misunderstood: "We met on the ship coming +over, and Mr. Bridges was _so_ kind! Our steamer chairs were together, +and he lent me a copy of _Sketch_ with a picture of him in it! Wasn't +it funny, there was a picture of _you_, too, and I mentioned knowing +you? Next, it came out that he was bringing a letter of introduction +to you from a friend of yours at home. We landed only two days ago. I +was so happy, for I've had hard luck for months, and I thought I was +falling into a ripping engagement. But it was a fraud--the _queerest_ +fraud! I can't understand it a bit. I want to tell you all about it +and get your advice. Mr. Bridges brought me to the meeting here. It +_was_ nice of him. But now I've paid him back, haven't I, putting him +in touch with you?" + +Charlie Bridges listened to the monologue with varying emotions, as I +could see in his face which was ingeniously expression-ful. Evidently +he had fallen in love with Helen Hartland, and was not pleased to stand +still listening to protestations of gratitude for small past favours +from me. She realised his state of feeling as well as I did, perhaps +better, being a woman: and what her motive in exciting him to jealousy +was, I couldn't be sure. Maybe she wished to bring him to the point +(though he looked eager to impale himself upon it!), maybe she simply +didn't care how he felt, and wanted him to understand this once for +all: or possibly it amused her to play us off against each other. + +In any case, I put myself out to be pleasant to Bridges, who seemed a +nice fellow, and was, I knew, a smart aviator. He had been in France +at the time of my accident, and had not returned to America since then. +He had news from London and Paris to give me, and even if Helen +Hartland had not insisted, we should have struck up a friendship. + +I invited them to have food with me at the brand new Aviation Park +Hotel (as it called itself), saying that we'd "feed" in the roof-garden +restaurant, of which the proprietors were proud. Bridges hesitated, +possibly disliking to accept hospitality from the hated rival: but as +Helen said "yes," rather than leave her to my tender mercies, the poor +chap followed suit. + +The hotel had been run up in next to no time, to catch aviation "fans," +and the roof-garden was a smart idea, as patrons could sit there eating +and drinking, and see the flying at the same time. It was small, but +nicely arranged, partly glassed in, partly open, with a "lift" to rush +dishes up from the kitchen (this was practically concealed with +trellis-work covered with creepers trying to grow in pots), and a low +wall or parapet with flowers planted in a shallow strip of earth. The +weather was fine, so we chose a table in the open, for our late +luncheon. My place--with Helen at my right, and Bridges opposite us +both--was close to the parapet, so close that I could peer over a row +of pink geraniums, to the newly-sodded lawn and gravelled paths below. +As it happened I did peer while we waited for our oysters, +sub-consciously attracted perhaps by the interest an elderly waiter was +taking in someone or somebody down there. I was just in time to see a +face look up, not to me but to the waiter. Instantly the head ducked, +presenting to my eyes only the top of a wide-brimmed soft hat of black +felt--an old-fashioned hat. + +"By Jove!" I said to myself, and had to beg Helen's pardon for losing a +remark of hers: for that quick, snap-shot glance had shown me features +like those of the priceless Rameses. + +"Now, what can _he_ be doing here--if it is he?" I wondered. It was +absurd to fancy that he might bribe a waiter to poison my food, and so +rid himself of me once for all. No: poisoning--anyhow at second +hand--wasn't in Rameses' line. Besides, his waiter wasn't my waiter, +which would complicate the plot for a neat murder. As the man walked +away (I still watching) his back was not like that of Rameses, if I had +ever seen the real Rameses. The police thought I had not. I thought I +had: but the picture in my mind was of a person erect and +distinguished: this figure was slouching and common. + +I was not, however, to be caught napping. I called to the waiter who +now, instead of looking down to the lawn, was picking dead leaves off +the pink geraniums. "That was Doctor Rameses of New York, wasn't it?" +I fired at him, staring into his anemic Austrian face. It did not +change, unless to drop such little expression as it had worn. Utter +blankness must mean complete innocence or extreme subtlety. I could +hardly credit the fellow with the latter. "Doctor Ra--mps?" he echoed. +"Who--where, sir?" + +"Down below: the man you were looking at," I explained, still fixing +him with a basilisk eye. + +He shook his head. "I wasn't lookin' at no man, sir," he protested. +"I was lookin' at nothin' at all." + +Meanwhile the slouch hat and slouching figure had disappeared into the +crowd which still ringed the aviation ground. I abandoned the inquest, +and turned my attention to Helen and Bridges. + +As we lunched, I learned the history of Helen's trip to America, and +the "fraud" she had spoken of as "queer." It seemed that, a few days +after the suburban theatre she was acting in had closed, she received a +long cable message from New York. A man signing himself "William +Morgan, Manager Excelsis Motion Picture Corporation" offered her the +"lead" in a forthcoming production. He explained expensively that he +had seen her act and thought her ideal for the part. She was to have +six months' certain engagement with a salary of a hundred dollars a +week, and her dresses and travelling expenses were to be paid by the +management. She was to reply by wire, and if she accepted, five +hundred dollars would be advanced to her by cable. + +The address given, "29, Vandusen Street, New York," did not sound +"swell" to an English actress who vaguely thought of Broadway and Fifth +Avenue as being the only streets "over there." Still, the promise of +an advance gave an air of bona-fides, and Helen had answered "Yes. +Start on receipt of money." + +By return, the money came, and the girl took the first ship available, +telegraphing again to Mr. Morgan. She expected him to meet her at the +docks, but he "never materialised," and "if it hadn't been for Mr. +Bridges she didn't know what she would have done!" Bridges it was who +took her in a taxi to 29, Vandusen Street, which address proved to be +that of a tobacconist in a small way of business. There she was told +that a man named William Morgan had paid for the privilege of receiving +"mail," but only a couple of telegrams had come. He had called for +them, but had not been seen since. The proprietor of the shop vowed +that he knew nothing of Morgan. The man had walked in one day, bought +a box of expensive cigars, and made the arrangement mentioned. Bridges +inquired "what he was like," but the tobacconist shook his head dully. +Morgan looked like everybody else, neither old nor young, fair nor +dark, fat nor lean. If you met him once, you couldn't be sure you +would know him again. + +"I've three hundred and fifty dollars left," Helen said at last, "all I +have in the world, for I was stoney-broke when the cable came. Of +course I can't live on that money long. But as I'm here, I shall stop +and try to get something to do. I'm puzzled to death, though, why +'Morgan'--whoever he is--picked _me_ out, or why it was worth his while +to send a hundred pounds and then never turn up at the ship." + +"It does seem odd," I agreed. "He may have been scared off from +meeting you--or arrested. However, you'd better be careful what +acquaintances you make." + +"I _want_ to be careful," the girl said. "But I _must_ find work. And +I can't do that without making some acquaintances, can I?--whether +they're dangerous or not! Unless--oh, Lord John, if you could _only_ +put me in the way of an engagement, no matter how small. I've heard +your play was a great success. You must know a lot of managers over +here and-- + +"I don't," I answered her. "My activities lately haven't been in +theatres! I'm afraid----" I was going on, but stopped suddenly. She +had said "an engagement no matter how small." I would take her at her +word! + +"You've thought of something for me!" she exclaimed, while Bridges +sulked because he numbered no theatrical potentates among his friends. + +"I'm almost ashamed to suggest it," I said, "but I could get you a +'job' of a sort here. The proprietor of this hotel and his wife (good +creatures and ambitious to cut a dash in the fashionable world) want a +pretty girl--a 'real actress'--to sing and recite in the roof-garden +these fine summer evenings. I don't suppose you----" + +"Oh, yes I _would_! I'd love to be here. It would be _fun_!" Helen +broke in. "I adore flying; and I should see _you_ often--and Mr. +Bridges too, perhaps. Anyhow, it would do to go on with till I got +something else, if they'd pay me a 'living wage.'" + +"I'll be your agent, sing your praises and screw up your price," I +imprudently volunteered. Imprudently, because having arranged matters +between the hotel people and Miss Hartland, I found her gratitude +oppressive. She said it was gratitude; yet she seemed to think that I +had got her placed at the Aviation Park Hotel in order to enjoy her +society. This was not the case. Helen Hartland was pretty, with +charming ways for those who liked them: but I was in the state of mind +which sees superlative beauty and charm in one woman only. Because I +was separated from Maida Odell by force of circumstances while she +remained with the Grey Sisterhood, it was irritating to see other girls +flitting about free to do as they pleased. It bored me when I had to +lunch or dine at the hotel to find Helen always on hand with "something +to tell," or my "advice to ask." + +Whether the girl had taken a fancy to me, or whether she was amusing +herself by exciting Bridges' jealousy, I didn't know: I knew only that +I was bothered, and that Bridges was miserable. + +Helen lived in the hotel from the first, partly through kindness on the +part of her employers, partly perhaps because they thought her presence +an attraction. They gave her a decent salary--more than she had ever +earned in the small parts she'd played at home: she dressed well, and +made a "hit" with her sweet soprano voice, her really glorious +yellow-brown hair, and that wistful smile of hers. Next door to the +best and biggest bedroom in the house was a small room which connected +with the larger one, and could be used as a dressing-room. Nobody ever +engaged it for that purpose, however, and Mrs. Edson, the landlady, +suggested that Miss Hartland should occupy the little room until it was +wanted. The girl described it to me as delightful. There were double +doors between it and the large room adjoining, so that one wasn't +disturbed by voices on the other side. There was also a door opening +close to the service stairway which went up to the roof-garden. This +was convenient for Helen, before and after her songs and recitations. +She bought little knick-knacks to make her quarters pretty and, with a +patent folding-bed and a screen or two was able to ask her friends in, +as if she were the proud possessor of a private sitting-room. + +I made excuses instead of calls; but one day I was lured in to see +Charlie Bridges (who by then had a hangar on the grounds) do his +wonderful "stunt," considered by the Edsons a fine advertisement for +their hotel. It was not, however, for purposes of advertisement that +the California Birdman performed the "stunt" in question, but rather +for love of Helen Hartland. In the small, smart "one seater" which he +was using, he would dive from a height, swoop past Helen's open window +and throw in a bunch of roses. It was said that his aim was invariably +true, a more difficult feat than might be supposed: anyhow the day that +I was there to witness the exhibition it was a brilliant success. +Whether by accident or design the flowers hit me on the head, and if +Charlie were really jealous he accomplished a neat revenge. + +"I could see you as plain as a pikestaff sitting there," he said +afterwards. "Oh, I don't mean the 'plain' or the 'pikestaff' in a +nasty way, Lord John. I only mean I recognised you as I flew by." + +"And Mrs. Edson too, who was with us, I suppose," I hurried to say: for +I didn't wish the boy to think that he had anything to fear from me. I +saw from his manner, however, when we happened to meet, that he was +worried, and to give him the chance which I didn't want for myself, I +began to avoid Helen. + +This course wasn't easy to steer, I found, while duty kept me often at +the aviation grounds. She sent me notes. I had to answer them. She +asked me to lend her books. I couldn't refuse. At last she wrote a +letter, confessing that she had got into trouble about money. Her +salary "wasn't bad, considering"; but she hadn't understood American +prices. She'd been stupid enough to run into debt. Would I, as her +countryman, help her out of just _one_ scrape, and she wouldn't get +into another? Of course, Mr. Bridges would be glad to do it, but she +didn't want to take a favour from him. I was "different." + +I sent her a hundred dollars, the sum she specified, but in writing her +thanks, she "chaffed" me for not making out a cheque. "I believe you +think me capable of trying to get a hold on you," she wrote. Naturally +I didn't bother to reply to that taunt, but kept out of Helen's way +more persistently than before, until one afternoon Mrs. Edson +buttonholed me. I happened to have seen Helen on her way to New York, +so I was venturing to lunch at the hotel. + +"I'm worried about Miss Hartland, Lord John," she began. "A sweet +girl, but I'm afraid she's being silly! Do you know what she goes to +New York for so often?" + +"I didn't know she did go often," I said. + +"Well, she does. She's taking lessons in hypnotism or something and I +believe she's paying a lot of money. A circular came to her about a +course of lectures, claiming that the _will_ could be strengthened, and +any object in life accomplished. That caught poor Helen. She simply +ate up the lectures, and became a pupil of the man who gave them. +That's why her salary's gone as soon as she gets it--and sooner! Poor +child, I'm sorry. The thing she _ought_ to want, she won't take. The +thing she does want she can't have, if she spends every cent trying to +gain 'hypnotic power.'" + +"What does she so violently want, if it's permitted to ask?" I inquired. + +Mrs. Edson looked at me in a queer, sidewise way. "You'd only be cross +if I told you," she said. So instead of repeating the question, I +asked another. "Who is the professor of hypnotism who gives Miss +Hartland lessons?" + +"I can't remember," the landlady replied. "I saw the circular, but +that was some time ago, and I've forgotten. Now, the child won't talk +about him." + +The thought of Rameses sprang into my mind. I recalled the mystery of +Helen's summons to America. Could it be possible that Doctor Rameses +had wanted a "cat's-paw" for some new chestnuts to be pulled out of the +fire? What would Helen Hartland's poor little paw avail him for that +work? I went on wondering. But the ways of the Egyptian were past +finding out--or had been, up to date. It was within the bounds of +possibility that thinking to compromise me, he had sought in England a +girl--preferably an actress--whom I had known; within the same bounds +that he might have induced her to cross the sea, in the hope that, once +on this side, we might play his game. So far-fetched an idea would +never have come into my head, had not Mrs. Edson mentioned the +circular, and the professor of hypnotism. But once in, I couldn't get +it out. I determined to take the next chance to catechise Helen. + +It arrived by accident, or I thought so, believing myself a free agent; +instead of which I was a fly blundering into a spider's web. + +From Maida Odell and from the elderly waiter who had looked over the +parapet at a man in a broad-brimmed hat, I have since obtained threads +which show how the web was woven: but some disastrous days were to pass +first. + +During this time I heard nothing from Maida, but I had memories to +comfort me, and it was good to feel how few miles were between us. +Strange that, few as they were, no telepathic thrill was able to warn +me of what was happening behind the high garden walls of the Sisterhood +House! + +Maida has told me since, how the Head Sister called her one day for a +talk. "I want to make a little journey and try to do a little good," +the grey-veiled lady said in the deep voice which Maida had once +thought sweet as the tones of a 'cello. "I should like you to go with +me, but--there is a reason why perhaps you would rather I took someone +else. Still, I feel bound to give you the choice, as you are my +dearly-loved and trusted friend through _everything_." + +"Why should I want you to take someone else, Sister?" Maida asked. + +"Because--a man who would steal you away from us if he could, is often +at the place where we must go. He visits the young English girl I am +asked to help; and I fear that his interest in her is not for her good. +Now, dear child, don't be angry with me for saying this! I don't ask +you to believe. I tell you only what I hear from my philanthropic +friend in New York who enables us to do some of our best work. I wish +he would let his name be mentioned, but even his right hand is never +allowed to know what the left hand doeth! In any case the girl is in +difficulties, as this doer of noble works hears from one of his +assistants. She is an actress who sings in a gay, rowdy sort of hotel +frequented by sportsmen and their friends. I am requested to offer her +a home here, if she chooses to come, and eventually to send her back to +England at the expense of the Sisterhood funds. Now you see why I +spoke. You shall go or stay, as you wish." + +Once Maida had thought all the Head Sister's precepts and acts beyond +criticism. But things had passed in Sisterhood House which had +slightly--almost imperceptibly--broken the crystal surface of perfect +trust. She found herself wondering: "Why does Sister advise me not to +think of Lord John? Why does she hint horrid things of him, yet take +me where we may meet?" + +There was no answer to this question in Maida's mind, but she said that +she would go with the Head Sister on the "mission": and in her heart +she hoped that we might meet. She had been tried and tested before, +and again she was loyal in thought. + +The conversation between those two at Sisterhood House took place the +day after my talk with Mrs. Edson. And while Maida and the Head Sister +discussed the short journey they planned to make, I was probably +dashing off a hasty letter to Helen Hartland. "I want to see you," I +wrote, "about something rather important. Please send a line in +answer, and tell me at what time I may call to-morrow afternoon." + +In answer to this, Helen replied that she would see me at five o'clock. +"I'm very unhappy," she added. "I know you want me to go back to +England, and I believe you're _afraid_ of me. I think you are cruel, +but I'm thankful you're coming to see me of your own free will." + +I should have been dumbfounded at this morbid nonsense, if the thought +of Rameses hadn't been haunting my mind. If he were the power behind +the throne in this business, he might have stuffed the girl with false +ideas about me, or else actually have hypnotised her to write in this +unbalanced fashion. + +I had been in my hangar, or flying, most of the day, and came to the +hotel half an hour before the appointment, to make myself tidy for a +call. Looking out from the window I saw a grey automobile flash by and +slow down as if to stop at the door. Whether it did stop or no, I +couldn't be sure, as I could not see so far; nor should I have been +interested had the thought not flashed through my head that it looked +like the car which belonged to Sisterhood House. + +Nothing seemed less likely than that it should come to the Aviation +Park Hotel: and there were many autos of that make and colour on Long +Island. I thought no more about it, little dreaming of the surprise +Doctor Rameses' genius had prepared for Maida and for me. Now I ask +myself where was my prophetic soul wandering at that moment? Perhaps +it was searching for Maida: but it would only have to look close at +hand to see her walking in to the hotel in the adorably becoming +costume of the Grey Sisterhood. The inevitable Head Sister was with +her, of course: but not in command, according to custom. Even before +starting, she had complained of a headache, and Maida had suggested +putting off the expedition: but the sufferer refused such +self-indulgence. During the drive to the hotel, she was speechless +with pain, and Maida, who had never seen the strong, vital directress +in such a condition, was anxious. "I'm afraid we must take a room in +the hotel for a while, where I may lie down until I'm able to see Miss +Hartland," the Head Sister said as the grey car drew up at the door. +Maida was thankful for this concession, but surprised that she should +be told, in a faint voice, to engage the best room in the house. The +Head Sister was usually spartan in her ways, setting an example of +self-sacrifice to all those under her care. + +Maida obeyed without comment, however, and the big room adjoining Helen +Hartland's, with the double doors between, was given to the two ladies +of the Grey Sisterhood. + +These happenings--and certain developments which followed quickly--I +learned long afterwards from Maida's own lips, when we were putting +"two and two together." From the elderly Austrian who acted as a +waiter in the roof-garden I forced another part of the same story, +hearing from him that he had been one of Rameses' many servants. This +I succeeded in doing too late to pull myself out of the pit which was +waiting (at this very moment) for me to tumble into it. Nevertheless +there was satisfaction later in knowing that my researches had never +strayed from the right track. + +It had been raining that day, I remember--an unlucky thing for the +aviation "fans," come from far and near to see a new way of looping the +loop demonstrated by two American pupils of mine, and myself: a lucky +thing for the most daring experiment ever attempted by Doctor Rameses. +People were walking about between nights, with umbrellas held low over +their heads to protect them the better from a straight, steady +downpour. Thus, roofed with wet silk domes they could see little +except their own feet and each other. It was only when something +happened aloft that it was worth while to unroof themselves: and at +such moments all attention was concentrated on the sky. The air-show +was a good one. Soaked enthusiasts rushed to the hotel for a "quick +lunch" and drinks and rushed away again, or congregated on the roof +with sandwiches in their hands. Waiters in the roof-restaurant walked +with chins up: and there was a moment when one of their number--old +Anton, the Austrian--was able to lure even the kitchen staff, cooks and +all, out of doors for a few minutes. By a weird decree of fate, it was +a flight of mine that they were invited to desert duty in order to +witness! + +While the kitchen was empty and the door open, with men's backs turned +to it, Anton had given a signal. A mackintoshed figure slipped in, and +finding the coast clear, made for the food elevator, which was ready to +mount. Inside there was room for a man to crouch. Anton, darting into +the kitchen, sent the lift up: then darted out again to tell the cook +and cook's assistant a spicy anecdote about me! + +There was no stop for the elevator between kitchen and roof. It was a +slow traveller, and as the open front rose above the restaurant floor, +the crouching man within could see at a glance what hope he had of +running the gauntlet. The moment could not have been better chosen. I +was in the act of doubling my loop, and everyone on the roof--guests +and waiters--had crowded to the flower-fringed parapet. The lift was +artistically concealed by an arbour of white painted trellis-work, as I +have explained; but sharp eyes could peer between the squares overhung +with climbing plants, and see all that went on upon the other side. +The crouching figure crept out, rose, and precipitated itself down the +service stairway whose railed-in wall was also masked by the trellis +arbour. + +It could not have been long after this that I finished my work for the +day, and came to the hotel, as I have said, to keep my appointment with +Helen Hartland; but meanwhile there had been time for the man in the +high-collared mackintosh coat to finish _his_ work also. He had not, +of course, ventured to try returning by the way he came, but had run +down the service stairs and walked out of the house by a side entrance. +Thanks to the rain and the umbrellas, and the call of the sky, he +escaped, as he entered, without being seen. If Anton had not been +compelled to betray him later, the mystery of the Aviation Park Hotel +would never have been solved. + +Before I went (as requested in Helen's last letter) to knock at her +door, a new cause of excitement had arisen. Charlie Bridges had +crashed to earth in his machine, close to the hotel, and crowds had +collected round the fallen aeroplane. Those who saw the fall, were +able to explain why the 'plane was scarcely injured. Bridges had been +swooping at the time, so close to earth that the drop amounted to +nothing: but for some curious reason he had lost control of the +machine. He was far more seriously hurt than he ought to have been, +for not having been strapped in, he had slid from his seat somehow, and +been caught under the machine. Unconscious and suffering from +concussion the "California Birdman" was carried into a ground floor +room of the hotel, while a "hurry call" was sent over the telephone for +the nearest doctor. + +All this happened unknown to me, for the room in which I was dressing +was on the opposite side of the house. Any shouts I heard, or running +men I saw through the window, were only part of the ordinary show for +me. At precisely five o'clock I went my way through various corridors +and knocked at Helen's door, in ignorance of Charlie Bridges' +misfortune. + +The door stood slightly ajar, as if Helen had left it so purposely for +me: but no answer followed my knock. I tapped again more loudly, and +the door fell open at my touch. No one was in the room; but close to +the window, on the floor, I saw a bunch of crimson roses, wet with rain. + +"Bridges!" I said to myself, with a smile. + +For a moment I hesitated outside the door: yet rather than go away and +miss the girl when she arrived (I imagined that she had run up to the +roof), or lurk in the corridor to be stared at by passing servants, I +decided to walk into the room and wait. Probably, I thought, this was +what Helen had meant, in leaving the door ajar. + +If the door of the next room had opened at that instant, and Maida had +looked out, the history of the wretched weeks which followed might have +been different for us both. But the door remained closed, and no +instinct told me who was behind it. No one saw me walk into Helen +Hartland's room; and therefore no one could tell at what hour I had +entered. + +I did not look out of the window, or I should have seen the fallen +aeroplane which must still have been on the ground. I left the +flowers--red as their giver's blood--lying on the floor for Helen to +find when she came: but minutes passed and Helen did not come. + +I sat down in a chair drawn up by the table and glanced at a couple of +books. Both had been lent by me at Helen's request, and had my name on +the flyleaf. I laid them down again impatiently on the gaudy cotton +tablecloth; and took out my watch. Ten minutes after five! ... Soon it +was the quarter past. I was resolving impatiently to scrawl a line on +a visiting-card, and go, when I heard a slight noise, as if someone in +the adjoining room were unlocking a door. I knew from Helen's +description that there were two doors, with a distance of at least +twelve inches between. + +"Can she be using that other room, too?" I wondered: when suddenly +there rang out a scream of horror, in a woman's voice. It seemed to me +that it was like Maida's, though that must be a mere obsession! but I +sprang to my feet, dragging off the tablecloth and bringing down on the +floor books, papers, and a vase of flowers. My chair fell over also: +and all this confusion in the room was afterwards used against me. + +I rushed to the door leading out to the corridor--which I had closed on +entering--and found a swarm of people, guests and waiters, already +pouring down the service stairs from the roof-garden just above. +Everyone saw me come out of Helen Hartland's room: but even if they had +not seen, there was my hat with my initials in it, on the floor with +the rest of the fallen things, to testify to my late presence. + +As we crowded the narrow corridor, the door of the "best room" whence +the scream had come, was flung wide open, and to my amazement, Maida +Odell--in her grey costume of the Sisterhood--rushed out pale as a dead +girl. + +"Murder! A woman murdered!" she whispered rather than cried, as one +strives voicelessly to shriek in a dream. Just then she saw me, and +held out both hands as if for help. I pushed past everyone else and +got to her: but others surged forward and she and I gave way before the +crowd. A dozen men at least must have jostled into the room after us; +but at the instant I hardly knew that they were there. I saw a big +woman in grey drawing a veil closely round her face as she rose from a +cushioned lounge: and I saw lying on the floor the body of Helen +Hartland with a thin stiletto sticking in her breast--a stiletto I had +lent her to use as a paper knife. I recognised it instantly in +redoubled horror, though not thinking then of consequences for myself. + +By this time a policeman--one of those always present on the aviation +grounds--forced his way through the crowd massed in the corridor. He +got rid in summary fashion of everyone, except the two ladies, +occupants of the room, myself (because I seemed to know and have some +business with them) and the landlord. Another policeman who followed +close on his heels, guarded the doors of the adjoining rooms, and +doubtless a third busied himself in sending off frantic telephone calls. + +Helen Hartland lay on her back on the pale grey carpet stained with her +blood; and Maida told tremulously how the tragedy had been discovered. +The Head Sister, feeling ill, had lain down on a sofa not far from the +door of communication between this room and the next. She had fancied +a noise on the other side, and asked Maida to try if the door were +fastened. Strangely, it was not (though Edson cut in to protest that +it, and all other communicating doors were invariably locked). The +door had opened as the handle turned, and to the girl's horror the +figure of a dead woman--standing squeezed in between the two doors--had +fallen into the room. + +Hardly had the faltering explanation reached this point when a doctor +arrived--the man who had been in the hotel, attending Charlie Bridges. +He examined the body, pronounced that life had not been extinct for +half an hour, and thought from the position of the weapon, that death +had been caused by another hand than Helen's own. + +There was, of course, no difficulty in identifying the girl, for the +landlord and I were both on the spot retained to give evidence. It +soon came out that Helen Hartland had told Mrs. Edson she expected a +visit from Lord John Hasle, and I without hesitation admitted making +it. The Head Sister chimed in, saying that she and her friend had come +for the express purpose of seeing Miss Hartland and persuading her to +leave "her unsuitable position." The adjoining room was entered, for +it was found that the second of the double doors was unlocked. The +confusion was remarked, and silence was maintained when I told how in +jumping up at the sound of the scream I had thrown down a chair and +pulled off a tablecloth. + +The books with my name written in them were handled by the policeman +who had taken charge, and by his superior who soon arrived on the +scene. Letters of mine--albeit innocent ones--were unearthed. A few +drops of blood were discovered on the strawberry-coloured carpet +between the table and the door, as well as between the double doors, in +the narrow space into which the body had been thrust. Worse than all, +my monogram was seen to adorn the stiletto paper-knife; and later (when +I had been rather reluctantly arrested on suspicion) the last letter +Helen had written turned up in my pocket. I had slipped it in and +forgotten about it; but with so many damaging pieces of evidence that +capped the climax. The girl accused me in so many words of wishing to +get her out of the way, to send her back to England. + +It seemed like a nightmare, and a stupid nightmare: one of those +nightmares when you know you are awake yet cannot rouse yourself: I, +John Hasle, brother and heir to the Marquis of Haslemere, lay under +strong suspicion of having murdered a pretty little third-rate actress +who had become troublesome to my "lordship"--Helen Hartland. + +Everything was against me, nothing apparently for me: yet I was almost +insolently sure that my innocence would prove itself, until the lawyer +my friends engaged in my defence showed me how seriously he took the +matter. + +"You're in a bad fix," he said, "unless we can find someone to prove +that you weren't in that room long enough to have killed the girl and +hidden her between the doors. You see, that would have been a smart +dodge on the murderer's part, putting her there. If the next room +hadn't happened to be occupied (it seldom is, the landlady says) the +man who did the trick would have had plenty of time to get away before +the crime was found out. It was an accident that there were ladies on +the other side to open the door of their room and see what was behind +it. Your letters, your books, your stiletto----" + +"It seems to me the stiletto is a proof of my innocence, not of my +guilt," I ventured. "If I'd wanted to kill the girl, I wouldn't have +done it in a way to incriminate myself, would I?" + +"Hobson's choice," said the famous James Jeckelman, shrugging his +shoulders. "You might have been in a rage and a hurry and had to take +what there was at hand. You couldn't have shot her, because of the +noise. It was a stab or nothing. No. If we're to save you, we must +get hold of someone who _saw_." + +That was easy to say, but not to do. Not a soul came forward to state +that I had opened Helen Hartland's door at precisely five o'clock, to +find the room empty; and that at a quarter past five the girl's body +had fallen into the room next door. Even if there had been such +evidence in my favour, it could not have freed me from suspicion. +There might have been time to murder the girl, and hide her between the +doors in less than fifteen minutes. But it was strange that she had +not screamed. + +Circumstantial evidence piled up: and the most hateful part for me was +that Maida, as well as the directress of the Grey Sisterhood, should be +called as a witness. I writhed at the thought that Maida was involved +in the case, a case concerning the murder of a woman supposed to have +loved me "not wisely but too well." + +At first I thought only of this distressing phase of the business: but +it wasn't long before I began to realise that Jeckelman had not +exaggerated. My "position" was not to be allowed to tell in my favour, +and socialists were hot in anger against the British "lord" who thought +he could break any commandment he chose in America. + +If only I had been sure how Maida felt, there might have been a rift in +the dark sky. Could it be that her loyalty had stood this greatest +test, or had the evidence and the Head Sister's hatred done their work? +I could not tell, and day after day I saw more clearly that I might go +to my death without knowing. + +The coroner's inquest had found against me: and the trial was coming on +when one day Charlie Bridges suddenly woke to consciousness. For weeks +he had lain between life and death. The concussion from which he +suffered was so severe that for a time he had been a mere log. His +soul seemed to have gone out of him. Delirium followed this state. +Then he fell into a long, sound sleep, and waking, his first words +were: "What's happened since I fell? Have they got the man who made +Helen Hartland kill herself?" + +The nurse who heard these questions thought that delirium had seized +her patient again: but the doctor, coming in at that moment, understood +that Bridges was in a normal state of mind. He realised that every +word the sick man said might mean life or death for me. Cautiously he +answered the question by another, speaking quietly, not to startle his +patient. "Did Helen Hartland kill herself? Weeks have passed since +you've been laid up, and the case was supposed to be murder." + +"It was the same as murder," Bridges answered wearily. "Nearly +everyone who knew us, knew I used to fly past her window and fling in a +bunch of flowers. It was one of my stunts. I could always see what +Helen was doing if she was in: and there was generally time for a +smile. A smile's a thing quickly done. And that was the reward I got. +This last time I saw a man standing over her in a strange way with his +hand on her forehead, for all the world as if he was hypnotising her: a +big tall man I'd never seen before. I was so surprised that I turned +and flew back. The fellow must have seen my flowers fall into the room +with my first go; but the second time I swooped past, Helen was +_stabbing herself_ with a kind of stiletto. That was all I saw. I +went queer and sick, and felt that I'd lost control. My one thought +was to get out and save her. I believe I must have tried to jump. +That's the last thing I remember." + +When he had finished, he fell back exhausted, and had to be revived. +But there wasn't much time to waste. Knowing the immense importance of +the statement, Doctor Graves got Bridges to repeat it as soon as he was +able. As the words left his lips they were taken down, and then signed +by him. Later he swore that the man he had seen with Helen was not +Lord John Hasle. + +"If it had been, I'd have let him go to the chair, even if he didn't +kill her with his own hands. I'd not have opened my mouth to help +him," Bridges said. "I hated the fellow because Helen liked him better +than me. But I must say he didn't seem to encourage her much. Anyhow +I can't keep still and let an innocent man die." + +When asked if he could identify the hypnotist. Bridges was not sure. +All he could say "for certain," he persisted, was that "John Hasle was +younger and slighter and altogether a different type: there was no +chance of a mistake." + +I was saved--saved by my rival, poor Charlie Bridges, the last man on +earth to whom I should have looked for help. But then, his help didn't +precisely come from the earth: it came from the air. + +I had been a fool, and I felt unworthy of the traditions I had made for +myself, not to have suspected in what manner the crime had been +committed. Of course I had thought of Doctor Rameses. I thought +always of Doctor Rameses! But I had not seen any way of connecting him +with the murder of Helen Hartland, even if he were the man to whom she +had gone for lessons in "will power." Now, I saw the way, and I +believed that at last the police would see also. Indeed, they were +ready to see. When Rameses' name as one of the leading "crank doctors" +of New York was earnestly brought forward by me, it was arranged that +Bridges was to be given a sight of him. Unfortunately, however, on the +day when the California Birdman first woke from his long trance, and it +was prematurely announced in the papers that his delirium might be +followed by a return of normal consciousness, Doctor Rameses left town +for a holiday. His servants said that he had been suffering from +nervous strain through hard work, and had been preparing for some time +to take a rest. His favourite summer country resort was, it appeared, +the White Mountains. He was sought there, but not found. And I +believed that he never would be found--unless by me. + +My only happy souvenir of these miserable weeks was a letter from +Maida, which I shall keep as long as I live. + +"I knew from the first that you were innocent," she wrote, "and if I +had been called I intended to say so in the witness-box." + + + + +EPISODE VII + +THE WATCHING EYE + +"What shall I do?" I asked myself as I read a letter from Maida. + +She begged a small and simple service, yet--I hesitated. + +Roger Odell had begged me to look after her as well as I could in the +circumstances, during his long absence. Those circumstances were +difficult ones: for I was not allowed to visit her at the Sisterhood +House, and she never went out unchaperoned by her "friend" the +directress. Her wish was that I should give her the key of her +"sanctum" at Roger Odell's shut-up house in New York. A caretaker +named Winter, one of the old servants, was in charge of the place; but +I had been appointed special guardian of the "shrine," as Maida called +this sacred room. + +"Shrine" was indeed rather an appropriate name; since it contained +treasures which formed the sole link between the girl and her lost +past. She had been brought, a child of four, by her dying mother to +the father of Roger Odell, and her sole possessions had been a couple +of miniatures, a curious Egyptian fetish, and an Egyptian mummy in a +fine, painted mummy-case. The miniatures had been enlarged into +life-size portraits of Maida's mother and a man in the uniform of a +British officer, whom she believed to be her father. Both portraits +hung on the wall of the "shrine," together with one of Roger Odell, +Senior. These, with the mummy-case, were the sole contents of the room. + +Roger and I had cause to think that enemies of Maida's unknown father +had followed the child and her mother to America: and that the vendetta +would not end until Maida--the last of the family--had paid with her +happiness or even with her life for the sin of some ancestor. We had +cause to think also, that the mummy in its painted case was of +importance to them, and that they had tried in various ways to get hold +of it. For its protection, Roger had had a clever electrical +contrivance fitted up, by means of which anyone not in the secret and +trying to touch the mummy-case would receive a violent shock. Before +going away he had given me the plan of this mechanism, with directions +for applying the current and turning it off. At the same time he had +handed me the key of the shrine which Maida had left with him on +departing for Long Island. + +Now, she wanted this key. + +"I went yesterday to my dear old home," she wrote, "to visit my +treasures. But the shrine was locked; and Winter told me that Roger +had given you the key. He said also that there was some kind of patent +burglar alarm which had frightened a couple of thieves away, since I +came to stay at Sisterhood House. Is that true? And is there danger +in opening the door? I know I can depend upon you, when you send the +key, to make it safe for me to go in. I'll post the key to you +afterwards, if you like--and if Roger wants you still to be troubled +with it. Please arrange for me to pay my visit to-morrow." + +It seemed that there was only one way to answer this letter: by saying +that I would arrange for the safety of the visit; and enclosing the key +in my note. Nevertheless I hesitated. I was afraid to send Maida the +key. + +It was useless to explain to her the reasons for my seeming +boorishness. She trusted the Head Sister. Nothing that had happened +since she entered the Grey Sisterhood had opened the girl's eyes to the +cruel falseness of the woman, as I saw it. Nothing, not even the +affair of Helen Hartland, had made her believe that the friend she +respected was one of the agents working for her destruction and my +elimination. So I knew that if I refused the key I would seem a stupid +blunderer to Maida. + +"If only she'd waited a few days!" I thought. For after many +unsuccessful attempts, we (I and Paul Teano) had contrived to get an +employee--I may as well use the word "spy"--into Sisterhood House. She +was a young but singularly intelligent girl whom Teano's wife, once +known as "Three Fingered Jenny," had lately rescued from a set of +pickpockets and "sneak thieves." We hoped great things from "Nippy +Nance," as a protégée of the Head Sister, who did not suspect the +girl's change of heart and profession. If she could get evidence that +the directress of the Grey Sisterhood was the leader of a criminal +gang, posing as a charitable reformer, I could not only say "I told you +so!" to the incredulous police, but I could convince Maida of her own +peril. + +A few days more grace, and Nance might have been able to give us a +satisfactory report! But I dared not delay. I had to decide, for +Maida's letter must be answered. My desire to please her prevailed +over prudence. I persuaded myself that I had no right to refuse such a +request: that I must consent: that my vague fears were foolish. I had +only to watch, and see that no harm came to Maida or to the mummy in +its painted case. + +I wrote that, in loyalty to the promise I had made Roger (made for her +sake!) I couldn't leave the shrine without its "patent burglar +protection" (as she called it) over night: but I would go to the house +early in the morning and do everything necessary to ensure her safety +if she wished to touch or open the mummy-case. + +"I know if you had been willing to see me there, you would have +suggested my meeting you at the house," I went on. "As you haven't, I +daren't ask to be present: but I'll be in New York and at the Belmont +Hotel all day, expecting a word. Will you call me up, or if not, will +you send a line by messenger to say at what hour I shall go round again +to make the "shrine" burglar proof? I enclose the key: and perhaps you +will leave it for me with the caretaker." + +Maida's letter had come to the Long Island hotel. I sent my answer +from there by hand to Sisterhood House, where it would be taken in by a +lay sister at the gate. The boy was ordered to wait for a reply, if +reply there were, but I thought it unlikely Maida would answer so soon. +I fancied she would consult the Head Sister, and that a response would +be delayed till the last minute. I was mistaken, however. My +messenger presently came back with a letter. + +It was sweet, and full of gratitude for the "trouble" I was taking. "I +am 'willing' to see you," she quoted. "I'm more than willing! I shall +be glad to see you. I have _permission_ to do so. Will you call at +Roger's house about two o'clock? I don't know what time I shall +arrive; perhaps much earlier; but I promise not to leave until I've had +a talk with you. I'll tell Winter to show you into Roger's study to +wait. I shall have a companion. But it's just possible I may be +granted a few minutes alone with my brother's best friend!" + +This made me happier than I had been since the night when I fell in +love with Maida. Nevertheless, I didn't forget the need to watch +Roger's house, from the moment that the "shrine" and the mummy-case +were released from their patent protection. Not that I distrusted +Maida. I believed in her as I believed in Heaven. But she might be +deceived: and it was my business to guard her interests. + +I went to the house, as I had agreed to do, early in the morning, and +not only switched off the electric current which protected the shrine +and its contents day and night, but removed the small visible parts of +the apparatus in case someone had the intention of studying the +mechanism. I informed Winter that he might expect Miss Odell with one +of the ladies from the Grey Sisterhood, and that I would return at two +o'clock. I then went back to the hotel where I stayed when in New +York, for I could not bear to do the necessary spying myself. A man +from Teano's agency was engaged to watch the house, and 'phone +instantly if anyone other than the ladies in grey uniform entered; also +if one or both of these ladies went away. + +No message came: and a little before two o'clock I arrived at the door. +My man, disguised as a member of the "white wings" brigade, was visible +in the distance. I gave the signal agreed upon to mean "You can go!" +and went, as arranged, into Roger's study at the back of the house, +Winter having told me that "the ladies were upstairs." + +I waited for half an hour; for three quarters: and then, growing +anxious, sought the caretaker, who had pottered down into the basement. +He was surprised at my question. "Why, I thought the ladies was both +in the library with you!" he stammered. "I was in the hall, where you +told me to wait. They came down and said they were going to talk to +you. Miss Maida's friend, the lady with the thick veil, had a telegram +to send. She asked me to take it, and gave me something for myself. I +supposed it was all right when I got back just now, to stop in my +quarters for a bit, as the lady said they'd be staying some time." + +What a fool I had been to think, because I had arrived on the scene, +that it was safe to send the watcher away! It was my trust of Maida +that had undone me. I had believed so blindly in her promise not to go +without seeing me, that I had thought all danger of a trick was over. +I hadn't reflected that the enemy was clever enough to trick her at the +last minute, as well as me! + +I dashed upstairs to the "shrine" found the door open and the +mummy-case gone! This was the worst blow that could fall, because, +once the mummy-case was actually in the hands of those who had schemed +to get it, every hope of Maida's safety seemed to vanish. In the +street, I could find no one who had seen the great painted box carried +from the house or taken away in any vehicle. Next, I inquired at the +houses adjoining, and opposite, with no better luck: but in the shame +and confusion which obscured my mind, it appeared probable that the +Sisterhood car had taken ladies and mummy-case as swiftly as possible +to the Sisterhood House. + +My own car was under repair, and I had been spinning round New York in +a taxi. Now, I returned for a moment to my hotel, in the desperate +hope of a message from Maida. There was nothing: but as I was hurrying +out, I met Teano. + +"Hurrah, my lord!" he exclaimed. "What luck to catch you like this! I +thought perhaps you'd have got back from Mr. Odell's house by this +time, but if you hadn't I was going round to find you. Is the young +lady all right?" + +"Why do you ask?" I caught him up. + +"Because Nance is at our flat. She had leave for the afternoon--the +first time she's got off: a sign they trust her. She's got a report, +my lord. It's a blood-curdler!" + +"Take me to your place and let me hear it," I said, reflecting that it +would be stupid to flash off to Long Island, when Nance's news might +save a wild goose chase. At worst, I should lose but a few minutes. +And taxying to Teano's, I told him in a few words what a mess I'd made +of things. + +"They won't have gone back to Long Island," he said excitedly. "You'll +understand when you hear Nance and perhaps you'll have some theory." + +Nance--a sharp-faced midget who would make as good a thief-catcher as +she had been a thief--was proud of her achievement. She was on the way +to get proof of the Sisterhood's secret. A girl had half confided in +her, and had stopped in fright; but Nance expected to prove soon that +the Grey Sisterhood was a "regular gang," associated with "high up +ones" in New York. "There's a big boss over the whole shebang," she +said, "but he's made a bolt. I don't know where--but I'll find out. I +guess he's jumped the country; and I guess m'lady o' the mask (that's +what we calls the Head Sister behind her back: we all know she wears +somethin' under her veil to hide a beauty spot) will be joinin' him. +She's been sort o' gatherin' things together as if for a flit, these +last two days, but I couldn't make a break to get word to you." + +Nance had more to tell, but nothing which directly concerned Maida. We +could only draw our own deductions that the Head Sister wouldn't "flit" +unless she could take the girl. Because Doctor Rameses had found +America too hot for him after his last plot against me, no doubt the +directress of the Grey Sisterhood had been waiting her chance to play +Ruth to his Boaz. + +She had now accomplished her great coup, in securing the mummy-case +which interested Rameses; and if she'd been able to force or wheedle +Maida into breaking faith with me, she could force or wheedle her to +the ends of the world. + +"Egypt!" I said aloud, as if the word had been spoken in my ear, and I +echoed it. "These devils want to get the girl to Egypt and finish the +vendetta that began there. What ships sail to-day?" + +We learned that one was leaving for Bordeaux, and another for Naples. +Both had been due to sail in the morning, but had been delayed, owing +to the strict inspection of cargo. Some lively telephoning followed, +but we could get no information from the agents concerning such +passengers as we described. Nance was ordered back post-haste to +Sisterhood House in case, contrary to our theory, the pair had +returned. Teano sent a man to the ship sailing for France; and I +myself started for the one Naples-bound, the night luggage I'd brought +from Long Island on my taxi. I had a mission from my Government, which +I served during my convalescence, and I had no right to leave without +permission. But I was ready to sacrifice my whole career, rather than +see Maida sail for Egypt with a cruel and unscrupulous enemy. + +I arrived at the dock just in time to see the ship moving out. In +desperation I tried to hire a tug, at no matter what price, to follow +and board her when she shed her pilot. The thing was impossible. It +was small consolation to be assured that no such ladies as I described +were on board. I felt almost certain they were there, in ordinary +dress, having changed from the uniform of the Grey Sisterhood. When +every effort had failed in this direction, however, there remained half +a hope that they might have been found by Teano's man on the ship +starting for Bordeaux. There was a chance of reaching her before she +steamed out, and that chance I took; but fate was against me again. +She had been gone twenty minutes when my taxi rushed me to the wharf. +"You've missed nothing. They weren't aboard," said the detective, who +awaited my arrival. But how could I be sure that he was right? + +The next thing was to cable the police at Naples and Bordeaux: yet so +far we had no definite proof against the Head Sister, who had the luck +as well as the ingenuity of her supposed partner, Doctor Rameses. She +could merely be watched on her arrival at a foreign port, not held: and +I dared not even take it firmly for granted that she and Maida had left +America, till Teano's frantic energies should bring further particulars +of their movements. I blamed myself for the embroglio: still, I would +not say, even in the privacy of my own head, "If I hadn't trusted the +girl so blindly!" + +I spent that night in New York, hoping for news from one direction or +other: and though it was not till the morning that Teano picked up +anything authentic, I had better fortune. A sudden inspiration came as +I walked up and down my room, smoking more cigarettes than were good +for me, and racking my brain for a solution of the puzzle. + +"What if Maida left a note for you in the shrine, hoping you'd have the +sense to look?" a voice seemed to whisper in my ear. + +Instantly I became certain that she had done so. It was past ten +o'clock, but I jumped into a taxi and flashed back to Roger's house. +After pressing the electric bell a dozen times at least, Winter +appeared in deshabille, inclined to grumble. I went straight to the +violated shrine, and switched on the electric light in its curious +globes of golden glass. The portrait of Maida's beautiful mother faced +the door and gazed into my eyes. Never had I quite realised its +likeness to the girl. It was as if Maida looked at me. + +"If there's anything, it will be behind that portrait," I thought. +Going straight to it, I lifted the heavy gold frame, and a folded piece +of paper fell to the floor. No writing was visible, but I knew I had +found what I sought. + +Opening the note, I had a shock of surprise. The paper had the name +and crest of my New York hotel upon it; and the few lines scrawled in +pencil were signed "John Hasle." So well was the writing imitated, +that my best friend would have sworn it was mine. + +The letter began abruptly (perhaps the forger didn't know how I was +accustomed to address Maida): "Something has happened. I am sending a +closed automobile to take you away and your friend also. Get her to +consent. It is necessary for the safety of your future. The chauffeur +and an assistant will carry down the mummy-case if you ask them. They +have my instructions already, and will bring a packing-box in which it +can be placed in the hall downstairs, in order not to be conspicuous. +The mummy will no longer be safe where it is. I'll explain when we +meet. I am called away from America at once, on official business, and +the man with the chauffeur knows the ship on which I sail this +afternoon. I beg you will do what he asks, as you may depend on him as +my mouthpiece, and I have time now for no more. Yours ever and in +haste, John Hasle." + +Underneath, Maida had scribbled, also in pencil, "Your letter has been +handed me just outside the door of this house. I don't understand it. +Though I suppose it's genuine, so many strange things have happened, I +am a little afraid. If there's any trick, and you come to look for me, +I earnestly pray you may find this in time. I shall leave a tiny end +of paper showing behind my mother's portrait, where I'll hide it." + +Rameses I believed to be far away, out of reach: but the assistant he +had left behind was worthy of him. She had reason to know the New York +hotel I frequented: the note-paper was easy to get: only the forgery +business needed an expert. And what a clever idea that the summons +should come from me! The Head Sister had known how hard, perhaps +impossible, it would have been to make the girl break her promise. Now +I saw why consent had been given to my calling on Maida at her +brother's house. Unconsciously I had been but a catspaw: and had not +my darling girl felt vaguely suspicious, I might never have guessed how +she had been enticed away. + +The message told little: but at least it confirmed my theory that the +two had gone on board ship. How Maida had been induced actually to +sail, was another question, but even that might be answered some day. + +In the morning, Teano was surprised, instead of receiving word from +Nance, to see her in person. She had been sent on an errand from +Sisterhood House to the nearest village, and rather than return had +simply--as she expressed it--"taken French leave." The Head Sister had +gone, leaving everything in charge of a woman next in authority. The +inmates, sisters, lay sisters, and protégées (women and children) were +told that the directress had news of a near relative's illness; she was +obliged to be absent for a few days, perhaps longer. Unless later +instructions arrived, all was to go on as if she were at home. Nance +knew that the grey automobile used by the Sisters had come back from +New York with a bundle in it; a bundle composed of two grey uniform +cloaks and bonnets with veils. Somehow the two ladies had changed +their outer garments, probably in that "closed motor" mentioned in the +forged letter: and the bundle had been transferred from one car to the +other, by the man with the chauffeur, doubtless a servant of the Head +Sister. + +Nance, prying for other details, had found and pieced together a few +torn scraps of paper--the remains of a letter--stuck between the +braided wicker-work and ribbon of a waste-paper basket in the +directress's study. There were three of these bits, the largest no +larger than a child's thumb nail, the smallest not half that size; but +patching them together Teano was able to show me the mutilated words +"meet--possible--Cair----" + +This strengthened my conviction that the Head Sister, with Maida and +Maida's mysterious mummy-case, was on the way to Egypt, where she would +meet Rameses in Cairo. The two must have been on board the ship +sailing for Naples, in some disguise not easy to penetrate. I +determined to act on this supposition, explain the circumstances as +best I could to our Ambassador, trying with his aid and, that of the +cable, to get leave for Europe. If leave were refused, rather than +abandon Maida to the mercy of her enemies, I would "chuck" the army. +Eventually I could volunteer again, when strong enough to serve. But +leave was not refused. My affairs were settled with lightning speed, +and I sailed a few days later. + +At Naples I got no definite news; but it appeared that, on board the +suspected ship, there had been a number of nurses wearing a navy-blue +uniform, with long veils attached to their small bonnets. Most of the +nurses wore their veils thrown back, but a few covered their faces on +leaving the ship. This gave me a clue--and a hope. The costume of a +nurse afforded the necessary concealment. I guessed that the Head +Sister had adopted it for herself and Maida, and that, through Rameses' +influence, she had obtained passports. + +No nurses in uniform had, so far as I could learn, lately left Naples +for Egypt; but with the aid of the police I learned that three days +before my arrival a tall, elderly woman, heavily cloaked and veiled, +accompanied by a beautiful blonde girl, had sailed for Alexandria. +Their papers described them as the wife and daughter of a French doctor +in Cairo, and though permission for women to enter Egypt was difficult +to obtain from British authorities at that time, they had it. + +Whether or no this "Madame and Mademoiselle Rameau" were the Head +Sister and Maida Odell, I could not be sure: but in any case my +destination must be Cairo. On arriving there I could hear of no such +person as Doctor Rameau: but I found army friends: help from "high up" +was forthcoming. I learned what non-military persons had travelled +during the last week, and what direction they had taken. Among the few +women on the list there were only two who might be those for whom I +searched; and _they were Egyptian ladies_. The sister and aunt of an +official in Government employ had left Cairo by rail for Asiut, whence +they were to do some days' desert travel, to reach the country house +belonging to their relative. + +I determined to follow; and at Asiut I engaged a small caravan. The +little oasis-town near which I had been told to find the house was two +days' journey from "The City of Sacred Cats"; and when we reached the +place, the servants of Ahmed Ali Bey were surprised by the questions of +my interpreter. Their master was in Cairo with his family, and they +had not been warned of the arrival of visitors. They were discreet and +guarded in their answers, after the first moment of blank astonishment: +but I realised instantly that the women I had followed from Cairo were +not bound for this place. I had come up against a blank wall, and had +only my own deductions to go upon. Were the supposed aunt and sister +of Ahmed Ali Bey, Maida and her companion, or had I taken a false +trail? Something within myself said that I was right as to their +identity, but that the two (protected by the name of some friend of +Doctor Rameses) had never intended to come to his house. Where, then, +should I look for them? + +They must, I thought, have come as far as Asiut, otherwise their passes +would not have availed them in these days of military supervision. But +beyond Asiut the desert stretched wide and mysterious. My only hope +lay in the fact that caravans could be tracked, and that there were +only certain directions in which stopping-places could be found. My +camel-leader, who spoke a little English, described to me the three or +four routes, one of which all travellers must choose in order to reach +a desert inn or "borg" on the way to distant oasis villages or towns. +But which should I choose? + +In any case, we were obliged to retrace our steps for ten or twelve +miles, as far as a certain well, and there I should have to decide +definitely. It was late in the afternoon when we reached the spot +again, and a wind which threatened simoom had covered the heart-shaped +footmarks made by our own and other camels, as with a tidal wave. The +sky was overcast, and of a faint copper colour, clouded with greyish +veils of blowing sand. The desert was empty, or so I thought at first; +but as I turned my field-glasses north, south, east and west, I saw +something very far off which moved uncertainly towards us. Presently I +made out that this something was a camel, alone, and without pack or +rider: yet he must, it seemed, have broken loose from a caravan. + +As he came nearer--perhaps sighting us from afar off and wishing for +our company--we saw that he was white, or a very pale grey. He was not +an ordinary pack-camel, but was of the aristocratic type, a _mehari_, +well bred, with graceful swaying movements and long slender legs. My +first year in the army I had spent in Egypt, where I'd picked up some +Arabic and Turkish, and had been enough impressed with the strangeness +of native life to remember many customs and superstitions. As the +white _mehari_ approached, a timid air of wildness mingling with its +longing for society, I realised that it had been a pampered beast, dear +to the heart of its vanished owner. Round its neck was an elaborate +collar of beads and shells, with dangling fetishes of all sorts: brass +and silver "Hands of Fatma," metal tubes for texts from the Koran, +horns of coral and lumps of amber. + +It seemed to me that there was something strange about the beast. It +held its head in a singular way, shaking it from time to time, and my +camel man thought as I thought. "This animal has been looked on by the +Evil Eye," he said. "It brings misfortune where it goes. Perhaps it +has had a fit of madness, and how comes to us in a quiet interval, only +to deceive and then attack us. I have seen such things in the desert. +A camel goes mad, kills its master, and seeks other victims for the +demon that has entered into it. I will drive it off." + +"No," I said, as the Arab would have threatened the camel with his +stick. "Keep out of the creature's way if you like. I'm going to see +if it will let me touch it." + +Very cautiously, in order not to frighten the wild-looking beast, I +urged my own mount a few steps forward, and held out a handful of +dates. The camel eagerly fixed its eyes on the food and moved towards +me as if magnetised. It stretched its neck so that the queer, +purse-like nostrils and loose lips quivered above the dates: it +hesitated: in another instant it would have snatched a mouthful had I +not exclaimed aloud at a thing I saw. + +Among the tubes and horns and Hands of Fatma hung a gold bangle with +the name "Maida" in emeralds, Madeline Odell's birthstone. I +recognised the ornament at a glance. She wore it always, even with the +uniform of the Grey Sisterhood. I knew she had ridden this camel and +that this was her call for help. She had hoped desperately that I +might follow, and feeble as was the chance that I should ever see the +bangle, she had snatched it because there was no other. + +"Good God!" I cried sharply--and foolishly, for the camel took fright, +and went loping away into the cloud of sand. "Come along!" I yelled to +my man, and rode after it. "We must keep up with the beast. We must +see where it goes." + +I explained no more. Doubtless the Arab thought me as mad as the white +camel, but I didn't care. The _mehari_ had come to me as a messenger +from Maida, and to lose sight of it would be, I felt, to lose her. + +Fortunately, after the first sprint, the creature slackened speed, even +turning its long neck now and then to see if we followed. So we went +on, behind the shadowy form in the sand-cloud, until we came to the +high adobe wall of a desert inn, a borg which my camel-man knew well. +Outside the closed gate our quarry paused: as we drew closer it bounded +away, stopped and hovered as if watching to see whether the gate would +be opened to let us in. It was opened; and we were greeted by the +landlord, a dull-faced fellow, half Arab, half French, who looked as if +his favourite tipple were absinthe. In the act of letting us into the +big, bare courtyard he spied the white camel in the distance. "Oh, +it's you again, is it?" he muttered, and would have shut the gate +quickly as my camel leader and I with the three animals of our tiny +caravan entered. + +"Is that white _mehari_ yours?" I inquired. + +The landlord shook his head. "But no!" he protested. "It is mad. It +is a beast of evil omen." + +"What did I tell the honoured gentleman?" said my man, delighted. But +I was obstinate. "Don't shut the beast out," I directed. "It doesn't +seem dangerous. I will pay you well to let it in, and for its food--or +any damage it may do." + +The landlord shrugged his shoulders; and when we had passed into the +courtyard, he left the gate standing open. A moment later the white +camel walked in, and instead of joining my animals, or another which +was squatting on the ground to munch a pile of green alfalfa, it moved +with a queer air of purposeful certainty to a window of the inn. The +shutters of this window were closed, but the camel pressed its face +against them as if it were trying to peer in. + +"Ah, that is what the brute always does!" exclaimed the landlord in his +_patois_ of Arabic and the worst _Marseillais_ French. "One would say +his master was there. But the room is empty." + +"Tell me about this animal and what is the matter with it?" I said, +when I had got off my mount and it had been led away with the others by +my Arab. + +"All I know I will tell willingly," replied the man. "This white camel +was one of a caravan that stopped here perhaps ten days ago. There was +no other _mehari_. The rest were of the ordinary sort. I noticed this +one and wondered, for such fine animals are rare among my clients. But +soon I saw it was not right in its head. It was not mad in the +dangerous way, which kills; but it was restless and strange. As we +say, it had been looked on by the Evil Eye. Perhaps the leader of the +caravan had got the brute cheap for that reason. Unless he wished some +misfortune to fall upon the person who rode the white camel." + +"What sort of person rode it?" I asked. + +The man shrugged his shoulders. "I cannot remember which one rode it, +coming here. There were several men and several ladies, the family of +the leader. They stopped here for the night--a night of simoom." + +"One of the ladies may have ridden the _mehari_?" I suggested. + +"May have: yes, monsieur." + +"And did one of the ladies occupy that room with the closed shutters?" +I persisted. + +"I do not know," said the landlord. "It was one of the rooms taken by +the party. We do not pry into the arrangements of a family when they +are clients for a night." + +I divined from his manner, despite an assumed carelessness, that on the +night in question something had happened to set that night apart from +other nights: so I carried on my catechism. I learned that the +travelling company had consisted of two Egyptian women, one possibly a +maid, under the protection of an elderly, bearded man who was in +bearing and speech a gentleman though his costume was that of a +well-to-do Bedouin; a long cloak and hood such as Arab camel-leaders +wear. His face had hardly been visible. Food had been sent to his +room, also to the women, one of whom seemed to be weak and ill. They +were both veiled and cloaked. She who was ill had not spoken. She had +been helped into the house by her companion. There had been a scream, +and some commotion in the night caused no doubt by the illness of this +lady. The landlord had been out attending to a sick camel in the +_fondouk_, and returning he saw the shutters of a window thrown back. +The window itself was open, and this mad _mehari_ was staring in. Then +the window had been suddenly closed, in the camel's face. The creature +had seemed frightened, and had galloped wildly about the courtyard, +refusing to rest in the _fondouk_ with its fellows, even when food was +offered as an inducement. It had returned again and again to the same +window, as if determined to look through the shutters. Early in the +morning, the travellers had made ready to start. The sick lady had +been worse. The old gentleman and his servants, of whom there were +several, all negroes, had to make a kind of couch for her on the +_mehari's_ back, but the brute kept jumping up and refusing to be +touched. At last the old gentleman grew angry and struck the animal on +the head and face. It "went for" him furiously, and had to be caught +and chastised by the negroes. No further attempt was made to use it +after that. The leader of the caravan bought a good, steady pack-camel +from the landlord, and left the white aristocrat at the borg. At first +the proprietor thought that he was in luck to come into possession of +such a fine creature, but it soon proved worse than useless. It +refused food: it would not sit down. It was constantly at the window +into which it had previously stared, or else at the gate trying to +escape. After a day or two the Arabs employed about the _fondouk_ said +it was accursed, and asked the _patron_ to get rid of the brute, lest +misfortune fall upon the place. Accordingly the once valuable _mehari_ +was driven out into the desert, disappearing in the distance. But +apparently it had not gone far. Since then it had returned several +times with caravans, entering the courtyard with them, and walking at +once to the window in which it was so strangely interested. "That is +why," explained the landlord, "I now keep the shutters closed. I fear +this accursed animal may break the glass before we have time to drive +it away. There is not much travel at this time of year, and we have +plenty of other rooms." + +"All the same I should like to be put into that room to-night," I said. +"And as you tell me the white _mehari_ is not wicked, there can be no +danger in your letting it stay in the courtyard till morning. I'm +curious about the creature, and should like to see what it will do." + +The man tried to persuade me that there was nothing in the seeming +mystery. He had rooms more comfortable than the one with the closed +shutters. That had not been properly cleaned since the last +occupation. As for the white camel, it would probably roar and make a +disturbance in the night. I silenced these objections, however, in the +one effectual and classic way: and I refused to wait for the room to be +swept and dusted. I wished to go in immediately, I said, and later the +bed could be got ready while I dined. Reluctantly the landlord gave +his consent to this arrangement, and himself escorted me to the room in +question, bringing my bag and a lighted lamp. I watched him as we +entered, and noticed that he glanced about anxiously as if he feared I +might see something which it would be better for me not to see. But, +either he found nothing conspicuously wrong, or else he decided that it +was a case of "kismet." + +When he had gone, I didn't open the shutters at once. I wanted to have +a look round, unobserved. Indeed, I took the precaution of stuffing +paper into the keyholes of the two doors: one which opened into the +corridor; another which communicated with the next room. + +I knew it would be useless to ask the fellow whether the room had been +occupied since the departure of the caravan which first brought the +white camel. He would lie if it suited him to lie: and if there were +anything to find out, I must find it out for myself. Never in my life, +however, had I felt so strong an impression as I felt now that Maida's +wish, Maida's prayers, had brought me to this place. I was certain +that she had at last suspected treachery in the woman she had +worshipped: that she had prayed I might follow and search for her: that +she had made friends with the white camel in order to add a souvenir of +herself to his neck-adornment: that she had some reason to hope he +might be left behind at this desert borg when she continued her +journey: that she had been in this room (where I seemed distinctly to +feel her presence) and that something had happened there which the +landlord either knew or suspected. Anyhow, the white camel knew, and I +said to myself that I would give all I had in the world if the animal's +half-crazyed intelligence could communicate its knowledge to me. + +This borg, like most crude desert halting-places for men and beasts, +was a one storey building which enclosed a large courtyard on three +sides. The fourth side of the yard was composed of an ordinary wall +nearly as high as the roof of the house. One wing of the latter +contained a row of bedrooms for travellers, each room having a window +that looked on the court. The middle part, or main building, consisted +of dining-room and kitchens: the remaining wing was the dwelling-place +of the landlord's family, and at the end had a large open shed for +camels and horses. My room, therefore, was on the ground floor. It +was roughly paved with broken tiles, and had in front of the bed a +strip of torn Spanish matting with a pattern of flowers splashed on it +in black and red. There was very little furniture: a tin wash-hand +stand: a deal table: an iron bedstead: and two chairs; but what there +was had been left in a state of disorder since the flitting of the last +occupant. Both chairs had fallen: the table, which had evidently stood +in the middle of the room, was pushed askew, its cotton covering on the +floor, its legs twisted up in a torn woollen rug: and--significant sign +of a struggle--a curtain of pink mosquito netting had been wrenched +from its fastenings and hung, a limp rag, at the side of the window. + +The wretched paraffin lamp served only to make darkness visible; but +taking it in my hand I walked round, examining everything: and my heart +missed a beat as I saw that, among the scarlet flowers on the matting, +were spots of brownish red--that tell-tale red which cannot be +mistaken. They were few and small, and therefore had passed unnoticed, +perhaps, by the landlord: yet to me they cried aloud. I tried to tell +myself that the stains might be old: that I had no reason to connect +them with danger for Maida: that as she had been brought so far, +doubtless there was a further destination to which it was intended to +take her. But as I finished my examination of the disordered room, +turned out the light, and threw open the shutters my soul was sick. + +"What happened here?" I asked myself for the twentieth time; and as if +in answer to my question the white camel came glimmering towards me +through the dusk. It stopped at my window, and thrusting its neck +through the opening, stared into the room. The faint light gleamed in +its yellow eyes, and gave the illusion that they moved as if following +with emotion _something they saw_. The creature paid no attention to +me, though it could have seen me standing near the window. Even when I +spoke, coaxingly, it did not turn its head; and when I walked back and +forth, it remained indifferent. Its gaze concentrated on that part of +the room nearest the door leading to the corridor; and a shiver ran +through my nerves to see the white head float from right to left on its +long neck, as though eagerly watching a scene to me invisible. I felt +the impulse to chase the beast away, but I checked myself. I had a +queer conviction that what it could see I ought to see also: that if it +remained it might _make_ me see. + +I turned up the wick of the lamp, and walked slowly towards the door, +glancing back to see what the camel would do. Its head was poked far +into the room. It looked like a queer white ghost, with glinting eyes. +For the first time they seemed to meet mine, and I felt that the animal +had become conscious of my presence in the picture its memory +constructed. Close to the door, in a crack between red tiles, I saw +something round and white which I took for a button; but picking it up, +it proved to be an American ten cent piece. Not far off lay an +Egyptian piastre, but it was the "dime" which thrilled me. The tiny +silver coin proved that an occupant of this room had lately come from +the United States. A little farther away I discovered broken bits of a +small bottle, with a torn label. Matching scraps of paper together I +made out part of a word which told its own sinister story. "Morph": +the missing syllable was not needed. And the label had the name--or +part of the name--of a New York druggist: + +"C. Sarge----" + "Broadw----" + + +Already I began to visualise what the scene near the door might have +been. I went out hastily and questioned the landlord again as to the +destination of the white camel's caravan. I offered him so big a bribe +for information that, if he had known anything definite, he could +hardly have resisted the temptation to tell. But he had only vague +suggestions to make. Perhaps the party might have been bound for +Hathor Set, a small oasis-town with one or two country houses of rich +men on its outskirts. It was twenty miles distant, and he could think +of no other place within a day's march where persons of importance +lived. Farther away, however, there were oases where merchants and +officials owned houses which they occupied now and then, and where +their families sometimes stayed for months. + +If it had been possible I would have travelled on that night, but to do +so would have been madness. I must wait till dawn: and though I did +not expect to sleep I went back to my room when I had eaten some vile +food, and arranged for the start at five o'clock. + +"Weather permitting," added the landlord, with an ear for the moan of +the sickly south wind. + +"Weather must permit," I answered. + +My side of the house was somewhat sheltered from the blowing sand; +still, on such a night most desert dwellers would have shut their +windows. I kept my window open, however; and lying on the bed, the +lamp burning dimly, I faced it. The head of the white camel, on its +long, swaying neck, was always framed in the aperture. I had brought +from the dining-room a plateful of dates to tempt the animal, but it +refused to touch them; and the landlord had told me that, so far as he +knew, the _mehari_ had eaten no food for ten days, since it first +appeared at the borg. This accounted in a normal way for its thinness +and the wild look of its eyes; but according to the man and his +servants the "mysterious curse" upon the beast was destroying it. "A +camel accursed can live twice as long as others with nothing to eat, +and even with no water," the landlord had announced gravely, as if +stating a well-known fact. "Then, suddenly, when the evil spirit is +ready to leave its body, the creature will fall dead." + +I was anxious that the _mehari_ should not fall dead until I had +finished making use of it: therefore I was glad to see it staring +bleakly through the window, hour after hour. I hoped that, in the +morning, it might lead me along the way its lost caravan had gone, and +whereever it went I intended to follow. It was making me superstitious. + +Now and then I dozed for a few minutes, to wake with a start and look +for the watching face at the window, but at last I fell heavily asleep; +and I dreamed. + +I dreamed of the camel: and it seemed as if I dreamed _into_ it. My +intense wish to see what it had seen, no doubt accounted for this +impression, but it could not account entirely for what followed. It +was as though the light of the lamp burned down, and blazed suddenly up +in the brain of the animal. I saw through its eyes, as by two +searchlights illuminating the sordid room. + +Maida Odell was led in by a taller woman. Both wore Arab costumes, +with cloaks and veils, as if they had been travelling. Maida moved +languidly. She let her companion take off her wraps. Her face was +white, her eyes dazed. I knew, in the dream, that she had been +drugged, and I hated the woman who touched her. The girl walked +unsteadily to the window and threw it open, drawing in long breaths; +and then the white camel came. I felt that it had been waiting for +this moment: that it loved and was grateful to the girl for kindness, +as no camel save a _mehari_ ever can be. She took lumps of sugar from +her pocket and fed it. The animal accepted them daintily. The woman +ordered it away, closed the shutters, and drew the ragged mosquito +curtain across the window. Darkness fell between me and the two +figures. I saw no more; but after an interval of blankness I was +conscious that Maida, left alone in the room, had opened the shutters, +leaving only the mosquito-netting between her and the night. The +camel, which had refused to rest with its fellows in the _fondouk_, +came sliding towards the girl and let her caress it. Apparently they +were the best of friends. She slipped a bangle from her arm, and tied +it to the _mehari's_ collar. She patted the white head, and whispered +in the flat ear. The animal was in an ecstasy. At last Maida pushed +it away gently, and leaning out of the window searched the courtyard. +I had the impression, in my dream, that she thought of climbing out and +attempting to escape on the _mehari_ whose confidence she had gained +for that very purpose. But at this moment a tall, bent figure in a +hooded cloak walked slowly past, and turning his head, looked at Maida. +His face was so deeply shadowed by the hood that I could not see the +features. There was a glimpse of venerable whitish beard tucked into +the cloak; but I knew, in my dream, that the man was Rameses posing as +the leader of the caravan. I tried to speak, to call Maida's name, to +ask her how it was that she had trusted these people: but I was +powerless to make the girl feel my presence. "I must wait," I said to +myself. "Some day she will explain why she consented to sail for +Naples, and why she went on to Egypt." + +"Some day!" the words echoed in my brain. Would the day come in this +world, or must I solve the greatest secret of all before I solved +Maida's? + +The dream went on, but I saw nothing when the girl closed the shutters. +Soon, however, she flung them wide again; and though she had put out +the light, the moon was shining in. I could see her moving about. She +listened at the door, as if she heard something in the corridor. She +had fastened the bolt, but now she discovered that it was broken. The +door could be opened from the outside. She placed a chair against it, +with the back caught under the handle. Then she went and sat down +close to the window. The camel was there, and she spoke to it, as if +she were comforted by its nearness. For a time she was very still. +Her head drooped; but it was impossible to sleep for long in the high, +uncomfortable chair. Now and then the girl started awake, always +turning to glance at the door: but at last she fell into a deeper doze. +Slowly the door opened, almost without noise. Maida remained +motionless: but the watching _mehari_ uttered a snarl. The girl sprang +to her feet, not knowing what to do. A cloaked figure which had +slipped in attempted to hide behind the open door, but was too late. +Maida saw the gliding shadow, shrieked, and would have run into the +corridor, but the man in the Arab cloak caught her on the threshold, +and muffled her head in his mantle. She struggled in his grasp, and +almost escaped. Chairs were overturned: the rug under the table was +twisted round the man's feet: I thought that he would trip and fall, +but he saved himself. Holding Maida with one hand, with the other he +drew a bottle from some pocket, and pulled out the cork with his teeth. +The girl freed an arm, but before she could push the bottle away the +man emptied a quantity of the liquid over the cloth that covered her +face. A sickly scent of chloroform filled the air. Still she fought +bravely, her freed hand seized the bottle, and dashed it on the floor, +where it broke with a crash. At this instant a woman in Arab dress +came swiftly into the room. She was very tall, as tall as the man, and +I noticed a likeness between their figures, a remarkable breadth of +shoulder, something peculiar in their bearing. The woman's face was +unveiled, but in the darkness I could not make out its features. + +She shut the door hastily. The two spoke to each other in a language I +could not understand. Maida struggled no more. The chloroform had +taken effect. In my dream I felt that the two did not wish her to die: +the time had not come. There was a climax towards which they were +working, had been working for a long time. Now it was close at hand. +The woman held a much smaller bottle than the one which lay broken. +She had also a glass with a little water, and a spoon. These she +placed on the wash-hand stand, and went swiftly to the window. Driving +away the camel with a threatening gesture, she closed the shutters. It +seemed as if they slammed in my face. I waked with a great start, and +found myself sitting up in bed, my face damp with sweat. + +The shutters, which I'd kept wide open, had banged together in the +rising wind. I bounded off the bed to the window, and flung them apart +again. Sand stung my face and eyelids. The white camel had +disappeared, but there was a wild snarling in the _fondouk_. + +"My wish has been granted," I said to myself, "I have seen what the +watching eye saw in this room. But what did it see after that? Which +way did the caravan go?" + +I must have slept soundly, and longer than I thought, for behind the +cloud of sand dawn was grey in the sky. Half an hour later I was out +of the room, in the courtyard, where the Arab servants had begun to +stir. From his own part of the building the landlord appeared. I told +him that I had sent to have my man roused, and that I would start in +spite of the storm. + +"What has become of the white _mehari_?" I asked. "Is he in the +_fondouk_ after all?" + +The man called one of his Arabs, asked a question, got an answer, and +turned to me. "The beast snarled so wickedly it waked my fellows," he +explained, "and they, not knowing of my promise to you, drove it into +the desert. That must have been two hours ago." + +I was furious, but scolding was vain. I had hoped superstitiously for +the guidance of the watcher, till the end; but this was not to be. I +must trust to my own instinct. + +Despite the arguments of the landlord and my own man that it was +dangerous to set out in the face of a simoom, we started, taking the +route towards Hathor Set. + +The blown sand had obliterated the tracks of men and camels. The +desert, so far as we could see, was a vast ocean of rippling waves. I +had brought no compass, trusting to the sun: but the sun was hidden +behind the copper veil of sand. "We shall be lost, sir," said my man. +"Shall we not be wise while there is time, and go back before our own +tracks are blotted out? See, there ahead is a lesson for us: a camel +that has fallen and been choked to death by the sand. Before night we +and our animals may lie as it lies now, with the shroud that the desert +gives, wrapped round our heads." + +"A camel that has fallen!" I echoed. And striking my beast I rode +forward till I reached the low mound to which the brown hand pointed. + +The white _mehari_ lay on its side, the head and half the body buried, +the bead collar faintly blue under a coating of yellow sand. The +watching eye was closed for ever: but I had the needed clue. + +"We're not lost," I said. "This is the right way. We'll push on to +Hathor Set." + + + + +EPISODE VIII + +THE HOUSE OF REVENGE + +This chapter of my life, which stands last but one in my journal, is +Maida Odell's chapter rather than mine: and to make my part in it +clear, her part should come first. Then the two should join, like a +double ring of platinum and gold bound together with a knot. + +One day Maida waked, after confused dreams of pain and terror. The +dreams were blurred, as she began remembering. It was as if she were +in a dim room trying to see reflections in a dust-covered mirror; then, +as if she brushed off the dust, and the pictures suddenly sharpened in +outline. + +She saw herself reading a letter signed John Hasle. It seemed to be a +true letter, and if it were true she must obey the instructions it +gave; yet--she doubted. She saw herself scribbling a few words on the +back of the letter, and hiding it behind the portrait of her mother, in +the room she always called her "shrine," leaving just an end of white +paper visible in the hope that John Hasle's eyes might light on it +there. This picture was clear, and that of the mummy-case being taken +out of the shrine by two men in a hurry. Why were they taking it? Why +did she let it go? Oh, she remembered! The Head Sister had promised +long ago to try and discover the secret of the past. She knew people +all over the world, who were grateful, and glad to repay her goodness +to them. Because of the mummy-case and the eye of Horus, those two +mysterious treasures, the Head Sister believed that the enemy who +strove unceasingly to ruin the girl's life must be an Egyptian, working +to avenge some wrong, or fancied wrong. She suggested photographing +the mummy, and the pictures of Maida's father and mother, in order to +send snapshots to a man she knew well in Egypt--a doctor. He would +take up the affair, out of friendship for her, and with those clues to +go upon might learn details of inestimable value. Maida remembered +writing to John Hasle at the Head Sister's suggestion, asking him to +send the key of the shrine. He had answered, agreeing reluctantly; and +to prove her good faith, the Head Sister had offered permission for a +meeting at Roger's house. Then had come the letter from John Hasle, +with its warning that the mummy was no longer safe in the shrine. +Maida had done what he told her to do, and let the mummy-case be taken +away, although the Head Sister had objected, and had even seemed hurt. +But the Head Sister had not objected to go to the ship on which John +Hasle said he would sail. She wished to question him before he went, +and was as anxious as Maida was to know what danger threatened the +mummy. + +The girl recalled how, according to John Hasle's advice (brought by his +messenger), she and the Head Sister had exchanged their grey costumes +for blue ones, with veils hanging from neat bonnets. They had done +this in the closed motor according to instructions, and they had gone +on board the ship to bid John Hasle good-bye. There instead of finding +him they had found a second letter, written as before on his hotel +paper. It said that the plot against Maida was even more serious than +he had supposed. At the last moment he had been obliged to stop in New +York, and appeal to the police to help him thwart it. Her life was in +danger if she returned to Long Island, or even to the city, before the +enemy had been caught. There was every prospect that he would be +caught in a few days, after which John Hasle would sail for Egypt as he +had meant to do, and there unravel the whole mystery. The vendetta +which had cursed Maida's life, and her mother's before her, would be +ended. She might come into a fortune in her own right, instead of +depending upon money given by the Odells. He implored her to be brave +and take passage on the ship for Naples, though no doubt the Head +Sister would oppose the idea. The Head Sister had not opposed it. She +had read John Hasle's letter, and had offered to be the girl's +companion to Naples, to take her on to Egypt if necessary. Once, she +had not liked John Hasle; but she was obliged to agree with his +opinion. She believed that he was right about Maida's danger: things +she had found out in her researches convinced her that it existed. The +ship would not sail for an hour or more. The chauffeur was bidden to +take a letter from Maida to John Hasle at the Hotel Belmont, to bring +one if he were there, and also clothing necessary for the journey, of +which the Head Sister made a hurried list. + +A letter had come back--a hasty scrawl in John Hasle's handwriting--to +express joy in Maida's decision, and to tell her that the mummy in its +case would go with her on the ship, addressed to his name. + +Maida remembered how ungrateful she had thought herself in doubting the +Head Sister's intentions. She had tried not to doubt, for so far in +her experience she had received only kindness and sympathy from that +wonderful friend. Wonderful indeed! Everything the Head Sister did +was magnetic and wonderful, like her whole personality. This sudden +decision to go abroad for Maida's sake was no more extraordinary, +perhaps, than things she had done to help others. She said that she +would wire the woman who stood second in authority over the Grey +Sisterhood, and explain that, for excellent reasons, she had determined +to visit the lately established branch in Cairo (Maida had heard of it +and had subscribed, for its object was an excellent one: the rescue of +European girls stranded in Egypt); she would add that she might not +return for many weeks. + +Maida felt that she ought never to have doubted. As for the letters +from John Hasle, the handwriting seemed unmistakable; they could not be +forgeries: the idea was ridiculous. She remembered how she had argued +this in her mind, and how she had tried not to think of herself as +helpless. She was doing what she wished to do! And yet, when she had +asked "What else could I do, if I didn't wish to do this?" the answer +was disquieting. Short of making a scene on shipboard and appealing to +the captain, it was difficult to see how she could go against the Head +Sister's urgent advice. She did not try to go against it; and after +sailing, two or three wireless messages signed John Hasle brought her +comfort. It was a coincidence that there should be a band of nurses on +board the ship, with costumes almost precisely like hers and the Head +Sister's, chosen apparently at random by John Hasle: but then, after +all, there was a strong resemblance in the dresses of all nurses, +provided the colours happened to be the same. + +Even more clearly than the days on shipboard, Maida remembered arriving +at Naples, and being met by an Englishman who introduced himself as an +agent of John Hasle. He had a long comprehensive telegram to show, +purporting to come from his employer in New York. This announced that +John Hasle had not been able to obtain leave as soon as he expected, +but that he had learned the "whole secret of the past." Miss Odell was +to put herself in the hands of his agent who would conduct her and her +companion to Egypt and there to a house where all mysteries would be +cleared up. She would find herself in charge of important persons, old +acquaintances of her parents, who would watch over her interests and +explain everything connected with her family. All trouble and danger +would be over for ever. Her brother Roger with his wife, Grace, having +just returned to New York from the Argentine, would sail with John +Hasle a few days after the sending of the telegram, to join Miss Odell +and bring her home by way of France and England. + +Maida recalled with a dull aching of heart and head her disappointment, +her uneasiness; how she had insisted upon sending telegrams to her +adopted brother, and to John Hasle, in New York, waiting for answers +before she would consent to go on. The answers came, apparently +genuine, and she had gone on. There had been two days in Cairo, at the +house of a rich, elderly man who called himself French, but looked like +a Turk or Egyptian. He stated that he was a friend of Maida's +grandfather who was, he said, a general in Ismail's service. He had +done a great wrong to a noble family of ancient Egyptian aristocracy, +who had sworn revenge, and had taken it for several generations. But +now all its members were dead except one aged woman who wished to see +and atone to Maida for the cruel punishment inflicted on her people. +The mummy which had been stolen many years ago was to be given back; +and in return Maida would not only learn a great secret, but receive a +great fortune. The house was in the country, and could be reached by a +short desert journey after travelling to Asiut by rail. In order to +escape the surveillance of the British authorities, so strict in war +time, she and her faithful friend the Head of the Grey Sisterhood, were +advised to travel in the costumes of Egyptian women. + +All this seemed hundreds of years ago to Maida, as she relived incident +after incident. Everything was far in the background of a night in the +desert inn when she had seen--or thought she had seen--a face which had +been the terror of her life. Since her earliest childhood she had seen +it in dreams, and sometimes--she believed--in reality. It was as like +the face of the mummy in the painted mummy-case as a living face could +be, except that the expression of the mummy was noble and even benign, +whereas that of the dream-face--the living face--was malevolent. The +hood of the caravan leader had been blown aside by the fierce desert +wind in a sand-storm, and a pair of terrible eyes had looked at her for +an instant before the hood was drawn close again; and, after that--but +Maida could remember nothing after that, except a struggle and a sudden +blotting out of consciousness. + +She was afraid to wake fully lest she should find herself again in the +desert inn where it seemed that something hideous had happened. But +the room there had been shabby. This room in which she opened her eyes +was beautiful, far more beautiful than any in the house at Cairo. It +was soothingly simple, too, in its decorations, as the best Eastern +rooms are. The walls were white, ornamented with a frieze of +arabesques. There were one or two large plaques of lovely old tiles +let into this pure whiteness, and a wonderful Persian rug in much the +same faded rainbow hues hung between two uncurtained windows with +carved, cedarwood blinds. The ceiling also was of carved cedar, +painted with ancient designs in rich colours. There was very little +furniture in the room, except the large divan-like bed on which Maida +was lying; but on a fat embroidered cushion squatted a girl wearing the +indoors dress of an Egyptian woman--a girl of the lower classes. She +sat between Maida and the windows, so that her figure was silhouetted +against the light: and outside the windows was a glimpse of garden: a +tall cypress and a palm with a rose bush climbing up the trunk: dully, +Maida thought that it must be an inner patio, such as her room had +looked out upon in the house at Cairo. + +"Where is the white camel?" she heard herself say, aloud: and it seemed +that her voice was tired and weak, as if she had been ill. + +The girl who was embroidering looked up. Her face was very brown, and +the eyes were painted. She wore a dark blue dress, which was a lovely +bit of colour against the white wall. Smiling at the invalid as at a +child, she went to the door, and called out something in a language +Maida could not understand. Then she effaced herself respectfully, +stepping into the background, and the Head Sister came in--the Head +Sister, just as she used to be at the Sisterhood House far away on Long +Island. She wore a grey uniform and the short veil with which her face +had always been covered in the house. + +"My dear child!" she exclaimed, in her deep, pleasant voice, with its +slight accent of foreignness which could never quite be defined. "How +thankful I am to see you conscious! We have been waiting a long time. +You've been ill, and delirious; but I can see from the look in your +eyes that it's over now--those dreams of horror I could never persuade +you were not real." + +Maida looked earnestly at the Head Sister whom she had once so utterly +loved and trusted. Did she love and trust her now? The girl felt that +she did not. Yet she felt, too, that the sad change might be but the +dregs in her cup of dreams. Never had the wonderful woman's voice been +more kind. "If I tell you a piece of good news, will it make you +better, or will it give you a temperature?" the Head Sister went on. + +"It will make me better," Maida said, a faint thrill of hope at her +heart. There was only one piece of news, she thought, which would be +good. + +"Very well, then. It is this: we are expecting your brother and Lord +John Hasle in a few days. Are you pleased?" + +"Yes," Maida answered. She composed her voice, and spoke quietly; but +new life filled her veins. The dullness was gone from her brain, the +lassitude from her limbs. She felt as if she had drunk a sparkling +tonic. + +"You look another girl already," said the Head Sister. "If this +improvement keeps up, you'll be able to walk about your room a little +to-day, and to-morrow you may be strong enough to be helped out into +the balcony that runs along over the patio, and leads to the room of +your hostess. She is impatient for you to be well enough to come +there; and it will be a test of your strength. Besides--I know you are +anxious to hear what you have travelled so far to find out." + +Maida could not have explained then, or afterwards, why the Head +Sister's suppressed eagerness brought back the fear she had known in +her dreams. She would have liked to answer that she preferred to wait +and see the unknown "hostess" after Roger and John had arrived. But +something told her she had better not say that. Instead, she smiled, +and answered that she would try to walk that afternoon, and test her +strength. + +The Head Sister seemed satisfied, seemed to take it for granted that +the plan she was making would be carried out; and then she made an +excuse to leave the room. The girl Hateb would watch over Maida, as +she had watched faithfully since the day when the unconscious patient +had been put into her care. Hateb, the Head Sister added, had learned +in Cairo to speak a little English and French. Maida could ask for +anything she wished. But for a long time Maida did not wish to ask for +anything at all. She lay still and thought--and wondered: and Hateb +went on embroidering. She finished a thing like a charming little +table cover on which she had worked a design in dull blues and reds, a +design like the patterns of old tiles from Tunis. Then, pausing to +roll up the square of creamy tissue, she began to make the first purple +flower of a new design on another square. + +At last, as if fascinated, Maida did ask a question. She asked what +Hateb did with these things when they were finished. Were they for her +mistress? + +The girl shook her head, and managed to make Maida understand that all +the women of the household who could embroider sent their work by the +negroes into the oasis town of Hathor Set where there was a shop which +sold such things to tourists. Very few tourists came now, but +sometimes there were officers and soldiers. They always bought +souvenirs for their families at home. Harem ladies sold their work for +charity among the poor, but their servants--well, it was pleasant to +earn something extra. This house was often shut up for months. The +master and mistress lived away, and seldom came, so there was much +time--too much time--and it hung heavy on their hands unless they were +kept busy. + +"I know how to embroider, too," said Maida, "not as you do, but after +the fashion of my country. I make my own designs. I should love to +embroider an end of a scarf or something like that, to show you how +fast I can work. Then you may sell what I do, and keep the money. If +any English or American people come to that shop in the town you speak +of they will be surprised to see such a thing if it is displayed well, +and they will be glad to offer a good price, because they will be +reminded of home. But you must let no one in this house see my work, +or they may be angry with you for allowing me to exert myself. It will +do me good, but they will not believe that." + +The girl was delighted with the idea. Her curiosity was aroused to see +the work of a foreigner, which would sell for much money, and she was +pleased with the prospect of having that money for herself. She gave +Maida materials, and the invalid sat up in bed to begin her task. With +a pencil she traced a queer little border which might have represented +breaking hearts or flashes of lightning. Inside this border she formed +the word "Help" with her name "Maida" underneath, in elaborate old +English letters impossible for Hateb to read with her scant knowledge +of English. Despite her weakness, Maida worked with feverish haste, +and finished the whole piece of embroidery, in blue and gold and +reddish purple, before evening. She pronounced herself too ill to +rise, but promised to make an effort next day. It was in her mind to +delay the visit to her unknown "hostess," and meanwhile to send out a +message, like a carrier pigeon. But there was the strong will of the +Head Sister to reckon with. The latter gently, yet firmly insisted +that, now dear Maida's delirium had passed, it would do her good to +take up life again where she had left it off. The Egyptian woman they +had made this long journey to meet was impatient. She was unable to +come to Maida. Maida must go to her. Besides, it would be +discouraging to Roger Odell and John Hasle to arrive and find their +dear one pale and ill. She must make the effort for their sakes if not +for her own. + +This solicitude for Roger and John was new on the part of the Head +Sister, who had deliberately taken Maida away from one, and separated +her from the other: but she frankly confessed that her point of view +had changed. She saw that the girl had no real vocation for the Grey +Sisterhood. If the mystery of her past could be solved, and happiness +could come out of sorrow, Maida would have a place in the world, and +John Hasle--the Head Sister admitted--deserved a reward for patience +and loyalty. + +These arguments did not ring true in the ears of Maida, but she had +reached a place where it was impossible to turn back. She was in the +woman's power, whether the woman were enemy or friend; and if she +refused to follow the Head Sister's counsel, she believed that she +would be forced to follow it. Maida was too proud to risk being +coerced; and when the first day after the sending out of the embroidery +passed without result, she obeyed the directress and let herself be +dressed. + +The girl suffered a great deal, but she had not lost physical or mental +courage. She believed that she had sprung from a family of soldiers, +and she wanted to be worthy of them, even if no one save herself ever +knew how she faced a great danger. Something in the Head Sister's air +of fiercely controlled excitement told her that she was about to face +danger when, with the elder woman's supporting arm round her waist, she +walked from her own room to the door of a room at the end of a long +balcony--the balcony overlooking the patio garden. + +As she went, the scent of magnolias and orange blossoms pressed heavily +on her senses like the fragrance of flowers in a room of death. It was +evening, just the hour of sunset, and as the girl looked up at the +sapphire square of sky above the white walls and greenish-brown roofs, +the pulsating light died down suddenly, as if an immense lamp had been +extinguished. + +Maida shivered. "What is the matter? Are you afraid?" the Head Sister +asked. + +"No, I am not afraid," Maida answered firmly. "It is only--as if +someone walked on my grave." + +"Your grave!" the woman echoed, with a slight laugh. "That is very far +away to the west, let us hope." + +Yet Maida's words must have brought to her mind the picture of a +highballed garden of orange trees, no further to the west than the +western end of that house. She must have seen the negroes digging +there, under the trees, digging very fast, to be ready in time. She +must even have known the depth and width and length of the long, narrow +hole they dug, for it had been measured to fit the painted mummy-case +brought to Egypt from Maida's "shrine" in New York. That mummy-case, +long wanted, long sought, was useful no longer. Its occupant for +thousands of years had been rifled of his secret. The jewels which had +lain among the spices at his heart had been removed. They were safe in +custody of those who claimed a right over them, and the revenge of +generations might now be completed. + +The Head Sister tapped at the door of the room, and then, after a +slight pause, when no answer came, opened it. Gently she pushed Maida +in ahead of her, and followed on the girl's heels, shutting the door +behind them both. + +The room was very large and very beautiful. Already the carved +cedar-wood blinds inside the windows shut out the light of day. Not a +sound in the room--if there should be a sound--could be heard even in +the patio or the orange gardens. Two huge Egyptian oil lamps of old, +hand-worked brass hung from the painted wooden ceiling. They lit with +a flittering, golden light the white arabesquesed walls, the dado of +lovely tiling, the marble floor and the fountain pool in the centre +where goldfish flashed. There was little furniture: a divan covered +with a Persian rug; a low, inlaid table or two; some purple silk +cushions piled near the fountain; and Maida's eyes searched vainly for +the "hostess" who waited eagerly to tell her the secret. The only +conspicuous object in the room was a familiar one--the painted +mummy-case, standing upright as it had stood in the shrine, far away in +Roger Odell's house in New York. It stood so that Maida, on entering +the room, saw it in profile. She was not surprised to see it there, +for she knew that it had travelled with them--by John Hasle's wish, she +had been told--and certainly with his name on the packing-box in which +it was contained. It was easy enough to believe that the mummy had a +connection with the "secret" she was to hear, for always it had been +for her a mystery as well as a treasure. It was easy, also, to +understand why the "hostess" should have had the thing brought into her +room and unpacked. But she--the hostess--was not there. + +"Patience for a few minutes, my child," said the Head Sister, no doubt +reading Maida's thought. "I have been asked to tell you a story. It +is a long story, but you must hear it to understand what follows. Sit +down with me, and listen quietly. Your questions may come at the end." + +Maida would have taken a few steps further, to look into the +mummy-case, and see if its occupant were intact after the journey by +sea and land: but the elder woman stopped her. With a hand on the +girl's arm, she made her sit down on a divan where the mummy-case was +visible still only in profile. + +"This room was once made ready in honour of a bride," the Head Sister +said. "All its beauties were for her: the pool, the rare old tiles, +the Persian embroideries and rugs. The bridegroom was an Egyptian of a +line which had been royal in the past. I speak of the long ago past, +thousands of years ago. He had records which proved his descent +without doubt. When I say he was an Egyptian, I don't mean a Turk. I +mean a lineage far more ancient than the Turkish invasion in Egypt. +The family, however, had intermarried with Turks and had become +practically Turkish, except by tradition. This mummy-case and its +contents was the dearest treasure of Essain Bey, the man who decorated +the room you see for the woman he adored. Immemorable generations ago +it had been taken from the Tombs of the Kings--not stolen, mind you, +but taken secretly by a descendant who had proofs that the mummied man +had been a famous, far-away ancestor of his own. Even so, though this +forbear of Essain's had a right to the mummy, he would have let it lie +in peace, hidden for ever in the rock-caverns of the tombs if illegal +excavations had not been planned. He saved the mummy-case from +violation, although he could not save the tomb; and though there was a +legend that the body was filled with precious things he vowed that it +should not be rifled--vowed for himself and his son and his son's son. + +"The legend ran that the last Egyptian king hid the royal treasure +inside the mummy of his father, before setting out to fight the +invader, and that after his death in battle, the secret descended from +one representative of the family to another: but the whereabouts of the +tomb was lost, and only found again a century ago through the +translation of a papyrus. As I said, the mummy in its case was +sacredly preserved, and was considered to keep good fortune in the +family so long as it remained intact. When Essain married his +beautiful Greek bride he would have given her his soul if she had asked +for it. Instead, she asked for the mummy of Hathor Set. It should be +hers, he promised, the day she gave him his first boy, and he kept his +word. But with the boy came a girl also. The Greek woman, Irene +Xanthios, was the mother of twins. The mummy in its case--the luck of +the family--was called hers. It was kept in this room, where she felt +a pleasure in seeing it under her eyes. She delighted her husband by +telling him she loved the dark face because of the likeness to his. He +was happy, and believed that she was happy too. Perhaps she would +always have remained faithful, had it not been for an Englishman, an +officer in the service of Ismail. + +"Now, when I speak of Ismail being in power, you will understand that +all this happened many years ago; to be precise it was fifty-four years +ago to-day that the twin boy and girl were born and the mummy given to +their mother, Irene. How she met the Englishman I do not know. I +suppose the monotony of harem life bored her, though she had adopted +the religion and customs of Essain Bey. She was beautiful, and maybe +she let her veil blow aside one day when she looked out of her carriage +window at the handsome officer who passed. How long they knew each +other in secret I cannot tell either; but the twins were four years old +when their mother ran away with the Englishman. She left them behind, +as if without regret, but--she took the luck of the family with +her--the mummy of King Hathor Set in his painted case. So, you can +guess who was the man: your grandfather. His name was Sir Percival +Annesley. He was no boy at the time. Already he had been made a +Lieutenant in Ismail's army: but he fled from Egypt with the woman he +stole--and the booty--and after that they lived quietly in England. +They hid from the world: but they could not hide from Essain's revenge. + +"In this room--coming back from a council at the Khedivial Palace in +Cairo--Essain learned how his wife had profited by his absence of a +week. In this room he vowed vengeance, not only upon her and the man +who took her from him, but upon that man's descendants, male or female, +until the last one had paid the penalty of death. In this room he made +his two children swear that, when they grew old enough, they would help +exterminate the children of Percival Annesley, and if unfortunately +these survived long enough to have children, exterminate them also. In +this room he branded the flesh of his young son and daughter with the +Eye of Horus, to remind them that their mission was to watch--ever to +watch. + +"Essain turned his back upon this house when it had become a house of +disgrace, but he did not sell or dispose of it. He had made up his +mind that, from a house of disgrace it must become a house of revenge. +His will was that the place should be kept up; that servants should be +ready to do anything they were bidden to do. With his own hands he +killed your grandfather, in sight of Irene and her baby boy, your +father. Later, Irene died of grief, but your father lived. He too +came to Egypt, and served in the army, by that time in the hands of the +British. Essain was dead, but Essain's son lived, and had one great +aim in his life; to kill Perceval Annesley's son, and retrieve the +mummy. Perceval Annesley's son was named Perceval too. He met your +mother when she was travelling in Egypt as a girl, and followed her to +America. The younger Essain would not have allowed him to leave Egypt, +if the mummy had been there, but he had left it at home in England. So +far as young Essain had been able to find out, the mummy had never been +desecrated: this was the one virtue of the Annesleys: they had left it +intact. + +"In New York, your father persuaded your mother to run away with him, +when she was on the eve of marrying Roger Odell--old Roger who became +your guardian. They went together to England, and lived in the +Annesley house, which is in Devonshire. Soon, young Essain's chance +came. He shot your father dead, in your mother's presence; but in +escaping he lost sight of her. She knew the curse which had fallen on +the Annesleys. She feared for you, if not for herself. She took you, +and the mummy-case, and an Eye of Horus which had been a gift from the +elder Essain to Irene, and she contrived to vanish from the knowledge +of Essain the younger. + +"It was only for a time, however, that he and his twin sister--able to +help him now--searched in vain. He traced the travellers eventually by +means of the mummy-case. Your mother was dead: but his vow to his +father was not fulfilled while you were alive, and the mummy of Hathor +Set under the roof of the Odells. You were too well protected to be +easily reached, but there are many ways of accomplishing an end. You +were never a strong girl. Plots against your peace of mind were +planned and carried out. Once or twice you came near death, but always +luck stood between you and what Essain and his sister Zorah believed to +be justice. The drama of your life has been a strange one. Your death +alone without the restoration of the mummy would not have sufficed, +though, had you died, Essain would have moved heaven and earth to gain +possession of the body of Hathor Set. At last he has obtained it. The +oath of his father's ancestor not to open the mummy was but for the son +and the son's son. That has run out many years ago, and Essain felt +that the time had come to learn and profit by the secret. He has done +so, and holds a wonderful treasure in his hands. The like of it has +never been seen in the new world, except in museums of the East. Now +the whole duty of Essain's son and daughter has been accomplished, +except in one last detail. What that is, you, Madeleine Annesley can +guess. I have finished my explanation. But if you would understand +more, go now, and look at the mummy-case." + +As if fascinated, Maida obeyed. Her brain was working fast. Was her +instinct right? Had she been brought here to the House of Revenge to +die, or would this soft, sweet voice, telling so calmly the terrible +story of two families, add that the last sacrifice would not be +permitted? Was the command to rise and look at the mummy-case a test +of her physical courage after what she had heard? + +To her own surprise, she was no longer conscious of fear. A strange, +marble coldness held her in its grip, as if she were becoming a statue. +She moved across the room and stopped in front of the mummy-case. +Living eyes looked out at her. She saw the dark face so like in +feature to the withered face of the mummy. This was the face of her +dreams. + +The girl recoiled from it and turned to the woman who had been her +friend. For the first time the Head Sister had lifted her veil and +taken off the mask always worn at the Sisterhood House. Her face +seemed identical with that in the mummy-case. It also was the face of +Maida's dreams, the haunting horror of her life. Without a word the +mystery of the mask and veil became clear to her. The Head Sister's +one reason for wearing them was to hide her startling likeness to +Essain, her twin brother. + +"The end has come," a voice said Maida did not know whether the man or +woman spoke. As the mummy-case opened and the figure within stepped +out, the world broke for the girl into a cataract of stars which +overwhelmed her. + + * * * * * + +I have told already how I was guided in the direction of Hathor Set. I +hoped and believed that I was right, but even so I was far from the end +of my quest. Hathor Set is a small town, important only because of its +situation and the fact that several rich Arabs have their country +houses on the outskirts of the oasis. Each hour, each moment counted: +yet how was I to learn which of the houses was Maida's prison? Judging +by the precautions taken for the first stages of the journey, it was in +no optimistic mood that I rode with my little caravan into the +principal street--if street it could be called--of Hathor Set. Our +camels trod sand, but to our left was the market, and beyond, a few +shops. In the background the secretive white walls of houses +clustered, the plumed heads of palms rose out of hidden gardens, and +the green dome of a mosque glittered like a peacock's breast against +the hot blue sky. + +It was not market day, and the open square with its booths and +enclosures was deserted: but men stood in the doors of two small shops +hopefully designed to attract tourists. One exhibited coarse native +pottery, and the other, more ambitious, showed alleged antiques, silk +gandourahs, embroideries and hammered brasswork. Above the open door +was the name "Said ben Hassan," and underneath was printed amateurishly +in English: "Egyptian Curios: Fine Embroideries: French, English and +American Speaken." + +I had halted, meaning to descend and buy something as an excuse to ask +questions, when a dirty, crouching figure which squatted near the floor +scrambled up and flung itself before me whining for backsheesh. "Get +away!" roared my camel-man, who was in a bad temper because of a forced +march. He struck at the beggar with his goad, while the shopkeeper +rushed forward to prove his zeal in ridding a customer of the nuisance. + +"Wretch!" he exclaimed. "How often have I told thee to depart from my +door and not annoy the honoured ones who come to buy? This time it is +too much. Thou shalt spend thy next days in prison." + +Between the two hustling the lame man, he fell, crying; and humbug +though he might be, my gorge rose. For an instant I forgot that I had +meant to ingratiate myself with the shopkeeper, and abused him in my +most expressive Arabic. I scolded my own man, and, without waiting for +my camel to bend its knees and let me down, I slid off to the rescue. + +"The fellow is worthless," pleaded the shopkeeper, anxious to justify +his violence. "It was for Effendi's sake that I pushed him. He is +rich. He is the king of all the beggars--the scandal of Hathor Set." + +"Whatever he may be, he's old and weak, and I won't have him struck," I +said. "Here, let this dry your tears," I went on: and enjoying the +suppressed rage of Abdullah my camel-man, I raised the weeping beggar +from the ground and gave him a handful of piastres. With suspicious +suddenness his sobs ceased and turned to blessings. He wished me a +hundred years of life and twenty sons: and then, exulting in the rout +of Said ben Hassan and Abdullah, defiantly returned to the rag of +sacking he had spread like a mat on the sand. The keeper of the shop +glared a menace: but his wish to sell his goods overcame the desire for +revenge; and contenting himself with a look which said "Only wait!" he +turned with a servile smile to me. Would the honoured master enter his +mean shop, give himself the pain to examine the wonderful stock +superior to any even in Cairo, and sip sherbet or Turkish coffee? + +I paused, reflecting that it might be better to inquire somewhere else. +Humble as the man's tone was, his eyes glittered with malice; and once +he had my money he would delight in sending me on a wild-goose chase. +As I thought what to answer, my eyes wandered over his show window, and +suddenly concentrated on a piece of embroidery. Some small +table-covers and scarfs of thin Eastern silk were draped on a brass +jardinière. On the smallest of all I read, in old English lettering, +the words "Help. Maida." + +I kept my self-control with an effort. For a few seconds I could not +speak. Then I inquired the price of that piece of embroidery, pointing +it out. The shopkeeper's fat brown face became a study. He was asking +himself in an anguish of greed how high he might dare to go. "Five +hundred piastres," he replied, leaving generous room for the beating +down process. But I did not beat him down. + +"That's a large price," I said, "but I will pay if you tell me where +the embroidery came from. It's an old English design. That's why I'm +curious to know how you got it." + +Said ben Hassan seemed distressed. "Honoured Sir, I would tell you if +I could, but I cannot. It would be as much as my life is worth. +Ladies of the harem make these embroideries, or their women. I sell +them, and they use the money for their charities. It is a sacred +custom. I can say no more." + +"I will give you a thousand piastres," I said. + +The man looked ready to cry, but persisted. "It is a great pain to +refuse," he mourned. "But I would have to make the same answer if +Effendi offered two thousand." + +"I offer three," I went on. + +But the man was not to be tempted. He groaned that it was a question +of his life. Poor as it was, he valued it. He groaned, he apologised, +he explained, he pressed upon me the true history of all the +antiquities in his shop, and the five hundred piastres I was ready to +pay for the bit of embroidery had shrunk in his eyes to a sum scarcely +worth taking. At last, when I turned away, deaf to his eloquence, he +caught me by the coat. "If Effendi must know, I will risk all and give +him his will!" he wailed. "The embroidery came from Asiut. I will +write down the name of the powerful pasha who is master of the house: +that is, I will do so if Effendi is still ready to pay three thousand +piastres." + +I knew that the man was lying, yet my best hope lay in his +knowledge--practically my one hope. How to get the truth out of him, +was the question. + +"I must think it over," I said. As I spoke I became conscious that the +lame beggar who had crawled off his mat to the door of the shop was +whining again. + +To my astonishment he hurriedly jumbled in English words as if he +wished to hide them. Under his appeal, in Arabic that I should buy a +fetish he held up in a knotted old hand, he was mumbling in English, +that he would tell me for gratitude, what Ben Hassan dared not tell me +for money. "Do not give him one piastre: he is lying," muttered the +beggar. "Buy this fetish. Inside you will find explanations." + +The fetish was a tiny silver box of native make, one of those +receptacles intended to contain a text from the Koran, and to hang from +a string on the breast of the Faithful. I threw the man a look and I +threw him money. Squatting there, he seemed to pick up both before he +crawled away. I burned to call him back as I saw him wrap the sacking +over head and shoulders, and start--without a backward glance--to +hobble off. But I dared not make a sound. Hassan, if he suspected, +might ruin the beggar's plan. I slipped the fetish into my pocket, and +told the shopkeeper that I would content myself for the present with +buying the piece of embroidery. I must reflect before paying the price +he wanted for information. I should, I said, spend the night at the +inn, for I was tired. There would be time to think. + +The inn at Hathor Set is hardly worth the name, being little better +than the desert borg which, in my mind, I called the Borg of the +Watching Eye; but its goodness or badness did not matter. As for +Abdullah, he was glad of the rest. I had made him start before dawn in +the midst of a sand-storm which had blown itself out only late in the +baking heat of afternoon when we neared the oasis of Hathor Set. When +I shut myself into an ill-smelling room of the inn, to open the silver +fetish, it was still baking hot, but close upon sunset. If I had not +felt some strange impulse of confidence in the lame beggar who hid his +English under vulgar Arabic slang, I should have resented the coming of +night. As it was, I was glad of the falling dusk. I could work to +find Maida only under the cover of darkness, I knew: for there was no +British consul here, no Justice to whom I could appeal. There were +only my own hands and my own brain: and such help as the beggar might +give because he hated Said ben Hassan. + +A torn scrap of paper was rolled inside the tiny silver box: but it was +not a text from the Koran. + +"Dine at eight to-night with the beggar Haroun and his friends and hear +something to your advantage. Anyone can show you the house," I read, +written in English with pencil. If I had had time to think of him much +I should have been consumed with curiosity as to the brown-faced old +man who begged by day, and in faultlessly spelled English invited +strangers to dine with him by night. But I had time to think only of +what I might hear "to my advantage." The mystery of the "beggar king +of Hathor Set" was lost for me in the mystery of Maida Odell, as a +bubble is lost in the sea. + +The Eastern darkness fell like a purple curtain over a lighted lamp. I +went out long before eight, and showed a coin as I asked the first +cloaked figure I met for the house of Haroun the beggar. It was +strange that a beggar should have a house, but everything about this +beggar was strange! + +The house was in the heart of the crowded town, a town of brown adobe +turning to gold under a rising moon. All the buildings were huddled +together like a family of lion cubs, but my guide led me to a square of +blank wall on the lower edge of a hill. The door was placed at the +foot of this hill; and when a negro opened it at my knock I found +myself in a squalid cellar. At the far end was a flight of dilapidated +stone steps: at the top of this another door, and beyond the door--a +surprise. I came out into a small but charming garden court with +orange trees and a fountain. A white embroidered cloth was spread on +the tiled pavement, and surrounded with gay silk cushions for more than +a dozen guests. Coloured lanterns hung from the trees and lit with +fairy-like effect dishes of crystallised fruit and wonderful pink cakes. + +Figures of men in gandourahs came forward respectfully, and the King of +the Beggars bade me welcome. He offered a brass bowl of rose-water in +which to dip my fingers, and as he himself dried them with a +lace-trimmed napkin he spoke in English. + +"I am grateful," he said, "for your trust. You shall not regret it." +Then he went on, without giving me time to answer, "I am a beggar by +day, and the beggars' king at night, as you see. This is my existence. +It has its adventures, its pleasures; this meeting is one of the +highest. It reminds me that I have English blood in my veins. +Besides, if I help you I shall help myself to revenge. My father was +English, but turned Mohammedan for the love of my mother. English was +the first language I learned to speak. In the days of Ismail I was in +his army--an officer. I was proud of my English blood and I promised +my aid to an Englishman--an officer, too, named Annesley--aid against +one of my own religion. I helped him to run away with a beautiful +woman. He escaped with her. I was caught, wounded, and cruelly +punished. My career was at an end--my money gone. Lame and penniless, +I had no power to take revenge. Many years have passed. I was young +then. Now, I am old. The man who broke me is dead, but his children +live--twins, a son and a daughter. They have come home from some +country far away, to their father's house. I saw them come--I, the +lame beggar lying in the street, a Thing that does not count! Two +women were with Essain, his sister and another who was ill--perhaps +unconscious--lying upon a litter on camel back. The embroidery you +saw, with the English words which I, too, could read--came from his +house. It was brought by a negro, to-day, to the shop of Said ben +Hassan, and put in his window an hour before you rode into Hathor Set. +But Ben Hassan is afraid of Essain Pasha, the man I speak of, and he +would never have told you anything about his house: he would only have +lied and sent you off on a false track in repayment for your money. As +for me, I can tell all you wish to know: and when you have honoured me +by eating my food, I can show you the house. It is not more than a +mile distant from the town. If you wish to injure Essain, so much the +better. Because of what his father did to me, and because of your +kindness, I should like to help you do it." + +"For God's sake, come with me now," I broke in at last. "You asked me +here to dine, but a girl's life may be hanging in the balance. Her +name is Madeleine Annesley. She must be the granddaughter of the man +who was your friend, and the woman you helped him take. You speak of +revenge! It is for revenge she has been brought here by the man you +call Essain and his sister who is as wicked as himself. I never knew +till I heard your story what that woman was to him, or why they worked +together. But now I understand all--or nearly all. I love Madeleine +Annesley, and I know she's in danger of her life." + +"I thought," said Haroun, "there might be some such matter afoot, and +that is why I asked my friends to be here. They are ready to obey my +orders, for they count me as their king; and I have chosen them from +among others for their strength and courage. I am the only one who is +old and lame, but I am strong enough for this work. When it is done, +we can feast, and we will not break our fast till then. Essain has no +fear of an attack in force. His house, though it is the great one of +the place, is guarded but by a few negroes, the servants who have kept +it in his absence. There are orange gardens which surround the house. +Without noise we will break open a little gate I remember, and once +inside, with fifteen strong men at our service, the surprise will be +complete--the house and all in it, male and female, at our mercy." + +Not a man of the fifteen but had a weapon of some sort, an +old-fashioned pistol or a long knife, and some had both. + +We started in the blue, moony dusk, walking in groups that we might not +be noticed as a band: and it was astonishing how fast the lame beggar +could go. We led--he and I--and such was the greedy haste with which +his limping legs covered the distance that he kept pace with me at my +best. + +Soon we were out of the huddled town, walking beside the rocky bed of +the _oued_ or river; and never leaving the oasis we came at last to a +high white wall. + +"This is Essain's garden," Haroun whispered. "And here is the little +gate I spoke of. Listen! I thought I heard voices. But no. It may +have been the wind rustling among the leaves." + +"It wasn't the wind," I said. "There are people talking in the garden. +Don't try to break the gate. You may make a noise. I'll get over the +wall and open the gate from inside." + +"The wall is high," said Haroun, measuring it with his eyes. + +"And I am tall," I answered. "One of your men will give me a leg up." + +In another moment I was letting myself cautiously down on a dark, dewy +garden fragrant with the scent of orange blossoms. There was broken +glass on the top of the wall, and my hands were cut: but that was a +detail. + +Noiselessly I slid back the big bolt which fastened the gate. The men +filed in like a troop of ghosts, and followed me as I tiptoed along, +crouching under trees as I walked. + +The voices, speaking together in low, hushed tones, became more +audible, though, even when we came near, we could catch no words. A +singularly broad-shouldered man in European dress, with a fez on his +rather small head, stood with his back to us, giving orders to four +negroes. They were out in the open, where the moon touched their +faces, and we in the shadow could see them distinctly. They had a +long, narrow box somewhat resembling a coffin, which, by their master's +directions, they were about to lower by means of ropes into a +grave-like hole they had dug in the soft earth. + +My heart gave a bound, and then missed a beat, as if my life had come +to an end. I sprang on the man from behind, and the beggar king with +his band followed my lead. Just what happened next I could hardly +tell: I was too busy fighting. Down on the ground we two went +together. Essain--whom I knew as Rameses--fought like a lion. +Surprised as he was, he flashed out a knife somehow, and I felt its +point bite between my ribs, before I got a chance to shoot. Even then, +I shot at random, and it was only the sudden start and collapse of the +body writhing under mine which told me that my bullet had found its +billet. The man lay still. I jumped up, released from his hold. His +face I could not see, but when I shook him he was limp as a marionette. +"Dead!" I said to myself. "Well, it's all to the good!" and wasted no +more time on him. + +The four negroes were down: they had shown no fight; and already Haroun +had begun with a great knife to prise open the coffin-shaped box. It +lay on the ground in the moonlight and I saw that it was the mummy-case +I had seen last in Maida's shrine in New York. There was no doubt--no +hope, then! I had come too late! + +Like a madman I snatched the knife from Haroun, and finished the work +he had begun. There she lay--my darling--where the mummy had lain so +long. But I was not too late after all. As the air touched her she +gasped and opened her eyes. + +There, you would say, with the girl I loved coming to life in my arms, +the story of my fight against her enemies might end. But it was not to +be so. There was still the one supreme struggle to come. For Essain, +alias Rameses, was not dead. He had feigned death to save himself, and +while we forgot him he crept away. + + + + +EPISODE IX + +THE BELL BUOY + +A white yacht steamed slowly through calm water silvered by the moon. +Maida and I were the only passengers. We had been married that day, +and the yacht _Lily Maid_ was ours for the honeymoon, lent by Maida's +newly found cousins, Sir Robert and Lady Annesley. + +"Look," I said, as passing through the Downs I caught sight of two dark +towers showing above a cloud of trees on the Kentish coast. "Those +towers are my brother's house. To-morrow I shall be there making him +eat humble pie--and my sister-in-law too." + +"I don't want you to make them eat humble pie!" laughed Maida. + +"Well, they shall eat whatever you like. But would you care to anchor +now? It's nearly midnight." + +"Let's go on a little further," she decided. "It's so heavenly." + +It was. I felt that I had come almost as near heaven as I could hope +to get. Maida was my wife at last, and she was happy. I believed that +she was safe. + +We went on, and the throb of the yacht's heart was like the throbbing +of my own. Close together we stood, she and I, my arm clasping her. +So we kept silence for a few moments, and my thoughts trailed back as +the moonlit water trailed behind us. I remembered many things: but +above all I remembered that other night of moonlight far away in Egypt, +in a secret orange garden where men had dug a grave. + +Why, yes, of course Maida was safe! One of her two enemies had died +that night--the woman. Exactly how she died we did not know, but I and +the "king of the beggars" had found her lying, face downward, in the +marble basin of a great fountain, dead in water not a foot deep. The +fountain was in a room whence, from one latticed window, the orange +garden and the fight there could have been seen. That window was open. +Doubtless Essain's sister had believed her twin brother captured or +dead. She had thought that, for herself, the end of all things had +come with his downfall: punishment, failure and humiliation worse than +death. So she had chosen death. But the man had escaped and +disappeared. The treasure hidden for thousands of years in the +mummy--treasure which the Head Sister boasted to Maida had been found +by Doctor Rameses--had disappeared with him. + +The girl Hateb who had cared for Maida through her illness cared for +her again that night, while Haroun and I guarded the shut door of their +room. The next day Maida was able to start for Cairo, and Hateb (both +veiled, and in Egyptian dress) acted as her maid. Had it not been for +Haroun's testimony and the respect felt by the authorities for the rich +beggar, the happenings of that night and the woman's death might have +detained me at Hathor Set; but thanks to Haroun I was able to get Maida +away. Thanks again partly to him and what he could tell (with what +Maida had been told by the Head Sister) the girl's past was no longer a +mystery. We knew the name of her people: and luckily it was a name to +conjure with just then in Cairo. Colonel Sir Robert Annesley was +stationed there. He was popular and important; and I blessed all my +stars because I had met him in England. + +I wanted Maida to marry me in Cairo, with her cousin Sir Robert to give +her away: but the blow my brother had struck long ago had hurt her +sensitive soul to the quick. She said that she could not be my wife +until Lord Haslemere and Lady Haslemere were willing to welcome her. +She wanted no revenge, but she did want satisfaction. + +I had to yield, since a man can't marry a girl by force nowadays, even +when she admits that she's in love. Sir Robert found her a chaperon, +going to England, and I was allowed to sail on the same ship. Maida +was invited to stay with Lady Annesley until the wedding could be +arranged on the bride's own "terms"; but Fate was more eloquent than I: +she induced Maida to change her mind. + +Lady Annesley was as brave (for herself and her husband) as a soldier's +wife must be; but she had three children. For them, she was a coward. +Maida had not been two days at the Annesley's Devonshire place, and I +hadn't yet been able to tackle Haslemere, when an anonymous letter +arrived for the girl's hostess. It said that, if Lady Annesley wished +her three little boys to see their father come home, she would turn out +of her house the enemy of a noble family whose vendetta was not +complete. At first, the recipient of the letter was at a loss what to +make of it. Frightened and puzzled, she handed the document to Maida +(this was at breakfast) and Maida was only too well able to explain. + +The letter had a London postmark: and the girl knew then, with a shock +of fear, that "Dr. Rameses" was in England--had perhaps reached there +before her. An hour later I knew also--having motored from the hotel +where I was stopping in Exeter. The question was, why did the enemy +want to get the girl out of her cousin's house?--for that desire alone +could have inspired the anonymous warning. Without it, he might have +attempted a surprise stroke: but of his own accord, he had for some +reason eliminated the element of surprise. + +As for me, I was thankful. Not because Essain, alias Rameses, had come +to England, but because he was throwing Maida into my arms. This +result might be intended by him; but naturally I felt confident that +she would be safe under my protection. I argued that she couldn't +expose Lady Annesley and the children to danger; the Annesleys had +suffered enough for a sin of generations ago: and if she gave up the +shelter of her cousin's house she must come to me. What mattered it, +in such circumstances, whether the family welcome came before or after +the wedding? I guaranteed that it would come. And so--owing to the +anonymous letter, and its visible effect upon Lady Annesley, Maida +abandoned the dream she had cherished. We were married by special +licence: and now, on the Annesley's yacht--too small to be needed for +war-service by the Admiralty--we stood on our wedding night. + +"Nothing can ever separate us again, my darling!" I broke out suddenly, +speaking my thought aloud. + +"No, not even death," Maida said, softly, almost in a whisper. + +"Don't think of death, my dearest!" I cut her short. + +"I'll try not," she said. "But it seems so wonderful to dare be +happy--after all. And the memory of that man--the thought of him--I +won't call it fear, or let it be fear--is like a black spot in the +brightness. It's like that big floating black shape, moving just +enough to show it is there, in the silver water. Do you see?" and she +pointed. "Does that sound we hear, come from it--like a bell--a +funeral bell tolling?" + +"That's a bell buoy," I explained. "I remember it well. You know, +when I was a boy I spent holidays with my brother at Hasletowers; and I +loved this old buoy. I've imagined a hundred stories about it; and--by +Jove--I wonder what that chap can be up to!" + +The "chap" whose manoeuvres had caused me to break off and forget my +next sentence, was too far away to be made out distinctly. But he was +in a boat which I took to be a motor-boat, as it had skimmed along the +bright water like a bird. He had stopped close to the bell buoy, and +was fitting a large round object over his head. Apparently it was a +diver's helmet. In the boat I could see another figure, slimmer and +smaller, which might be that of a boy; and this companion gave +assistance when the helmeted one descended into the water over the side +of the boat. For an instant I saw--or fancied that I saw--that he had +something queer in his hand--something resembling a big bird-cage. +Then he plunged under the surface, and was gone. + +We were steaming slowly enough, however, for me to observe in +retrospect, that the huge round head bobbed up a minute later, and that +the black figure climbed back into the boat. But the cage-like object +was no longer visible. + +"Some repairs to the buoy, perhaps," I said, as the yacht took us on. +But it seemed odd, I couldn't put the episode out of my mind. By and +by I asked the yacht's captain to turn, and let us anchor not too far +from the landing at Hasletowers, for me to go ashore comfortably when I +wished to do so next day. The boat with the two figures had vanished. +The bell buoy swayed back and forth, sending out its tolling notes; and +the _Lily Maid_ was the only other thing to be seen on the water's +silver. + + * * * * * + +At three o'clock the following afternoon I rowed myself ashore, and +from the private landing walked up to my brother's house. I hadn't +seen him or my sister-in-law since the day when I ran--or rather +limped--away from Violet's London nursing home with its crowding +flowers and sentimental ladies. But I had written. I had told them +that I intended to marry Miss Madeleine Odell, the girl whom they had +driven from England, shamed and humiliated. I had told them who she +really was, and something of her romantic history. I had added that +they should learn more when they were ready to apologise and welcome +her. Later, I had wired that we were being married unexpectedly soon, +and that we should be pleased to have them at the wedding if they +wished. Haslemere had wired back that they would be prevented by +business of importance from leaving home, but their absence was not to +be misunderstood. He invited me to call at Hasletowers and talk +matters over. On this, I telegraphed, making an appointment for the +day after my marriage; because to "talk things over" was what I wanted +to do--though perhaps not in precisely the way meant by Haslemere. + +If I'd expected my arrival to be considered an event of importance, I +should have been disappointed. Haslemere and Violet had the air of +forgetting that months had passed since we met, that I'd been through +adventures, and that this was the day after my wedding. If we had +parted half an hour before, they could hardly have been more casual! + +I was shown into the library, where Haslemere (a big, gaunt fellow of +thirty-eight, looking ten years older, and with the red hair of our +Scottish ancestors) and Violet (of no particular age and much conscious +charm) were passionately occupied in reading a telegram. I thought it +might have been mine (delayed), but in this I was soon undeceived. + +"Hello, Jack!" said Haslemere. "How are you, dear boy?" said Violet: +and then both began to pour out what was in their hearts. It had not +the remotest connection with Maida or me. It concerned themselves and +the great charity sale of historic jewels which, it seemed, Violet was +organising. What? I hadn't heard of it? They were astounded. +England was talking of nothing else. Well, there was the war, of +course! But this subject and the war were practically one. The sale +was for the benefit of mutilated officers. Nobody else had ever +thought of doing anything practical for _them_, only for the soldiers. +Violet had started by giving the Douglas-heart ring which had come down +to her from an ancestress made even more famous than she would have +been otherwise, by Sir Walter Scott. This splendid example of +generosity had set the ball rolling. Violet had only to ask and to +have. All her friends had answered her call, and lots of outsiders who +hoped thereby to become her friends. Any number of _nouveaux riches_ +creatures had actually _bought_ gorgeous antique jewels in order to lay +them at Violet's shrine--and, incidentally, that of the Mutilated +Officers. + +"Nearly a hundred thousand pounds' worth of jewels is here, in this +room, at this moment," my sister-in-law went on impressively, "but it +won't be here many moments longer, I'm thankful to say! The +responsibility has been too great for us both, this last week, while +the collection grew, and we had to look after it. Now the whole lot is +being sent to Christie's this afternoon, and the sale by auction will +begin to-morrow. It's the event of the season, bar nothing! We hope +to clear a quarter of a million if the bidding goes as we think. You +_must_ bring your bride, and make her buy something. If she's one of +the _right_ Annesleys, she must be aw'fly rich!" + +"She is one of the right Annesleys," I managed to break in. "But, as I +wrote you and Haslemere, she has always been known as Madeleine Odell. +You and he----" + +"Oh, never mind that!" Haslemere cut me short. "You have married her +without consulting us. If you'd asked my advice, I should +certainly--but we won't stir up the past! Let sleeping dogs lie, and +bygones be bygones, and so on." + +"Yes, we'll try and do our best for your wife," Violet added hastily, +with an absent-minded eye. "When the sale is over, and we have time to +breathe, you must bring her here, and----" + +"You both seem to misunderstand the situation, although I thought I'd +made things clear in my letter," I said. "You cruelly misjudged Maida. +You believed lies about her, and put a public shame upon the innocent +child. Do you think I'd ever bring her into my brother's house until +he and his wife had begged her forgiveness, and atoned as far as in +their power?" + +"Good heavens, Jack, you must be mad!" Haslemere exclaimed. "I'd +forgotten the affair until you revived it in my mind by announcing that +you intended to marry a girl whose presentation I'd caused to be +cancelled. Then I remembered. I acted at the time only as it was my +duty to act, according to information received. An American +acquaintance of Violet's--a widow of good birth whose word could not be +doubted, told us a tragic story in which Miss Odell had played--well, +to put it mildly, in consideration for you--had played an unfortunate +part." + +"The name of this American widow was Granville," I cut in, "and the +tragedy was that of her son." + +"It was. I see you know." + +"I know the true version of the story. And I expect you and Violet to +listen to it." + +"We can't listen to anything further now, dear boy. We've more +important--I beg your pardon--we've more _pressing_ things to attend +to," said Violet. "You've a right to your point of view, and we don't +want to hurt your feelings. But I don't think you ought to want _us_ +to go against our convictions, unless to be civil, for your sake, and +avoid scandal. We'll do our best, I told you; you must be satisfied +with that. And really, we _can't_ talk about this any longer, because +just before you came we'd a telegram from Drivenny to say he and Combes +and Blackburn will be here an hour earlier than the appointment. That +will land them on us at any instant; and I don't care to be agitated, +please!" + +"Drivenny is the great jewel expert," Haslemere condescended to +enlighten my amateurish intelligence. "Combes is the Scotland Yard +man, as you know: and Blackburn is the famous detective from New York +who's in London now. We don't understand why they come before their +time, but no doubt they've an excellent reason and we shall hear it +soon. You shall see them, if you like. You're interested in +detectives." + +"It sounds like a plot," I remarked, so angry with my brother and his +wife that I found a mean pleasure in trying to upset them. "You'd +better make jolly well sure that the right men come. As you are +responsible for the jewels----" + +Haslemere laughed. "You talk as if you were a detective in a boy's +story paper! Not likely I should be such a fool as to hand the boodle +over to men I didn't know by sight! They have been here before, in a +bunch, Drivenny judging the jewels, the detectives----" + +"My lord, the three gentlemen from London have arrived in a motor-car," +announced a footman. "They wished to send their cards to your +lordship." He presented a silver tray with three crude but +business-like cards lying on it. + +"Show them in at once," said Haslemere. He stood in front of a +bookcase containing the works of George Eliot, Charles Dickens and Sir +Walter Scott. I knew that bookcase well, and the secret which it so +respectably hid. Behind, was the safe in which our family had for +several generations placed such valuables as happened to be in the +house. Haslemere slid back with a touch a little bronze ornament +decorating a hinge on the glass door. In a tiny recess underneath was +the head of a spring, which he pressed. The whole bookcase slipped +along the wall and revealed the safe. Haslemere opened this, and took +out a despatch box. While Violet received the box from his hands and +laid it on a table near by, my brother closed the safe, and replaced +the bookcase. A moment later, the three important visitors were +ushered into the room, their names pronounced with respect by the +servant: "Mr. Drivenny: Mr. Blackburn: Mr. Combes." + +Haslemere met his guests with civility and honoured them consciously by +presenting the trio to Violet. "This is my brother, back from a +military mission to America," he indicated me casually, without +troubling to mention my name. + +The three men looked at me, and I at them. It struck me that they +would not have been sorry to dispense with my presence. There was just +a flash of something like chagrin which passed across the faces: the +thin, aquiline face of Drivenny, spectacled, beetle-browed, +clean-shaven: the square, puffy-cheeked face of Combes: the red, round +face of the American, Blackburn. The flash vanished as quickly as it +came, leaving the three middle-aged countenances impassive; but it made +me wonder. Why should the jewel-expert and the two detectives object +to the presence of another beside Lord and Lady Haslemere, when that +other was a near relative of the family? Surely it was a trifling +detail that I should witness the ceremony of their taking over the +contents of the tin box? + +Whatever their true feelings might have been, by tacit consent I was +made to realise that I counted for no more in the scene than a fly on +the wall, to Haslemere and Violet. No notice was taken of me while +Haslemere unlocked the despatch box, and Violet--as the organiser of +the scheme--took out the closely piled jewel-boxes it contained. This +done, she proceeded to arrange them on the long oak table, cleared for +the purpose. I stood in the background, as one by one the neatly +numbered velvet, satin or Russia-leather cases were opened, and the +description of the jewels within read aloud by Haslemere from a list. +Each of the three new-comers had a duplicate list, and there was +considerable talk before the cases were closed, and returned to the +despatch box. Most of this talk came from Violet and Haslemere, both +of whom were excited. As for Drivenny, Blackburn and Combes, it seemed +to me that, in their hearts, they would gladly have hastened +proceedings. They were polite but intensely business-like, and as soon +as they could manage it the box was stuffed into a commonplace brown +kitbag which the footman had brought in with the visitors. The three +had motored from London to Hasletowers; and they smiled drily when +Violet asked if they "thought there was danger of an attack on the way +back." + +"None whatever," replied the square-faced Combes. "We've made sure of +that. There's too much at stake to run risks." + +"Don't you remember I told you, Violet, what Mr. Combes said before?" +Haslemere reminded his wife: "that the road between here and Christie's +would swarm with plain clothes men in motors and on bicycles. If every +gang of jewel-thieves in England or Europe were on this job, they'd +have their trouble for their pains." + +"I remember," Violet admitted, "but there's been such a lot about this +affair in the papers! Thieves are so clever----" + +"Not so clever as our friends," Haslemere admonished her, with one of +his slightly patronising smiles for the jewel-expert and the +detectives. "That's why they've got the upper hand; that's why we've +asked their co-operation." + +"Oh, of course!" exclaimed Violet. They all spent the next sixty +seconds in compliments: and at the end of that time Mr. Combes +announced that he and his companions had better be off. It would be +well to complete the business. Mr. Drivenny asked Haslemere if he +would care to go to Christie's in the car with them, as a matter of +form, and Haslemere replied that he considered it unnecessary. The +valuables, in such hands, were safe as in the Bank of England. The +three men were invited to have drinks, but refused: and Haslemere +himself accompanied them to their car. Violet and I stared at it from +the window. It was an ordinary-looking grey car, with an +ordinary-looking grey chauffeur. + +When Haslemere came back to the library, I took up the subject which +the arrival of the men had made me drop. + +What did my brother and sister-in-law intend to do, to atone to my +wife? Apparently they intended to do nothing: could not see why they +should do anything: resented my assertion that they had done wrong in +the past, and were not accustomed to being accused or called to account. + +My heart had been set on obtaining poetic justice for Maida; but I knew +she wouldn't wish me to plead. That would be for us both a new +humiliation added to the old; an Ossa piled upon Pelion. Losing hope, +I indulged myself by losing also my temper. + +"Very well," I said. "Maida will be a success without help from you. +As for me----" + +"Mr. Drivenny, Mr. Blackburn and Mr. Combes," announced a footman--not +the same who had made the announcement before. + +"What--they've come _back_!" Violet and Haslemere exclaimed together. +"Show them in." + +Evidently something had gone wrong! Even I, in the midst of my rage, +was pricked to curiosity. + +The three men came in: thin, aquiline Drivenny, square, puffy-faced +Combes, and red, round Blackburn. It was not more than half an hour +since they had gone, yet already they had changed their clothes. They +were all dressed differently, not excepting boots and hats: and Combes +had a black kitbag in place of the brown one. Even in their faces, +figures and bearings there was some subtle change. + +"Good gracious! What's happened?" Violet gasped. + +The men seemed surprised. + +"We're a little before our time, my lady," said Combes, "but----" + +Haslemere snatched the words from his mouth. "But you telegraphed. +You came here----" + +"We didn't telegraph, my lord," the detective respectfully contradicted +him. + +Violet gave a cry, and put her hands up to her head, staring at the +trio so subtly altered. As before, I was a back-ground figure. I said +nothing, but I thought a good deal. The trick jokingly suggested by me +had actually been played. + +At first neither Violet nor Haslemere would believe the dreadful thing. +It was too bad to be true. These, not the other three, were the +impostors! Violet staggered towards the bell to call the servants, but +Combes showed his police badge: and between the trio it was soon made +clear that the Marquis and Marchioness of Haslemere had let themselves +be utterly bamboozled. They had of their own free will handed over to +a pack of thieves nearly one hundred thousand pounds worth of famous +jewels: not even their own, but other people's jewels entrusted to them +for charity! + +There was, however, not a moment to waste in repinings. The local +police were warned by telephone; the escaping car and chauffeur were +described, and the genuine detectives, with the jewel-expert, dashed +off in pursuit of their fraudulent understudies. Meantime, while the +others talked, I reflected; and an astonishing idea began to +crystallise in my brain. When Violet was left crying on Haslemere's +shoulder (sobbing that she was ruined, that she would kill herself +rather than face the blame of her friends) I made my voice heard. + +"I know you and Haslemere always hated my detective talents--if any. +But they might come in useful now, if I could get an inspiration," I +remarked. + +Violet caught me up. + +"_Have_ you an inspiration?" + +"Perhaps." + +"For heaven's sake what is it?" + +"If I have one, it's my own," I drily replied. "I don't see why I +should give it away. This is _your_ business--yours and Haslemere's. +Why should I be interested? Neither of you are interested in mine." + +"You mean, your ideas are for sale?" Haslemere exclaimed, in virtuous +disgust, seizing my point. + +"My _help_ is for sale--at a price." + +"The price of our receiving your wife, I suppose!" he accused me +bitterly. + +"Oh, it's higher than that! I may have guessed something. I may be +able to do something with that guess; but I'm hanged if I'll dedicate a +thought or act to your service unless you, Haslemere, personally ask +Maida's forgiveness for the cruel injustice you once did without +stopping to make sure whether you were right or wrong: unless you, +Violet, ask my wife--_ask_ her, mind you!--to let you present her to +the King and Queen at the first Court after the war." + +"We'll do anything--anything!" wailed Violet. "I'll crawl on my knees +for a mile to your Maida, if only you can really get the jewels back +before people find out how we've been fooled." + +"I don't want you to crawl," said I. "You can walk, or even motor to +Maida--or come out in a boat to the yacht where she's waiting for me +and my news. But if I can do any useful work, it will be to-night." + +"Do you think you can--oh, do you _think_ you can?" Violet implored. + +"That's just what I must do. I must think," I said. "Perhaps +meanwhile the police will make a lucky stroke If so, you'll owe me +nothing. If they don't----" + +"They won't--I feel they won't!" my sister-in-law sobbed. + +Suddenly I had become the sole person of importance in her world. She +pinned her one forlorn hope to me, like a flag nailed to a mast in a +storm. And I--saw a picture before my mind's eye of a dark figure in a +boat, putting on a thing that looked like a diver's helmet. Queer, +that--very queer! + + * * * * * + +So utterly absorbed was I in my new-born theory and in trying to work +it out, that for the first time since I met and loved her I ceased +consciously to think of Maida. Of course she was the incentive. If I +put myself into Haslemere's service, I was working for _her_: to earn +their gratitude, and lay their payment at her feet. Far away in the +dimmest background of my brain was the impression that I was a clever +fellow: that I was being marvellously intelligent: and at that moment I +was more of a fool than I had ever been in my life. I thought I saw +Rameses' hand moving in the shadows, using my brother and his wife as +pawns in his game of chess. Yet it didn't occur to my mind that he was +using me also: that he had pushed me far along the board, for his +convenience, while I believed myself acting in my own interests and +Maida's. I had flattered myself that my white queen was safe on the +square where I had placed her, guarded by knight, bishop and castle. +Yet while I went on with the game at a far end of the board, Rameses +said "Check!" Another move, and it would be checkmate. + +I was gone longer than Maida had expected, but she was not anxious. +The yacht at anchor, lay in sight of the towers Which I had pointed out +the night before, rising above a dusky cloud of trees. From Maida's +deck-chair she could see them against the sky; and she could have seen +the landing-place where I had gone ashore, had it not been hidden +behind a miniature promontory. She tried to read, but it was hard to +concentrate her mind on any book, while her future was being decided. +In spite of herself, she would find her eyes wandering from the page +and focussing on the little green promontory that screened the landing. +At any moment I might appear from behind those rocks and bushes. + +Suddenly, just as she had contrived to lose herself in a poem of Rupert +Brooke's, the throb of a motor-boat caught her ear. She glanced +eagerly up, to see a small automobile craft rounding the promontory. +Apparently it had come from the private landing-place of Hasletowers, +but the girl could not be certain of this until she had made sure it +was headed for the yacht. Presently it had stopped alongside, and +Maida saw that it had on board a man and a boy. The man, in a yachting +cap and thick coat of the "pea-jacket" variety, absorbed himself deeply +in the engine. What he was doing Maida neither knew nor cared; but it +took his whole attention. He humped his back over his work and had not +even the human curiosity to look up. It was the boy who hailed the +_Lily Maid_, and announced that he had a message for Lady John Hasle +from her sister-in-law, Lady Haslemere. It was a verbal message, which +he had been ordered to deliver himself; and three minutes later he was +on deck carrying out his duty. + +"If you please, m'lady, the Marquis and Marchioness of Haslemere send +their best compliments, and would you favour them by going in this boat +to meet her ladyship on board the yacht of a friend? You will be +joined a little later by the Marquis, and Lord John Hasle, who are at +the house, kept by important business." + +"I don't understand," Maida hesitated. "My hus--Lord John went on +shore some time ago. I thought--was Lady Haslemere not at home after +all?" + +"That's it, m'lady," briskly explained the lad. "She was away on board +this yacht I'm speaking of. Her ladyship hasn't been well--a bit of an +invalid, or she'd come to you. But Lord John Hasle thought you might +not mind----" + +"Of course I don't mind," Maida answered him, believing that she began +to see light upon the complicated situation. "I'll be ready to start +in five minutes." + +And she was. Her maid gave her a veiled hat and long cloak; and she +was helped on board the motorboat. Still the elder member of its crew +did not turn, but went on feverishly rubbing something with an oily +rag. The dainty white-clad passenger was made comfortable, the boy +tucking a rug over her knees. As he did this, he glanced up from under +his cap, as if involuntarily, straight into Maida's chiffon-covered +face. She had been too busy thinking of other things to notice the lad +with particularity: but with his face so close to hers for an instant, +it struck her for the first time that it was like another face +remembered with distaste. There rose before Maida a fleeting picture +of a young lay sister at the house of the Grey Sisterhood far away on +Long Island. The girl had been of the monkey type, lithe and thin, +brown and freckled, her age anything between seventeen and twenty-two; +and she had seemed to regard Miss Odell, the Head Sister's favourite, +with jealous dislike. + +"The same type," thought Maida. "They might be brother and sister. +But the boy is better looking than the girl. Funny they should look +alike: she so American, he with his strong Cockney accent!" + +A minute more, and the motor-boat had left the side of the _Lily Maid_ +and was shooting away past the private landing-place of Hasletowers. +She took the direction whence the yacht had come the previous night, +before the dark shapes above the trees had been pointed out by me. +Still, there was no other yacht in sight: the waters were empty save +for a little black speck far away which might be, Maida thought, the +bell buoy of which we had talked. Indeed, as the boat glided on--at +visibly reduced speed now--she fancied that she caught the doleful +notes of the tolling bell. + +"The yacht where Lady Haslemere expects us, must be a long way from +shore;" Maida said. + +"Don't be impatient," the man's voice answered. "You will come to your +destination soon enough." + +A thrill of horror ran through her veins with an electric shock. She +knew the voice. She had heard it last in a house in Egypt. The man +turned deliberately as he spoke, and looked at her. The face was the +face of her past dream, the still more dread reality of her present---- + +And so, after all, this was to be the end of her love story! + +"You do not speak," Essain said. + +"I have nothing to say," Maida heard herself answer; and she wondered +at the calmness of her own voice. It was low, but it scarcely +trembled. So sure she was that there was no hope, no help, she was not +even frightened. Simply, she gave herself up for lost: and the sick +stab of pain in her heart was for me. She was afraid--but only afraid +that I might reproach myself for leaving her alone. + +"You've no doubt now as to what your destination is?" the voice went +on, quivering with exultation as Maida's did not quiver with dread. + +"I have no doubt," she echoed. + +"No appeal to my pity?" + +"I made none before. It would have been worse than useless then--and +it would now." + +"You are right!" the man said. "It would be useless. I have lived for +this. My one regret is that my sister sacrificed her life in vain. +But she and I will meet--soon it may be--and I shall tell her that we +did not fail." + +"If you tell her the truth, you will have to say you couldn't make me +die a coward," Maida answered, "and so your triumph isn't worth much." + +"It is the end of the vendetta, and our promise to our father will have +been kept," said Essain. "That is enough. I do not expect a woman of +your ancestry to be a coward." + +"She doesn't know yet what you're going to do with her," cut in his +companion. The Cockney accent was gone. Maida started slightly in +surprise, and stared at the brown, monkey face with its ears which +stuck out on the close-cropped head. The voice was only too easy to +recognise now. + +"Be silent, you cat!" Essain commanded savagely. "Your business is to +obey. Leave the rest to me." + +He turned again to Maida. "You see," he said, "my sister and I never +lacked for servants. I have many on this side of the water--as +everywhere when I want them. But this one is rather over-zealous +because she happened not to be among the admirers of Miss Odell at the +Sisterhood House. She wants you to realise that she is enough in my +confidence to know what is due to happen next. I intend to tell +you--not to please her, but to please myself. I have earned the +satisfaction! First, however, I have a few other explanations to make. +I think they may interest you, Lady John Hasle! .... My organisations +are as powerful in Europe as in the States. Through some of my best +men your new family is going to be disgraced. There will be a +first-class scandal, and they will have to pay, to the tune of one +hundred thousand pounds, to crush it. They're far from rich. I'm not +sure they can do the trick--unless your clever husband stumps up with +the fortune he'll inherit from you, on your death. I shall be +interested, as an outsider, to see the developments. Meanwhile I've +put into my pocket, and my friends' pockets, the exact sum which must +come out of theirs--or rather I shall in a few moments from now do so, +as you yourself will see." + +By this time they had come close to the bell buoy; and Maida remembered +how, with me, she had leaned on the deck-rail idly watching the +silhouettes of a man and a boy in a motor-boat. + +"It was you we saw last night!" she exclaimed. "You put on a diver's +helmet. You had a thing like an empty cage in your hand. You went +down under the water----" + +"Ah, you saw that from the yacht, did you?" broke in Essain. "I was +afraid, when I caught sight of the passing yacht, that it might have +been so! But it doesn't matter. Lord John fancies himself a +detective--but it's luck, more than skill, which has favoured him so +far: and his luck won't bring him to the bell buoy until I want him to +come--which I shall do, later. The cage you saw isn't empty to-day, if +any of Lord John's luck is on my friends' side, and I'm sure it is. I +placed the receptacle ready last night. Now, I think it will be filled +with jewelled fish, which I have come to catch. In their place I shall +give it a feed of stones, heavy enough to hold it down. And deep under +the still water you shall be its guardian, till I'm out of England and +can let Lord John have a hint where to look for his lost wife." + +Maida remembered what I had told her last night: how, when I was a boy +I had loved the old bell buoy and "imagined a thousand stories about +it." Surely I could never have invented one so strange as this--this +end of our love story for which the bell tolled! + +"When he finds me gone, he will never think of the bell buoy," Maida +told herself. + +But I had thought of it even without knowing that she was gone. I had +put myself into Rameses' skin, and let my mind follow the workings of +his since the sending of the anonymous letter to Lady Annesley, just up +to the moment when those two dark silhouettes had passed near the +moonlit bell buoy. I had cursed myself for not seeing how it might +have suited Rameses' book to have Maida isolated on board the _Lily +Maid_--certain to be offered to her if she left Annesley's house to be +married in a hurry. I had called myself every kind of madman and fool +for leaving her alone at the mercy of the enemy, and--having done all +this I went straight to Southampton in my brother's highest-powered +car, to hire a motorboat of my own. + +That is how I got to the bell buoy just as Essain and his companion had +emptied the iron cage of its treasures and were filling it with stones +while Maida lay bound hand and foot in the bottom of the boat. + +Rameses had ready a tiny bottle of Prussic acid which he crushed +between his teeth at sight of me and the two policemen from +Southampton. But the disguised girl lived, and through her we found +the false Combes, Blackburn and Drivenny, members all of the old New +York gang who had played me so many tricks. Nobody outside has ever +yet heard the story of the imposture and the theft; nor will they know +till they see this story in print. By then the jewel auction will have +been forgotten by the world. Only we shall not forget. But we are too +happy, Maida and I, to remember with bitterness. + + + + +PRINTED BY + +WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD. + +PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord John in New York, by +C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD JOHN IN NEW YORK *** + +***** This file should be named 38470-8.txt or 38470-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/4/7/38470/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lord John in New York + +Author: C. N. Williamson + A. M. Williamson + +Release Date: January 2, 2012 [EBook #38470] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD JOHN IN NEW YORK *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-cover"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-cover.jpg" ALT="Cover art" BORDER=""> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +LORD JOHN +<BR> +IN NEW YORK +</H1> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +BY +</P> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +C. N. & A. M. WILLIAMSON +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +AUTHORS OF "THE LIGHTNING CONDUCTOR" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +METHUEN & CO. LTD. +<BR> +36 ESSEX STREET W.C. +<BR> +LONDON +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +<I>First Published in 1918</I> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +BY THE SAME AUTHORS<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +The Lightning Conductor<BR> +The Princess Passes<BR> +My Friend the Chauffeur<BR> +Lady Betty Across the Water<BR> +The Car of Destiny<BR> +The Botor Chaperon<BR> +Set in Silver<BR> +Lord Loveland Discovers America<BR> +The Golden Silence<BR> +The Guests of Hercules<BR> +The Demon<BR> +The Wedding Day<BR> +The Princess Virginia<BR> +The Heather Moon<BR> +The Love Pirate<BR> +It Happened in Egypt<BR> +A Soldier of the Legion<BR> +The Shop Girl<BR> +The War Wedding<BR> +The Lightning Conductress<BR> +Secret History<BR> +The Cowboy Countess<BR> +This Woman to this Man<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +CONTENTS +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap01">EPISODE I</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +THE KEY +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap02">EPISODE II</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +THE GREY SISTERHOOD +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap03">EPISODE III</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +THE GIRL ON THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap04">EPISODE IV</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +THE DEATH TRYST +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap05">EPISODE V</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap06">EPISODE VI</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +THE CLUE IN THE AIR +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap07">EPISODE VII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +THE WATCHING EYE +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap08">EPISODE VIII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +THE HOUSE OF REVENGE +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap09">EPISODE IX</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +THE BELL BUOY +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +TO A CERTAIN KING +<BR> +OF A CERTAIN CINEMA COMPANY +<BR> +WHO PUT +<BR> +"LORD JOHN IN NEW YORK" +<BR> +ON THE SCREEN +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +LORD JOHN IN NEW YORK +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +EPISODE I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE KEY +</H3> + +<P> +"More letters and flowers for you, Lord John," said my nurse. +</P> + +<P> +Not that I needed a nurse; and, above all things, I needed no more +letters or flowers. The waste-paper basket was full. The room smelt +like a perfume factory. The mantelpiece and all other receptacles +having an army of occupation, vases and bowls were mobilising on the +floor. This would, of course, not be tolerated in hospital; but I was +off the sick list, recovering in a private convalescent home. I was +fed up with being a wounded hero; the fragrance of too many flowers, +and the kindness of too many ladies, was sapping and mining my brain +power; consequently, I could invent no excuse for escape. +</P> + +<P> +The nurse came in, put down the lilies, and gave me three letters. +</P> + +<P> +My heart beat, for I was expecting a note from a woman to whom somehow +or other I was almost engaged, and to whom I didn't in the least wish +to be engaged. She would not have looked at me before the war, when I +was only a younger brother of the Marquis of Haslemere—and the author +of a successful detective story called <I>The Key</I>. Now, however; simply +because I'd dropped a few bombs from a monoplane on to a Zeppelin +hangar in Belgium, had been wounded in one arm and two legs, and +through sheer instinct of self-preservation had contrived to escape, I +was a toy worth playing with. She wanted to play with me. All the +women I knew, not busy with better toys, wanted to play with me. My +brother Haslemere, who had been ashamed of my extremely clever, rather +successful book, and the undoubted detective talent it showed, was +proud of me as a mere bomb-dropper. So, too, was my sister-in-law. I +was the principal object of attraction at the moment in Violet's zoo—I +mean her convalescent home. She had cried because men were not being +wounded fast enough to fill its expensively appointed rooms; I was +captured, therefore, to make up for deficiencies and shown off to +Violet's many friends, who were duly photographed bending beautifully +over me. +</P> + +<P> +There was, as I had feared, a letter from Irene Anderson; there was +also—even worse—one from Mrs. Allendale. But the third letter was +from Carr Price. On the envelope was the address of the New York +theatre where the play he had dramatised from my book would shortly be +produced. He had come to England a million years ago, before the war, +to consult me about his work, which would have been brought out in +London if the war had not upset our manager's plans. I like Carr +Price, who is as much poet as playwright; a charming, sensitive, +nervous, wonderful fellow. I gave his letter precedence. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"DEAR LORD JOHN," he began, and I judged from the scrawl that he wrote +in agitation—"for goodness' sake, what have you done to Roger Odell +that he should have a grouch on you? It must have been something +pretty bad. I wish to Heaven you'd given me the tip last summer that +you'd made an enemy of him. Roger Odell, of all men in America! I +suppose the brother of a marquis can stand on his own feet in his own +country, but even if his brother's an archangel his feet are apt to get +cold in New York if Roger Odell turns the heat off. +</P> + +<P> +"The facts—as I've just heard from Julius Felborn—are these. +Yesterday Odell sent for Julius, who went like a bird, for he and Odell +are friends. Odell's money and influence put Julius where he is now, +as a manager, up at the top, though still young. What was Julius's +horror, however, when Odell blurted out a warning not to produce any +play dramatised from a book of yours, because he—Odell—would do his +best to ruin it! Julius asked what the dickens he meant. Odell +wouldn't explain. All he'd say was, that he'd be sorry to hurt Julius +and had nothing against me, but <I>The Key</I> would get no chance in New +York or any old town in the United States where Roger Odell had a +finger in the pie. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you must have heard enough about Odell to know what such a +threat amounts to. There are mighty few pies he hasn't got a finger +in. Not that he's a man who threatens as a rule. He's <I>made</I> a good +many men. I never heard of his <I>breaking</I> one. But when he decides to +do a thing, he does it. Julius is in a blue funk. He's not a coward, +but even if he felt strong enough to fight Odell's newspapers and other +influence, he says it would be an act of 'base ingratitude' to do so, +as he'd be 'walking on his uppers' now but for Odell's help, tiding +over rough places in the past. Julius took all night to reflect, and +rang me up this morning. I'm writing in his office at the theatre now, +after our interview. He says Odell would have put him wise before, but +he saw the pars (in his own papers!) for the first time yesterday +morning on the way back from the West Indies, where he'd been on a +short business trip. Queer place for such a man to go on a business +trip! But the whole thing is dashed queer. Now he's off again like a +whirlwind to England for <I>another</I> 'short business trip,' so he told +Julius. But J. let drop one little item of information about a woman, +or rather a girl. <I>Can</I> that be where <I>you</I> come in on this? <I>Have +you taken this girl away</I>? Anyhow, whatever you've done, the +consequences seem likely to be serious. Julius is inclined to call a +halt, bribe, wheedle or bluster the star into throwing up his part at +the first rehearsal, by way of an excuse, and to put on Chumley Reed's +<I>Queen Sweetheart</I>, which he kept up his sleeve in case <I>The Key</I> +failed. But, of course, it <I>couldn't</I> fail, unless it was burked. The +whole cast was wild over <I>The Key</I>. Julius himself was wild, and is +sick at having to turn it down. But Odell's too big for him. And I +guess O—— has offered to stand the racket for the loss of wasted +scenery, which has been begun on an elaborate scale. (Think of the +great casino act at Monte Carlo!) Unfortunately, I'm constituted so I +can't help seeing both sides of the shield and putting myself in +others' places. I'm sorry for Julius. But I'm twenty times sorrier +for Carr Price. For you, too, my dear fellow, of course. But I stand +to lose more than you do on this deal. +</P> + +<P> +"I told you confidentially last June just what depends on the success +of <I>The Key</I>, and I've counted on that success as certain. So did +<I>she</I>. I wish to Heaven she weren't so conscientious—yet no, I love +her all the better for what she is. I shan't ask her to break the +promise she gave her father, who, you may remember, is Governor of my +own State, not to be engaged definitely till I've made good. But if +I'm to have even my <I>chance</I> to make good snatched away, it's hard +lines. I wish to the Lord my dear girl weren't such a howling swell, +with such an important parent! No use hustling around to other +managers. Your book went like hot cakes here. So would your play, but +no man will pit himself against Roger Odell, if Odell means fighting. +And there's no doubt he does mean it—unless you can undo whatever the +fool thing is you've done. +</P> + +<P> +"Probably this letter will go to England in the same ship with Odell. +If you're well enough by the time it reaches you, to crawl about, can't +you see him? I've told Felborn that when you set your wits to work +you're as much of a wonder as your Prime Minister in <I>The Key</I>. I've +worked him up to some sort of superstitious belief in you. The next +thing is, to make him merely <I>put off</I> the rehearsal on some pretext, +and do nothing one way or the other till I get a cable. I shan't sleep +or eat till I hear whether there's any hope of your straightening +things with Odell.—Yours, C.P.". +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Straightening things with Odell!" That might have been simple, if +things had ever been crooked with Odell. But I had never met, I had +never seen him. All I knew was what I had read, and vaguely heard from +Americans: that Roger Odell was a millionaire, still a young man, a +popular fellow who had made most of his money out of mines and had +bought up an incredible number of newspapers in order to make his power +felt in the world. But what grudge had he against me? How did he know +that I existed? I decided that I owed it to myself as an expert even +more than to Price and his girl, who was a "governor's daughter," to +turn on the searchlight. +</P> + +<P> +It was nearly my time for an outing. Lady Emily Boynton was coming in +about an hour to collect me in her car, take me to the park and there +let me try a combination of legs and crutches. But in my room was a +telephone. In general I cursed the noisy thing. To-day I blessed it. +I 'phoned to the doctor that, instead of his coming to me, I should +prefer to call on him, explaining my reason when we met. Next I rang +up Lady Emily to say that I was going to Harley Street. She mustn't +trouble to send, as I was ordering a taxi in a hurry. And lest she +should disobey, I hobbled off before her car could arrive—my first +independent expedition since I had been interned by Violet. +</P> + +<P> +I hoped that Roger Odell might be caught at some hotel in London, and +resolved not to stop going till I found him. I began at the Savoy, and +it seemed that luck was with me when I learned that he had arrived the +night before. He had gone out, however, directly after breakfast, +leaving no word as to his return. This was a blow, especially as it +appeared that he had hired a powerful automobile; and even American +millionaires do not hire powerful automobiles to run about town. +</P> + +<P> +They take taxis. +</P> + +<P> +I gave myself a minute's reflection, and decided that it would be +tempting Providence to intern myself again before seeing Odell, or else +definitely failing to see him. I refused to leave my name, saying that +I would call later; and on the way to keep my Harley Street appointment +stopped my taxi at a post office. Thence I sent a cable to Carr Price— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Count on me to make everything right with Odell. Postpone rehearsals +if necessary, but assure Felborn he can safely prepare production. +Will wire further details.—JOHN HASLE." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Perhaps Price and Felborn would have considered this assurance +premature had they known the little I possessed to go upon. But I had +confidence in myself, and felt justified in rushing off a cheerful +message. Delay and uncertainty were the two fatal obstacles to our +scheme. It seemed fair to presume that, as I've never met nor harmed +Odell, his objection to me must be founded on some misunderstanding +which a few frank words ought to clear up. All I had to do was to see +him; and I <I>would</I> see him if I had to camp at his door for a week. +</P> + +<P> +Having got off my cable I called oh the doctor, explaining to him, as +man to man, that I was being killed with kindness, buried under flowers +and jellies, as Tarpeia was buried under shields and bracelets. "I +must get out from under," I said, "or I shall fade like a flower or +dissolve into a jelly myself. Can't you save me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you were enjoying life," he replied. "You're well enough, +as a matter of fact, to do almost anything except go back to the front. +Your legs won't run to that, my boy, for the next six months at least. +If you're such an ungrateful beggar that you want to leave Lady +Haslemere's paradise and all its lovely houris, save yourself. Don't +put the responsibility on me." +</P> + +<P> +"Coward!" I said. (I would have hissed it, but, except in novels, it +is physically impossible to hiss the word "coward.") +</P> + +<P> +"The same to you," he retorted. "Get someone to send you on some +mission and I'll back you up. I'll certify that you're strong enough +to undertake it, if it doesn't depend on your legs, and is not too +strenuous." +</P> + +<P> +"I may need to run over to America," it suddenly occurred to me to say, +as if by inspiration. "I should have to depend on brains, not legs. +Would New York be too strenuous?" +</P> + +<P> +"I hear they're pretty strenuous over there, but—well——" +</P> + +<P> +"You don't know what I go through every day at that confounded home for +milksops when your back is turned," I pleaded, as he hesitated. That +settled it. We both laughed, and I knew he'd see me through. Five +minutes before nothing had been further from my mind than a trip to New +York; but now I felt that it had been my secret intention from the +first. It was strongly impressed upon me that I should have to go. +Why, I could not tell. But the thing would happen. +</P> + +<P> +It was two o'clock and luncheon time when I got back to the Savoy, but +Odell had not returned. I wired (I would not 'phone lest I should be +unearthed like a fox from his hole) to the convalescent home, saying +that all was well and I had the doctor's authority to stop out as long +as I liked. I then ate a substantial meal and inquired again at the +desk. No Odell. I said I would wait. Would they kindly let me know, +in the reading-room, when Mr. Odell arrived? I being wounded and in +khaki, they waived suspicion of a nameless caller. I was given the +freedom of the Savoy, and I waited. I waited three hours, and read all +the magazines and papers. Then I wandered into the foyer and ordered +tea. While I was having it, up trotted a sympathetic clerk with a +flurried manner to inform me that Mr. Odell was not coming back at all. +A telegram had just been received, saying that important business +called him home at once. He was on his way by automobile to Liverpool, +whence he would sail next morning on the <I>Monarchic</I>. His luggage was +to be forwarded by messenger in time to go on board the ship. +</P> + +<P> +For a few seconds I felt as if what remained of my tea had been flung +in my face, scalding hot. But by the time I'd thanked my informant, +paid my waiter and picked up my crutches, I knew why I had had that +presentiment. I taxied to Cook's and learned that, owing to the war, I +could get a cabin on any ship I liked. From Cook's to the doctor's; +found him going out, dragged him home with me, and utilised his +services in wrestling with the matron and nurses. "The play of my book +is being produced in New York, and I must be there, dead or alive," I +explained. This seemed to them important, even unanswerable. It would +not to my sister-in-law. But she was having influenza at home, and I +sneaked off before she knew (having got leave from the War Office), +sending her a grateful, regretful telegram from Liverpool. +</P> + +<P> +Even the amateur sleuth doesn't let a ship carry him away to sea +without making sure that his quarry is on board. Roger Odell's name +was not on the passenger list, but neither was mine; we were late +comers. Nevertheless, I knew he was certain to have a good cabin, and +I inquired casually of a steward on the promenade deck whether he had +"Seen Mr. Odell yet?" He fell into my trap and answered that he had +not, but his "mate" would be looking after the gentleman who was in the +bridal suite. +</P> + +<P> +I pricked up my ears, remembering that, according to Carr Price, there +was a girl in the case. Something unexpected had happened to upset +Odell's plans in England. Could he be running off with anybody's wife +or daughter? +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know that Mr. Odell was on his honeymoon," I ventured as a +feeler. +</P> + +<P> +The steward looked nonplussed, then grinned. "Oh, you're thinking of +the bridal suite, sir!" he patronised my ignorance. "There's nothing +in <I>that</I>. Probably the gentleman wired for the best there was. He's +alone, sir. Do you wish to send word to him? I can fetch my mate——" +</P> + +<P> +I broke in with thanks, saying that I would see Mr. Odell later. No +doubt I would do so; but how I should recognise him was the question. +Meanwhile, I limped about the deck, hoping to come across a chair +labelled "Odell," and vainly searching I met a deck-steward. He took +pity on my lameness, and offered to get me a chair at once. "Where +would you like to sit, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +I wanted to say, "Put me next to Mr. Roger Odell," but that was too +crude a means towards the end. I looked around, hesitating and +hoping—in a way I have which sometimes works well—for an inspiration, +and my wandering eyes arrived at a girl. Then they ceased to wander. +She was extraordinarily pretty, and therefore more important than +twenty Roger Odells. She was just settling into her deck-chair. To +the right was another chair, with a rug and a pillow on it. To the +left was an unfilled space. +</P> + +<P> +"There's room over there," I said. "It seems a well-sheltered place." +</P> + +<P> +"It is, sir," replied the steward. Without allowing an eye to twinkle, +he solemnly plumped down my chair at the left of the girl, not too +near, yet not too far distant. She glanced up, as if faintly annoyed +at being given a neighbour, but seeing my crutches, melted and gave me +a brief yet angelic look of sympathy. If she had been a nurse in my +sister-in-law's home I should never have left it. For she was one of +those girls who, if there were only half a dozen men remaining in the +world at the end of the war, would be certain to receive proposals from +at least five. She was the type of the Eternal Feminine, the woman of +our dreams, the face in the sunset and moonbeams. Perhaps you have +seen such a face in real life—just once. +</P> + +<P> +The girl had on a small squirrel toque and a long squirrel coat. She +was wrapped in a squirrel rug to match. She had reddish-brown hair. +All the girls who can take the last men in the world away from all the +other women have more or less of that red glint in their hair. Yet she +seemed far from anxious to take the man who came striding along the +deck and stopped in front of her as the ship got under way. +</P> + +<P> +What she did was to look up and cry out a horrified "Oh!" Her cheeks, +which had been pale, flamed red. She half threw off her fur rug, and +would have struggled out of her chair if the man had not appealed to +her mercy. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't run away from me, Grace," he said, "after all these months." +</P> + +<P> +The name "Grace" suited the girl, or rather expressed her. The man +stared with hungry eyes. I was sorry for him. Somehow, I seemed to +know how he felt. He had an American voice and looked like an +American—that good, strong type of American who can hold his own +anywhere: not tall, not short, not slim, not stout, not very dark, not +very fair; square-jawed, square-shouldered; aggressive-featured, +kind-eyed; one rebellious lock of brown hair falling over a white +forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"But—I <I>have</I> been running away from you all these months. I've been +doing nothing else. I could do nothing else," she reproached him. +They had both forgotten me. Besides, I was not obtrusively near. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't I know you've been running away—to my sorrow?" he flung back at +her. "I heard of you in the West Indies. I went there to hunt you +down. You'd gone. I dashed home. You hadn't come back. I was +told—I won't say by whom—that you were in England. I ran over and +got on your track yesterday; flashed off to Bath in a fast auto; +reached there just as you'd left for Liverpool to sail on this ship. +So now I'm here." +</P> + +<P> +She looked up at him, tears on her lashes. "Oh, Rod!" was all she +said. It did not need that name to tell me who he was, but eyes and +voice told me something more. She was not flirting with him. She was +not pretending to wish that he had not come. With all her heart and +soul she did wish it, yet—<I>she loved him</I>. I wondered if he knew +that, or if not how much he would give to learn it. +</P> + +<P> +"You can't get away from me this time," he said, not truculently, but +pleadingly, as if he were afraid she might somehow slip out of his +hands. "We'll have five days and a half—I hope six—together. If I +can't persuade you in five days and a half——" +</P> + +<P> +"You couldn't in five hundred years and a half! Rod, what do you +<I>think</I> of me? Do you suppose I want you to <I>die</I>?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you suppose I'm <I>afraid</I>?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. But I am—for you. Nothing on this earth can induce me to change +my mind. You only make us both miserable by keeping on. Oh, Rod, here +comes Aunt Marian! This is her chair." +</P> + +<P> +Roger Odell glanced in the direction the girl's eyes gave him. I did +likewise. A woman was coming, a tall woman in brown. A generation ago +she would have been middle-aged; in our generation such women are +young. She looked about thirty-eight, and so I put her down as ten +years older. She was dusky olive, with a narrow face, banded black +hair, and a swaying throat: rather a beautiful Leonardo da Vinci sort +of woman. +</P> + +<P> +Evidently she was as much astonished to see Odell as the girl had been, +but she had a different way of showing it. She did not seem to mind +his presence when she got over her surprise. She shook hands and let +him put her into her chair, tucking the brown fur rug around her body +and under her slim feet. I thought she seemed more Italian than +American. She was very agreeable to Odell, in a cool, detached way, +but when she inquired if he ought not to be going below to lunch, even +a man of his determination was obliged to take the hint. "We are +having something brought to us on deck," she explained. "Come back if +you like when you have finished." +</P> + +<P> +My lameness gave me an excuse for troubling the deck steward, who +fetched me a plate of cold chicken at about the time when more +elaborately furnished trays were placed before the two ladies. They +had more to eat than I, but they finished sooner; at least, it was so +with the younger. There was no sea on, yet she left her luncheon +almost untouched, and after five minutes' playing with it went indoors. +No sooner had she got safely away than Odell came back to accept the +invitation given by "Aunt Marian," only to find it no longer worth his +acceptance. (Recalling her words, I realised that she had never +expected "Grace" to stay.) Odell asked for a chair, nevertheless, and +had it put next to hers, evidently meaning to annex the place +permanently. These were the right tactics, of course. Even I should +have adopted them; but they were opposed to a more subtle and deadly +strategy. "Grace" proceeded to prove that being on board the same ship +with her did not mean being in her society. She did not appear on deck +again. Odell was forced to realise that he had made the girl a +prisoner in her cabin. +</P> + +<P> +That afternoon the list of passengers was given out, and I searched +eagerly for her name. I had not far down the alphabet to go. There +she was among the "C's"—"Miss Grace Callender." The name was an +electric shock; and seeing it I could guess but too easily why the girl +might love a man and run away from him. +</P> + +<P> +Nobody who read the newspapers three years ago could have helped +knowing who Grace Callender was; and if they forgot, she would +certainly have been recalled to their minds a year and a half later. +I, at least, had not forgotten. I owed to the "Callender-Graham +Tragedy" one detail which had helped to make the success of my novel, +and had suggested its name, <I>The Key</I>. Miss Callender was (and is) an +American heiress, but England has its own reasons for being interested +in American heiresses. Therefore, at the time of the two great +sensational events in Grace Callender's life, London papers gave long +paragraphs to the story. +</P> + +<P> +Her parents—cousins—were both killed in a motor accident in France +while she was a schoolgirl at home in charge of her aunt, a half-sister +of the father, Graham Callender. Both parents were rich, having, for +their lifetime, the use of an immense fortune, or rather the income +derived from it. The principal could not be touched by them, but +passed to their only child. This arrangement had come about through a +family quarrel in the previous generation; but, as Graham Callender and +his wife were of opinion that injustice had been done, they wished +their daughter to atone for it by her marriage. Half the money ought +rightly to have gone to Philip Callender-Graham, a cousin who had been +disinherited in their favour. He had died poor, leaving a couple of +sons a few years older than Grace. The two had been educated at Graham +Callender's expense, and had spent their holidays at his houses in town +and country. Grace had grown up to look upon both almost as brothers, +though they were only her second cousins. She was fond of the pair—a +little fonder of Perry, the elder, than of his younger brother Ned. As +for the brothers themselves, it appeared later that both were in love +with Grace; but Ned kept his secret and let Perry win the prize. The +engagement of Grace Callender and Perry Callender-Graham was announced +on the girl's nineteenth birthday. One night a few months later, and +just one week before the day fixed for the wedding, Perry +Callender-Graham was found dead in a quiet side street near Riverside +Drive. +</P> + +<P> +There were no marks of violence on his body, and apparently he had not +been robbed. In his pockets were several letters which could have no +bearing on the cause of his death, an empty envelope, a sum of money, a +jewel-case containing a diamond pendant, probably intended as a gift +for his fiancée, and two keys which seemed to be new. Both were +latchkeys: one rather large and long, looking as if it might belong to +the front door of a house; the other was small, not unlike the key to +the door of the dead man's flat. Neither fitted any door of the +private hotel in which he lived, however, and consequently suggested +mystery. But as three specialists certified death by natural causes, +the police came to regard the keys as of no importance. The doctors +testified to a condition known as "status lymphaticus," which cannot be +diagnosed during life, but which may cause a slight shock to be fatal. +It was thought that Callender-Graham—whose body lay close to a street +crossing—might have started back to save himself from being run over +by a swift automobile suddenly turning the corner, and in the shock of +falling have died of heart failure. +</P> + +<P> +Grace Callender was grieved and distressed, but not prostrated with +sorrow, as she would have been over the loss of an adored lover. +Everyone who knew her knew that she had been going to marry her cousin +not because she was in love, but in order to give him the fortune +wrongfully diverted from his father. In these peculiar circumstances, +many people prophesied the thing which happened a year later: her +engagement to Ned Callender-Graham, through whom the restitution could +equally well be made. He seemed to be a popular fellow, even better +liked in general than his dreamy, poetical brother; and as his friends +guessed that he had unselfishly stood in the background for Perry's +sake, all were pleased with his good fortune. The engagement went on +for six months; and then a week before the wedding was to take place, +Ned Callender-Graham was found dead in the same street and almost on +the same spot where his brother had fallen a year and a half before. +</P> + +<P> +This extraordinary coincidence was rendered even more remarkable by the +fact that nearly every detail of the first tragedy was repeated in the +second. Not only had the brothers met their death in the same street, +and almost on the eve of marriage with the same girl, but, according to +doctors' evidence, they had died in the same way and at practically the +same hour. Ned, like Perry, was afflicted with status lymphaticus. +There was no trace of violence on his body. He had not been robbed, +for his pockets were full of money. He carried his brother's watch +which Perry's will had left to him—the watch which Perry had worn on +the night of his death—and two or three letters, together with an +empty envelope. Stranger than all, perhaps, he had in his possession +two new latchkeys—duplicates of the keys found in his dead brother's +pocket. +</P> + +<P> +This time, owing to the almost miraculous resemblance between the +cases, foul play was suspected. But it seemed that the brothers had no +enemies and, so far as could be learned, no serious rivals with Miss +Callender. The girl and her aunt clung to the belief that Perry and +Ned had died natural deaths, and that the ghastly coincidence was no +more than a coincidence. Miss Marian Callender's theory was that Ned +had fallen a victim to his love for his brother, a too sensitive +conviction of guilt in taking Perry's place, and an unhappy +superstition which he had confided to her—though, naturally, not to +her niece. He believed himself to be haunted by his brother's spirit, +which influenced him to do things he did not wish. He said one day +that he doubted if Perry would ever let him marry Grace, but would +contrive to break off the engagement in some way, even if all went well +until the last moment. Miss Marian Callender suggested that the +apparently mysterious keys were the same keys which Perry had +possessed, they having been given, with other souvenirs of the dead +man, to his brother; that it was characteristic of Ned to keep them by +him, as well as the watch, in a kind of remorseful loyalty to the +brother he had superseded; and that the same half-affectionate, +half-fearful superstition had led him that night into the street where +Perry had fallen. Once there—at an hour the same as that of Perry's +death a week before his appointed marriage—in all probability Ned had +imagined himself confronted by his brother's accusing ghost. The two +were known to be temperamentally as well as physically alike, though +Ned was undoubtedly stronger physically. It was not strange if Perry +had a peculiar weakness of the heart that Ned should have the same; and +the shock of a fancied meeting with Perry's spirit at such a time and +such a place might easily have been too great for a man already at high +nervous tension. Others than Miss Marian Callender talked freely with +reporters and detectives, repeating her story that Ned Callender-Graham +had felt oppressed with a sense of guilt, that he had worried himself +into an emotional state which he had tried to hide, and that he had +attended spiritualistic séances. All this, together with the fact that +there was no evidence of murder, caused the second verdict to be the +same as the first. But Grace Callender found herself so stared at and +pointed at, and gossiped about wherever she went, that her life became +a burden. She knew that terrible nicknames were fastened upon her, +that she was called "Belladonna" and "The Poison Flower," as if her +promise to marry had brought death upon her lovers. She heard women +whispering behind her back, "If I were a man I simply shouldn't <I>dare</I> +be engaged to her in spite of her millions"; and what she did not hear +she imagined. She in her turn grew superstitious, or so it was said. +She began to feel that there must be something fatal about her; that a +curse which the father of Perry and Ned was said to have pronounced on +her parents in his first fury at losing a fortune had been visited on +her. Though she had twice come near her wedding she had never yet +deeply loved a man; nevertheless, because of the "curse" and in fear of +it, she resolved to give up all hope of happiness in love, never to +marry, nor even engage herself again. +</P> + +<P> +All this I remembered distinctly, not alone because my memory is a +blotting-pad for such cases, but because the story had captured my +imagination, and because I had used the detail of the keys for my own +book, only substituting one for two. +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove!" I said. "The key! Now, can that be the clue to Roger +Odell's veto?" +</P> + +<P> +I set myself deliberately to think the matter over from this new point +of view. Evidently he was desperately in love with Grace Callender. +Could the mere fact that I had named a book of mine <I>The Key</I>, and +turned my plot upon a mysterious key found in a dead man's pocket, +have inspired Odell with revengeful rage? Except for the title, and +the key in the pocket, there was nothing in my book or in Carr Price's +play which bore even the vaguest likeness to the Callender-Graham +tragedy. I didn't see how the most loyal lover could feel that I had +"butted in" upon what to him was sacred; still, the new idea had some +substance in it. Not only had I hit on a possible clue to the man's +enmity, but into my mind from another direction suddenly flashed so +astounding a ray of light that I was almost blinded. I could hardly +wait to try weapons with Odell. +</P> + +<P> +How to get at him and hold him, so to speak, at my mercy was the next +difficulty. I had to think that out too, and I did it by process of +deduction. For reasons of my own, I had not yet secured a seat in the +dining-saloon, but now I limped down below with my inspiration. Others +had made their arrangements and gone, but I managed to catch the head +steward. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you're assigning seats for people who want to sit alone at +these small tables?" I began. +</P> + +<P> +"We have assigned only one such, sir," he cautiously admitted. "All +we're able to give." +</P> + +<P> +"Why all?" I wanted to know. "There are plenty of tables and only a +few passengers." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir, that's true. But also, there's only a few stewards. We +haven't enough to spare for scattering around." +</P> + +<P> +"Is Mr. Roger Odell the one fortunate person to whom you've been able +to give a table to himself?" I threw out this question like a lasso. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes, sir, as a matter of fact he is," the caught steward +confessed. "We've several tables with parties of two or three, but for +one alone——" +</P> + +<P> +"I may wish to be alone just as much as Mr. Odell does," I argued. +"But the next best thing to being alone is to sit with another man who +wants to be alone. Then there's no fear of too much conversation. Put +me at Mr. Odell's table." As I spoke I slipped a five-pound note into +a surprised but unresisting hand. (I had to bribe high to outbribe a +millionaire.) Even as his fingers closed mechanically on the paper the +steward's tongue began to stammer, "I—I'm afraid he may object, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"He may at first; but not after three minutes. All I ask is to be put +at the table when Mr. Odell is seated, and without his knowing +beforehand that he's obliged to have a companion. If he still objects +after three minutes of my company I've had my money's worth. I'll +leave him in possession of the table; you can put me where you like." +</P> + +<P> +It was a bargain. The steward pointed out the table selected by Odell. +</P> + +<P> +I was dressed and ready for dinner before the bugle sounded, but did +not go down until I thought that most of the passengers would be +already seated. Hovering in the doorway, I saw that Odell was already +in his place. Then I made straight for the table and sat down in the +chair opposite his. +</P> + +<P> +He had been gloomily eating his soup, and looked up from it with a +glare. +</P> + +<P> +"I think you must be making a mistake," he remarked with an effort at +civility. "I asked to be alone." +</P> + +<P> +"So did I," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"But not at this table." +</P> + +<P> +"At this very table." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'll leave it to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't," I said. "If one of us goes, I'll be the one, as I'm +the last comer. But will you meanwhile be kind enough to answer two +easy questions? First, are you Mr. Roger Odell of New York?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, to question number one. If the next's as easy, perhaps I'll +answer that too." +</P> + +<P> +(He looked faintly amused. The space between his straight black +eyebrows was growing visible again. I had still two minutes and a half +out of the three.) +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," I said. "The next should be even easier. Why have you +warned Julius Felborn that if he brings out Carr Price's play, <I>The +Key</I>, you'll quash it?" +</P> + +<P> +The man's face changed. From half-amused boredom it expressed white +rage. "You are that fellow John Hasle," he said. His voice was low +and in control, but his look was vitriolic. All the same, I liked him. +He was a man, and I had a man's chance with him. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I'm that fellow John Hasle. Let me introduce myself," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +"You've hunted me down. You said you wanted to sit alone. That was +not true." +</P> + +<P> +"I said, 'I asked to sit alone.' I wanted to sit with you. It was my +way of getting to do it. I took not only the table and the +opportunity, but my ticket to New York with the same object. I think I +have the right to inquire what's your motive for wishing to injure me +and to expect that you'll answer. If you think differently, I'll get +up at once and go. But I believe I shall have succeeded in spoiling +your appetite." +</P> + +<P> +"You're a cool hand," he said, with no softening of the eyes which gave +me look for look. "Sit still. If you get up and hobble away on those +crutches you'll have the whole room gaping at us." (Not for the first +time were my crutches a blessing in disguise:) "Whether you've a right +to question me or not, I don't mind telling you that I think Americans +are better at detective literature than any Englishman, speaking +generally, and a whole lot better than John Hasle, speaking +particularly." +</P> + +<P> +"I think," said I, "that I shall be able to prove my detective powers +to you later on, speaking very particularly." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, indeed! In what way?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Later on' was what I said." +</P> + +<P> +"All right. I'm in no hurry." +</P> + +<P> +"I am. Because several matters have got to be settled before I can +progress much further. For one thing, you haven't answered my second +question. Your opinion of my book or my British limitations as a +detective has nothing to do with your attitude toward the play." +</P> + +<P> +"If you know so much, perhaps you know more." +</P> + +<P> +"Frankly, I don't. I ask you to tell me the rest as frankly." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well. Perhaps the medicine will go to the spot quicker if you +understand what it's for. It sounds sort of melodramatic, and maybe it +is so; but my wish—my intention—to strangle your play at birth, or +crush it afterwards, has revenge for its motive." +</P> + +<P> +"Revenge for what?" +</P> + +<P> +"For the cruel act of a member of your family to a member of mine." +</P> + +<P> +"There's only one other member of my family beside myself—my brother." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly! That's the man. There's only one other member of <I>my</I> +family beside myself. That's my adopted sister. I care more for her +than anyone else in the world—except one. Through your brother, my +sister's health and her hopes are both ruined. If you didn't know +before, you know now what you're up against." +</P> + +<P> +"I assure you I didn't know," I said. "This is the last thing that +occurred to me. I admit I thought of something else——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, is there something else? It's not needed. Still, you may as well +out with it, so I can put another black mark against the name." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell you, when I'm ready to talk of the detective test I spoke +of. But about my brother injuring your adopted sister. There must be +some mistake——" +</P> + +<P> +"Not on your life, if you're Lord John Hasle and your brother's the +Marquis of Haslemere." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't deny that." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a pity!" +</P> + +<P> +"So <I>he</I> often says. He's not proud of me as an author. He'd be still +less proud of me on the stage. You'll be doing him a real service if +you prevent <I>The Key</I> from being produced, and so keep the family name +out of the papers in connection with the theatre." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, will I?" Odell echoed. He looked rather blank for a moment; then +gathered himself and his black eyebrows together. "You're mighty +intelligent, aren't you?" he sneered. +</P> + +<P> +"I've always thought so. I'm glad you agree. But there's no use our +rotting on like this. We're wasting time. Will you tell me what +Haslemere can possibly have done?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! What he positively <I>did</I> do!" the man broke out fiercely, then +controlled himself and glanced quickly round the room as if looking for +someone. But not even Miss Marian Callender had come into the saloon. +Both she and her niece must have been dining in their own suite. "Lord +Haslemere wrote a letter to your British Lord Chamberlain, or whatever +you call his High Mightiness, and caused him to have my sister's +presentation at Court cancelled three days before it should have come +off in May last year." +</P> + +<P> +"Good heavens!" I exclaimed. "What an extraordinary thing to do!" +</P> + +<P> +"What a monstrous, what a beastly thing to do! A defenceless girl. A +beautiful girl. One of the best on earth. It broke her heart—the +humiliation of it, and the shock. She wasn't very strong, and she'd +been looking forward to making her bow to your Royalties. Lord knows +why she should have cared so much. But she did. She loved England. +She has English blood in her veins. She had a sort of loyal feeling to +your King and Queen. That is what she got for it. She's never been +the same since, and I doubt if she ever will be. All her friends knew +she was going to be presented—and then she wasn't. The damned story +leaked out somehow, and has been going the rounds ever since. That's +why, if your play is produced in New York, I shall see it gets what it +deserves—or, anyway, what your family deserves." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know Haslemere wrote that letter?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"My sister got it from a woman who was to present her—a friend of Lord +Haslemere's wife. She'd seen the letter." +</P> + +<P> +"Then she must have seen some reason alleged." +</P> + +<P> +"She did. That to his certain knowledge Miss Madeleine Odell wasn't a +proper person to be introduced to their Majesties. Maida not a proper +person! She's a saint." +</P> + +<P> +"What lie about her could have been told to my brother?" +</P> + +<P> +"I know what lie was told, because it has been told to others. It's +blighted her life for years, go where she would on our side of the +water. She hoped it wouldn't have got so far as England; and if it +hadn't, she'd have settled down in that country to enjoy a little +peace. But there it was, like a snake in the grass! The thing I'd +give my head to find out is, <I>who spread the lie</I>?" +</P> + +<P> +"You don't know, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't. It's a black mystery." +</P> + +<P> +"Better let me use my despised detective talents to solve it." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, <I>that's</I> what you've been working up to, is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. How could it be, as I hadn't heard the story when I began to +work? But I'm willing to take it on as an extra by and by. My brother +and I are scarcely friends. I'm not responsible for his act, and +whatever the motive, I don't excuse it. Why go out of his way to hurt +a woman? Yet I may be able to atone." +</P> + +<P> +"Never!" +</P> + +<P> +"Never's a long word. But just here the time has come to mention the +two things I promised to tell you 'later on.' I thought what you had +against me might be the name and the plot of my book, dramatised by +Carr Price." +</P> + +<P> +"What the devil is the name or plot of your play to me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, that was what I wanted to know. It occurred to me as possible +that you resented the incident of a key being found in a dead man's +pocket, and the title of the book and play which might recall a certain +double tragedy to the public mind." +</P> + +<P> +The blood rushed to the man's face. He understood instantly, and did +not choose to pretend ignorance. "How dare you presume that I have a +right to resent any such reference?" he challenged me. +</P> + +<P> +"I dare, because of the second of the two things I reserved to tell you +later: the wish I have to prove my detective powers for your benefit. +I couldn't help seeing to-day your meeting on deck with Miss Callender. +I couldn't help hearing a few words. Because I play at being a +detective I keep my wits about me. Also I have a good memory for names +and stories connected with them. Mr. Odell, will you separate me in +your mind from my brother and give Carr Price's play a chance for its +life if I tell you who killed Perry and Ned Callender-Graham, and prove +to Miss Callender that there's no reason why she need be afraid to give +her love to any man?" +</P> + +<P> +Odell stared as if he thought I had gone mad or he was dreaming. +</P> + +<P> +"Who <I>killed</I> Perry and Ned Graham?" he repeated. "No one killed them." +</P> + +<P> +"You are wrong," I said quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"That's your opinion!" he blurted out. +</P> + +<P> +"That's my opinion. And if I'm right, if those two were murdered, and +if the murderer or murderers can be found, won't Miss Callender feel +she may safely marry a man she loves without delivering him up to +danger?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," Odell admitted. "Great Heaven, <I>if</I> you were right!" +</P> + +<P> +"Supposing I am, and can prove it?" +</P> + +<P> +"There's nothing on God's earth I wouldn't do for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," I said, "I believe there's something in that opinion of mine. +Don't dream that now I am getting at this truth I would bury it even if +you did worse than crush my play. I'll go on, anyhow, but——" +</P> + +<P> +"You say you are getting at the truth," he broke in. "What do you +think—what do you know? But how can you, a stranger, <I>know</I> anything?" +</P> + +<P> +"A stranger to you and those connected with the case, but not to the +case itself. You may thank that despised detective instinct of mine +for my keen interest in its details." +</P> + +<P> +"If you thought you'd unearthed the clue to a mystery, why didn't you +advertise yourself by pointing it out to the police a year and a half +ago?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly should if I'd got hold of it then, though not for the +motive you suggest, Mr. Odell. My publishers were giving me all the +publicity I wanted. As it happens, I picked up the clue in question +only—a short time ago." +</P> + +<P> +"Only a few hours ago" were the words which all but slipped out. I bit +them back, however. My line with a keen business man like Roger Odell +was not to give away something for nothing. It was to sell—for a +price. +</P> + +<P> +He tried to keep his countenance, but his eyes lit. I saw that my +hint, like a spark to gun-cotton, had set him aflame with curiosity. +Already, in spite of himself, he began to look on me less as an enemy +than an agent; perhaps (a wonderful "perhaps" he could not help +envisaging) a deliverer. +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake, speak out and say what you mean!" The appeal was +forced from him. He looked half ashamed of it. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't do that—yet," I returned. "I might tell you my suspicions; +but that wouldn't be fair to myself, or you, or—anyone concerned. I +must land first. Once off the ship, twenty-four hours are all I shall +need to find—I won't say the '<I>missing</I> link,' because I have reason +to think it will not be missing, but the link I can't touch this side +of New York. I will make a rendezvous with you at the end of that +time, either to tell you I've put two and two together with the link, +or else to confess that the ends of the chain can't be made to fit." +</P> + +<P> +Odell stared at me hungrily. +</P> + +<P> +"You want only twenty-four hours to do what the best police in the +world haven't done in a year and a half," he growled at me. "You think +something of yourself, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"You see, I've known myself for a long time," I said modestly. "You've +only just been introduced to me, and were prejudiced to begin with. +About that rendezvous—do you consent to my appointing the place?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he agreed. "Your hotel?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. In the manager's private office at the Felborn Theatre; the time, +twenty-four hours after we get away from the dock. That will be the +most convenient place for both of us in case of my success, for Julius +Felborn and Carr Price can be called in to fix a date for the first +rehearsal of <I>The Key</I>." +</P> + +<P> +The man could not keep back a laugh. It was harsh and short; but it +was a score for me and he knew it. "The Felborn Theatre let it be," he +said grimly. +</P> + +<P> +The weather was fine and we made almost a record trip in point of time. +There was nothing for Odell to regret in the briefness of the voyage, +for Grace Callender remained in her cabin till he sent a message by her +aunt, promising not to try for a word or a look if she came on deck. +After that she appeared again, as if to show appreciation, and Odell +didn't abuse her confidence. He kept himself to the other side of the +deck; but there was no reason why I should give up my place near the +two ladies. After the first night's dinner <I>en tête-à-tête</I>, Odell and +I had no more meals together; consequently, the Misses Callender, aunt +and niece, were unaware of our acquaintanceship. They had no reason to +shun their lame neighbour, and my crutches gave me their sympathy, as +they have given me various other blessings. Instead of my picking up a +dropped book, as a man usually contrives to do if he yearns to know a +girl on shipboard, Grace Callender retrieved one for me. After that, I +was permitted, even encouraged, to draw my deck-chair closer to theirs +and "tell them things about the war." I noticed that the girl caught +eagerly, nervously, at any subject which could hold her attention for a +moment, even that of my book and Carr Price's play. I, having the +secret clue, guessed that she was for ever trying to escape from a +thought too engrossing. Her aunt, Miss Marian Callender, had the clue +also; and often I caught her long dark eyes—eyes like those of La +Gioconda—fixed with almost painful intentness on Grace. "She knows +that her niece is thinking about Odell," I told myself. Evidently she +approved the girl's decision to put him out of her life. If she had +been Odell's friend and sympathiser, a woman of her superior age and +strong personal charm (for she had a sort of hypnotic charm, like a +velvet-petalled flower with a penetrating perfume) could surely have +influenced an impressionable girl, especially one so devoted to her as +Grace Callender was. +</P> + +<P> +It was nine o'clock on an April morning when we escaped from the +custom-house men and spun away from the White Star docks in a +glittering grey car. When I say "we," I refer to myself and the two +Misses Callender. They had befriended me to the extent of recommending +me to an hotel and offering to motor me to it; and I was malicious +enough to hope that Odell might see me going off with them. There was +little doubt in my mind that he did so, and none at all of what +feelings must have been roused by the sight. These would have been +still more poignant had he known that it was Grace who impulsively +invited me, Marian who merely followed with a polite echo. They lived +in a large old-fashioned house in Park Avenue, where the car dropped +the ladies and by their order took me on to the Hotel Belmont. There +Carr Price was waiting, for when—the day before our landing—the +Callenders had mentioned the Belmont I marconied him to meet me at the +hotel. +</P> + +<P> +"Why did you wire 'Don't come to the dock?'" he asked almost +resentfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Because I thought it might annoy Roger Odell if I dangled you under +his nose," I explained. +</P> + +<P> +"Roger Odell's nose!" Price gasped. "Where—where——" +</P> + +<P> +"Was it? On the <I>Monarchic</I>. And I didn't pull it; neither did he +pull mine. I even have hopes that the two features may come to terms. +To-morrow, at exactly this hour, you're due to know why. But meanwhile +I want you to promise me patience, blind faith and—unquestioning help. +There's no time to waste over it, so here goes! Who's the most +influential man you know in New York?" +</P> + +<P> +"George Gould," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Pooh! a mere millionaire. He's no use to me. Do you know anyone in +the police force—high enough up to do you a favour?" +</P> + +<P> +Price pondered for an instant. "I know Sam Yelverton. Is that name +familiar to you?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is. Think we'll find him in now if you take me to call?" +</P> + +<P> +"If this is our lucky day we shall." +</P> + +<P> +"Let's put it to the test. I've noticed that New York has taxis as +well as London." +</P> + +<P> +"And you'll notice the difference when you've paid for one. But this +is on me." +</P> + +<P> +The omen of luck was good, for we found our man at the police +head-quarters, and, true to his promise, Carr Price sat as still and +expressionless as an owl while I did the talking. I had been +introduced to the great Sam Yelverton by my own request as the author +of <I>The Key</I>, and it really was a stroke of luck that he had read and +liked it. He looked interested when I said that I'd got an idea for my +book from a <I>cause célèbre</I> in New York—"The Callender-Graham affair," +I explained. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, the latchkeys in the dead men's pockets!" he caught me up. +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly. Now it's a question of a play by Mr. Price, on the same +lines as my book and with the same title, soon, <I>very</I> soon, to be +produced at the Felborn Theatre. It will be of the greatest assistance +to him and to me in working out an important detail if I can have Ned +Callender-Graham's latchkeys—anyhow, the smaller one—in my hands for +a few hours to-day. Indeed, I'm afraid we can't get much 'forrarder' +if you refuse." +</P> + +<P> +(This was the literal truth, for, unless I could obtain the more +important of those two keys and do with it what I hoped to do, I should +be unable to "deliver the goods" to Roger Odell. I should stand with +him where I had stood before the "hold up" interview, and the play +would be pigeon-holed indefinitely. Price's eyes were starting from +his head, but he kept his tongue between his teeth.) +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Yelverton seemed amused. "I guess I may be able to manage that," +he said, "if one or both of those keys are still in our hands, as I +believe they are. If I do the trick for you I'll expect a box for the +play on the first night, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's a bargain, isn't it, Carr?" said I. +</P> + +<P> +The dazed Price assented. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, and by the way, Mr. Yelverton"—I arrested the famous man as he +picked up the receiver of his desk telephone—"if the letters and the +empty envelopes found on the bodies of the two brothers are still among +your police archives, would it be possible for me to have a look at +them?" +</P> + +<P> +Yelverton—a big man with a red face and the keenest eyes I ever saw, +deep set between cushiony lids—threw me a quick glance. "You do +remember the details of that case pretty well, Lord John!" he said. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm an amateur follower in your famous footsteps," I reminded him. He +smiled, called up a number and began telephoning. I admired the clear +way in which he put what he wanted—or what I wanted—without wasting a +word. He asked not only for the keys, but for the whole dossier in the +double case of the Callender-Graham brothers. Then came a moment of +waiting in which my heart ticked like a clock; but I contrived to +answer Mr. Yelverton's mild questions about our weather on shipboard. +At last a sharp ring heralded an end of suspense. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry, Lord John," the big man began, taking the receiver from the +generous shell of his ear. "They're sending round the dossier, but our +chaps have got none of the Callender-Graham 'exhibits in their +possession—haven't had for nearly a year. I feared it was likely to +be so. You see, there was no proof that any crime had been committed +on either of the two brothers; in fact, the theory was against it. +When the police definitely dropped the case—or cases—the family was +entitled to all personal property of the deceased. Everything found on +the body of Ned Callender-Graham was handed over to the relatives by +their request, as had been done a few weeks after the elder brother's +death, even the letters and those empty envelopes you were intelligent +enough to single out for observation. We had done the same, naturally, +but, in every sense of the word"—he grinned—"there was nothing in +'em." +</P> + +<P> +"The keys on Ned's body were handed over to the Misses Callender, +then?" I inquired, stiffening the muscles of my face to mask my +disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Perhaps, as you remember so much, you recall the fact that the +first two keys were given to the relatives. Miss Marian Callender and +her niece believed that Ned had Perry's keys in his pocket, which would +mean there were but the two. The Callender ladies are the sole +surviving relatives, or, anyhow, the nearest ones. But I've saved my +bit of good news from head-quarters till the last. They 'phoned that +there are duplicate keys. I thought I recalled something of the sort. +Not sure but I suggested making them myself. That pretty millionairess +girl might get herself engaged a third time, and if there were any more +dead men found with latchkeys in their pockets, sample specimens might +be very handy for our fellows." +</P> + +<P> +Sam Yelverton finished with a laugh; but I couldn't echo it. I thought +of Odell, of Grace Callender's lovely face and her young, spoilt life. +I remembered the cruel nicknames "Belladonna" and "Poison Flower." If +even the police prepared for a third tragedy, in case she thought again +of marriage, no wonder the poor girl refused the man she loved. +</P> + +<P> +"Will duplicates do for you, or do I lose my stage-box?" the big man +asked. +</P> + +<P> +I said aloud that I thought duplicates would answer my purpose, and +silently to myself I said that they must do so. +</P> + +<P> +Ten minutes later a policeman of some rank (what rank I couldn't tell, +he being my first American specimen) brought in a parcel of +considerable size. It contained many affidavits concerning the +Callender-Graham tragedy; and on the top of these documents was a +small, neatly labelled packet containing two keys. +</P> + +<P> +The larger was entirely commonplace; and even the smaller one was at +first glance a rather ordinary latchkey, of the Yale order. To an +experienced and observant eye, however, it was of curious workmanship. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a Yale, you see," said Yelverton, taking a magnifying glass from a +small drawer of his tidy desk and passing it on to me. "What do you +make of the thing?" +</P> + +<P> +"Foreign, isn't it?" I remarked carelessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, we thought so. German—or Italian. Both the brothers had +travelled abroad. On a Yale you would read the words 'Yale +paracentric,' and a number. There's neither name nor number on that." +He flung a gesture toward the key in my hand. +</P> + +<P> +"May I take it away and keep it till to-morrow morning, to work out my +plot with?" I asked. "The big one I don't care about. I give you my +word I'll send this back in twenty-four—no, let's say twenty-five +hours. I have an engagement for the twenty-fourth hour." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," replied Yelverton good-naturedly. "You might bring the +box-ticket with you. Ha, ha!" +</P> + +<P> +"I will," I laughed. "And as to the dossier, may I sit somewhere out +of your way and glance through it in case there's anything we can work +up to strengthen the realism of our scenario? Of course, we'll +guarantee to use nothing that might recall the Callender-Graham case to +the public or dramatic critics." +</P> + +<P> +"You can sit in the outer office and browse over the bundle till +lunch-time, if you like," said Yelverton. "There's a table there in a +quiet corner. I shall be off on business before you finish, I expect. +See you later—at the Felborn Theatre, your first night. Wish you +luck." +</P> + +<P> +I thanked him and got up. Carr Price followed suit. +</P> + +<P> +"Weren't you a bit premature mentioning the Felborn?" he reproached me +in the next room, beyond earshot of Mr. Yelverton's secretaries and +stenographers. +</P> + +<P> +"No," I reassured him. "To-morrow, at this time or a little later, +you'll know why. Meanwhile, don't worry, but take my word—and a taxi +to the theatre. Tell Felborn I'm on the spot, and there's a truce +between Odell and me, an armistice of twenty-four"—I pulled out my +watch—"no, twenty-two and a half hours. Ask him to lend me his +private office to-morrow morning from nine till ten o'clock. After +that time you and he had better hold yourselves ready to be called in +to discuss dates." +</P> + +<P> +"You're either the wonder child of the British Empire or its champion +fool," remarked Price somewhat waspishly, as he prepared to leave me +alone with the Callender-Graham dossier. +</P> + +<P> +"You've got till to-morrow to make up your mind which," said I, sitting +down to my meal of manuscripts in order not to waste a minute out of +the twenty-two and a half hours which remained to me. It would not +have been wise to add that I didn't know which myself. +</P> + +<P> +Many of the papers I passed over rapidly. Others gave me information +that I couldn't have got from Odell without a confession of ignorance, +or from the Misses Callender without impertinence. Among the latter +was one summarising much of the family history; and, profiting by some +smart detective's researches, I learned a good deal about Miss Grace +Callender and her almost equally interesting aunt. +</P> + +<P> +Even before the girl reached the age of sixteen, it seemed, she had +begun to have offers of marriage. After her parents' death, when she +was not quite fifteen, she had lived for a while with Miss Marian +Callender at the house in Park Avenue left to her by her father. She +had been taught by French governesses, German governesses and English +governesses, but all had failed to prevent a kind of persecution by +young men fascinated with the child's beauty or her money. At last +Miss Callender senior had sent her niece to a boarding-school in the +country where the supervision was notoriously strict, and had herself +gone to Italy, her mother's native land, for a few months' visit. +Eight or nine years before this Marian Callender had fallen in love +with an Italian tenor, singing with enormous success in New York. The +lady's half-brother—Grace's father—had objected to the marriage, and +for that reason or some other the two had parted. Gossips said that +the singer, Paolo Tostini, had not cared enough for Marian Callender to +take her without a <I>dot</I>; and all she had came from her millionaire +half-brother. At Graham Callender's death Marian's friends were +surprised that she was left a yearly allowance (though a magnificently +generous one) only while she "continued unmarried and acted as Grace's +guardian." In the event of Grace's marriage, the girl was free to +continue half the same allowance to her aunt if she chose. This was +generally considered unjust to Marian, and the only excuse for the +arrangement seemed to be that Graham Callender feared Paolo Tostini +might come forward again if the woman he had jilted were left with a +fortune. +</P> + +<P> +The police of New York had apparently thought it worth while to ferret +out further facts in connection with the singer, who had not again +returned to America. They learned that the once celebrated tenor had +lost his voice and had spent his money in extravagance, as many artists +do. He was living in comparative poverty with his father (a skilled +mechanician and inventor of a successful time lock for safes) and his +younger brother in Naples at the time of Miss Marian Callender's visit +to Italy, and Grace's school life. Although these facts were inquired +into only after some years had passed, and the two brothers +Callender-Graham had died, Marian's movements must have been easily +traced, for it was learned that she had openly visited the Tostinis at +their small villa between Posilipo and Naples. The family had also +called and dined at her hotel, where they were not unknown. After that +their circumstances had apparently improved, and it appeared not +improbable that Marian Callender had helped her late lover's people. +</P> + +<P> +When she returned to New York it was to find that Grace was being +bombarded with love letters at school, and that the hotel in the +village near by had for its principal clients a crowd of young men +whose whole business in life was lying in wait for the heiress. In +consequence, Marian brought her niece back to the house in Park Avenue; +and soon after, before the girl had been allowed to come out in +society, Antonio, the younger brother of Paolo Tostini, arrived in New +York. His business was that of an analytical chemist. He had +first-rate recommendations, and was an extremely brilliant, as well as +singularly good-looking young man, some (who remembered the tenor) +thought even handsomer than Paolo. Antonio Tostini, thanks to his own +ability and the introductions he had from Miss Callender and others, +got on well both in business and society. No one was surprised, and no +one blamed her, when Marian Callender threw the clever young Italian +and Grace Callender together—except that the girl was young to make up +her mind, and her dead father had favoured a match with one of the +disinherited cousins. +</P> + +<P> +From these rough notes, crudely classifying Antonio Tostini's courtship +of Grace Callender, I gathered that the young Italian had fallen +desperately in love with the girl. He had assured friends whom they +had in common that even if, to marry him, she were obliged to give up +her fortune, he would still think himself the happiest man on earth to +win her. Grace's aunt, who had tried to keep the girl out of other +men's way, evidently favoured her old love's brother. She chaperoned a +yachting party, of which Grace and Antonio were the most important +members, a party in which the Callender-Grahams were not included, +though they wished for invitations. This match-making effort on +Marion's part stifled all suspicion that she discouraged Grace from +marrying in order to retain a charming home, a large, certain income, +and all kinds of other luxuries for herself. She had taken Grace's +refusal of Antonio Tostini almost as hard as he had taken it himself. +She had even been ill for several weeks when for the third time Grace +had sent him away, and he returned in despair to Italy. It was not +long after this affair (the dossier informed me) that, in accordance +with her father's desire, the girl engaged herself to Perry +Callender-Graham, and Marian consented to the inevitable. Her +affection and support during the tragic experiences that followed had +given great comfort to Grace, and, so far as was known, Antonio Tostini +had had the good taste never to appear on the scene again. +</P> + +<P> +Here were many details which I had been anxious, but not decently able, +to learn, as the Misses Callenders' shipboard friendship had confined +itself to lending me books, telling me what to do in New York, inviting +me to call, listening to talk about the war or the play, and allowing +me to snapshot them on deck. +</P> + +<P> +Having looked through the dossier, I took my departure with the key. +It was only a duplicate, yet I couldn't rid myself of a queer, +superstitious feeling for the thing, as if it were offered to me by the +unseen hand of a dead man. +</P> + +<P> +I taxied back to my hotel and mentioned to a clerk that I wanted to see +houses and flats in the direction of Riverside Drive. Could he direct +me to an agent who would have the letting of apartments in that +neighbourhood? If my foreign way of expressing myself amused him, he +hid his mirth and looked up in a big book the addresses of several +agents. +</P> + +<P> +I had not cared to be too specific in my questions, but I chose the +address nearest the street I wanted, taxied there, found the agent, and +inquired if there were anything to be let. It was the street in which +Perry Callender-Graham and Ned, his brother, had met their death. +</P> + +<P> +"I have been recommended to that particular street by an American +friend in England," I said. "He has told me that it's very quiet. +There are several apartment houses in it, are there not? +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," replied a spruce young man who looked willing to let me half +residential New York. "But it's a favourite street; I'm afraid there's +nothing doing there now. As for houses, they're all owned, or have +been rented for many years. A little farther north or south——" +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on," I pulled him back. "Somebody might be induced to let. My +friend was telling me about a charming flat—oh, apartment you call +it?—in that street which a friend of <I>his</I> took—-let me see, it must +have been three years ago or thereabouts. Anyhow, not later. He had +reason to believe I might get that very flat. Stupid of me! I can't +remember the number or name—whichever it was—of the house. I know +the flat was a furnished one, however; and if your agency——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, if the apartment was furnished, and changed hands three years ago, +there's only one it <I>could</I> be, if you're sure it's in that street?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure," I replied. I staked all on that sureness, though +logically—— But I would not let my mind wander to any other +deduction than the one to which, for better or worse, I pinned my faith. +</P> + +<P> +"We had the letting of a furnished apartment in the Alhambra, as the +house is named, put into our hands three years ago on the 30th of last +month," said the youth, referring to a book. "To my certain knowledge +no other furnished one was to be had in the street at that time, and +there hasn't been since. Isn't likely to be either, so far as I can +see. That was the grand chance. German-American lady and gentleman, +Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Lowenstein, going unexpectedly to Europe, and glad +to get rid of their apartment to a good tenant at a nominal price." +</P> + +<P> +"You found the good tenant?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"We did, sir—or the tenant found us. Wanted a furnished apartment, +not too large or expensive, in a quiet street, quietness the great +consideration. Above all, the proprietors mustn't want to use the +place again for at least five years. That just fitted in, because our +clients were anxious to let for seven years; the husband had a business +opening in Hamburg. The new tenant took the place for that period; and +as there's a long time to run yet, I shouldn't have thought there was +much hope for you. However, your friend may have private information." +</P> + +<P> +"Does the new tenant live there altogether?" I wanted to know. +</P> + +<P> +"Only comes up from the country occasionally. Expensive fad, to rent a +New York apartment that way. But what's money <I>for</I>? Some people have +it to burn." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite so," I admitted. "Have you ever met the tenant?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only once—when the apartment was engaged; fixed up in one interview. +The rent comes through the post." +</P> + +<P> +"It must be the apartment my friend talked about!" I exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't be any other. Is the name of your friend's friend Paulling?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes, I have the impression of something like that. By the way, I +might be able to find an old photograph, to make quite sure. Would you +recognise it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I might—and I mightn't. Three years is a long time." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll do my best through some acquaintances," I finished. "If +we're speaking of the same person, you may be able to introduce me and +save the delay of communicating with my friend in England." +</P> + +<P> +Each was flattering himself on his discretion, the whole catechism +having been gone through without the question on either side, "Is the +person a man or a woman?" Eventually we parted with the understanding +that I should return later if, after looking at the Alhambra from the +outside, I fancied it as much as I expected to do. And then I was to +bring the photograph with me. +</P> + +<P> +So far so good. But the next steps were not so simple. +</P> + +<P> +I stopped my taxi at the corner (not to advertise myself with +unnecessary noise) and limped the short distance which Perry +Callender-Graham and his brother Ned must have travelled on the secret +errands that led them to their death. The Alhambra was neither as +picturesque nor as imposing as its name suggested. It was just a +substantial brick building, six or seven storeys in height, with +facings of light-coloured stone, and large, cheerful windows. Luckily +for my lame leg, the entrance was but a step above the street level. +As I arrived the door was opened by a chocolate-brown negro in +chocolate-brown livery. He helped a smart nurse to pass out with a +baby in a white and gold chariot, and while he was thus engaged I +hobbled into the hall. A hasty glance at a name board on the wall +opposite gave me the list of occupants and the floor on which each +tenant lived. Evidently there were two flats to each storey. T. +Paulling had an apartment on the third, so also had G. Emmett. I had +to risk something, and so when the brown hall-porter turned to me +(which he did with embarrassing swiftness) I risked inquiring for Mr. +Emmett. I believed, I added, that he was expecting me. +</P> + +<P> +"That's all right, sir. He's in," was the welcome reply, with a +compassionate grin at the crutches which guaranteed the harmlessness of +an unknown visitor. "I'll take you in the elevator." +</P> + +<P> +Up we shot to the third floor, where I feared that my conductor might +insist on guiding me to the door of Mr. Emmett. Fortunately, however, +someone rang for the lift and the porter shot down again, directing me +to the right. +</P> + +<P> +The instant he was out of sight I turned to the left, and, with the +police key in my hand, I stood before the door of T. Paulling. +</P> + +<P> +My blood leaped through my veins, and the hand that tried the key in +the lock shook with the rush of it. I heard its pounding in my ears, +and through the murmurous sound the question whispered, "What if the +key won't fit? Down goes the whole theory. You'll have to confess +yourself a fool to Roger Odell." +</P> + +<P> +As I blundered at the lock in haste and fear that someone might pass, +or that this might be one of T. Paulling's rare days at the flat, I was +aghast at my late self-confidence. Face to face with the test, it +seemed impossible that my-boast to Odell and Carr could succeed. I +felt callow and stupid, altogether incompetent. The key seemed too +large and the wrong shape, which meant that the mystery of the +brothers' death was closed to me, like the door. A voice not far off +made my nerves jump, and—the key slipped into the lock! From +somewhere above or below came the sound of voices, but I could not be +seen from the lift. Almost before I knew what I was doing or what had +happened, I was on the other side of the door, in a dark and stuffy +vestibule. +</P> + +<P> +The sound of voices was suddenly stilled. It was as if with a single +step I had won my way into another world. I drew a long breath of +relief after the strain, for the silence and darkness said that the +tenant was not at home, and I might hope to have the flat to myself. +</P> + +<P> +I groped for an electric switch, touched it, and flooded the vestibule +with light. It was small, with nothing to distinguish it from any +other vestibule of any other well-furnished flat. Beyond led a narrow +corridor which, when lit, showed me several doors. I opened the +nearest, switched on another light, and found myself on the threshold +of a moderate-sized sitting-room or study, with bookshelves ranged +along one of the walls. The window was so heavily curtained that I had +no fear of the sudden illumination being noticed from the street. The +air was heavy and smelled of moth powder. The mahogany table in the +centre of the room and the desk under the window were coated with thin +films of dust, but everything was stiffly in order: no books lying +about, no woman's work, no trace of cigarette ash, dropped glove, nor +pile of newspapers with a tell-tale date. +</P> + +<P> +I walked over to the desk and, pulling out the swivel chair, sat down. +In the silver inkstand the ink had dried. In a pen-rack were two pens, +one stub, the other an old-fashioned quill, both almost new, but +faintly stained with ink. Neither, it struck me, could have been used +more than once or twice. There were several small drawers; all were +empty. No paper nor envelopes, no sealing-wax nor seal, not so much as +an end of twine. But the blotting-pad—the only movable thing on the +desk beside the inkstand and pen-rack—was more repaying. It also +appeared to be nearly new. Just inside the soft green leather cover +lay two sheets of plain, unmonogrammed grey-blue paper with two +envelopes to match. I annexed one of the latter and made a mental note +that, in the police dossier of the Callender-Graham case the empty +envelope found in the pocket of the younger brother was said to be +blue-grey in colour and of thick texture. No record had been kept +concerning the colour of the envelope in Perry's pocket, as little +importance had been attributed to it, until the coincidence of the +second envelope was remarked later. +</P> + +<P> +The blotting-pad was as new-looking as the pens. The two uppermost +sheets were of unspotted white, but the middle pages had both been +used, and traces were visible of two short notes having been pressed +against the paper while the ink was still very wet. Apparently these +documents had had neither heading nor signature, and consisted of a few +lines only. On another page a longer letter began "Dearest," and had +been signed with an initial. There was no mirror in the room in which +to reverse these writings, and, carefully separating the used sheets +from their unsoiled fellows, I folded and slipped them into an inner +pocket. There was nothing else in the room which could help me, with +the exception, perhaps, of the books; and most of these were in sets, +bound in a uniform way. These had a book-plate and the monogram +"M.L.," no doubt meaning Maurice Lowenstein. Of new novels or other +publications there were none: an additional proof (if it had been +needed after the clue of the dried ink and almost unused blotter) that +the new tenants were seldom in the place. +</P> + +<P> +Having deduced this fact, I then went through the remaining six rooms +of the flat without any discoveries, and finally reached, in its due +order, the problem I had left for the last. This was the examination +of the lock which the dead brothers' latchkeys had fitted. The work +had to be done with the door open, and therefore I waited until the +hour when most people lunch. It would look like burglarious business, +what I had to do, and it was important not to be interrupted or +arrested. +</P> + +<P> +The hands of my watch were at one o'clock as mine were on the latch +which, if I were right, could with a single click solve the +Callender-Graham mystery. If I were wrong, not only were four out of +my twenty-four hours wasted, but my theory fell to the ground and broke +into pieces past mending. +</P> + +<P> +I opened the door of the flat and made sure that, for the moment, no +one was in the hall. Then, bending down with my back to possible +passers-by, I whipped out a magnifying glass and pocket electric torch +which I had bought on my way to the agent's. +</P> + +<P> +During the next five minutes I had good cause to thank Heaven for the +mechanical bent that had turned my mind to motors and aeroplanes. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The same evening, at a little after six, a "commuter's" train landed me +at the station of a small Long Island town almost too far away from New +York to be labelled suburban. Big automobiles and small runabouts were +there to meet the tired business men who travelled many miles for the +sake of salt breezes and the latest thing in Elizabethan houses. I was +more tired than any business man; also, I had encountered as many +setbacks as successes, but nobody and nothing came to welcome me. I +was able, however, to get a place in an old-fashioned horse-drawn +vehicle whose mission was to pick up chance arrivals. There were +several of us, and as my rate of locomotion was slow, by the time I had +hobbled off the platform the one seat left was beside the driver. I +was not sorry, as the other men appeared to be strangers in Sandy +Plain, and having said I would go to the hotel (for the sake of saying +something), I asked my companion if he knew anybody named Paulling. +</P> + +<P> +"There's two families of that name hereabouts," he replied. +</P> + +<P> +"My Paullings," I hazarded, "are retiring people, don't make friends, +and are away a good deal." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, they'd be the Paullings of Bayview Farm!" returned the driver. +"There's no others answer that description around here that I ever +heard of, and I've lived at Sandy Plain since before the commuters +discovered it." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I mean the Paullings of Bayview Farm," I caught him up. +</P> + +<P> +"The farm's about a mile and a half past Roselawn Hotel," my seat mate +went on. "I can take you there after I drop the other folks." +</P> + +<P> +I thanked him and said he might come back for me if he cared to after I +had dined, and inquired casually if the Paullings were staying at their +farm just then. +</P> + +<P> +The driver shook his head. He didn't know. Few persons did know much +about the Paullings, who weren't old residents, but had rented Bayview +Farm two or three years ago. Maybe the hotel folks might be able to +tell me whether I was likely to find them. +</P> + +<P> +They could not do so, I soon learned. Mr. Paulling was said to be an +invalid, though he never called in the local doctor. He was often at +home alone for weeks together, except for a man-servant, a foreigner as +reserved as himself, whom he had brought with him to Sandy Plain. +There was another servant sometimes—a woman—also a foreigner; but +when the Paullings were both away a Mrs. Vandeermans, a country +dressmaker who lived in a cottage near by, looked after the house, +going in occasionally to see that all was well. +</P> + +<P> +I asked as many questions as I dared, but learned little; and as soon +as dusk had begun to fall I started off in the nondescript vehicle +which had returned for me. The driver spent most of the twenty minutes +it took him to reach the farm in explaining that it wasn't really a +farm except in name. Nothing was left of it but the house and two or +three acres of orchard; all the rest had been sold off in lots by the +owner before he let it to the Paullings. What "city folks" admired in +it was beyond the knowledge of my companion, but when we arrived at the +gate and saw the far-off house gleaming white behind a thick screen of +ancient apple trees, I realised the attractions of the place, +especially for such tenants as I believed the Paullings to be. The +farm-house, with its wide clapboarding, its neat green shutters, and +its almost classic "colonial" porch hung with roses, had the air of +being on terms of long familiar friendship with the old-fashioned +garden and the great trees which almost hid it from its neighbours and +the road. Its front windows, closed and shuttered now, would look out +when open over sloping lawns and flowerbeds to distant blue glints of +the sea; and altogether Bayview Farm seemed an ideal retreat for +persons who could be sufficient to themselves and each other. +</P> + +<P> +Those shuttered windows, however, hinted at disappointment for me. Not +a light showed, behind one of them, and when I had rung the bell of the +front door, and pounded vainly at the back, I had to make up my mind +that the Paullings were either away or determined to be thought so. +"Mrs. Vandeermans 'll know all about 'em," my conductor comforted me. +"She lives next door, a quarter of a mile farther on." +</P> + +<P> +We drove the quarter mile, only to be struck by another blow. The one +person at home in Mrs. Vandeermans' cottage was that widowed woman's +mother, very old, very deaf, half blind, knowing little about anything, +and nothing at all about the tenants of Bayview Farm. +</P> + +<P> +"My darter's gone to my son's in Buffalo," she quavered when I had +screamed at her. "He's sick, but she'll be back to-morrow to look +after me. She knows them Paullings. You come again to-morrow +afternoon if you want to talk to her." +</P> + +<P> +"You seem sure disappointed," remarked my companion, as he drove me and +my crutches back to Roselawn Hotel. +</P> + +<P> +"I am," I admitted; but the words were as inadequate as most words are. +I was bowled over, knocked out, or so I told myself in my first +depression. Nothing was of any use to me after to-morrow morning at +nine o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +On my way back to New York in a slow train I gloomily thought over the +situation. Certain startling yet not unexpected discoveries made early +in the day had elated me too soon. I had collected evidence, but only +circumstantial evidence. I had no absolute proof to give Roger Odell, +and nothing less would suffice. I had counted on getting hold of proof +at Sandy Plain, from which place on Long Island (I had learned from the +agent) cheques came regularly each quarter to pay the rent of the flat +in the Alhambra—cheques sometimes signed T. Paulling, sometimes M. +Paulling. One had arrived only a few days before with the former +signature, so I had reason to hope that T. Paulling might be unearthed +at Sandy Plain. +</P> + +<P> +I could, I told myself, write to Roger Odell and ask for a delay, but +that would kill such feeble faith in me as I had forcibly implanted in +him. He would think me a fraud, and believe that I had been trying to +gain time in order to spring some trick upon him. Besides, the +Paullings might come to New York, if they were not already there, and +discover that some person unknown was on their track and had been +tearing sheets out of their blotting-book. No, I must keep my +appointment with Roger Odell or face the prospect of complete failure. +But how to convince him of what I was myself convinced, with the +disjointed bits of evidence in my possession? Just as my train came to +a stop with a slight jolt in the Pennsylvania station, I saw as in an +electric flash a way of doing it. Perhaps it was the jolt that gave +the flash. +</P> + +<P> +I could not wait to get back to my hotel. I inquired of a porter where +I could get a messenger boy. He showed me. I begged two sheets of +paper and two envelopes. They were pushed under my hand. I scratched +off six lines to Roger Odell: "Don't think when you get this I'm going +to ask you to put off our interview. On the contrary, I ask you to +advance it. Please be in Julius Felborn's private office at a quarter +to nine instead of nine. This is vitally important. If he has a large +safe in his office, get the key or combination so that you can open it. +Small safe no use.—Yours hopefully, J.H." +</P> + +<P> +I finished this scrawl and sent it away by messenger to the club where +Odell had said I might 'phone, if necessary, up to one o'clock that +night. It was only just eleven. +</P> + +<P> +The second letter was longer and more troublesome to compose. It was +to Grace Callender, and I trusted for its effect to the kindness she +professed for me. Her aunt also had been friendly and had shown +interest in the prospects of Carr Price's play. Neither, however, +dreamed that success depended in any way upon Roger Odell. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"DEAR MISS GRACE," I wrote,—"You will think the request I'm going to +make of you and Miss Callender a very strange one, but you promised +that if you could help me you would do so. Well, extraordinary as it +may seem, <I>you can make my fortune if you</I> will both come to the +Felborn Theatre at the unearthly hour of nine to-morrow morning, and +ask to be shown into Mr. Felborn's private office. I shall be there, +waiting and hoping to see you two ladies arrive promptly, as more than +I can tell depends upon that. You happened to mention in my presence +something about dining out to-night and returning rather late, so I +feel there is a chance of your getting this and sending me a line by +the messenger to the Belmont. He will wait for you, and I will wait +for him.—Yours sincerely, JOHN HASLE." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +An hour later the answer came to my hotel. "Of course we'll both be +there on the stroke of nine. Depend upon us," Grace Callender replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank Heaven!" I mumbled. Yet I was heavy with a sense of guilt. If +it had been only for punishment, or only for my own advancement, I +could not have done what I planned to do. No man could. But Grace +Callender's happiness was at stake. +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> +Roger Odell was five minutes before his time in Felborn's office next +day, yet he found me on the spot. I saw by his face that his +well-seasoned nerves were keyed not far from breaking-point. But he +kept his rôle of the superior, indifferent man of the world. He hoped +I didn't see the strain he was under, and I hoped that I hid my +feelings from him. Each probably succeeded as well as the other. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what have you got to tell me?" he asked, when we were alone +together in Julius Felborn's decorative private office. +</P> + +<P> +"I've nothing to tell you," I said. "Nevertheless, I believe you will +hear something if you've done as I suggested. Have you got the key or +the combination of that big safe in the wall behind the desk?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have the combination for to-day. Felborn was at the club last night +when your letter came, and I asked him for it. There aren't many +favours he wouldn't grant me. But what has Julius Felborn's safe to do +with the case?" +</P> + +<P> +"Please open it. We haven't much time to spare." I looked at my +watch. In a quarter of an hour the Misses Callender ought to be +announced. If they failed me after all—but I would not think of that +"if." +</P> + +<P> +Odell manipulated the combination, and the door of the safe swung open. +I saw that there was room for a man inside, and explained to Odell that +he must be the man. "It's absolutely necessary for you to hear for +yourself," I insisted, "all that's said in this room during the next +half-hour. If you didn't hear with your own ears, you'd never believe, +and nothing would be said if you were known to be listening." +</P> + +<P> +"You want me to eavesdrop!" he exclaimed, ready to be scornful. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," I admitted. "If you can call it eavesdropping to learn how and +by whom Perry and Ned Callender Graham were done to death." +</P> + +<P> +Without another word Odell stepped into the safe. +</P> + +<P> +"With the door ajar you can hear every word spoken in this room," I +said. "In a few minutes you'll recognise two voices—those of Miss +Grace and Miss Marian Callender. I tell you this that you mayn't be +surprised into making an indiscreet appearance. Remember your future's +at stake and that of the girl you love. All you have to do is to keep +still until the moment when the mystery is cleared up." +</P> + +<P> +"How can it be cleared up by either of those two?" Odell challenged me, +anger smouldering in his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"It will be cleared up while they are in the room," I amended. +"Further than that I can't satisfy you now. By Jove! there goes the +'phone! I expect it's to say they're here, though it's five minutes +before the time." +</P> + +<P> +My guess was correct, and my answer through the telephone, "Let them +come up at once," passed on the news to the man behind the door of the +safe. I went out to the head of the stairs to meet my visitors, and +led them into Felborn's office. The two were charmingly though very +simply dressed, far more <I>les grandes dames</I> in appearance than they +had been on shipboard, and their first words were of amused admiration +for the Oriental richness of Julius Felborn's office. It was evident +that, whatever their secret preoccupations were, both wished to seem +interested in their bizarre surroundings and in my success which they +had come to promote. I made them sit down in the two most luxurious +chairs the room possessed. Thus seated, their backs were toward the +safe, and the light filtered becomingly through thin gold silk curtains +on to their faces. I placed myself opposite, on an oak bench under the +window. If the door of the safe moved, I could see it over the +fashionable small hats of the ladies with their haloes of delicate, +spiky plumes. +</P> + +<P> +When I got past generalities I blurted out, "I've a confession to make. +I won't excuse myself or explain, because when I've finished—though +not <I>till</I> then—you'll understand. On shipboard I talked of my book, +and told you it was called <I>The Key</I>, but I didn't tell you that the +title and one incident in the story were suggested—forgive my +startling you—by the murder of Perry and Ned Callender-Graham." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" exclaimed Grace, half rising, "you asked us here to tell us +<I>that</I>? It doesn't seem <I>like</I> you, Lord John." +</P> + +<P> +"Give me the benefit of the doubt and hear me to the end," I pleaded, +grieved by her stricken pallor and look of reproach as she sank into +the chair again. Marian was pale also, even paler than usual, but her +look was of anger, therefore easier to meet. +</P> + +<P> +"You must not use the word 'murder,'" she commented, a quiver in her +voice. "Your doing so shows that you've very little knowledge of the +case." +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon," I said. "On the contrary, it precisely shows that +I have knowledge of it. The brothers were murdered by the same hand, +in the same way, and for the same motive." +</P> + +<P> +Marian rose up, very straight and tall. "It would be more suitable to +give your theories to the police than to us. I cannot stay and let my +niece stay to listen to them." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall have to give not my theories, but my knowledge, my proof, to +the police," I warned her; "only it's better for everyone concerned for +you to hear me first." +</P> + +<P> +"You've brought us to this place under false pretences!" Marian cried, +throwing her arm around the girl's waist. "It's not the act of a +gentleman. Come, Grace, we'll go at once." +</P> + +<P> +"For your own sakes you must not go," I insisted. "If you stay and +hear me through some way may be found to save the family name from +public dishonour." +</P> + +<P> +"Dearest, we <I>must</I> stay," Grace said steadily, when the older woman +urged her toward the door. +</P> + +<P> +Marian looked at her niece with the compelling look of a Fate, but the +girl stood firm. Gently she freed herself from the clinging arm and +sat, or rather fell, into the big cushioned chair once more. Her aunt +hesitated for a moment, I could see, whether or not to use force, but +decided against the attempt. With a level gaze of scorn for me, she +took her stand beside Grace's chair, her hand clenched on the carving +of its high back. I realised the tension of her grip, because her grey +suede glove split open across a curious ring she always wore on the +third finger of her left hand, showing its great cabochon emerald. I +had often noticed this stone, and thought it like the eye of a snake. +</P> + +<P> +"Say what you wish to say quickly, then, and get it over," she sharply +ordered. +</P> + +<P> +"The double murder was suggested and carried out by a man, but he had +accomplices, and his principal accomplice was a woman." (Miss +Callender's command excused my brusqueness.) "They had the same +interest to serve; purely a financial interest. It was vital to both +that Miss Grace Callender shouldn't marry—unless she married a person +under their influence who would share with them. They preferred some +such scheme, but it fell through. That drove them to extremes. Now +I'll tell you something about this couple—this congenial husband and +wife. Afterwards I'll give you details of their plot. They were +married secretly years ago, and lived together when they could, abroad +and on this side. The man was rich once, but lost his money—and the +capacity to make it—by losing his health. Life wasn't worth living to +either unless they could have the luxury they'd been used to. They +took an old house on Long Island—Bay View Farm, near Sandy Plain. The +man lived there for several months each year under the name of +Paulling. His wife paid him flying visits. She provided the money, +and had a banking account in the town. At Bay View Farm, when Miss +Grace first engaged herself to her cousin, the two thought out their +plot to suppress Perry. It took them some time to elaborate it, but a +week before the wedding they were ready. The woman, still under the +name of Paulling, engaged a furnished flat in New York, near Riverside +Drive. She took this flat for a term of years, realising it might be +needed more than once as time went on. In this apartment, in a house +called the Alhambra, she sat down one day at her desk and wrote an +anonymous letter to Perry Callender-Graham. She asked him to call at +that address at midnight the next night and learn a secret concerning +his cousin Grace's birth, which would change everything for them both +if it came out. Her handwriting was disguised by the use of a quill +pen, which used so much ink that most of the words left traces on the +blotter. The envelope and paper were blue-grey, and thick. Inside was +enclosed a small latchkey and a key to the front door of the house, for +the hall-porter would be in bed by the time she named. Perry +Callender-Graham could not resist the temptation to keep the +appointment. He went to the Alhambra, let himself in, was seen by +nobody, walked up to the third floor, and fitted the latchkey into the +door on the right side of the hall. As he tried to turn the key +something sharp as a needle pricked his forefinger. He was startled, +yet he went on trying to unlock the door. The key turned all the way +round, but the door stuck. It seemed to be bolted on the inside. He +began to feel slightly faint, but he was so angry at being cheated that +he pushed the electric bell, determined to get in at any cost. No +answer came, however, and at last he gave up in despair. Some vague +idea of warning the police and of going to see a doctor came to his +mind, but he was already a dying man. Before he got as far as the +street corner he fell dead. Exactly the same thing happened in the +case of Ned, when every effort to frighten him into breaking his +engagement had failed, when his love for his brother, his sensitive +conscience and his superstitious fear had all been played upon in vain. +Even the same formula was used for the anonymous letter, with a +slightly different wording. That was safe enough, for if Perry had +mentioned the first letter to Ned he would have told the police at the +time of Perry's death; it would have been a valuable clue. It wasn't +necessary to make new keys, for the two originals had been +returned—'to the family.' They were sent anonymously to Ned as they'd +been sent to Perry, and he also yielded to curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +"The same ingenious lock, made for the plotters by a skilled +mechanician (whom they had reason to trust), shot out its poisoned +needle at the first turn of the latchkey in his hand. As for the +poison, it, too, was supplied by a trusted one—-one who had something +to gain and vengeance to take as well. As the mechanician specialised +in lock-making, so did the chemist employed specialise in poisons. The +one he chose out of his repertory had two virtues: first, it began to +stop the heart's action only after coursing through the blood for +twenty or thirty minutes. Anything quicker might have struck down the +victim in front of the door and put the police on the right track. +Secondly, the poison's effect on the heart couldn't be detected by +post-mortem, but presented all the symptoms of status lymphaticus, +enlargement of the thyroid gland and so on. As for the lock, the +second turn of the key caused the needle to retire; and for a further +safeguard, an almost invisible stop, resembling a small screw-head, +could hold the needle permanently in place inside the lock, so that the +door might be opened by a latchkey and the existence of a secret +mechanism never suspected, except by one who knew how to find it. The +mechanism is in working order still, ready for use again, in case Miss +Grace Callender should change her mind and decide to marry." +</P> + +<P> +"Who is it you are accusing, Lord John?" Grace stammered in a choked +voice. +</P> + +<P> +I glanced from the drooping figure in the chair to the tall figure +standing erect and straight beside it. Marian Callender no longer +grasped the oak carving. The hand in the ragged glove was crushed +against her mouth, her lips on the emerald which had pressed through +the torn suede. The woman gave no other sign of emotion than this +strange gesture. +</P> + +<P> +"I accuse Paolo Tostini, with his father, his brother, and his +wife—known still as Miss Marian Callender—as his accomplices," I said. +</P> + +<P> +Grace uttered a cry sharp with horror, yet there was neither amazement +nor unbelief in the pale face which she screened with two trembling +hands. The story I had told—hastily yet circumstantially—had +prepared her for the end. But the keen anguish in the girl's voice +snapped the last strand of Odell's patience. He threw the iron door of +the safe wide open, and in two bounds was at Grace's side. I saw her +hold out both arms to him. I saw him snatch her up against his breast; +and then I turned to Marian Tostini, who had not moved from her place +beside the big carved chair. She was staring straight at me, her dark +eyes wide and unwinking as the eyes of a person hypnotised. The hand +in the torn glove had dropped from her lips again and clasped the +carving. She seemed to lean upon the chair, as if for support. Her +fingers clutched the wood. The grey suede glove was slit now all +across its back, but the snake-eye of the emerald had ceased to shoot +out its green glint. The stone hung from its setting like the hinged +lid of a box, showing a very small gold-lined aperture. +</P> + +<P> +"There need be—no stain on the name of—Callender—if you are as +clever in hiding the secret as you've been—in finding it out," she +said, with a catch in her breath between words. +</P> + +<P> +"What have you done?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"You know—don't you—you who know everything? The ring was my Italian +mother's—and her mother's before her. Who can tell how long it has +been in our family? It was empty when it came to me, but——" +</P> + +<P> +"But you put into it some of the same poison Antonio Tostini made up +for Perry and Ned Callender-Graham?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think you can force me to accuse the Tostinis? You shall not +drag a word from me. When Paolo hears I am dead he will die also, +before you can find him. Antonio you cannot touch. He is in Italy. +Thank Heaven their father is dead! And now I think—I had better go +home or—or to my doctor's. Grace and Roger Odell—wouldn't like me to +die here. It might—start scandal. I am feeling—a little faint." +</P> + +<P> +"Aunt Marian!" Grace sobbed. But Odell held the girl in his arms and +would not let her go. +</P> + +<P> +"Take Miss Callender away, Odell—quickly," I advised. "I'll attend +to—Mrs. Tostini." +</P> + +<P> +Like one who walks in a dream I shut the safe on my way to the desk, +and telephoned downstairs for a taxi. "One of the ladies who called +has been taken ill, I must drive her to a doctor's," I explained. +</P> + +<P> +"You think of everything," Marian Tostini said. She laughed softly. +"My heart has always been weak." +</P> + +<P> +"Taxi is here, sir," a voice called up through the 'phone. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well. We'll be down at once. Tell Mr. Felborn his office is +free. Now, Miss Callender—I mean Mrs. Tostini, let me help you." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid I must say 'Yes,'" she smiled. "My heart—beats so slowly. +Tell me, Lord John, as we go—how did you find out—the secret? It +seemed so—well hid!" +</P> + +<P> +"I guessed part, and bluffed the rest. I had to," I confessed, half +guiltily. The woman could make no ill use of such a confession now. +"I found the flat—and the lock—and two sheets of blotting paper. I +made out the anonymous letters, and one to your husband. I showed the +snapshot I got of you on shipboard to the house-agent. But he couldn't +be sure—said Mrs. Paulling wore a veil when he saw her. The name +'Paulling' was a clue too—enough like Paolo to be suggestive. Some +criminals love to twist their own names about. And Paolo Tostini is a +criminal. He has brought you to this——" +</P> + +<P> +"If there is guilt, I am the guilty one," she said calmly. "So sorry. +I have to lean on you a little. Ah! it's good to be downstairs—and in +the air. My doctor's name is Ryland. His address is The Montague, +East 44th Street. It's so near—we can get there, I think, in time. +You'll tell him—nothing?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell him nothing," I echoed. +</P> + +<P> +As I put her into the taxi I noticed that she had snapped the emerald +back in its setting, and the green snake-eye glinted up harmlessly once +more from the limp hand in the torn glove. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +EPISODE II +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE GREY SISTERHOOD +</H3> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +LORD JOHN'S FIRST ADVENTURE IN LOVE +</P> + +<P> +When applause forced the curtain up again and again on the last scene +of our play—Carr Price's and mine—I wasn't looking at the stage, but +at a girl in the opposite box. The box was Roger Odell's, and I was +sure that the girl must be his adopted sister Madeleine. But because +of the insult she had suffered through my brother, I might not visit +the box uninvited. +</P> + +<P> +If Grace had been with her husband and sister-in-law there might have +been hope. But the wedding had been private, because of Miss Marian +Callender's death, and it was not to be supposed that the bride would +show herself at the theatre, even as a proof of gratitude to me. I was +in Governor Estabrook's box, with him and Carr Price, and the girl +whose engagement to Price depended, perhaps, on the success of this +night; but I thanked my lucky stars—that I was invited by Grace to +dine after the theatre, <I>en famille</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely I shall meet <I>Her</I>," I tried to persuade myself. "She's here +with Roger, to show that she bears no grudge against my family. She +can't stop away from supper when I'm to be the only guest." +</P> + +<P> +This hopeful thought repeated itself in my head whenever I was thwarted +by finding my eyes avoided by the girl—the wonderful girl who, with +her lily face, and parted blonde hair rippling gold-and-silver lights +was like a shining saint. She was so like a saint that I would have +staked my life on her being one, which made me more furious than ever +with Haslemere. I felt if she would give me one of her white roses +lying on the red velvet of the box-rail, it would be worth more to me +than the Victoria Cross I was wearing for the first time that night. +</P> + +<P> +"Author! Author!" everybody shouted, as the curtain went down for the +tenth time. I heard the call in a half-dream, for at that instant +Madeleine Odell dropped the opera-glasses through which she had been +taking a look at the audience. They fell on the boxrail among the +roses, and pushed off one white beauty, which landed on the stage close +to the footlights; but I had no time to yearn for that rose just then. +I had thought only for the girl, who shrank back in her chair as if to +hide herself. Startled, Roger bent down with a solicitous question. +Thus he screened his sister from me, as a black cloud may screen the +moon; and my impulse was to search the house for the cause of her alarm. +</P> + +<P> +The audience as a whole had not yet risen, therefore the few on their +feet were conspicuous, and I picked out the man who had seemingly +annoyed Miss Odell. Just a glimpse I had of his face before he turned, +to push past the people in his row of orchestra chairs. It was a +strange face. +</P> + +<P> +"That man has some connection with the mystery of Madeleine Odell's +life!" was my thought. I knew I had to follow the fellow, and there +wasn't a second to lose, because, though he was perhaps twice my age, I +had to get about with a crutch and he had the full use of his long, +active legs. Before I'd stopped to define my impulse I was on my feet, +stammering excuses to Governor Estabrook and his daughter. +</P> + +<P> +"You mustn't leave now. We're wanted on the stage!" Carr Price caught +my arm; but a muttered, "For God's sake, don't stop me," told him that +here was some matter of life or death for me, and he stood back. After +that, I must have made the cripple's record; and I reached the street +in time to see the quarry step into a private car. I knew him by the +back of his head, prominent behind the ears and thatched with sleek +pepper-and-salt hair; but as he bent forward to shut the door, he +stared for half a second straight into my eyes. His were black and +long—Egyptian eyes, and the whole personality of the man suggested +Egypt; not the Arabianised Egypt of to-day, but rather the Egypt which +left its tall, broad-shouldered types sculptured on walls of tombs. He +made me think of a magnificent mummy "come alive," and dressed in +modern evening clothes. +</P> + +<P> +After the meeting of our eyes the man turned to his chauffeur for some +word, and the theatre lights seemed to point a pale finger at a scar on +the brown throat. The length of that thin throat was another Egyptian +characteristic, and though the collar was higher than fashion decreed, +it wasn't high enough to cover the mark when his neck stretched +forward. It was the queerest scar I ever saw, the exact size and shape +of a human eye. And on the white neck of Miss Odell I had noticed a +black opal with a crystal centre, representing the eye of the Egyptian +god Horus. This fetish was the only jewel she wore; and if I hadn't +already been sure of some association between her and the man now +escaping, that eye would have convinced me. +</P> + +<P> +Roger Odell had forced on me the gift of an automobile, and Price and I +had motored Governor Estabrook and his daughter to the theatre; but as +it was waiting in the procession which had just begun to move, my only +hope of following the man was to hail a passing taxi. I was about to +try my luck, when a hand jerked me back. +</P> + +<P> +"Good heavens, Lord John, are you going to leave us in the lurch? The +audience are yelling their heads off!" panted Julius Felborn. +</P> + +<P> +I would have thrown him off, but the second's delay was a second too +much. The dark car was spinning away with its secret—which might be a +double secret, for I caught a glimpse of a grey-clad woman. Somebody +grabbed the taxi I'd hoped to hail, and it was too late to do anything +except note the licence number. Since my war-experience and wounds, +I've lost—temporarily, the doctors say—my memory for figures. It is +one form which nerve-shock takes; and fearing to forget, I made a note +with a pocket pencil, on my shirt cuff. +</P> + +<P> +"A man like that is no needle in a haystack," I consoled myself. "I +can't fail to lay my hand on him if he's wanted." Then, making the +best of the business, I allowed Felborn to work his will. He dragged +me back into the theatre, and on to the stage, where I bowed and +smirked at the side of Price. Queer, how indifferent the vision of a +girl made me to this vision of success! But I'd never fallen in love +at first sight before, or, indeed, fallen in love at all in a way worth +the name. +</P> + +<P> +The vision was still there when I looked up, though it would soon be +gone, for Roger had put on his sister's cloak, and both were standing. +The girl shrank into the background; but as I raised my eyes perhaps +the S.O.S. call my heart sent out compelled some faint answer. Miss +Odell leaned forward and it seemed that she threw me a glance with +something faintly resembling interest in it. Perhaps it was only +curiosity; or maybe she was looking for a rosebud she had lost. I +couldn't let the flower perish, or be collected by some Philistine; so +I bent and picked it up. I trusted that she would not be angry, but +when I raised my head the vision and the vision's brother had both +disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +This was the happiest night of Carr Price's life, because Governor +Estabrook had journeyed from his own state with his daughter to see the +play. If he could, he would have kept me to supper in order that I +might talk to the Governor while he talked to the fascinating Nora; but +I had yet to learn whether there was a chance of its being the happiest +night of my life, and I flashed off in my new car at the earliest +moment, to find out. Down plumped my heart, however, when only Grace +and Roger appeared to welcome me. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as I dared, I invented an excuse to ask for the absent one; or +rather, I blurted out what was in my mind. "I hoped," I stammered, "to +see Miss Odell again—if only for a few minutes. I felt sure it was +she at the theatre. And I wanted to beg—that she'd let me try to +atone—to compel Haslemere to atone." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, she's sorry not to meet you," Roger broke in, "But she's not +strong. And she—er—was rather upset in the theatre. She doesn't go +out often; and she never takes late supper. She's probably in bed by +this time——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Roger, do let me tell him the truth!" exclaimed Grace. "Think how +he helped us in our trouble? What if he could help Maida? You must +admit he has a mind for mysteries, and if he could put an end to the +persecution which has spoiled her life, Maida wouldn't join the +Sisterhood." +</P> + +<P> +"She's going to join a Sisterhood?" I broke out, feeling as if a hand +had squeezed my heart like a bath sponge. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Grace, glancing at Roger. "You see, Rod, it slipped out!" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose there's no harm done," he answered. "Only, it's for Maida +to talk of her affairs. Lord John's a stranger to her." +</P> + +<P> +"But," I said on a strong impulse, "I've taken the liberty of falling +in love with Miss Odell, without being introduced, and in spite of the +fact that she has a right to despise my family. This is the most +serious thing that's ever happened to me. And if she goes into a +Sisterhood the world won't be worth living in. Give me a chance to +meet her—to offer myself——" +</P> + +<P> +"Great Scott!" cried Roger. "And the British are called a slow race!" +</P> + +<P> +"Offer myself as her knight," I finished. "Do you think I'd ask +anything in return? Why, after what Haslemere did——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but who knows what might happen some day?" suggested Grace. "Rod, +I <I>shall</I> make Maida come down." +</P> + +<P> +Without waiting to argue, she ran out of the room. She was gone some +time, and the secret being out, Roger talked with comparative freedom +of his adopted sister's intentions. The Sisterhood she meant to join +was not a religious order, but a club of women banded together for good +work. At one time the Grey Sisters, as they called themselves, had +been a thriving organisation for the rescue of unfortunate girls, the +reformation of criminals, and the saving of neglected children; but the +Head Sister—there was no "Mother Superior"—had died without a will, a +promised fortune had gone back to her family, and had not a lady of +wealth and force of character volunteered for the empty place, the +Sisterhood might have had to disband. The new Head Sister had +persuaded Madeleine Odell to join the depleted ranks. They had met in +charity work, which was Maida's one pleasure, and the mystery +surrounding the woman had fired the interest of the girl whose youth +was wrecked by mystery. The New York home of the Sisterhood had been +given up, owing to lack of money, but the new Head Sister, whose life +and fortune seemed dedicated to good works, had taken and restored an +old place on Long Island. More recruits were expected, and various +charities were on the programme. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a gloomy den," said Roger, "and stood empty for years because of +some ghost story. But this friend of Maida's has a mind above ghosts. +They're going to teach women thieves to make jam, and child pickpockets +to be angels! No arguments of mine have had the slightest effect on +Maida since she met this foreign woman. +</P> + +<P> +"The child has vowed herself to live with the Sisterhood—I believe it +consists at present of no more than five or six women—for a year. +After that she can be free if she chooses. But I know her so well that +my fear is, she <I>won't</I> choose. I'm afraid after all she's suffered +she won't care to come back to the world. And the sword hanging over +our heads is the knowledge that Maida's pledged herself to go whenever +the summons comes." +</P> + +<P> +If Roger's talk had been on any subject less engrossing, I should not +have heard a word. As it was, I drank in every one. Yet the soul +seemed to have walked out of my body and followed Grace upstairs. It +was as if I could see her pleading with my white-rose vision of the +theatre; but I was far enough from picturing the scene as it really +was. Afterward, when I heard Maida Odell's story, I knew what strange +surroundings she had given herself in the rich commonplaceness of that +old home which had been hers since childhood. +</P> + +<P> +"The shrine" adjoined her bedroom, I know now, and for some girls would +have been a boudoir. But the objects it contained put it out of the +"boudoir" category. There were two life-size portraits, facing each +other on the undecorated walls, on either side the only door; there was +also a portrait of Roger's father; and opposite the door stood on end a +magnificent painted mummy-case such as a museum would give a small +fortune to possess. Even without its contents the case would have been +of value; but behind a thick pane of glass showed the face of a +perfectly preserved mummy, a middle-aged man no doubt of high birth, +and of a dynasty when Greek influence had scarcely begun to degrade the +methods of embalming. When I saw these treasures of Madeleine's and +learned what they meant in her life, I said that no frame could have +been more inappropriate for such a girl than such a "shrine." +</P> + +<P> +Grace told me afterwards that she induced Maida to put on her dress +again and come downstairs, only by assuring her that "Poor Lord John +was dreadfully hurt." That plea touched the soft heart; and my fifteen +minutes of suspense ended with a vision of the White Rose Girl coming +down the Odells' rather spectacular stairway, with Grace's arm girdling +her waist. +</P> + +<P> +We were introduced, and Maida gave me a kind, sweet smile which was the +most beautiful present I ever had. How it made me burn to know what +her smile of love might be! +</P> + +<P> +Supper was announced; indeed, it had been waiting, and we went into the +oak-panelled dining-room where the girl was more than ever like a white +flower seen in rosy dusk. At the table I could hardly take my eyes off +her face. She was more lovely and lovable than I had thought in the +theatre. Each minute that passed, while I talked of indifferent +things, I spent in mentally "working up" to the Great Request—that she +would show her forgiveness by accepting my help. At last, after butler +and footman had been sent out, and words came to my lips—some sort of +inspiration they seemed—a servant returned with a letter. +</P> + +<P> +"For Miss Odell, by district messenger," he announced, offering the +envelope on a silver tray. +</P> + +<P> +"Is there an answer?" Maida asked, her face flushing. +</P> + +<P> +The footman replied that the messenger had gone; and with fingers that +trembled, Maida opened the envelope. Quite a common envelope it was, +such as one might buy at a cheap stationer's; and the handwriting, +which was in pencil, looked hurried. "I have to go to-morrow morning," +the girl said simply. She spoke to Roger, but for an instant her eyes +turned to me. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, darling," cried Grace, springing up as Maida rose, "it's not +fair—such short notice! Send word that you can't." +</P> + +<P> +"The only thing I <I>can't</I> do, dear, is to break my promise," the girl +cut in. "I must go, and she asks me to travel alone to Salthaven. +That's the nearest station for the Sisterhood House. She gives me the +time of the train I'm to take—seven o'clock. After all, why isn't one +day the same as another? Only, it's hard to say good-bye." +</P> + +<P> +To leave my love thus, and without even the chance to win her, which +instinct whispered I might have had, seemed unbearable. But there was +no other course. She gave me her hand. "Could it be that she was +sorry?" I dared ask myself. But before I had time to realise how +irrevocable it all was, I stood outside Odell's closed door. I stared +at the barrier for a minute before getting into my car, and tried to +make the oak panels transparent. "I won't let her go out of my life +like this," I said. "I'll fight." +</P> + +<P> +Before I'd reached my hotel I had thought out the first move in a plan +of action. But maybe there is another thing I ought to mention, before +I speak of that plan. Roger gave me, when I left him, an interesting +description of an electrical contrivance by which he protected the +chief treasure of his sister's shrine from burglars. He insisted on +giving me the secret in writing, also, because he would have to go away +shortly, and wanted someone to know what to do "in case anything went +wrong." The servants, though trustworthy, were aware only that such a +protection existed and was dangerous to meddlers. +</P> + +<P> +Consulting with West, the chauffeur, I learned that to reach Salthaven, +Long Island (the nearest village to Pine Cliff), passengers must change +at Jamaica. I told him to get to that junction in the morning without +fail, before the seven o'clock train was due, and we arranged to start +even earlier than necessary, to allow for delay. In the hotel office I +asked to be waked at five, in the unlikely event that I should +oversleep, and was going to the lift when the clerk at the information +desk called after me, "I believe, Lord John, a big box arrived for you. +It was before I came on duty, but you'll find it in your suite." +</P> + +<P> +Nothing seemed less important in that mood of mine, than the arrival of +a box. I had ordered nothing, expected nothing, wanted nothing—except +a thing it seemed unlikely I could ever have; so when I found no box in +my bedroom or small sitting-room, I supposed that it—whatever it might +be—would be sent next morning. Then I forgot the matter. +</P> + +<P> +I wished to sleep, for I needed clearness of brain for my task. But +sleep wouldn't come. After I had courted it in the dark for a few +minutes, I switched on the electric light over my bed, smoked a +cigarette or two; and when my nerves were calmer, began studying +Roger's electrical invention as described in two documents, a sketch of +Miss Odell's famous mummy-case, with the wiring attached, and a +separate paper of directions how to set and detach the mechanism. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, in the midst, a wave of sleep poured over me, sweeping me to +dreamland. I have a vague recollection of slipping one paper under the +pillow, and I must have dropped off with the other in my hand. I was +seeing Maida again, asking her permission to keep the white rose, and +receiving it, when some sound brought me back to realities. I sat up +in bed and looked around the room, my impression being that someone had +been there. Nothing was disarranged, however. All seemed as I had +left it—except—yes, there was one change! My eyes fastened upon the +shirt cuff on which I had written the licence number of the automobile. +I had flung the shirt over a low screen, and had forgotten, in the rush +of crowding thoughts, to copy the number in my journal. There hung the +shirt as I had left it, but the number, which I had written clearly and +distinctly, had become a black blur on the glazed linen. +</P> + +<P> +I sprang out of bed, and switched on more lights. Surely I had not +smudged the number by any clumsy accident. The noise I had heard—that +sound like the "click" of a lock? One swift look at the shirt cuff +came near to convincing me that a bit of rubber eraser had been used, +and then I remembered Roger's documents. The one I had slipped under +my pillow was gone. Fortunately it was useless to the uninitiated +without the other! +</P> + +<P> +I got to the door almost as quickly as if I'd never been wounded, but +found the key still turned in the lock. To have slipped out and locked +the door on the <I>inside</I>, meant a clever thief, a skilled <I>rat +d'hôtel</I>, provided with a special instrument; but that the trick could +be done I knew from hearsay. I threw open the door and looked into the +dimly lit corridor. No one was visible, except the flitting figure of +a very small child, in a sort of red-riding-hood, cloak, with a hood. +The little creature seemed startled at the noise I made, and ran to a +door which it had nearly reached. Someone must have been waiting for +its return, for it was let in and the door closed. +</P> + +<P> +"If anyone's been in my rooms, he's probably there still," I said, and +began to search in the obvious way—looking under the bed. What I +found sent me to the door again; for a curious, collapsible box, just +big enough to hold a small child, turned the innocent, flitting figure +I'd seen into something sinister. Quicker than light, thoughts shot +through my head; the arrival of a "big box," my failure to find it in +my room, the click of the lock, some knowledge of me by the man with +the scar, and a fear of my vaunted "detective skill." Slipping on a +dressing-gown as I went, I stalked down the corridor to the door which +opened to admit the child; and the knob was in my grasp when a voice +spoke sharply at my back. "Haven't you mistaken the room, sir?" the +night watchman warned me. +</P> + +<P> +I had met the man before, when coming in late, and he knew my number. +He was a big Irishman, twice my size. I foresaw trouble, but went to +meet it. "I've reason to believe a thief's been in my rooms, and taken +refuge here," I explained. "I want this door opened." With that I +rattled the knob and knocked threateningly. Almost at once the door +was unlocked, and the sweet face of a young woman in a neat, plain +dressing-gown peeped out. "Oh, what's the matter?" she faltered. "Is +it fire? We have a child here." +</P> + +<P> +"I <I>thought</I> yuh was mistaken, sir!" cut in the watchman. "Two ladies +and a little midget came in late. I saw 'em. No, madam, there's no +fire. This gentleman thought a thief had slipped into one of your +rooms." +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed, he is mistaken," the young woman assured us. "We haven't +finished undressing yet. I'm the child's nurse. If necessary, I can +call my mistress, but she's very nervous." As she glanced back into +the room I caught a glimpse of a woman in grey who hadn't taken off her +hat. A sort of motor bonnet it seemed to be, with a long veil +attached. I got no sight of her face, for the nurse hastily shut the +door, all but a crack which scarcely showed her rather piquant nose. +</P> + +<P> +"That's enough, I guess, sir?" suggested the watchman. "These ladies +mustn't be disturbed. All the rooms along here are occupied by old +clients. You go back to your suite and if there's any thief we'll find +him. But maybe you was dreamin'?" +</P> + +<P> +I heard the key turn again in the lock; but I realised that unless I +wanted to risk a row and perhaps arrest for "disorderly conduct," I +must bow to circumstances. For a moment I was tempted to persist, but +I thought how much more important than anything it was to be free from +entanglements, and able to reach Jamaica before seven o'clock. "Spilt +milk," I said to myself, and took the watchman's advice. But outside +the forbidden door, I picked up a tiny rosetted slipper. +</P> + +<P> +In my own rooms, I searched again for traces of a hostile presence. +The collapsible box was a strange thing to find under a bed, but I +couldn't prove that Little Red Riding Hood had been in it. Neither +could I prove that a small pile of silver that I had poured out of my +pockets on to the dressing-table had diminished, or that two letters +which I had received—one from my brother Haslemere, one from Grace +Odell—had been stolen. Nevertheless, while putting off my principal +researches, I did telephone down to inquire who occupied rooms 212, +214. The man who answered from the office had "come on" since the +people arrived, but, the name in the hotel register was "Mrs. W. Smith, +nurse and child, Sayville, Long Island." Nothing could sound less +offensive; but next morning when I descended at an unearthly hour it +seemed that "the party" had already gone, by motor; and the man at the +door "hadn't noticed no child." All I could do then was to reserve +those rooms for myself, for two days, with orders that they should not +be touched until investigated by me. +</P> + +<P> +It lacked twenty minutes of train time when my chauffeur got me to +Jamaica. This made me feel almost cheerful, but my heart sank as I +reached the arrival platform. There were not many passengers, and even +if there had been a crowd one figure would have stood out +conspicuously—that of a tall woman in a grey dress, a long grey cloak, +and a close-fitting grey bonnet with a thick grey veil falling over the +face and breast. There was not a doubt in my mind but this was the +formidable directress of the Grey Sisterhood, come in person to meet—I +had almost said "her victim." If the woman had known of my plan she +could hardly have found a better way of thwarting it. +</P> + +<P> +As I glowered at the figure stalking up and down, I hated it. And I +wondered if there were more than a coincidence in the fact that this +was the third grey-veiled woman I had seen since last night. In the +car at the theatre there had been too brief a glimpse to be sure of a +resemblance, and the woman in 212 had left on my mind an impression of +comparative shortness. But then, it is easy to stoop and disguise +one's height, I told myself viciously, eager to find a connection +between this woman and the others. +</P> + +<P> +I could see nothing of her face, as we passed and repassed on the +platform; but she was hovering not far off when I learned that the +train from New York would be late. It was "hung up," a few miles away, +owing to the breakdown of a "freighter." Instead of regret at this +news, I felt joy. It gave me—with luck—a way out of my difficulty. +Here was the Head Sister, waiting for Maida Odell; but if my car could +get me to the delayed train before it was restarted only Maida herself +could keep me from saying what I had come to say. +</P> + +<P> +There wasn't a moment to waste, and I didn't waste one. Thinking I had +won the first point in the game, I hurried to my car without glancing +back at the veiled woman. I gave directions to West and was about to +get into the auto, when a look in the chauffeur's eye made me turn. +Close behind stood the grey lady. There was no doubt that her purpose +was to speak to me. I took off my hat and faced her; but it was like +trying to look at the moon through a thick London fog. +</P> + +<P> +"You are Lord John Hasle, I believe?" she said, in a resonant contralto +voice, with a slight suggestion of foreign accent. "I have heard of +you," she went on. "You have been pointed out to me, and I know of +your acquaintance with the Odells. You are going to motor back along +the line. Your inquiries told me that. I would thank you, and so +would Miss Odell, for taking me to her in your car." +</P> + +<P> +Here was a situation! Rudely to refuse a favour asked by a lady, +or—to lose, for ever, perhaps, my one hope? I chose to be rude. I +stammered that I meant to go at such a pace it would be risking her +life to grant the request. Very sorry; more lifting of the hat; a +sheepish look of feigned regret; and then West, thoroughly ashamed of +me, started the car. The next moment we had shot away, but not without +a startling impression. +</P> + +<P> +"The worst turn you can possibly do Miss Odell will be to prevent her +coming into the Sisterhood House. It is the one place where she can be +safe." Those were the words I heard over the noise of the starting +motor; and as we left the tall statue of a woman, the high wind blew +her thick veil partly aside. Instantly she pulled it into place; but I +had time to see that the face underneath was covered with a grey mask. +The effect on my mind of this revelation was of something so sinister +that I felt physically sick. What could be the motive for such double +precautions of concealment? Was it merely to hide a disfigurement, I +wondered, or was there a more powerful reason? I determined to tell +Miss Odell what I had seen. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately there was little traffic on the country road at that hour, +and we did the eight miles in about eight minutes. I thanked my lucky +stars that the hold-up train had not moved; and my heart bounded when I +saw Maida among a number of passengers who had descended to wander +about during the delay. She in a grey travelling dress and small +winged toque, walked alone at a distance from the others. Here back +was turned to me, but she was unmistakable, with the morning sun +ringing her hair with a saint's halo. I tried not to frighten her by +appearing too abruptly, but she gave a start, and there was pain rather +than pleasure in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Do forgive me!" I pleaded. "I <I>had</I> to finish what I couldn't say +last night. I wouldn't intrude by travelling in your train from New +York without permission, but I thought if I came to Jamaica, maybe +you'd grant me a few minutes. Won't you let me atone—won't you let me +help? I feel that I can. Roger has hinted of trouble. If you would +trust me, I'd put my whole soul into the fight to save you from it." +</P> + +<P> +So I ran on, with a torrent of arguments and all the force of love +behind them. Something of that force the girl must have felt, for +slowly she yielded and told me this strange story. +</P> + +<P> +Roger Odell's father—Roger senior—had fallen in love with a girl who +afterwards became Maida's mother. He was a widower, and young Roger +was a boy of eight or nine at the time. Old Roger—he was not old +then—had acted as the girl's guardian, and she had promised to marry +him, when suddenly she disappeared, leaving behind a letter saying that +she was going with the only man she could ever love. +</P> + +<P> +Five years passed, and then one day she came back bringing a little +daughter four years old. Both the Rogers were away when she called at +the house in Fifth Avenue; one at his office, the other at school. A +housekeeper received the pair, realising that the mother was +desperately ill. She would say nothing of herself, except that they +had come from England; could not even tell her married name. She had +lived through the voyage, she said, to put her daughter under the +protection of her only friend. Some strange luggage she had brought, +on which were London labels. She forbade the servant to telephone the +master of the house. She would write a letter, and then she would go. +The letter was begun, but before it could be finished the writer fell +into unconsciousness. For a few days she lingered, but never spoke +again, and died in the arms of the man she had jilted. +</P> + +<P> +"If you ever loved me, keep my child as if she were your own," began +the written appeal. "She is Madeleine, named after me. Don't try to +find out her other name. Give her yours, which might have been mine. +Make no inquiries. If you do, the same fate may fall on her which has +fallen on her father and others of his family. It is killing me now. +Save my little Maida. The one legacy I can leave her is a jewel which +I want her to keep; a miniature of myself taken for someone I loved, +and an Egyptian relic which, for a reason I don't know, is immensely +important. I promised her father that this child should never part +with it. The one reward I can offer you is my grat——" +</P> + +<P> +There the letter broke off. +</P> + +<P> +Roger Odell, Senior, had obeyed every one of his dead love's requests. +The "Egyptian relic" was a mummy case, with the human contents +marvellously preserved; the jewel, an opal and crystal eye of Horus. +In taking out the miniature from its frame, to be copied in a large +portrait, Maida found the miniature of a man she supposed to be her +father, and had ordered that enlarged also, to hang in her shrine. Her +memories of the past before coming to America were vague; but her +childhood, happy as it had been in other ways, was cursed by the dream +of a terrible, dark face—a face appearing as a mere brown spot in the +distance, then growing large as it drew nearer, coming close to her +eyes at last in giant size, shutting out all the rest of the world. +Whether she had ever seen this face in reality, before it obsessed her +dreams, she could not be sure; but the impression was that she had. As +she grew older, the dream came less frequently; but once or twice she +had seen a face in a crowd which reminded her—perhaps morbidly—of the +dream. Such a face had looked up from the audience last night. +</P> + +<P> +This mystery was one of two which had clouded Maida's life. From the +second had come her great trouble; and she did not see that between the +two could exist any connection. When I heard the rest of the history, +however, I differed from her. Some link there might be, I thought; and +if I were to help, it must be my business to find it. +</P> + +<P> +One day, on leaving school for the holidays, when she was seventeen, +Maida, and a woman servant sent to fetch her from Milbrook to New York, +had met with a slight railway accident, much like that of to-day. It +was this coincidence, maybe, which inclined her to confide in me, for +she had been thinking of it, she said, when I came. A young man had +been "kind" to Miss Odell and her maid; had brought them water and +food. Later he had introduced himself. He was Lieutenant Granville, +of the Navy. Also he was an inventor, who believed he could make a +fortune for himself and his mother, if he could patent and get taken up +by some great firm an idea of his, in which he had vainly tried to +interest the heads of the Navy. This concerned a secret means of +throwing a powerful light under water, for the protection of warships +or others threatened by submerged submarines. Granville believed that +experiments would demonstrate immense usefulness for his invention and +so interested was Maida that she tried to induce Roger to finance it. +He refused, and did not like Granville when the girl brought them +together. +</P> + +<P> +This seeming injustice roused Maida's sympathy. She met Granville +occasionally at his mother's house, without Roger's knowledge. It was +the child's first adventure, and appealed to her love of romance. The +natural consequences followed. Granville proposed. She asked to +remain his friend. Then to give her "friend" a glorious surprise, she +worked to interest a great financier, a friend of the Odell family, in +Granville's undersea light. +</P> + +<P> +Unfortunately for her unselfish plan, millionaire Orrin Adriance had a +son, Jim, who had been in love with Maida since she was in the +"flapper" stage. This fact complicated matters. When Granville's +chemical formula, in a sealed envelope, was stolen from a safe in the +Adriance house, before business was completed between financier and +inventor, George Granville—already jealous of Jim Adriance—was mad +enough to believe that Maida had joined in a plot to trick him. He +accused the Adriances of wishing to get his secret without paying for +it, prophesying that a tool of theirs would presently "invent" +something of the kind, after they had refused to take up his +proposition. Pretending illness, he had induced his mother to send for +Maida, and she, only too anxious to defend herself, had gone to the +Granville house. After a cruel scene between her and the sailor, he +had locked the door, put the key in his pocket, and shot himself +through the heart. Mrs. Granville, who had heard a scream from the +girl, before the shot, swore to the belief that Maida had killed the +young man to defend herself against his love-making. +</P> + +<P> +Roger, learning of the tragedy, had stifled the lie as he would have +crushed a snake. How he had done this, Maida was not sure. He had +refused to tell. But her name had not been connected with Granville's +at the inquest. Mrs. Granville, who had been poor and lived poorly, +migrated to France and was reported to have "come into money through a +legacy." In any case she seemed to have been silenced. No word of +scandal could be traced to her, though detectives had been employed by +Roger. Nevertheless, the story had risen from time to time like the +phoenix from its own ashes. Maida's fellow school-mates had whispered; +her debut in society had been blighted by a paragraph in a notorious +paper, afterwards gagged by Roger. Then, last and worse, had come the +cancelling of the girl's presentation to the King and Queen of England. +</P> + +<P> +"You see now," she said, "why I shall be happier out of the world, in a +Sisterhood where I can try to help others even sadder than I have been." +</P> + +<P> +"But," I threw out the bold suggestion, "what if there's a plot to get +you into the Sisterhood—into this old house!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but that's impossible!" she cried. "You wouldn't dream of such a +thing if you could meet the Head Sister and see what a splendid woman +she is!" +</P> + +<P> +There was my opportunity to tell about the mask, and I took it. But it +availed me nothing. The mask, Miss Odell said, was no secret. She +understood that the Head Sister, in saving a child from fire, had so +injured her face that for the sake of others she kept it hidden. +Another version had it that the motive for wearing the mask was some +"sacred vow." In any case, Maida assured me, it was an honour to the +good and charitable woman; and no arguments would break her resolution +to give the next year to work with the Sisterhood. After that year—if +I could solve the mystery of the stolen formula, and put an end for +ever to scandal—she would come back and face the world again. But how +could I, a stranger, do what Roger had failed to do? +</P> + +<P> +That was the question. Yet I made up my mind that it must be answered +in <I>one way</I>, or my life would be a failure. Not only would I solve +that mystery, I told myself—though I dared not boast to the girl—but +I would link together the old one with the new. The way to do this, I +told myself, was to learn whether an enemy of Maida Odell's father had +found her under her borrowed name, and had made the Granvilles and +Adriances his conscious or unconscious tools. +</P> + +<P> +This talk we had while the train stood still. We were sitting on a log +together, out of earshot from the other passengers, when—with the name +of the Grey Sisterhood on our lips—we looked up to see its veiled +directress. She had, she said, been put to much trouble in securing an +automobile to come for Madeleine, and see that she was not persuaded to +break a promise. Maida, embarrassed and protesting, assured her friend +that there was no thought of such disloyalty. Lord John—timidly the +girl introduced us—had come only to try and help her throw off an old +sorrow, as I had helped Roger and Grace. So she tried to "explain" me; +and the Head Sister, having triumphed, could afford to heap coals of +fire on my head by being coldly civil. Her one open revenge she took +by requesting me not to follow them to their automobile. The chauffeur +would fetch Miss Odell's hand luggage out of the train, and my +"kindness would no longer be needed." I was dismissed by the +conqueror; and left by the wayside with but one consolation: Maida had +said "au revoir," not good-bye. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment I stood crushed. Then a thought jumped into my mind: +"What if this woman is the one I saw in the auto outside the theatre?" +</P> + +<P> +I felt that I had been a fool to obey Maida, and took steps to retrieve +my mistake. But the veiled lady had been too clever for me. The car +was gone past recall. If it hadn't been for that viper-thought—and +the thought of what had happened in my rooms last night—I might not +have had the "cheek" to make my next move in the game. But things +being as they were I couldn't stand still and take a rebuff. +</P> + +<P> +Instead of motoring back to New York, I went to Salthaven, and +breakfasted at a small inn there. Of the Sisterhood I could learn +nothing, for it had but lately taken up its quarters near by. Of those +quarters, however, I was able to pick up some queer stories. The place +had been bought, it seemed, for a song, because of its ghostly +reputation, which had frightened tenant after tenant away. +</P> + +<P> +"What a good pitch to choose if any 'accident' were planned, and lay it +to the ghosts!" I thought. And I knew that I couldn't go without +learning more about the Sisterhood House than the landlord at Salthaven +could tell me. I must see for myself if it were the sort of place +where "anything could happen." +</P> + +<P> +I meant to wait until late, when all the Grey Sisters and their +protégées were safely asleep. Then, with a present of meat for a +possible watch dog, I would try a prowl of inspection. I made a vague +excuse of fancying the inn, and of wanting to rest till time to meet a +friend who would motor back with me to New York. I engaged a room in +order to take the alleged rest; but spent long hours in striving to +piece together bits of the most intricate puzzle my wits had ever +worked upon. +</P> + +<P> +"In an hour more now I can start," I said at ten, and composed myself +to forget the slow ticking of my watch. But suddenly it was as if +Maida called. Actually I seemed to hear her voice. I sprang up, and +in five minutes had paid the bill and was off in my car for Pine Cliff. +</P> + +<P> +I left West sitting in the auto at a little distance from the high +wall, which shut the old garden in from the rocks above the Sound. +Then I struck my crutch into a patch of rain-sodden earth, and used it +to help me vault over the wall. Just as I bestrode the top, a dog gave +out a bell-toned note. I saw his dark shape, and threw the meat I had +brought from the inn. He was greedily silent, and I descended, to pat +his head as he ate. Luckily he was an English bull, and perhaps +recognised me as a fellow-countryman. At all events, he gave his +sanction to my presence. +</P> + +<P> +The neglected garden, which I could dimly see, was mysterious in the +night hush. There was no sound except the whisper of water on the +shore outside. The substantial building with its rows of closed blinds +looked common place and comfortable enough. Lights showed faintly in +two or three windows. Not all the household had gone to bed. As I +stood staring at a low balcony not far above the ground, which somehow +attracted and called my eyes, the blinds of a long French window +looking out upon it were opened. I saw Maida herself, and a tall woman +in grey, wearing a short veil. They stood together, talking. Then +with an affectionate touch on the girl's shoulder, the Head Sister—I +knew it must be she—bade her newest recruit good night. +</P> + +<P> +The window was left open, but dark curtains were drawn across, no doubt +by Maida. Presently the long strip of golden light between these +draperies vanished. No scene could be more peaceful than the quiet +garden and the sleeping house. Still, something held me bound. How +long I stood there, I don't know: an hour, maybe; perhaps less, perhaps +more. But suddenly a white figure flashed out upon the balcony. So +dim was it in the darkness, I might have taken it for one of the famous +ghosts, but Maida's voice cried out: "<I>The face—the face</I>! God send +me help!" +</P> + +<P> +"He has sent help. I've come, to take you away," I called, and held up +my arms. +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes later she was with me in my car, rushing towards New York +and her brother's house. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +"A gilded amateur detective," Roger Odell once called me in a joke. +But I knew he would listen to theories I'd formed concerning this +mystery which, like an evil spirit, had haunted his sister since +childhood. All night I spent in elaborating these theories and +dove-tailing them together. The girl had had a fright in the theatre. +I had seen a man with strange eyes and a scar, looking at her; and +through certain happenings at my hotel, I believed that a link between +him and Maida's "Head Sister" might be found. That, of course, would +free the girl from the promise she thought sacred. +</P> + +<P> +By eight-thirty in the morning I was in touch with Pemberton's Private +Detective Agency, and I had just been assured that a good man, Paul +Teano, would be with me in ten minutes, when my telephone bell rang +shrilly. It was the voice of Grace Odell which answered my "Hello!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Lord John," she called distressfully, "isn't it dreadful? Maida's +going back to the Sisterhood House! The Head Sister has written her a +letter. Maida's answering it. She doesn't blame the woman for +<I>anything</I>. She thinks she herself was a coward to take fright at a +bad dream. Do come and argue with her. The child wants to start this +morning. That woman seems to have her hypnotised." +</P> + +<P> +My answer goes without saying. I determined to put off the detective, +but he arrived as I finished talking to Grace, and as his looks +appealed to me I spared him a quarter of an hour. His eyes were as +Italian as his name—with the shadow of tragedy in them. +"Temperamental looking fellow," I said to myself. +</P> + +<P> +My business with Teano had nothing to do directly with Maida. What I +had to tell him was the invasion of my rooms two nights before, but out +it came that I had been helping a woman, and that success in this case +might mean her safety. +</P> + +<P> +"I, too, work for a woman, my lord," the detective said. Though he had +spent years in America, I noticed how little slang of the country he'd +chosen to pick up. He spoke, perhaps in the wish to impress me, with +singular correctness. "Now you have told me this, I shall be the more +anxious to serve you. I turned detective to find her. I've been five +years trying. But every morning I think, 'Perhaps it will be to-day.'" +</P> + +<P> +There was no time then to draw him out as he would have liked to be +drawn out. I showed him what there was to work upon, in my rooms as +well as the two others, and then dashed off to Maida. +</P> + +<P> +As my car stopped in front of Roger Odell's home, out of the house +bounced a small boy—a very small boy indeed, with the eyes of an imp, +and the clothes of a Sunday-school scholar. He looked at me as he +flashed past, and it was as if he said, "So it's <I>you</I>, is it?" +</P> + +<P> +I had never seen the boy before, but I thought of the collapsible box; +and leaving a flabbergasted footman at the door, my crutch and I went +after the small legs that twinkled around the corner. The elf was too +quick, however. By the time I had got where he ought to have been, he +had made himself invisible. Whether a taxi had swallowed him, or a +door had opened to receive him, it was useless to wonder. All I could +do was to question the footman. The child had brought a letter to Miss +Odell, and had taken one away. "Meanwhile," the servant added, seeing +my interest, "he has entertained below stairs, making faces and turning +handsprings. Quite a acrobat, your lordship," remarked the man, who +hailed from my country; "and that <I>sharp</I>, though dumb as a fish! We +gave 'im cake and jam, but money seemed to please 'im most, an' his +pockets was full of it already. 'E's got enough to go on a most +glorious bust, beggin' your lordship's pardon." +</P> + +<P> +I gave it—and something else as well. Then I asked him for the plate +from which the child had eaten. It was to be wrapped in paper, and put +into my car—for Teano. (It has never mattered that a footman should +think his master, or his master's friends, insane!) +</P> + +<P> +If the child messenger from the Sisterhood, and the child-thief in the +collapsible box were one, the dumbness was an obstacle. Nevertheless +Teano might catch him, I thought, little dreaming how my desire and +his, working into one, were to be brought about. +</P> + +<P> +I was shown into Roger's den, and confessed the theft of the document +he had given me—luckily useless, without the plan. I told him also +the history of the night. "Two and two generally make four," I said, +"and though this affair is irritating, it may help eventually. The man +who frightened Miss Odell had the look of an Egyptian. Now, isn't it +more likely that a mummy should be wanted by an Egyptian than another? +Miss Odell's treasure is a mummy, in a painted mummy-case. You know +that several attempts have been made to break into the 'shrine,' as +Miss Odell calls it. With what other object than to get the mummy? +You've had its case protected with an ingenious system of electric +wiring. Now, you are going away with your wife. You give me the +secret of the mechanism. The same night somebody tries to steal it; +also he rubs off my shirt-cuff the number of the Egyptian-looking +fellow's car. Then, there's the directress of the Sisterhood. She +fascinates Miss Odell. She revives the glory of a dying order. She +takes an old ghost-ridden house by the seashore—where anything might +happen. And something <I>does</I> happen. A dream—so vivid, that I +venture to believe it wasn't a dream but a trick. The woman tries to +induce a girl to bring all her possessions with her into seclusion. +'<I>All</I> her possessions,' mind! That would have included the +mummy-case, if you hadn't put your foot down. Have I your leave to +repeat these ramblings to her?" +</P> + +<P> +"She has heard them, Lord John!" I turned, and sprang to my feet. +Maida was at the door, with Grace. +</P> + +<P> +"You were talking so fast, we didn't interrupt. And I <I>wanted</I> to +hear. I thought you'd wish me to. You have a wonderful theory, but +it's <I>all</I> a mistake so far as the Sisterhood is concerned. The Head +Sister is the <I>best</I> woman I ever knew. I'm breaking my heart with +shame because I deserted my post. Oh, don't think I blame <I>you</I> for +bringing me away, Lord John. I blame only myself. You were splendid. +And I'm grateful for everything. To convince you of that, I promise if +you can prove anything against the Sisterhood, I'll consider myself +free from my bond—even before the twelve months are up. That's a +<I>safe</I> promise. You can't think what a beautiful letter the Head +Sister has sent me this morning. I'm eager to go back and earn her +forgiveness by helping in the work she'll give me to do. In justice to +her I <I>must</I> tell you a secret. That mask you saw—which prejudiced +you—is to hide burns she got in saving a slum-child from death in a +great fife. The Sister wears it to spare others pain. As for the +<I>dream</I>—I have it everywhere, and often. Don't be anxious. I'll +write, and—<I>you</I> can write if you will. Dear Roger, is the car ready?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Roger bluntly. "I hoped John would make you see reason." +</P> + +<P> +"I do see it," the girl answered. "I didn't last night." +</P> + +<P> +"How I wish you weren't over twenty-one!" her adopted brother growled. +</P> + +<P> +Maida laughed, almost gaily. "As it is, I'm an old maid, and must be +allowed to go my own way." +</P> + +<P> +"May I motor you and Roger to Pine Cliff, if you must go?" I begged. +</P> + +<P> +She gave me a long look before answering. Then she said, "Yes." +</P> + +<P> +I shall never forget that run from New York to Long Island. I made the +most of every moment; but my heart turned to ice whenever a voice +seemed to mutter in my ear, "You're going to lose her. You've failed, +John Hasle, in the big crisis of her life and yours." +</P> + +<P> +But I wouldn't believe the voice. So far as my own story was +concerned, I thought this chapter of it had come to a close with the +closing of the gate at the Sisterhood House between me and Maida Odell. +Yet after all it hadn't, quite. There was more to come. +</P> + +<P> +A little veiled woman had opened the gate at the sound of the +motor-horn, evidently expecting Miss Odell. And the same little woman +shut us out when the new sister had gone in. I noticed her +particularly, because she shrank from our eyes, though her face was +covered with the conventional mist of gauze. And it seemed that she +was glad to get rid of us. Not rudely, but with eagerness, she pushed +the gate to; and as she did so I noticed her hand. The left hand it +was—small, daintily shaped, with delicate, tapering fingers; but the +third finger was missing. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Teano was not in my rooms when I arrived once more at my hotel; but +opening the door of 212 I found him at the telephone. So absorbed was +he that he did not hear me enter, and I stood still in order not to +disturb him. I supposed that he had called up the Agency, and was +talking of my business. +</P> + +<P> +"If I could get out of the job, I would," he almost groaned. "But +they'd put another man on, and that would be worse for Jenny. Everyone +heard of 'Three-Fingered Jenny' at the time of the gang's getaway. The +only thing I can do is to keep her out of the business at any cost, and +go along on other lines. I'll call you up again, Nella, if I get +anything on my <I>own</I>, about Jenny." +</P> + +<P> +"Who, pray, are Nella and Jenny, Mr. Teano?" I asked, realising that he +meant to play me false. +</P> + +<P> +He jumped as if I had shot him, and dropped the receiver. "I—thought +I'd locked the door," he stammered. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a good thing you didn't," I said. "I've heard enough to guess +you came on some clue you didn't expect. That's why you forgot to lock +the door, before you called up 'Nella.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Nella's my sister," Teano blurted out. "She's employed in the +Priscilla Alden, the hotel where only ladies stay. She's the telephone +girl on the thirteenth floor." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks for the explanation," I replied with more coolness than I felt. +"As for 'Jenny'—well, before I ask more questions I'll tell you what I +think. 'Jenny' is the woman for whose sake you took up your +profession. You'd lost, and wanted to find her. Now, you have found +her—or rather, her fingerprints—unmistakable, because they happen to +be those of her left hand. Rather than get her into trouble, you'd +sacrifice my interests." +</P> + +<P> +Teano remained dumb as the impish child, when I finished and waited for +him to speak; so I went on. "I don't want to hurt a woman; yet you see +I know so much I can carry on this case without you. Suppose we work +together? I'll begin by laying my cards on the table. I can save you +the trouble of a search if I choose. I know where 'Jenny' is, and can +take you to her." +</P> + +<P> +"You—you're bluffing!" Teano stammered. +</P> + +<P> +"I swear I'm not. Luckily you're a <I>private</I> detective. The police +needn't get an inkling of this case, unless you fail me, and I turn to +them. All I want is to find out who instigated the affair of night +before last. Who carried it out isn't so important to me, though it +may be to you. And by the by, has 'Jenny' any personal interest in a +little boy of four or five who is dumb?" +</P> + +<P> +"My God!" broke out the detective. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think I can be as useful to you as you can to me?" I +insinuated. "Why not be frank about 'Jenny'? I promise to hold every +word in confidence. Hang up that receiver. You'd better sit down or +you'll fall! Now, let's have this out." +</P> + +<P> +The man was at my mercy; yet I knew he was no traitor. "Probably," I +reflected, "I'd have done the same in his place." +</P> + +<P> +We sat facing each other, across the bare little table; and Teano began +the story of Jenny. There was drama in it, and tragedy, though as yet +the story had no end. The sad music was broken; but I began to see, as +he went on, that he and I might find a way of ending it, on a different +key. +</P> + +<P> +Paul Teano and his sister had come to relatives in New York when he was +nineteen and she twelve. That was ten years ago. Paul was now a +naturalised American citizen, but at the time of the Italian war in +Tripoli he hadn't taken out his papers. There had been other things to +think of—such as falling in love. In those days Paul was a budding +newspaper reporter. He had gone to "get" a fire, and incidentally had +saved a girl's life. Her name was Jenny Trent. It was a case of love +at first sight with both. The mother took lodgers, and Teano became +one. In a fortnight, Jenny and he were engaged in spite of a rival +with money and "position"—that of a bank clerk. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Trent wanted Jenny to marry Richard Mayne, and Jenny had vaguely +entertained the idea before she met Teano. There was something +mysterious and different from the men she had known, about Mayne, which +piqued her interest. But the mystery ceased to attract her after the +Italian's appearance. Teano, afraid of Mrs. Trent's weakness for +Mayne—or his presents, would have married Jenny at once, and trusted +to luck for a living; but the girl's mother fell ill, and while Jenny +was nursing her, Italy's war broke out. Paul was called to the +colours, and sailed for "home" with thousands of other reservists. It +was hard luck, and harder still to be wounded and taken prisoner in his +first battle. Teano's adventures with his Arab captors would make a +separate story, as exciting as Slatin's though not so long, for he +suffered only a year and six months' imprisonment. At the end of that +time he escaped, made his way to Sicily, and thence back to America as +stoker in an Italian ship. His first thought was to see Jenny; but at +Mrs. Trent's he found himself taken for a ghost. The report had come +that he was dead; and Mrs. Trent had "thought it best" for Jenny to +accept Dick Mayne. "For Heaven's sake, keep away," pleaded her mother. +"She's not happy with Dick. There was trouble at the bank, and he lost +his job. Jenny's wretched. But she's got a baby boy to live for—a +poor little thing, born dumb. The sight of you will make things +harder." +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps Teano might have had strength to remain in the background if an +old fellow-lodger had not whispered what "people were saying about Dick +Mayne." It was asserted that for years he had led a "double life." +Nothing had been actually proved against him, except, that he was a +dope fiend. But gossip had it that he was a dope-seller as well, a +receiver of stolen goods, and a friend of thieves and gunmen. There +was likely to be an awful "bust-up" and then—Heaven help Jenny! +</P> + +<P> +Naturally Teano went to the address given him—that of a tenement house +a long way east of Fifth Avenue. There, Fate stage-managed him into +the midst of a scene destined to change the course of two lives and put +an end to one. His knock was unanswered; but something was happening +in the kitchen of the wretched flat. The door was not locked; it had +been forgotten. Teano burst in, to find Jenny fighting for her life +with a madman. Mayne had snatched a bread-knife from the table, and +Jenny's hand dripped blood. Without a word Teano sprang to her +defence; but Mayne slipped out of his grasp. Darting to an adjoining +room, he rushed back with a Colt revolver. To save Teano, Jenny flung +herself between the two men; but Paul caught and put her behind him, +leaping on Mayne with a spring of a tiger. Then came a life and death +tussle. The revolver went off as both fought to get it, and Mayne +fell, shot through the heart. +</P> + +<P> +"You'd have thought things couldn't have been worse with us than they +were," the detective groaned. "But you'd have thought wrong. We were +up against it, Jenny and me. If I stayed and gave evidence, she was +afraid of a scandal. If I made a getaway, she argued, she would be all +right, on a plea of self-defence; because it was known by the +neighbours what her husband was. I thought the same myself; and she +persuaded me for her sake to disappear. That was the mistake of my +life. What happened after I went, I don't know. I can only guess. +But something caused Jenny to change her mind. I got off without being +seen, and lay low to watch the papers. But if you believe me, for +three days there was nothing! Then came out a paragraph about Mayne's +body being discovered by some friend, who pounded in vain on the door, +and at last broke it in, to find the man dead. Doctors testified that +he'd been a corpse for forty-eight hours. The revolver lay beside him. +The verdict was suicide. He was known for his habits, you see; and +just by pulling the catch down, Jenny could get out, leaving the door +locked on the <I>inside</I>. Folks thought she'd deserted him—and that and +other troubles, brought on by himself, had preyed upon his mind. She +and I hadn't been cool enough to plan a stunt like that, in the minutes +before she forced me out of the place. But <I>somebody'd</I> helped her; +and things that happened later put me on to guessing who. +</P> + +<P> +"Never a word or a line has Jenny sent me from that day to this. Do +you know why? Because a pack of thieves got hold of her and the child. +One of Mayne's secret pals must have come along and offered to save her +and the boy. I don't believe she knew what she was letting herself in +for, till she was in. But—well, a girl called 'Three-Fingered Jenny' +travelled with a gang of international thieves last year in France, and +I bounced over there like a bomb when I heard. You see, when I found +her struggling with Mayne, he'd been trying to cut off her finger, +because she <I>would</I> stick to an old ring of mine; refused to give it +up. She'd just time to tell me that and show me what he'd done. I saw +the poor finger would have to come off. My poor little Jenny! She'd +loved her pretty hands! The European war broke out just as I was +getting on her track—or thought I was—and I lost her again. I'd +stake my life she never stole a red cent's worth. But they may have +forced her to act as a decoy—using the child to bring her up to time. +I've always felt the gang's game would be to train the boy for a dip. +It was a frame-up on Jenny from the first. Why, the little chap would +do star turns, and never spill. He's dumb. Made for the job. I've +seen babies in the business, sharp as traps! Now you see, my lord, +what a knockout I had, finding those finger-marks on the +window-sill:—three, of a small left hand, the third finger missing; +and traces that a child had been let out of the window by a rope. The +footprints are below in the court. 'Jenny and her boy,' I said to +myself. I've prayed God I might find them; but it's the devil has sent +them to me at last." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not so sure of that," I said, and told Teano where and how I had +seen a slender little woman with big, scared eyes and a left hand with +its third finger missing. +</P> + +<P> +When I had explained my rapidly developed theory, we discussed the +means of proving it. We might as well batter at the gates of Paradise +as those of the Grey Sisterhood. We would be turned away, as with a +flaming sword. Trust the Head Sister for that! But we were not at the +end of our resources. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +That evening towards dusk, two ruddy-faced coastguards left a somewhat +dilapidated car in charge of a local youth. They walked for a short +distance, where a group of pines on a promontory had suggested the name +"Pine Cliff." They rang a gate bell, although aware that tradesmen +were the only males of the human species allowed to cross the +threshold. When their summons remained unanswered, they tugged again +with violence, until a <I>grille</I> opened like a shutter. "Who is there?" +questioned a timid voice. +</P> + +<P> +The elder of the coastguards, seeing his companion start at the sound +of her voice, answered, to give his comrade breathing space. They had +come, he announced, by order, to search the garden for a suspected +hiding hole of smuggled opium. Not that the Sisterhood was implicated! +This was an old place, and had been used by dope smugglers. The coast +police had received the "tip" that this had happened again. +</P> + +<P> +The veiled eyes behind the <I>grille</I> vanished; and a moment later +another voice took up the argument. As Teano had recognised Jenny's +voice, I knew the Head Sister's. The idea was <I>absurd</I>, said the +latter. We could not be admitted. I stepped aside, not trusting my +disguise, and Teano held out a folded document to which we had given an +official semblance. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want to make trouble for you, ladies, but——" he hinted. The +paper and a glimpse of a red seal said the rest. Bolts slid back +indignantly, and the gate was flung open. I beheld the Head Sister, +tall and formidable. Behind her I glimpsed a group of other forms less +imposing, among them Maida, flowers in her hands, and surrounded with +children. As for Teano, no doubt he saw only the shy figure retiring +from the gate. +</P> + +<P> +"This is preposterous!" exclaimed the Head Sister. "But search the +garden if you must. You will find <I>nothing</I>." She moved away to join +her satellites, motioning to the door-keeper that the gate might be +closed. Before the gesture could be obeyed, however, Teano put himself +between the tall woman and the little one. +</P> + +<P> +"Beg pardon, madam. I admit we've got in on false pretences," he said +sharply; "but we're detectives sent to arrest Three-Fingered Jenny, and +here's our warrant." +</P> + +<P> +He flourished the faked document. Before the mistress of infinite +resource had time to collect her forces—we had swept Jenny outside the +gate, and slammed it. We raced with her to Teano's waiting car, +and—cruel to be kind—stopped to explain nothing till Pine Cliff was +more than a mile away. +</P> + +<P> +I took the wheel and gave Paul a place by Jenny. I heard him plead, +"Don't you <I>know</I> me, Jen?" But not once did I turn my head until +Teano spoke my name. +</P> + +<P> +"She's my Jenny," he said, "and she <I>cares</I>, but she doesn't <I>want</I> to +be rescued! It's a question of her boy. She won't give him up." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite right," I agreed. "Why should she give him up? Has she left +him in the Sisterhood House?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, he's lost," Jenny answered. "I don't know where he is—since this +morning. But the House has been our home for weeks. The Head Sister +took us in, and promised to save Nicky from bad people and bad ways. +He'll go back there, and——" +</P> + +<P> +"But where is he now?" I cut in, having slowed down the car. "Can't we +head him off? The child has money, I know. Where would he go and +spend his earnings?" +</P> + +<P> +"I—can't tell," she stammered. "He's always wanted me to take him to +Coney Island—to some amusement park. But——" +</P> + +<P> +"To Coney Island we'll go," I exclaimed. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +What followed was a wild adventure. I had never been to Coney Island. +But I seemed to have been born knowing that it was a place dedicated to +the people's pleasure. No doubt it was a toss-up which amusement +ground to choose. By hazard, we began with Constellation Park; and +almost at once came upon traces of Nicky. "A little dumb boy with +black eyes, all alone, with plenty of money, and a grin when asked if +he were lost?" Oh, yes, he was doing every stunt. We tracked him +through peanuts and ice cream, lions' dens and upside-down houses, to +the Maze of Mystery. +</P> + +<P> +The name was no misnomer. Hampton Court, and the Labyrinth of Crete +itself could have "nothing on it." In a bewildered procession Teano, +Jenny and I wandered through streets of mirrors, complicated groves, +walled concentric alley ways, with unexpected and disappointing outlets +until at last a pair of elf-eyes stared at me from a distant and +unreachable surface of glass. I cried out; so did Jenny and Teano, for +all of us had had the same glimpse and quickly lost it. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Nicky</I>," gasped Jenny, just behind my back. "And, oh, <I>Red Joe's got +hold of him</I>! It's all up—if we can't get between them. It's Red Joe +I stole him back from when we went into the Sisterhood." +</P> + +<P> +I looked back to console her—and she was gone. Teano, too, had +suddenly separated from us, whether accidentally or for a purpose, I +could not tell. But the maze would have put any rabbit warren to +shame. When you thought you were in one place, you found to your +astonishment that you were in another, with no visible way of getting +out. +</P> + +<P> +Then again, eyes looked at me from a mirror which might be far off or +within ten yards. There were mirrors within mirrors, dazzling and +endless vistas of mirrors. Child's eyes, mischievous as a squirrel's, +met mine, peering from between crowding forms of grown-ups. The man +Jenny had spoken of as "Red Joe" (I picked him out by a ferret face and +rust-red hair) was trying to push past a fat father of a family, to +reach the child in grey. Whether Nicky knew that he was a pawn in a +game of chess, who could tell? There was but one thing certain. He +was having "the time of his life." +</P> + +<P> +"If I could get him for Jenny, what would Jenny do for me in return?" I +asked myself. It might turn out that she could unlock the door that +had shut between me and Maida Odell. +</P> + +<P> +A desperate, a selfish desire to beat Red Joe, seized me; but now the +mirrors told, if they did not deceive, that glassy depths of distance +between us were increasing in space and mystery. Suddenly I reached a +turning-point. Nicky was straight ahead. He paused, looked, made +ready to dart away like a trout from the hook. But—inspiration ran +with my blood. +</P> + +<P> +I pulled a wad of greenbacks from my pocket and smiled. Red Joe had +flattened pater familias unmercifully, and was squeezing past. A hand, +a thief's hand if I ever saw one, caught at Nicky's collar. But he +dipped from under, slipped between a surprised German's legs, and—I +grabbed him in my arms. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +EPISODE III +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE GIRL ON THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR +</H3> + +<P> +When Teano first spoke to me of his sister, nothing was further from my +thoughts than a meeting with the telephone girl at the Priscilla Alden, +a hotel sacred to ladies. But unexpected things happen in the best +regulated lives, especially in New York, as anyone may learn by the +Sunday papers. Not many days after the gate of the Sisterhood House +shut for the second time between Maida and me, I changed my residence +from New York to a hotel about five miles from Pine Cliff. Roger Odell +and Roger's bride had gone to South America on one of those business +trips which financiers seem to take as nonchalantly as we cross a +street. His last words to me were: "You know, I rely on you to look +after Maida, as well as she can be looked after, under that brute of a +woman's thumb." +</P> + +<P> +I did the best I could; but whether my wounds or my love sickness were +to blame, the fact was that something had made me a bundle of raw +nerves. +</P> + +<P> +I slept badly, and my dreams were of some hideous thing happening to +Maida; or else of the mummy-case being stolen. In my waking hours I +chased back and forth between town and country, trying to find in New +York the "Egyptian-looking man" who had disturbed Maida's peace of +mind, and who had reasons for wishing me to forget the number of his +automobile: trying to make sure on Long Island if a connection existed +between this man and the head of the Sisterhood. +</P> + +<P> +At last I realised that I was in no fit state of nerves for a guardian. +The hotel people recommended me to a celebrated doctor practising on +Long Island; and one morning, ashamed of myself as a "molly-coddle," I +went to keep an appointment with him. Thorne was his name and he lived +in a grey-shingled house set back from the road behind a small lawn. +The place was outside the village; but since abandoning my crutch, I +had begun to take as much exercise as possible. I walked, therefore, +to the doctor's, rather than use the car presented to me by Roger. +This seems a small detail to note, but deductions following certain +events proved it to have been important. +</P> + +<P> +I was received by the keen-eyed Thorne, in his private office, and +during the catechism to which he subjected me, I thought nothing of +what went on in the outer room through which I had passed. I should +ill have earned Roger Odell's nickname ("the gilded amateur +detective"), however, if I hadn't ferreted it out afterwards and "put +two and two together." +</P> + +<P> +It was an ordinary room, with a desk at which sat a young woman who +answered the door and kept the doctor's appointments classified. I was +vaguely aware that I had interrupted her business of stamping letters, +which a boy would post. She had not finished when a few minutes later +the next patient arrived. This person gave his name as Mr. Genardius, +and confessed that he had no appointment; but his face—covered with +bandages—presented such a pitiful appearance that the girl agreed to +let him wait. "When the gentleman who's in the office now goes away," +she explained, "the doctor's hour for receiving is over. But he may +give you a few minutes." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't the gentleman an English officer, Lord John Hasle?" inquired the +would-be patient, whose face as seen under a wide-brimmed, +old-fashioned felt hat, and between linen wrappings, consisted of +deep-set black eyes, wide nostrils, and a long-lipped mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes, he is," admitted the young woman, to whom I had given my +name. "Do you know him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all," replied Mr. Genardius, who appeared to her a rather +unusual figure in his quaint hat and an equally quaint overcoat. "But +as I got out of my automobile I saw him at the gate. I recognised him +from portraits in newspapers. He was an army aviator, I believe, who +got leave on account of wounds, and came over to see a play produced." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, <I>The Key</I>—a <I>lovely</I> detective play," was the flattering +reply, as reported to me later. +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke, the young woman (Miss Murphy) gave the letters to the +boy, who went out, needing no directions. Hardly had the door shut, +when Mr. Genardius rose. "Oh, that reminds me!" he exclaimed, "I +should have wired to a friend! The doctor is sure to be engaged for +some moments. I'll step out and send my chauffeur with the telegram." +For an invalid, he walked briskly. The boy hadn't disposed of his +letters and parcels, or mounted the bicycle which leaned against the +fence, when Mr. Genardius reached the gate. Miss Murphy glanced from +the window, interested in the queer personage. She was unable to see +the motor from where she sat; but it must have been near, for the black +felt hat and the black caped coat came flapping up the garden path +again in less than five minutes. The thought flitted through Miss +Murphy's head that the bandages worn by the invalid wouldn't make a bad +disguise. Mr. Genardius returned to his chair, and selected a +newspaper. +</P> + +<P> +About this time came a telephone call, which Miss Murphy answered. And +though two days had passed before I realised the need of questioning +the young woman, she was able to recall a rustle as of tearing paper at +this moment. Her attention was occupied at the 'phone; but when +Genardius had departed, and she wished to glance at the theatrical +advertisements, she noticed that a page was gone from <I>The World</I>. Had +she not remembered the name of the paper, a link would have been +missing from the chain of evidence. As it was, I was able to deduce +that the torn page contained a news item "exclusive to <I>The World</I>." +Mr. Genardius had doubtless read some other newspaper at home, and it +had interested him that "Millionaire Roger Odell's Egyptian Present for +His Bride" was likely to reach New York that night on an Italian liner. +</P> + +<P> +How <I>The World</I> had got hold of this story remains a mystery. It had +leaked out that Roger had bought for a great sum an opal "Eye of +Horus," supposed to be the mate of a curious ornament possessed by his +adopted sister, and the only other jewel resembling it, in existence. +Grace Odell (nee Grace Callender) had admired Maida's fetish. That was +enough for Roger. He made inquiries, and learned from a firm of +jewellers that a duplicate of Miss Odell's opal had been sold years ago +by a certain Sir Anthony Annesley to the Museum of Cairo. +</P> + +<P> +How it had come into Annesley's hands was not known; and he had long +ago died. Maida had been satisfied with her fetish, and did not covet +its fellow, but Grace's chance word caused Roger to cable an agent in +Egypt, and, after bargaining, the Museum authorities had consented to +part with the treasure. This information the newspapers had obtained, +but the time and the way of the opal's arrival in America had, Roger +thought, been kept a dead secret. +</P> + +<P> +In order that jewel-thieves, ever on the alert for a prize, should not +stalk the messenger, Roger's agent had engaged the services of a +private person. A relative of his, an American girl who had acted as +stenographer in Naples, was giving up her position to return to New +York. Taking advantage of this fact, and his confidence in her, the +agent had given Miss Mary Gibson charge of the Eye of Horus. Having no +connection with any jewel firm it was believed that she might pass +unsuspected. The curio being thousands of years old, was not subject +to duty, and could, it was hoped, be placed by Miss Gibson directly in +the hands of its owner, before anyone discovered that it had been in +hers. Roger Odell had intended to meet the young woman; but his +suddenly arranged journey upset that plan, and the day before my visit +to Dr. Thorne I had received the following cable: +</P> + +<P> +"Stenographer will go straight from ship to Priscilla Alden. If ship +late, meet her there early morning after. Will be expecting you." +</P> + +<P> +Had I not come to an understanding with Roger before he sailed for Rio +Janeiro, this message would have been gibberish. But he had asked me +to take over the jewel because he hoped thus to bring me into touch +with Maida. If I could bestow the opal in Roger's bank, Miss Odell +(whose vows did not bind her to absolute seclusion) might run up to New +York and compare it with her own curio. I had caught eagerly at the +plan. Gladly would I have waited hours on the dock for Miss Gibson, +but fearing I might be suspected as his agent, if thieves were on the +watch, Roger had thought it best for the young woman not to be met. In +order to avoid attention, she was to proceed as if she had been the +insignificant stranger she was supposed to be. She was to inquire on +shipboard for an hotel in New York, taking lady guests only. The +Priscilla Alden would be mentioned, and she would send a wireless, +engaging a room. As clients of the Priscilla Alden were allowed no +male visitors after ten p.m., my call would have to depend upon the +time the ship docked. Even before Roger's cable, I had ascertained +that the <I>Reina Elenora</I> was likely to get in late, and I made up my +mind to spend the night at my own old hotel in New York. That would +enable me to present myself early next day at the Priscilla Alden. +</P> + +<P> +While I described my nightmare dreams to the doctor (keeping Maida's +name to myself), Miss Murphy left Mr. Genardius for a few moments. A +rich old lady patient drew up at the gate in an automobile and sent her +chauffeur to fetch the young woman. There was a verbal message to be +delivered, and while Miss Murphy committed it to heart, doubtless the +bandaged man listened at the keyhole. He heard enough to realise that +John Hasle was close upon the trail of Miss Odell's enemies. +</P> + +<P> +Thorne was sympathetic. He talked of nerve-shock in various forms, +from which most returning soldiers suffered. +</P> + +<P> +As he fumbled among medicine bottles he went on: "I'll prescribe you a +tonic; I keep a few things at hand here, and I can fix you up from my +stock. Some of the ingredients are rare. You couldn't get a +prescription made up nearer than New York. No, by George! there's one +thing missing from my lot! Luckily it's not one of the rare ones. Did +you come in a car? What, you walked? Well, I'll get the boy to sprint +into the village on his bike, to the pharmacy. He can be back inside +fifteen minutes. I'll write to the druggist." +</P> + +<P> +Thorne touched an electric button. No one came in response. +Impatiently the doctor flung the door open to glare at Miss Murphy. +Miss Murphy was not visible, however, and away dashed the master of the +house, leaving me in his private office to wonder at his absence. This +office being behind the outer room gave no view of the front gate, +therefore I could not see what Thorne saw. It wasn't until he appeared +that I learned why he had bolted. The boy whom he had intended to send +for the missing ingredients had been run down by a motor-car, while +bicycling to the post-office. The chauffeur had, through coincidence, +been despatched by a patient waiting for Thorne. He had taken a corner +too sharply, and knocked the boy off his bicycle, but Joey was more +frightened than hurt. He had been picked up by the chauffeur, a +foreigner, and when Thorne had looked from the window, it had been to +see the lad lifted half conscious from the returning car. At the gate +stood not only Miss Murphy, but the owner of the automobile, who had +hurried out on hearing the young woman's cry. So it was that the +waiting-room had been left empty. +</P> + +<P> +"Joey's as right as rain now, or will be when he's pulled himself +together," Thorne explained. "My new patient, whoever he is—a +stranger to me—seemed to feel worse than Joey. He gave the kid ten +dollars! It may have been as much the boy's fault as the chauffeur's. +Anyhow, I bet Joey won't complain. Your medicine will be ready as soon +as if nothing had happened, for the owner of the auto (Genardius, his +name is) offered to drive to the druggist's and back." +</P> + +<P> +It was Miss Murphy who presently handed the doctor a small, neatly +wrapped bottle. "That chauffeur brought me this," she announced. "It +seems that Joey's accident upset the invalid gentleman more than he +realised at first. He was taken faint at the pharmacy, and decided not +to consult you this morning. He'll 'phone, and ask for an appointment." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Thorne tore the wrapper off the phial, and began pouring its +colourless contents into a bottle already two-thirds full, which he had +prepared. Suddenly he stopped. "I guess I'll let that do for this +time! Take a tablespoonful when you get home, and twice more during +the day; once just before bed." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Thorne inspired me with confidence; and, as I was anxious to keep +my wits for Maida's sake, I intended to follow directions. Arriving at +my hotel, however, I found a cablegram in answer to one I'd sent +Haslemere, in London. I had demanded whence came the scandal which +darkened the life of Maida Odell. Replying, he refused details, but +deigned to admit that his informant was an American, the widow of a +naval officer, of "unimpeachable respectability." That word +"unimpeachable" was so characteristic of Haslemere that I laughed, but +the description answered closely enough to Mrs. Granville to excite me, +and I forgot the medicine. +</P> + +<P> +Later, I had remembered it once more when Teano called, bringing the +dumb child Nicky, now his adopted son. I set down the bottle and +thought no more about it, for I hoped to learn something of the man who +had frightened Maida. My hope that Nicky might turn informant seemed, +however, doomed to disappointment. It was difficult to elicit facts, +because of his dumbness; but Teano and I agreed that the imp took +advantage of his infirmity to bottle up secrets. "He's in fear of some +threat," pronounced the detective. "It's the same with his mother. +Jenny and I were married the day after you found her. She says she's +happy, and she ought to know I'm able to protect her. But she's afraid +to speak against the Sisterhood. I shouldn't wonder if they've made +her swear some oath." +</P> + +<P> +We talked long on the subject, and Teano produced a list of Egyptians +living in New York, obtained at my request. Some were rich. The +greater number appeared to be engaged in the import of tobacco and +curios, or Eastern carpets. A few were doctors; more were +fortune-tellers; while one extraordinary creature whose description +caught my fancy was a mixture of both: an exponent of ancient cults and +religions, and a qualified physician who treated nervous ailments with +hypnotism. This man gave weekly lectures on "Egyptian Wisdom applied +to Modern Civilisation," and was known as "Doctor" or "Professor" +Rameses. The name was, of course, assumed; but Teano had learned that +Dr. Rameses was more than respectable; he was estimable. Following his +religion, which claimed that each soul was a spark from the one Living +Fire, he aimed to help all mankind, and was apparently a true +philanthropist. +</P> + +<P> +When Teano spoke of returning to New York it was time for me to start. +I invited him into my car, and preparing to depart, I came upon the +forgotten medicine. Thorne had prophesied that I would prove a bad +patient; but I tried to atone by swallowing an extra large dose. The +bottle I slipped into my overcoat pocket, intending to take the stuff +again at bedtime. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop at the Priscilla Alden Hotel," I directed my chauffeur; and it +was only when Teano spoke of "Nella" that I recalled the sister +employed there. I had seen Nella's photograph at Paul's rooms, taken +with her fiancé, Maurice Morosini, and had pleased Teano with praise of +the girl's beauty. Morosini, too, was of an interesting type. I was +sorry to hear from the detective that he had been ordered to join the +colours, and would sail at dawn for Naples. +</P> + +<P> +"The worst thing is," Teano went on, as we sped toward New York, "that +those two can't even bid each other good-bye. Anywhere but at the +Priscilla Alden, Morosini might walk into the hotel, take the elevator +and go to her floor for a word." +</P> + +<P> +As Teano talked a pain behind my eyes began to run through my temples, +and into the back of my neck to the spine. +</P> + +<P> +Something queer was the matter. I was conscious that Teano was asking +alarmed questions, and that Nickey was staring. I was thankful that we +had got to New York before the attack overwhelmed me, for I must leave +the letter at the Priscilla Alden. As the motor slowed down in front +of the hotel I remember pushing Teano aside and stumbling out of the +car, the letter in my hand. I wasn't even aware of dropping the +envelope addressed to Miss Gibson. Only Nickey, peering from the +depths of the car, saw the fall, and would have darted to retrieve it, +had not a man grabbed the letter as it touched the pavement. Teano was +occupied with me, and so it seems was Maurice Morosini, who had been +wandering up and down before the hotel, in the hope that Nella might +come out. He sprang to help Paul, and there was no one for Nickey to +tell, in his queer way, by gestures and rough sketches on a slate, what +had happened. Afterward the detective did learn in this fashion that +the man who picked up the letter was a chauffeur from a car following +us, which had stopped when we stopped. But then it was too late for +the knowledge to be useful. +</P> + +<P> +Despite protests from the doorman, Teano and Morosini half carried, +half dragged me into the hotel. Once inside, they suggested that it +would be inhuman not to give me shelter; they made great play with my +name and title, and threatened reprisals if I should be turned out. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose under the circumstances we'll have to give his lordship a +room and get a doctor in," groaned the manager. "But it's against +rules. However, we'll smuggle Lord John up to the thirteenth floor, +where there's a small room vacant." +</P> + +<P> +It's an ill wind that blows nobody good, and Morosini must have praised +the saints for my illness when he found it giving him the chance he +would have bought with half a year of life. He was going to the +thirteenth floor of the sacred Priscilla Alden; and on that floor was +Nella Teano! +</P> + +<P> +One glance he threw at Paul across my head, as the two helped me out of +the lift, and then his heart bounded with great joy, for close by was +the telephone window. +</P> + +<P> +"The only room disengaged to-night is farther down the corridor," the +manager explained. "I wish we could spare this one just opposite, but +there's a lady coming into it later," and he threw a regretful glance +at a door barred by a chambermaid, her arms full of linen and towels. +She had been getting ready Number 1313 for its next occupant, but in +her surprise dropped a wad of sheets and pillow-cases. Stooping to +pick them up, a sharp word from the manager sent her flying; and +Morosini noticed that she had forgotten to take her pass-key from the +lock. +</P> + +<P> +I had revived enough to walk mechanically, like a man in a dream, +without support, so Morosini left me to the guidance of Teano and the +manager, and ran back to the lighted window which framed his adored +one. She sprang to her feet as Morosini held out his arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Maurice!" she gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"Give me a kiss to take with me—perhaps to my death," he implored. +The girl gave it, leaning over the narrow edge of her window. Nella +Teano would have dared anything rather than refuse what might be a last +request; yet the danger was great, and she started at sound of the +lift. "What <I>shall</I> we do?" she gasped. "You mustn't be seen——" +</P> + +<P> +But Morosini did not await the end of her sentence. For the girl's +sake he must hide. Besides, he hoped to snatch another moment when the +coast should be clear. With a bound he crossed the corridor, opened +the door of 1313, and shut himself in. Meanwhile the manager, +telephoning to the office from my room, had learned that the doctor he +wished to get was in the hotel, just leaving a patient. Out hurried +the manager to meet the doctor at the lift and discuss the case before +returning to my room. That room, as fate would have it, happened to be +on the other side of a narrow court, opposite 1313, the windows facing +each other. +</P> + +<P> +Poor Morosini had thought himself blessed by Heaven in his unhoped-for +chance to see Nella. He still thought the same, as he stood inside the +room across from the telephone bureau; but luck had turned. Hardly had +the door closed upon Morosini, when the chambermaid crept back to lock +number 1313, and regained the forgotten pass-key. Nella would +desperately have called the girl, making some excuse, or, if worst came +to worst, even telling her the truth. At that instant, however, the +doctor came from the lift, to station himself in front of the telephone +window. He could see the manager advancing, and so also could the +maid. In fear of meeting this awe-inspiring personage again, she +snatched the key with frenzy and fled, while Nella sat doomed to +silence. +</P> + +<P> +Morosini's first hint of trouble came with the grating of the key in +the lock. He dared not try the door at the moment, for he could hear +the voice of the manager. What could he do if Nella were unable to +open the door? If there were a ledge or cornice running under the +window, he might attempt to creep along it and find a way of descent by +a fire escape. He had switched on a light, and had seen the window, +covered with a dark blind, when a faint rattle of paper attracted his +eyes to the door. A white envelope was being slipped underneath. +Morosini seized it, and read in Nella's handwriting, "I'll try to get a +pass-key and let you out, but can't tell how or when. Turn off the +electricity. It can be seen through the transom." +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, in my room, while I lay in a half-doze on the bed, the +doctor listened to Teano's story of my sudden seizure. The medicine +bottle was found and produced, and as I had mentioned my visit to +Thorne, the detective could supply some information. The New York +doctor got into communication with the Long Island man over the 'phone, +and thus started the train which enabled us later to make valuable +deductions. The bandaged patient had doubtless tampered with the +bottle in the shelter of his automobile, and remained at the pharmacy +until the return of his chauffeur. The nature of the added ingredient +was discovered eventually by analysis; and had I taken one more of the +doses directed by Dr. Thorne, nothing could have saved my life. As it +was, the effects were temporary; and when some nauseous stuff had been +poured down my throat, increasing the heart action, consciousness of +surroundings came like the waking from a dream. Teano it was who had +run out with the hotel doctor's prescription and returned with it made +up. So great had been his haste that Nella's appeal detained him at +her window only for an instant. He had no time to give help, for my +life might depend on promptness, but he promised aid later. +</P> + +<P> +As it was, the effect of his treatment satisfied the doctor. He +stopped by my bedside till I crudely invited him to go, and let me +sleep. All I needed to restore me was a night's rest. My presence in +the hotel was not to be talked about, but the manager would look in +from time to time, and call the doctor if needed. I slept fitfully, +glad of the cool air blowing through the open window. Suddenly light +struck my eyelids. I was roused with a start, and sat up in bed. My +impression was that someone had come in and switched on the +electricity. But the room was dark, save for a radiant circle on the +wall at the foot of my bed. From a bright surface of crystal framed in +gold, a woman's face looked out. +</P> + +<P> +For a dazed second, I thought I had to do with a ghost. I realised +that what I saw was the reflection of a reflection. My narrow bed +stood with its back to the wall beside the window. Opposite the +window, and therefore facing the foot of the bed, was a round mirror in +a gilt frame. A dark blind had suddenly been thrown up, across the +narrow court, and a woman, pausing before the glass in her room, sent +into the dusk of mine her image. She was taking off her hat, looking +at herself; and there she was fantastically, at the foot of my bed, for +me to look at too. The effect was so extraordinary that it held me +fascinated, until another woman came into the room. +</P> + +<P> +When Maurice Morosini heard the sound of a key in the lock, it was +music to his ears. He believed that at last (hours had gone) Nella +found herself able to open his prison. But another second undeceived +him. A voice was saying, "One moment, madam. Let me find the electric +switch before you go in." +</P> + +<P> +All the young man's blood seemed to flow back upon his heart. The +thought in his mind was, that Nella would suffer disgrace. While a +hand groped for the switch he flung himself on the floor, and crept +under the bed. +</P> + +<P> +"My moment will come," he reflected, "when the woman falls asleep. +Then I can let myself out." +</P> + +<P> +But the occupant for whom 1313 had been reserved was in no hurry for +sleep. Morosini heard her moving about, and ventured to peep. He saw +a small woman, young and rather pretty, of what might be classified as +the "governess type." She did not undress, but seemed restless. +Fussing round the room, she shot up the green blind and opened the +window. Then she flew to the door. There had been a faint knock. +Maurice peered from his hiding-place, and saw another woman come in. +She, too, was plainly dressed, but older and with a harder, more +experienced face. +</P> + +<P> +"What <I>can</I> Nella be doing?" the trapped prisoner wondered. If she +were still at the telephone bureau she must know that 1313 now had an +occupant. Poor girl! Her misery must be equal to his. +</P> + +<P> +Nella did know. She had seen the young woman go in. When no alarm +followed, however, the girl's stopped heart beat again. But the +situation had become impossible. She seized the first chance to call +Teano. "It's too late for you to help, even if you could get in +again," she whispered into the telephone, fearing to be overheard by +some one passing. "A lady has gone into 1313 for the night. And I'm +supposed to shut my window and go off duty in half an hour. Here comes +Shannon, the night watchman, now." +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke, a woman knocked at the door of 1313. Nella listened; +soon she could hear voices speaking earnestly. Then they grew loud and +shrill. "The women are quarrelling!" she thought. "Can it have +anything to do with Maurice?" The transom snapped shut as she asked +herself the question. The speakers were afraid of being overheard. +That, at least, proved they believed themselves alone together! +</P> + +<P> +"Well, here I am. I've given you time enough to make up your mind, +haven't I, Miss Gibson?" began the new-comer. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and I have made it up," answered the younger. "I don't say +you're not acting in good faith. The note you brought to the dock +looks like Mr. Odell's handwriting. And it's just as you said it would +be. I found no letter of instructions waiting here. All the same, +Miss Parsons, I won't give up the jewel till morning, when I've made +sure the person I expected is not going to call." +</P> + +<P> +"You <I>are</I> silly!" cried the other. "Now, how <I>could</I> I have known +there <I>was</I> a jewel coming with a Miss Gibson on this ship, if I wasn't +all right?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's true," the younger woman admitted. "I don't see how you could +have known except from Mr. Odell. But I'm not taking chances! If +nobody else shows up before nine to-morrow morning, why then——" +</P> + +<P> +"I have to go west to-morrow morning," explained Miss Parsons, her +voice quivering with impatience. "I can't wait. I told you so on the +dock. You <I>must</I> give me the thing now." +</P> + +<P> +"I won't—so there!" shrilled Miss Gibson. +</P> + +<P> +The older woman stared at the obstinate young face in desperate +silence. Then she broke out fiercely, all effort at suppression over. +"I believe you want me to <I>bribe</I> you!" And she pulled from a velvet +handbag a roll of bank-notes. +</P> + +<P> +Mary Gibson drew in her breath with a gasp. "<I>Why</I>—you've got +hundreds and hundreds of dollars! I believe you're a <I>fraud</I>! You're +after me to steal the jewel. Get out of this room, you thief, or I'll +call——" +</P> + +<P> +The sentence broke off with a queer gurgle. The woman who called +herself Miss Parsons had snatched a long hatpin from the other girl's +hat on the table, and stabbed Mary Gibson through the heart. She fell +without a cry. +</P> + +<P> +This was the tragedy mirrored on my wall at the foot of my bed. I saw +the fall. I saw the murderess stoop; I saw her rise with something in +her hand—something that gleamed green and blue, like a wonderful +butterfly's wing. As I stumbled out of bed and groped for the +dressing-gown which Teano had unpacked, I saw the woman tiptoe towards +the door. Then a man's face came into the picture. +</P> + +<P> +The murderess turned and saw the face also. But instead of trying to +escape, she did a wiser thing. Wide open she flung the door and +screamed at the top of her lungs, "Help! Murder! A burglar has killed +my friend!" +</P> + +<P> +The big night watchman, who had paused on his round for a chat with +Nella, seized Morosini as the Italian sprang on the woman at the +threshold. +</P> + +<P> +"Maurice!" shrieked Nella, betraying her secret, yet caring not at all. +Her one thought was of the man she loved. "He's innocent. He came to +see <I>me</I>, not to steal, or murder." +</P> + +<P> +Morosini realised quickly how the case stood. He was lost if he could +not get free, he thought. And so it might have been, if that lighted +picture had not appeared on the wall at the crucial instant. I came +tottering around the corner in time to shout: +</P> + +<P> +"Don't let that woman go: she committed the murder. I saw it. I've +enough evidence to convict her, and the jewel she did it for is in her +hand now." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Parsons stared at me like a mad creature, flung from her the Eye +of Horus, and rushing back into the room of death, was out of the +window before we could reach her. +</P> + +<P> +Never before had the Priscilla Alden been smirched by scandal. The +managers were in despair. But the suicide from a window on the +thirteenth floor, and the story of my vision in the room opposite, +combined with the romance of Nella and Morosini, attracted new clients +instead of driving away the old. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Parsons," identified in death, proved to be an ex-convict, who +had mysteriously disappeared from the ken of the police months before. +Thanks, however, to that page of <I>The World</I>, missing from Dr. Thorne's +office, her tragedy in an attempt to steal the Egyptian Eye of Horus +carried me one step further on my own quest. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +EPISODE IV +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DEATH TRYST +</H3> + +<P> +For me, one of the strangest things in a strange world is this: the +compelling influence exerted upon our lives by people apparently +irrelevant, yet without whom the pattern of our destiny would be +different. +</P> + +<P> +Take the case of Anne Garth and her connection with Maida +Odell—through Maida Odell, with me. Of my adventures in America while +attempting to protect Maida, that in which Anne Garth played her part +was among the most curious. +</P> + +<P> +It happened while Paul Teano, the private detective, and I were trying +our hardest to bring "Doctor Rameses" to book. We were morally certain +that he was the Egyptian who had, for a mysterious reason of his own, +persecuted the girl's family, and followed her (as its last surviving +member) from Europe to New York. Unfortunately, however, a moral +certainty and a certainty which can be proved are as far from one +another as the poles. We might believe if we liked that "Doctor +Rameses," controlling the Grey Sisterhood, intended evil to the girl +who had been induced to join it: but it was "up to us" to prove the +connection. So far as the police could learn, Doctor Rameses was as +philanthropic as wise. If, as we suggested, his was the spirit guiding +more than one criminal organisation in New York, he was the cleverest +man at proving an alibi ever known to the force. If we reported his +presence in a certain place at a certain time, he was invariably able +to show that he had been somewhere else, engaged in innocent if not +useful pursuits. As for Maida, her confidence in the veiled woman at +the head of the Sisterhood was apparently unbroken. Judging from the +little I could find out, she was irritatingly happy in her work among +rescued women and children, at the lonely old house on Long Island. No +doubt there were genuine cases cared for, which made it hard to prove +anything crooked, especially to a girl so high-minded. +</P> + +<P> +She had promised to remain for a year, and I had met her too late to +change that determination. The rules of the House did not permit the +sisters (of whom there were only six) to receive the visits of men, and +though now and then I contrived to snatch a glimpse of Maida, seldom or +never since our real parting had I had word from her except by letter. +How could I be sure the letters were genuine? +</P> + +<P> +While I was in the state of mind engendered by these difficulties, +Teano rushed in one morning to say that he was off to Sing Sing. +"There may be something for us," he said, and asked me to go with him. +It seemed that the Head Sister had departed at dawn in her automobile +from the Sisterhood House (Teano had someone always watching the place +night and day, in these times), and "putting two and two together" he +deduced that she might be en route for the prison. He had learned that +a notorious woman criminal was coming out that day, after serving a +heavy sentence. She had been a member of an international band of +thieves; and if the head of the Grey Sisterhood intended to meet her, +it could hardly be a case of "rescue." +</P> + +<P> +"I know a 'con. man' whose time is up," Teano went on, "and I shall +make an excuse of meeting him if I see the lady's head turned my way. +The same excuse would do for you, my lord. 'Twon't matter putting the +woman on her guard, for if she's going to meet Diamond Doll, they'll +have met before we give 'em the chance to spot us and we'll know what +we want to know." +</P> + +<P> +I was keen on the expedition, and offered my car for it. We overtook +the Head Sister, and our hearts bounded with hope: but, though we were +able to follow in her wake all the way, our hopes were dashed by +finding that she had come to "rescue" a person of a different class +from buxom "Diamond Doll." The latter was met at the moment of release +by a virtuous looking mother; and the tall grey form of the Head Sister +advanced toward a small, shabby young woman who might have been a +teacher in a Sunday-school. +</P> + +<P> +The latter, unless she were a good actress, could hardly have feigned +the start of astonishment with which she received the veiled lady's +greeting. She had been glancing about as if she expected someone but +that one was not the head of the Grey Sisterhood. She listened with +reserve for a moment, then brightened visibly. She had rather a tragic +face, as if she were born for suffering, and could not escape. +Evidently, so far, she had not escaped; but she was young, not more +than twenty-eight. Her oval face was pale with prison paleness, and +there were shadows under the deep-set grey eyes which held no light of +hope. +</P> + +<P> +Why should the Head Sister single this girl out? If her object were +charitable, there were other women being released who needed +encouragement; yet it was to this one alone that help was offered. +</P> + +<P> +As the veiled lady explained herself with the dignity of manner which +had won Maida Odell's admiration, a young man joined the two, with an +apologetic air. He had to be introduced to the Head Sister, and as he +pulled off his cap I recognised a vague likeness between him and the +girl. +</P> + +<P> +His decent, ready-made clothes were of the country, and proclaimed +themselves "Sunday best." His sunburnt complexion was of the country, +and his shy, yet frank manners were of the country too. +</P> + +<P> +The new-comer was out of breath, and apparently had hurried to make up +time lost. He kissed the girl; and presently, without seeming to +notice us, the Head Sister walked away with the two. She was +favourably known to the prison authorities for her "kindness" in +finding work for discharged women prisoners, and for her offers of +shelter in the Sisterhood House till work could be found. If we had +attempted to give warning against her, we should have been laughed at +for our pains, and there was nothing we could do but play watchdog. +</P> + +<P> +This we did, making ourselves inconspicuous, but not resorting to the +pretext Teano had suggested. We let the "con. man" go off to face the +world without a salutation, and devoted our attention to the friends of +the Head Sister. It was only the girl who went with her in the closed +automobile. The man bade them good-bye, but not with an air of sorrow. +He looked grave as he set off for Ossining station, but satisfied +rather than sad. Plainly it pleased him to think that the young woman +had a powerful protector. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" I asked, when Teano and I had let the strapping figure stride +out of sight: for the detective had been trying to unearth some memory +of the girl's features. "Have you got her dug up?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, milord," said the Italian, grinning at my way of putting it. +"She'll be no use to the grey dame in any shady job. They say I have +'camera eyes.' When I see a face—or even a photograph—I don't +forget. Anne Garth is the girl's name. She was not bad at heart." +</P> + +<P> +"She doesn't look it," I said. "She'd be beautiful if she were +fattened up and happy." +</P> + +<P> +On our way back to Long Island Teano told me Anne Garth's story. She +was a country girl, ambitious to become a nurse. Somehow she had +worked her way up with credit in a New York hospital. There she had +fallen in love with one of the younger doctors; and when his engagement +to another woman was announced, she had waited for him outside the +hospital one day, and shot him. The wound was not serious, but Anne +Garth had spent two years in Sing Sing to pay for the luxury of +inflicting it. +</P> + +<P> +"Doran the doctor's name was," Teano remembered. "Not much doubt he +flirted with the girl and made her believe he would marry her. She +might have got off with a lighter sentence, but she wouldn't show +regret. The jury thought her hard. She doesn't look hard to me, +though! I expect the fellow we saw was the brother—her only relative, +I recall the papers saying. Let me think! Didn't he have some job in +the mountains? Something queer—something not usual! I can't bring it +to mind. But it doesn't matter." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose not," I agreed. "Did Doran marry the other girl?" +</P> + +<P> +Teano shook his head. "No," he said. "After what happened, she was +afraid to trust him, or else—but there's no use guessing!" +</P> + +<P> +I agreed again. Neither was there much use in "guessing" the Head +Sister's object in taking Anne Garth into the Sisterhood House; but +there might be more use in trying to find out. During the weeks that +followed I did try, with Teano's help, but succeeded only in learning +that Miss Garth was employed as a nurse. She was seen in the garden by +Teano's watchers, wearing a nurse's dress, but she did not appear +outside the gates. +</P> + +<P> +A month later, I happened to hear talk of a fancy dress ball in honour +of an Egyptian prince visiting America. He was a relative of the +ex-Khedive, and being a handsome man with romantic eyes, was being made +much of by more than one hostess. The ball was to be given by Mrs. +Gorst, a rich "climber," a lady who was, I heard from Teano, one of the +hypnotist Rameses' devoted patients. She lived in the fashionable new +Dominion Hotel, where the ball would take place. Her guests would +dance, newspapers announced, in the "magnificent Arabian room, so +congenial in its Eastern decorations to the taste of the principal +guest, Prince Murad Ali." +</P> + +<P> +It occurred to me that Dr. Rameses was certain to be one of these +guests. I did not know Mrs. Gorst, but I knew some of her friends, and +to get an invitation was "easy as falling off a log." As it was only a +fancy dress affair, and no masks were to be worn, if Rameses were +present I ought to recognise him. I hoped to make sure whether he was +or was not the man with the scar, who had frightened Maida Odell at the +theatre on the night when I met, fell in love, and—lost her. Since +that night I had discovered Doctor Rameses' existence and had seen him +more than once, but without the clue of the scar it was impossible to +identify a man seen for a few seconds only. If Rameses' throat bore +the mark, there could no longer be room for doubt, and I determined to +lay hands on him if necessary. +</P> + +<P> +How I was to manage this, I didn't see: but that was a detail. I +secured the card, and 'phoned to my old hotel in New York for a room. +If I had dined there, everything that followed would have been +different, but I went with the man who had got me invited (a friend of +Odell's) to dine at his club. There I stopped till it was time to go +back and rig myself up as a Knight Templar: and taking my key from one +of the clerks I was told that a young lady had called. +</P> + +<P> +"A young lady?" I echoed. My thoughts created a white and gold vision +of Maida, but the clerk's next words broke it like a bubble. +</P> + +<P> +"She was dressed as a nurse," he explained. "She wouldn't give her +name; said you'd not know it—but she mentioned that she'd called first +at your Long Island hotel. When she told them there that her errand +was urgent they consented to give this address." +</P> + +<P> +"The errand was urgent!" I felt my blood leap. After all, the vision +might not have been so far-fetched. What if this woman were the nurse +from Sisterhood House—Anne Garth, whom I had seen come out of +prison—Anne Garth with a message for me from Maida? +</P> + +<P> +"What did you tell her?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," the clerk hedged, "she seemed anxious to know where she could +find you—insisted it was a matter of life and death, so I suggested +you might be at Mrs. Gorst's ball for that Egyptian Prince." +</P> + +<P> +My first impulse was of anger. The man was a fool, not to have known +that I must come back to dress! But in a flash I realised that if he +hadn't known, it was my fault. I had left no word when I went out at a +quarter to eight. +</P> + +<P> +"I may see or hear from her later," I said, holding out a hand for my +key. With it, the clerk gave me an envelope—one of the hotel +envelopes, sealed and containing a thing which felt like a small +account book. It was addressed in pencil, evidently in haste. Inside +the flap I caught sight of something else hurriedly pencilled, luckily +discovering it as I tore the envelope, to extract a black-covered +note-book. "I was going to write a letter," I read, "but I fear I'm +watched. This is the best I can do, unless they let me in at the ball." +</P> + +<P> +There was no signature, not even an initial. +</P> + +<P> +I went up to my room, and opened the book under the light of a +reading-lamp. Its contents suggested a diary, with a number of +disjointed notes dashed down in pencil (the same handwriting as that +inside the envelope) with many blank spaces. +</P> + +<P> +"I never hoped for anything like this," were the only words on the +first page, under the vague date, "Wednesday." On the next page was +jotted: "It's like heaven after hell, and <I>she</I> is an angel. I never +saw anyone so beautiful or sweet. Would she be as kind if she <I>knew</I>?" +</P> + +<P> +"This must mean Maida," my heart said. Certainly it could not refer to +the Head Sister! But, after all, how did I <I>know</I> that the "woman +dressed like a nurse" was Anne Garth? So far, I merely surmised. +Eagerly I turned over the leaves. Often the writer spoke of herself, +or of things that had no special meaning for me. Then came a note +which held my eyes. "I've confessed to <I>her</I> the truth. She says I +was more sinned against than sinning. Heaven bless her! She has +confided in me what is making her ill. The poor child suffers! I +never heard of one as sane as she, having illusions. I suppose they +<I>are</I> illusions. She can have no enemies." +</P> + +<P> +Again, on the next page: "She has told me her history. What a strange +one! She <I>has</I> enemies. But none of them can have got in here? I'm +glad she has a love story. I pray it may have a happier end than mine." +</P> + +<P> +A few blank leaves, and then: "There's a room with a locked door over +hers. Nobody sleeps in it. I wonder why they keep it locked? I +suppose it's a coincidence. If they wished her harm why should they +send for a nurse to take care of her, when she isn't ill, except for +dreams.... A beautiful thing she said last night. 'I should die of +horror if I didn't make <I>his</I> face come between me and the wicked face. +His love saves me.' I envy her the <I>saving</I> love! Through mine I was +lost. I wish I were allowed to sleep in her room. <I>She</I> wouldn't ask, +because she thought it cowardly, but I did, and was refused. I'm +needed at night for the children's room." +</P> + +<P> +Further on, after more blanks: "It's against the rules for men to come +here, but I saw a man going upstairs—or a ghost. They say there <I>are</I> +ghosts in this house. A woman told me that the room over my sweet +girl's is haunted. That's why it's locked. I wonder if the man-ghost +was going to it? I wish it hadn't been dark in the hall, so I could +have seen what he was like. He seemed a tall moving shadow." +</P> + +<P> +Later: "I hope there's nothing wrong with <I>my</I> head! I was going to +the room of our H.S. for orders. I thought the message was for me to +tap at her door at nine o'clock, but before I had time to knock she +came out and met me. She shut the door as she asked what I wanted—the +first time she's spoken sharply! But I caught one glimpse of the room +inside. Opposite the door, there's a picture of the desert by +moonlight, and the Sphinx. It's in a carved black frame, set in the +middle of a bookcase. The frame is part of the bookcase. But as I +looked into the room this time—I didn't mean to look or spy—the +picture of the Sphinx <I>wasn't there</I>. It seemed to have opened out +like a door of a cabinet, and behind it was a white space with names +and dates written in red. On top was a sign like an eye, and +underneath I thought I saw the words, 'I watch, I wait.' Then came the +dates. I can't be sure what they were, but I think the first was 1865. +There was a General and a Captain, and a Madeleine or Margaret, all of +the same name, which I <I>think</I> was Annesley. Anyhow, there were three +dates and four names, and opposite the fourth name—that of my +beautiful girl—was a question mark. A black line had been drawn +through the other names as if they were done with, but there was no +line through hers. +</P> + +<P> +"It's queer how quickly one sees things—all in a flash. I'd only time +to draw in my breath before the door of the room was closed, yet I kept +the impression, as one goes on seeing the sun with one's eyes shut. +Now, <I>could</I> I have imagined the whole thing? I <I>did</I> imagine things +at night in my cell, but I <I>knew</I> they weren't there. They never +seemed as real as this." +</P> + +<P> +These notes, hastily pencilled, covered several of the blue-lined +pages. There were more blanks; and then, in a shaky hand was written: +"I'm frightened. I caught H.S. dropping something from a tiny bottle +into the glass of milk on the tray I was getting ready to take +upstairs. I'd turned my back to fetch a bunch of violets H.S. had +brought in for me to put with the breakfast. I don't know if she knew +I caught her, but she said she put phosferine for a tonic into the milk +twice a week, and asked if I approved. Perhaps I oughtn't to say I +'<I>caught</I>' her. Perhaps it's all right. But if we had a cat in the +house I'd have tried to make it drink the milk. I tasted it, and there +was a faint bitter tang, yet phosferine would give that. I dared not +drink more, because if anything were wrong, and I were ill or died, I +couldn't protect <I>her</I>. But I poured out the milk and got fresh, in +another glass, when I was sure H.S. was back in her study with the door +shut. This can't go on. If anything is wrong, I mayn't be able to +save <I>her</I>. And the fear is getting on my nerves. Yet I can't bear to +give the poor child a warning. She has enough to worry about. All day +this horrid thought has been in my head. Was <I>I</I> chosen because if +<I>she</I> died, I could be blamed—a prison bird, with a black heart too +full of evil to be reclaimed by kindness? If my darling girl will give +me the name of the man who loves her and where he is, I'll make some +excuse to get a day off—perhaps to meet my brother Larry—and tell her +lover what has been going on." +</P> + +<P> +This was the last entry in the book, and it gave me the certainty for +which I groped. The nurse must have come from the Sisterhood House and +from Maida; and—Maida cared for me more than I had made her confess. +</P> + +<P> +I could hardly wait to get to the ball. My first object in going was +forgotten in anxiety to find Anne Garth, to hear all she'd meant to +tell me when she called, and missed me. It was still important—more +than ever important, perhaps—to identify Dr. Rameses as a conspirator +against Maida; but I could no longer concentrate my thoughts upon him. +My fear was that Anne Garth might not have been admitted, lacking the +card of invitation which every guest was asked to bring. But I judged +that she would not give up easily. If her costume (which she might +make pass as fancy dress) and her determination did not get her into +the ballroom, I believed that she would think of some other plan. +</P> + +<P> +Though the Dominion Hotel is new, its Arabian room is famous. It might +be called "Aladdin's Cave," so gorgeous are its glimmering gold walls, +and the stage jewels which star the ceiling and the gilded carvings of +its boxes. Even its drapery is of gold tissue, embroidered with +jewelled peacock feathers: its polished floor gleams like gold, +reflecting thousands of golden lights, and its gold-framed +panel-mirrors repeat again and again a golden vision. I was an early +arrival, but there were many before me, because Prince Murad Ali had a +reputation for un-oriental promptness, and lovers of pageants wished to +see his entrance with his suite. If Doctor Rameses were present among +the gorgeous groups scattered like bouquets about the ballroom, my most +searching glances failed to pick him out. I had no intention of giving +up the quest, however; and wishing to be independent I tried to evade +my hostess's offer of pretty partners who "danced like angels." +Unfortunately, as I thought, fortunately as it turned out, the lady +conquered. I evaded a "Fox trot" on the plea that my wounded leg was +too stiff: but I could not refuse to sit out with a countrywoman of +mine, just over from England, who had "come to look on." We had known +each other slightly at home, and I was obliged to sit through a dance +telling Lady Mary Proudfit who people were. +</P> + +<P> +"At least," I tried to console myself, "if Anne Garth or that brute +Rameses comes along, I can see them." +</P> + +<P> +But the crowd increased, and with many dancers on the floor it was +difficult to distinguish faces. The Prince and his attendants arrived, +magnificent as figures incarnated from the "Arabian Nights"; and the +entrance of the principal guest was the signal for a charming surprise. +From hidden apertures in the carved ceiling, rose petals—pink and +white and golden yellow—began to flutter down, light as snowflakes. +The great room was perfumed with attar of roses, and silver ribbon +confetti, glittering like innumerable strands of spun glass, descended +on the laughing dancers. My companion and I were lassoed by the fairy +ropes, and looking up I was struck on the cheek with a rose thrown from +a box. +</P> + +<P> +The flower was thrown, not accidentally dropped. It came from a +distance, aimed by a woman dressed as a nurse. She was sitting in a +chair drawn close to the front of her box—a box in the second tier, +close to the musicians' gallery—and was leaning on the ledge in order +to take good aim. Behind her stood a tall man in chain armour, his +visor so nearly covering his face as practically to mask it. He was +bending over the nurse, as if to see where her rose fell. +</P> + +<P> +Before I could grasp the flower it had fallen to the ground, and I had +to stoop to pick it up. I was rude enough to have forgotten Lady +Mary's existence until—as I was unwinding the thread which bound a +thin bit of paper to the stem—she exclaimed, "A melodrama, Lord John! +The jealous husband's on your track. Be careful, or he'll see that +note—no, he's gone from behind her now. Perhaps he's coming down to +you." +</P> + +<P> +"Forgive me, Lady Mary," I said, "but this is serious. Not a love +affair, I assure you, but it may be a vital matter. I must go to that +box. I——" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't mind me!" She took the cue, and changed her teasing tone to +friendly common sense. "Here comes a man I know. He'll look after me. +Go along! Why, how odd! Your friend who threw the rose is pretending +to be asleep—or she's fainted!" +</P> + +<P> +I glanced up from the note I had been reading while my companion +talked. The nurse still leant on the broad ledge with its golden +fringe, but she had laid her head on her arm. Her face I could not see. +</P> + +<P> +I did not wait to make sure that Lady Mary had secured her friend in +need: but semi-consciously I heard their greetings as I turned away. +The entrance to the boxes was outside the ballroom, and there might +have been some delay in identifying the one I wanted, but for the note +attached to the rose. Anne Garth bade me come quickly to Box 18, as +she feared she had been followed. "I have a letter for you from +<I>her</I>," was added as a further inducement. +</P> + +<P> +On the door of each box was a number. I knew 18 was in the second +tier, and hurried up the narrow stairway which led to that row, almost +rudely pushing past a Harlequin and Columbine who were coming down. +Apart from them I had the stairs and corridor to myself. If the man in +chain armour had altogether deserted Box 18, he had made haste to +disappear—a fact so disquieting that I regretted not having smuggled +Teano into the hotel to help. Being alone, I had to obey orders and go +at once to the box, although I saw that keeping track of the man was +equally important. +</P> + +<P> +I knocked, and when no answer followed, opened the door of Number 18. +The nurse sat in the same position which Lady Mary had remarked, +bending forward from her chair across to the broad ledge and leaning +her whole weight on it, her head on her arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Garth?" I said, knowing now for certain it was she, as in looking +up I had recognised the face seen outside Sing Sing prison. How she +had recognised me would have been a puzzle, had I not conceitedly +deduced that Maida had annexed a photograph given by me to Roger. But +it was not important to solve this puzzle. "Miss Garth?" I repeated, +raising my voice over the music. +</P> + +<P> +No reply: and a prickling cold as the touch of icicles shivered through +my veins as I laid a hand on the grey-clad arm. It was responseless +like her lips, and sick at heart I raised the limp figure in the chair. +The head in its long veil and close-fitting bonnet lolled aside, and +there was no consciousness in the half-open eyes. The girl had fallen +into a dead faint, or—she had been murdered, I could guess by whom. +But selfishly, my first thought was not for her. It was for the +promised letter, and in her lap half concealed by the folds of her grey +cloak—I found it: a blank envelope, unsealed, but evidently containing +a sheet or two of paper. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God it's not been stolen!" I muttered, and pocketing the +envelope turned my thoughts to the thing which must next be done. +</P> + +<P> +No wound was visible, not even a drop of blood to cover a pinprick: but +I could feel no beating of the heart; and the swift vanishing of the +man in chain armour was ominous. I realised that, if the girl had died +by violence, I might come under suspicion, unless I could quickly prove +innocence. Needing my liberty in order to protect Maida, I could run +no risk of losing it, and I realised that with Lady Mary Proudfit lay +my best hope. There wasn't a minute to waste; and without a glance at +the letter I was dying to read, I peered through the sparkling of +ribbon confetti and rose petals. What a mockery the brilliance was, +and the gay ragtime melody in the musicians' gallery next door! Yet +the bright veil had its uses. It was like a screen of shattered +crystal hiding the tragedy in Box 18. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Mary, as I hoped, sat where I'd left her. I beckoned. Surprised, +but evidently pleased, she spoke to her companion, a British financier +on government business in New York. Instantly they began to thread +their way through the crowd, and less than five minutes brought them to +the box. +</P> + +<P> +"This lady had important news for me," I explained, "news of a dear +friend she has been nursing. It was as important for others that the +news shouldn't reach my ears. I fear there's been foul play, and I +want a doctor. Everything must be done quietly—and the girl can't be +left alone. But the police must be called, if she turns out to be +dead, and——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I can bear witness that her head dropped suddenly on her arm, +while that man in chain armour bent over her—before you even left me. +He was in fearful haste to get away!" Lady Mary interrupted. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, what's this!" exclaimed the financial magnate, Sir Felix +Gottschild, stooping to drag from under a chair, pushed against the +wall, a peculiar bundle. "Here is chain armour—a whole suit, rolled +up and tucked under the chair! By Jove, it tells a tale—what? You'll +be all right, whatever happens, Lord John. We'll stop till you get +back." +</P> + +<P> +I waited for no more, but went down to inform one of the men keeping +the ballroom door what had happened. The police and a doctor were +'phoned for, and arrived with almost magical promptness. The gold +tissue curtains were quietly drawn across Box 18 while two "plain +clothes" men took note of what Lady Mary Proudfit and I had to tell, +and the doctor probed the mystery of Anne Garth's condition. He was +soon able to pronounce her dead, but it was not till later that he +discovered the prick of a hypodermic syringe at the base of the brain. +The girl had been killed as sick dogs are suppressed with an injection +of strychnine. Pre-occupied as I was with my own affairs, I could not +help remarking the doctor's emotion. He was a young man, and at the +time I credited him with unusual sensitiveness and sympathy: but when I +learned that his name was Doran I was less sure that he deserved +credit. Poetic justice had gone out of its way to avenge Anne Garth by +ordering this coincidence. +</P> + +<P> +I told what I knew of the girl, beginning with the day I saw her leave +Sing Sing prison with the directress of the Grey Sisterhood, and going +on to the episode of the note dropped, weighted with a rose. I had +reason to emphasise Anne Garth's connection with the Sisterhood, hoping +to fasten suspicion upon it, and secure aid more powerful than +mine—that of the police—for Maida. I described the tall Harlequin +who had passed me in the corridor as I hurried toward Box 18, and urged +my theory that the murderer of Anne Garth had worn this disguise under +his chain armour. With the help of a confederate (the Columbine) +waiting in an adjoining box, he could have made the change, and so +escaped without drawing attention. I did not hesitate to suggest, +also, that the man was Doctor Rameses, the hypnotist: but the police of +New York had come to consider me mad on the subject of Rameses and the +Grey Sisterhood. I was assured that enquiries would be made: and they +were made. It was ascertained that Doctor Rameses had accepted Mrs. +Gorst's invitation, but at the last moment had telegraphed that an +attack of "grippe" had laid him low. Another alibi as usual! It was +proved (to the satisfaction of the police) that he had not left his +house that night. The disjointed diary of Anne Garth contained no +names, and was not even an accusation, still less a proof of evil +intent on the part of any member of the Grey Sisterhood. +</P> + +<P> +I heard early next day that the police had duly, if discreetly, visited +Pine Cliff, and learned that all was "above board." Anne Garth had +been impudent, and careless about her duties. She had been discharged +some days before the ball, her principal patient having gone away on a +visit, in order to "get rid of the nurse without a fuss." Some gossip +in the house must have turned the woman's thoughts to Lord John Hasle, +and she had seen a way of embarrassing the ladies of the Sisterhood. +As for the murder, a theory was suggested by a bundle of love letters +found among Anne Garth's effects, forgotten when she departed. From +these it appeared that she had been in the habit of meeting a man who +signed himself "Dick," whenever she was given a day off from her duties +at Sisterhood House. The last letters threatened reprisals if she +persisted in seeing a certain "Tom," otherwise unnamed. +</P> + +<P> +As for the Harlequin and Columbine, they were as impossible to trace as +ghosts. No one could be discovered who had seen them enter the +ballroom or leave it. Had it not been for Lady Mary Proudfit's +testimony, I might have floundered into serious difficulties, in spite +of the chain armour. Thanks to her (and perhaps a little to my own +position) I was free to come and go; which was well, because Anne Garth +had left me a tryst to keep for the following night. +</P> + +<P> +The one fact I hid was the existence of the letter found by me in the +dead girl's lap. It was typed, and unsigned: but Anne Garth's journal +proved to me, if not to the police, that she was loyal; and the note +tied to the rose promised a letter from Maida. "From <I>her</I>," the nurse +had written, expecting me to understand, and I had understood. I had +also believed, because I could see no reason why Anne Garth, risking +much to deliver the message, should deceive me. The man in chain +armour had had too great a need for haste to seek a letter, nor had he +reason to suspect the existence of one. His object, if I read it +right, was to prevent Anne Garth from telling her story. +</P> + +<P> +The note so fortunately hidden under the nurse's cloak was not in +Maida's writing, but had been neatly typed. It was not the first time, +however, that I had received typed letters from her. Sometimes I had +doubted their genuineness, but one of them explained that she had +learned to use a typewriter, to help the Head Sister with charitable +correspondence. After that I had felt more at ease about those clearly +typed communications. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"My dear Friend," the letter began (Maida never gave me a warmer +title), "I've been ill with grippe, which is an epidemic here. Now I'm +better, but so weak that I long for tonic air, and it has been decided +to send me up to the Crescent Mountain Inn. I'm looking forward to the +change after my hard work and illness. But how glorious it would be if +you could come to see me! I hope to start the day after you receive +this. If I can get off then, I shall arrive at the Crescent Mountain +railway station in the train which reaches there at nine-fifteen. I +don't know what time the train that connects with it leaves New York, +but you can find out—if you care to! At the station a team of dogs +with a driver who serves the Inn (his name is Garth) meets the train if +ordered. As my departure is a little uncertain, because I'm not +strong, no telegram has been sent so far, and the team is free for +anyone who wishes to engage it. If you <I>should</I> do so, and I should +happen to be in the train, I'm sure you wouldn't mind having me for an +extra passenger! I've spoken only to one person about my brilliant +idea of our meeting. Yours ever, M." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Nobody who reads this can wonder that I didn't show it to the police, +or that I was ready to believe the letter genuine. Despite the gloom +cast upon me by the death of Maida's messenger, despite my annoyance +with the police, I was selfishly happy. I saw that I was in great luck +to have got out of a tangle which might have enmeshed me in bonds of +red tape; and it goes without saying that I telegraphed the Crescent +Mountain Inn, ordering a room, and Larry Garth the dog-driver to meet +me with his team. +</P> + +<P> +I remembered Teano's mentioning that Anne Garth's brother lived in the +mountains; and I 'phoned him to ask if the man were employed by the +Crescent Mountain Inn. The answer was, "Yes, he drives their +dog-team"; and I was the more firmly convinced that Maida and Anne +Garth had concocted the typewritten letter together. +</P> + +<P> +In deducing this, I belittled the Enemy's intelligence. But one lives +and learns. Or, one dies and learns. +</P> + +<P> +The Crescent Mountain Inn—as most people know—is one of the most +famous winter resorts in America. It is also an autumn and spring +resort for those who love winter sports, for snow falls early at that +great height, and rests late. Its comparative accessibility from New +York adds to the charm, and the sledge with a team of Alaskan dogs +(instead of an ordinary sleigh drawn by mere horses) was an inspiration +on the part of the landlord. +</P> + +<P> +I told no one but Teano of my intention. He, oppressively prudent +where I was concerned, wished to accompany me "in case of queer +business," but I discouraged this idea without hurting his feelings. +If there were hope of an "accidental" meeting with Maida in the train, +I didn't want even a companion. +</P> + +<P> +To my disappointment, I searched the train from end to end without +finding her. But enquiring of the conductor, I learned that the +morning train was preferred by ladies. Perhaps—I thought—she had +already got off, in which case Garth might bring a note to the Crescent +Mountain station. I hoped for Maida's sake it might be so, because if +she'd started early she would not have heard of her messenger's fate, +and I could break the news to her gently. As for the dead girl's +brother, it seemed improbable that he would be informed by telegram. +The pair were said by Teano to be alone in the world; and as Garth's +evidence wouldn't be needed—anyhow for days to come—in the affair of +Anne's murder, he would not be sent for post-haste. +</P> + +<P> +Again I underrated the intelligence of the Enemy. +</P> + +<P> +The train arrived on time at the little mountain station built for +clients of the famous Inn. As it was still early in the season (it is +only for Christmas that crowds begin going up), I wasn't surprised to +find myself alone on the platform. The mountain train (into which I'd +changed long ago from the train starting from New York) went no further +that night. Snow-covered shoulders and peaks glistened dimly in +half-veiled starlight, and I was glad to hear the jingle of bells. A +big sledge, capable of carrying several passengers and a little light +luggage, was in waiting with a fine team of impatient dogs: but the +driver who touched his fur cap with a mittened hand was not the +honest-faced country man who had met the released prisoner at Sing Sing. +</P> + +<P> +"You're not Garth!" I exclaimed, when he asked if I were Lord John +Hasle, and had been answered affirmatively. +</P> + +<P> +The dim yellow light from the little station building shone into his +face, and I thought it changed as if with chagrin. It was not as +pleasant a face as the one I remembered. In fact, it was not pleasant +at all. The eyes were brave enough, or anyhow bold; but the nose was +big and red as if the fellow warmed his chilled blood generously with +alcohol. He was older than Anne Garth's brother. The heavy features +framed in fur ear-laps might have belonged to a man of forty. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, I'm Garth," he assured me, in a voice roughened by the same +agent which had empurpled his nose. +</P> + +<P> +"You're not the Garth I've seen," I persisted. +</P> + +<P> +"That may be," he admitted. "We're brothers. I'm a bit older than +Larry. He had to go to New York. Between the two of us, we do the +driving for the Crescent Inn." +</P> + +<P> +This explanation was good enough, if Teano was wrong about the family. +"Have you a note for me?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No note," was the reply. "But you're expected at the Inn all right." +</P> + +<P> +"They have other guests by this time, I suppose?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, a few. The last that came's a young lady. I took her up from +the afternoon train." +</P> + +<P> +This was what I had wanted to find out. My instinctive dislike of the +ugly-faced chap vanished. I felt almost fond of him. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's get on," I said. +</P> + +<P> +Another man had been looking after his dogs, a man also coated and +capped in fur—a big chap whose face I could not see, as he didn't +trouble to salute or look my way before climbing into his seat beside +the driver's place. The suitcase I'd brought from New York was +disposed of: I tucked myself into the strong-smelling rugs of rough +black fur, and the dogs flashed away like a lightning streak, their +forms racing with shadow ghosts on the blue whiteness of starlit snow. +Soon we came to a cross track, marked with a sign-post. A red lantern +on the top seemed to drip blood over the words "Crescent Mountain Inn. +Winter Sports." +</P> + +<P> +To my surprise, though the dogs made as if to swerve leftward and dash +up this beaten white way, the driver swore, and with his long whip +forced them straight ahead. +</P> + +<P> +"We take the short cut. 'Tisn't everyone who knows it," he deigned to +fling over his shoulder at me. +</P> + +<P> +I made no comment, and we sped along, until abruptly the dogs balked as +at something unseen. With oaths and savage lashings they were goaded +on through deep, new-fallen snow. The leaders yelped but obeyed. +Then, suddenly, the driver flung reins and whip full in my face. The +unlooked-for blow dazed me for a second as it was meant to do: but, as +in one of those photographic dreams which come between sleeping and +waking, I saw the two fur-coated figures in the front seat spring from +the sledge into snow drifts. I tried to follow suit, too late, for +down slid the team over the brim of a chasm dark as a cauldron, and +dragged the sledge in their wake. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> +<P> +Teano, it seems, though too polite to say so, did not like my mountain +expedition. As he was not allowed to join me, he decided that the next +best thing was to watch my interests in New York. He and his wife +Jenny (who had an exaggerated sense of gratitude for me) discussed, +according to their habit, what they would have done and what they would +do were they in the "Enemy's" place. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell you how <I>I'd</I> have acted to begin with!" said Jenny, who +knew too well the ways of the underworld; "I'd have had a letter ready +to leave for Lord John on that poor dead girl's lap—a letter supposed +to be from Miss Odell. Typing's easier than forging! Then, if I +<I>found</I> a letter there I'd take it away and leave mine. Supposing +<I>they</I> did that? They could get Lord John to go alone to that mountain +place he told you about, and they could have him put out of the way, so +he'd never bother them again as he's always doing. They could bring +him to his death and make it seem an accident—they're so smart! +Suppose, for instance, they telegraphed that brother of Anne Garth's, +and told him his sister was murdered; why, he'd catch the morning train +for New York. The Inn folks would be in a fix, and grab anyone who +came along, and knew how to drive dogs." +</P> + +<P> +Teano had reason to respect Jenny's suggestions, and he thought enough +of this one to meet a train connecting with that which left Crescent +Mountain station in the afternoon. My train had been gone only a short +time, but—it had gone irrevocably. +</P> + +<P> +Jenny's forebodings were justified. Teano recognised Larry Garth and +accosted him, mentioning his own name and profession. Garth asked if +he had sent the telegram received that morning, and produced it from +his pocket. This told Teano, as the message was unsigned, that no +member of the police had wired. He explained to Garth the +circumstances of Anne's death, giving extra details which he had +ferreted out that day: the fact that the girl had asked to see young +Mr. Gorst (our hostess's son) privately, and begged to be allowed to +sit in a box, because she had a "very important appointment with Lord +John Hasle, and a letter to give him from a lady." It seemed certain, +therefore, that her desire to see me had been genuine. Teano told +Garth something of our suspicions, confessing however that nothing was +proved. Still, he impressed the young man so forcibly that Garth gave +up trying to see his sister's body, and instead was persuaded to return +at once to Crescent Mountain. +</P> + +<P> +There was no other train that day; but Teano, believing that my life +might be at stake, drew some of his savings out of the bank and paid +for a special. It reached its destination not ten minutes after the +9.15, but had to stop at a distance, owing to the presence of the +latter on the track. By that time both train and station were +deserted, but Garth quickly discovered the fresh traces of his dogs and +sledge in the snow. He and Teano, armed with an electric torch, +started on the trail. Reaching the cross road, Garth pointed to the +tracks which led away instead of towards the hotel. In the dull red +light of the lantern above, the two men looked into each other's eyes; +and snow, falling anew, was like pink-edged feathers in the crimson +glow. If evil deeds were doing, this new snowfall would help the +doers, for soon their footsteps would be blotted out of sight, and all +hope of tracing them might be lost for ever. +</P> + +<P> +For the moment the only tracks to be seen were those of the team and +the sledge-runners. Garth and Teano followed. Not far on a difference +in level in the white blanket of the earth indicated a seldom-used road +to a mountain farm. But the sledge had not taken that turn. It had +dashed straight on. +</P> + +<P> +"Good heavens!" stammered Garth. "That way leads nowhere—except to a +precipice. They call it 'The Lovers' Leap'!" +</P> + +<P> +The two hurried along, stumbling often, a strong cold wind blowing +particles of snow almost as hard as ice into their faces. The glass +bulb of the small electric lantern was misted over. Teano was obliged +constantly to wipe it clear. Suddenly Garth seized him by the arm. +"My God, stop!" he cried. "We're on the edge. The sledge has gone +over here. Two men have jumped clear—one each side the sleigh. Oh, +my poor dogs!" +</P> + +<P> +It was of me Teano thought. Clearing his lantern he examined the holes +where the men had jumped, so near the verge of a great gulf that they +had had to throw themselves violently back in the snow to keep from +falling over. His trained eye detected delicate markings in the snow +which proved that both men had worn coats of stiff fur. Also their +boots had been large and heavy. Teano knew that I had had no fur coat +when I started, and that my boots had not been made for mountain wear. +</P> + +<P> +"These two chaps were confederates," he announced confidently to Garth. +"They knew when to save themselves, and Lord John has gone down with +the sledge and the team." +</P> + +<P> +Garth blurted out an oath, swearing vengeance for his dogs rather than +for me, but Teano's face of despair struck him with pity. +</P> + +<P> +"There's hope yet," he said, "if your lord guessed at the end what was +up and had the wit to chuck himself out. Thirty feet down, just under +this point, there's a knob sticking up they call the Giant's Nose. +It's deep with snow now. It wouldn't hurt to fall on it—and there's a +tree stump he could catch hold of to save himself if he kept his +senses. But my poor dogs with the heavy sledge behind 'em wouldn't +have the devil's chance. A man wouldn't either, unless he jumped as +the sleigh went. Well, we shall see, when I've got the rope." +</P> + +<P> +"What rope?" Teano managed to move his stiff lips. +</P> + +<P> +"A rope we keep for the summer trippers," Garth explained. "More than +once some silly gabe has got too close and lost his head, lookin' over +the Lovers' Leap. It's a suicide place too—though we don't tell folks +that. If anyone's caught on the Giant's nose, we can fish him up. The +rope's in a hut near by, that's never locked." +</P> + +<P> +Teano is a smaller man than Garth, and it was Teano who, with the rope +in a sailor knot under his arms, was let down by the big fellow, to +look for me. I had kept consciousness at first, and had saved myself +in the way suggested by the mountaineer: but by the time Teano came +prospecting, I had dropped into a pleasant sleep. An hour or two more +in my bed of snow, I should have been hidden for ever by a smooth white +winding-sheet, and so have kept my tryst with Death. +</P> + +<P> +As it was, Death and I failed to meet. I lived not only to help avenge +Anne Garth, but to go on with my work for the girl I loved, and—living +or dead—shall love for ever. For a time after my adventure on +Crescent Mountain (where it's needless to say Maida had neither arrived +nor been expected) that vengeance and that work moved slowly. But so +also move the mills of the gods. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +EPISODE V +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT +</H3> + +<P> +I was bringing my journal up to date one day at my Long Island hotel, +when a page-boy brought me a card engraved with the very last name I +should ever have guessed: "Lady Allendale." +</P> + +<P> +"Is the lady downstairs?" I asked, dazed. +</P> + +<P> +"The lady is here!" answered a once familiar voice at the half-open +door of my sitting-room; and I jumped up to face a tall, slim figure in +widow's weeds. "I hope you don't mind my surprising you?" went on the +charming voice. "I wanted to see how you looked, when you saw my name." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you do?" I greeted her, as we shook hands, and the page melted +away and was forgotten. I tried to sound sincerely welcoming, for here +she was, and I didn't want to hurt her feelings. But I wasn't as glad +as some men would have been to see a celebrated beauty and charmer. +</P> + +<P> +She explained that she had found herself in need of rest after her war +work (the last time I had seen her was the day when I fled from the +private hospital in London of my sister-in-law, Lady Haslemere), and +she had thought a sea voyage might be beneficial. She added, with an +air of beautiful boldness, that perhaps she'd come partly to meet me +again. "I read that you were at the Belmont in New York; so I went +there. But they said you were staying on Long Island. Country air +will be as good for a tired nurse of wounded officers as it is for the +wounded officers themselves, <I>n'est ce pas</I>? And it will be nice +hearing your news, for we were rather pals!" +</P> + +<P> +"Don was my best friend," I reminded her. "Here's his picture." And I +took from the flat top of the desk where I had been writing, one of +several framed photographs. A flush sprang to her cheeks as the +husband's eyes looked into hers, and snatching the frame she dashed it +down so violently that the glass smashed on the parquet floor. +</P> + +<P> +"How cruel of you!" she cried. "He was a thief! He threw away my love +and made me hate him. I thank Heaven he died!" +</P> + +<P> +An impulse of anger shook me. If she had been a man I should have +struck her. I'm not sure I didn't want to, as it was, in spite of her +beauty—or even because of it, so did it flaunt itself like an enemy +flag. +</P> + +<P> +"It's you who are cruel," I said. "Not to me, but to Don's memory. I +could never believe he did what you thought. There may have been some +horrible mistake. And his death has never been proved——" +</P> + +<P> +"He's dead to me; and the proof's incontestable, or I shouldn't wear +these things," she almost sobbed, indicating with a gesture her black +dress and veil. +</P> + +<P> +In my secret heart I had thought in London, and continued to think, +that the motive for draping herself in black might be more complex than +she admitted. Sir Donald Allendale had sailed for America on strange +circumstances months ago; had disappeared, and a body found floating in +the East River had been (superficially, I thought) identified as his. +If widow's weeds hadn't been an effective frame for Irene Allendale's +dazzling beauty, I wondered if she would have mourned in so many yards +of crape for a husband she professed to hate? +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well," I said, controlling myself, and realising that she had some +excuse to execrate Donald's memory, "let's not discuss Don now. There +were faults on both sides. He was jealous, and you made him miserable. +You were the greatest flirt as well as the greatest beauty in India +that year, and—but come to think of it, we needn't discuss that +either. The present's enough. You've arrived on this side, and——" +</P> + +<P> +"You're not glad to see me. No use pretending. I <I>know</I>, and—here's +the reason!" She darted forward and seized from the desk, close to my +open journal, the greatest treasure I had in the world—Maida Odell's +picture. +</P> + +<P> +Roger had given it to me, knowing how I felt towards Maida. It was a +miniature painted on ivory, and almost—though of course not quite—did +Maida justice, as no photograph could do. I kept it in a gold, +jewelled frame with doors like the doors of a shrine which could shut +the angel face out of sight. Usually the doors of the frame were not +only shut but locked. When I sat at the desk, however, and expected no +visitors, I opened and put it where each time I glanced up from my +writing I could look straight into Maida's eyes. Lady Allendale, +however, had come as a bolt from the blue, and for once I neglected to +shut the shrine. +</P> + +<P> +If I had been angry before, I was doubly angry now; but I said not a +word. Gently I took the frame, closed, and placed it in a drawer of +the desk. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you say you thought of spending a few days on Long Island?" I +asked, when I could control my voice. +</P> + +<P> +"I've engaged a suite at this hotel," Lady Allendale answered sharply. +"My maid's putting my things in order now. I do think, Jack, you're +being <I>horrid</I> to me, and if it weren't too late to change without +making gossip I should give up the rooms and go somewhere else." +</P> + +<P> +I didn't want a scene, so I reminded myself how sweet she had been when +Don had brought her as a bride to India, and I had always been welcome +at their bungalow. I soothed her as well as I could; refused to talk +personalities, and when she decided that her visit to my sitting-room +had better end, I took her to the door. At that moment a face almost +as familiar as hers appeared at a door opposite—the face of Irene +Allendale's French maid who had come with her to India four years ago. +This woman (Pauline, I remembered hearing her called) was receiving big +trunks with White Star labels on them; and I realised not only that the +lady's new quarters were close to mine, but that she was provided for a +long stay in them! +</P> + +<P> +When she had gone, and the door of her sitting-room had been shut by +Pauline (whose personality I disliked) I picked up Don's photograph, +and sat down to look at it, reviewing old times. +</P> + +<P> +Poor Don! Whatever his failings might have been, fate had been hard on +him! +</P> + +<P> +He was among the smartest officers my regiment ever had, one of the +most popular—despite his hot temper—and the best looking. Everyone +said when Irene Grey came to India to be married, chaperoned on the +voyage by a dragon of a maid, that she and Donald were the handsomest +couple ever seen. The trouble was—for trouble began at once—that +Irene was <I>too</I> pretty. She was a flirt too; and her success as <I>the</I> +beauty went to her head. She ought to have understood Don well enough +to know that he was stupidly jealous. Perhaps she did know, and +thought it "fun." But the fun soon turned to fighting. They +quarrelled openly. She would do nothing that Don wanted her to do. In +black rage, he told her to live her own life, and he would live his. +Both were miserable, for she had loved him and he—had adored her. She +flirted more than ever, and Don tried to forget his wretchedness by +drinking too much and playing too high. So passed several years. I +left the regiment and India, and took up flying. Then came the +outbreak of war. Don was ordered to England. Irene sailed on the same +ship, though by that time they were scarcely civil to each other. Don +used influence and got ordered to America to buy horses for the army, +he being a polo man and a judge of horseflesh. +</P> + +<P> +I was in France then, but running over to England on leave, Irene sent +for me to tell the astounding news that Don had taken with him all her +jewellery. She had money of her own—not a great fortune; but her +jewels, left her by a rich aunt, were magnificent and even famous. +This scene between Irene and me, when she accused Don and I defended +him, lingered in my memory as one of the most disagreeable of my life: +and the maid Pauline was associated with it in my mind, as Irene had +called her, to describe certain suspicious circumstances. Later I +couldn't help admitting to myself, if not to Irene, that Don's +disappearance on reaching New York, before he had begun to carry out +his mission, did look queer. Search was made by the police of New York +in vain, until a body past recognition, but wearing a watch and +identification papers belonging to Captain Sir Donald Allendale, was +found in the East River. I induced Irene to give Don the benefit of +the doubt, not to blacken his memory by connecting him with the loss of +her jewels; and she seemed to think that yielding to my persuasions was +a proof of friendship for me. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," I said to myself, extracting bits of broken glass from the +frame of Don's portrait, "better let sleeping dogs lie. Irene'll get +tired of this quiet place before long, and be off to New York—or home." +</P> + +<P> +I felt that it would be a relief to have her go; but I had no idea that +it was in her power, even if she wished it, to do me harm. +</P> + +<P> +But while I was thinking of her presence in the hotel as a harmless +bore, the lady had instructed Pauline to make inquiries concerning me. +This I learned later: but had I guessed, I should have supposed there +would be nothing to find out. I had no idea that gossip about me and +my affairs was a dining-room amusement among the maids and valets of +the hotel guests: that all Lady Allendale's <I>femme de chambre</I> need do +was to ask "What's the name of the girl Lord John Hasle's in love +with?" in order to have my heart bared to her eyes. That first day she +heard all about Maida—with embellishments: the beautiful Miss Odell, +adopted sister of a well-known millionaire who had lately married and +gone abroad with his bride: girl not fond of society: pledged to the +Grey Sisterhood for a year: the Sisterhood House being near Pine Cliff, +Lord John's reason for living in the one hotel of the neighbourhood. +</P> + +<P> +That was enough for Irene. Her anger having brought "to the scratch" +all the cat in her nature, she made herself acquainted with the +visiting days and hours of the Grey Sisterhood. Though men were not +received, ladies interested in the alleged charitable work of the +Sisterhood were welcomed twice a week, between three and five in the +afternoon. Maida was a valuable asset to the Head Sister, as a young +hostess on these reception days, for she believed in the genuineness of +the mission, and was enthusiastic on the subject of "saving" women and +children. In her innocence she could not have been aware that most of +those "saved" were hardened thieves protected in the old house at Pine +Cliff till their "services" should be needed in New York. It was a +splendid advertisement for the Sisterhood that so important a girl as +Miss Odell should be a member, and she was always bidden to show +visitors about, even if the veiled Head Sister were able to receive +them. +</P> + +<P> +So it fell out, while I was assuring myself of Irene's harmlessness, +that she was making acquaintance with the original of the portrait in +the gold frame. She wore, it seems, an open-faced locket containing a +photograph of me, painted to look like an ivory miniature: and seeing +Maida glance at it she asked if Miss Odell had ever met Lord John Hasle. +</P> + +<P> +The girl admitted that she had; whereupon Lady Allendale said, "We are +<I>very</I> good friends," and purposely said it in such a way as to convey +a false impression. I had told Maida that I loved her, but she had +given me no answer except that, if I cared, I must care enough to wait. +Many weeks had passed since then, and it was long since we had set eyes +upon each other. Lady Allendale was the most beautiful woman she had +ever seen; and the miniature in the locket, the meaning of the smile +which went with the words, were too much for the girl's faith in my +constancy. She thought, "Why should he go on loving me when I've given +him no real hope? No wonder he forgets me for such a dream of beauty!" +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps no girl as lovely as Maida ever thought less of her own charm. +She believed that the one interest which had held her to the world and +given her strength to resist the Head Sister's persuasions was a false +star. It came into her mind that the best way to forget would be to +promise, as her friend the grey lady had begged her to do, that she +would become a life member of the Sisterhood. +</P> + +<P> +Maida made no irrevocable decision that day: but when the Head Sister +said next time (there were many of these times), "Dear child, how happy +I should be if I could count upon you in the future!" she answered, +"Perhaps you may. I don't feel the same wish to go out into the world +that I have had." +</P> + +<P> +She was praised for this concession: and it seems to me probable that +the grey lady set her intelligence to work at discovering the motive +for the change. She had seen Irene, and had without doubt noticed the +locket. She was aware that the visitor and the youngest, sweetest +member of the Sisterhood had talked in the garden. She must have put +"two and two together": and the thing that happened later proves that +she reported all she knew and all she guessed to that "great +philanthropist" Doctor Rameses. It was certain that, soon after Lady +Allendale arrived, he was informed of her presence at my hotel. There +were ways in which he could ascertain that my friendship had been for +Donald Allendale and not his wife: therefore the theatrical effect of +the locket would have been lost upon him. +</P> + +<P> +Irene and I were on friendly terms, but I manoeuvred to keep her out of +the way. This was comparatively simple, as I had a lot of work to do; +but I invented extra engagements, and was never free to go anywhere +with her. I even tried to take such meals as I ate in my hotel, at +hours when she wasn't likely to be in the restaurant: but one evening, +as I stepped out of my sitting-room dressed for dinner, she appeared at +her door. It was almost as if she had been on the watch! +</P> + +<P> +It was early, and I intended motoring to New York, for Carr Price and +his bride were there for a day or two. I had my overcoat on my arm, +and a hat in my hand, which advertised the fact that I was not dining +in the hotel. Lady Allendale also was dressed for the evening, and +Pauline was giving her a sable cloak. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you do, stranger?" Irene exclaimed, with a kind of spurious +gaiety, more bitter than merry. "I've been here a week, and this is +the fourth time we've met." +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke, and I composed a suitable answer, two messengers came +along the corridor. One was a seedy-looking individual who might, I +thought, be a messenger from Teano, and the other was a boy employed by +the Grey Sisterhood to run errands. My heart leaped at sight of an +envelope in his hand. It was of the peculiar dove grey used by the +Sisters: and I know now that it was recognised by Lady Allendale. +She'd sent money for the Sisterhood's charities, and had received their +thanks written on this paper. +</P> + +<P> +"No answer, sir," said the boy, giving me the letter, pocketing a +"tip," and passing out of the way to let the shabby man advance, +directed by a page. He, too, put a letter in my hand, with a mumble of +"This is pressing." +</P> + +<P> +Irene could not hide her curiosity; but she dared not stand staring in +the hall. She went on, as if to go to the lift: but I learned later +that she took refuge in the maid's room, to see (without being seen) +what I might do next. +</P> + +<P> +What I did do was to return for a moment to my own room. And there, +despite the alleged "pressing" importance of the second letter, I +opened Maida's first. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Please don't feel in any way bound to me," she wrote. "Indeed, +there's no real reason why you should: but lest there should be the +slightest shadow over your happiness, I wish to tell you that most +probably I shall become a life member of the Sisterhood. I must write +Roger before deciding, but when he knows that after these many weeks I +have less longing than ever for the world, I think he will withdraw his +objections.—Yours ever sincerely, M.O." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This was a blow over the heart. I had hoped so much, since the +wonderful night when she had let me take her home to Roger! True, she +had gone back next day to the Sisterhood House, but I had thought I +might read between the lines of the message left for me, and other +messages since then. +</P> + +<P> +I did not think of any connection between Irene Allendale and Maida's +change of mind, but attributed the adverse influence wholly to the Head +Sister. I determined to see Maida somehow: and then remembered the +letter which I had not yet opened. Envelope and paper were of the +cheapest, and the handwriting was crude, most of the words being +absurdly spelt. +</P> + +<P> +"If yu haven't furgot yur old friend Donald Allendale and wud like to +help him in grate truble cum at wuns with the messenger and dont wate a +secund or it may be tu late." +</P> + +<P> +Nothing else could have taken me out of myself in a moment of deep +depression, as did this cry from the grave of a lost friend. I had +said to Irene "we have no proof of his death," yet I had hardly doubted +it: and it was now as if I heard the voice of a dead man. If I had +stopped to reflect I might have reasoned that the letter was more than +likely a trick of the "enemy," as I named the Egyptian doctor to myself +and Teano: but even if I had, I should have chanced it, for the call +was too urgent to admit of delays—such as telephoning Teano to meet +me, for instance. I ought to have seen (and perhaps did +sub-consciously see) that the appeal for haste was in itself +suspicious, framed in the hope of inducing me to do precisely what I +did do, rush off on the instant without taking any companion or leaving +word in the hotel that I was bound for an errand that might be +dangerous. +</P> + +<P> +The man who had brought the letter had prudently gone to wait outside, +where, if needful, he could make a quick "getaway." This detail seemed +of small importance at the time, but its influence on the fate of two +others besides myself was great. If Lady Allendale had seen me +starting with the messenger, she would have known that I was not going +out in answer to the letter written on grey paper—the letter she +believed to be from Maida Odell. Pauline's window overlooked the noisy +front entrance of the otherwise quiet hotel. From behind the curtains +Irene could see anyone coming or going. If the messenger had waited +outside my door, she would have seen us together: but as he stood close +against the wall, she could see only that I stopped to speak with +someone. She could not hear the man explaining that he had been +directed to travel back to New York in the taxi which had brought him +to Long Island, and that instead of accompanying, I was to trail him. +"Somebody's afraid I might get something out of you—what?" said I. +Since argument with such a person was useless, Irene must have heard me +order a taxi, and have telephoned down for one herself. If I'd +suspected the interest she still felt in my movements, I might have +been more on the alert, and have noticed a taxi always pursuing mine: +but my eyes were for the one ahead. +</P> + +<P> +When my leader's taxi drew up at last, it was the signal agreed upon +for me to do the same. The neighbourhood was unfamiliar, but as I +followed the man on foot I soon saw that we were in the heart of +Chinatown. It was agreed that I should not try to speak with him +again, but simply to go where I saw him go. He entered a Chinese +restaurant which made no pretence at picturesqueness for the attraction +of sightseers. I, close upon his heels, entered also, and had scarcely +an instant to take in the scene, so promptly did the man make for a row +of doors at the back of a large, smoke-dimmed room. Determined not to +be left behind, I too made for the little low-browed door he chose in +the row, and saw a private dining-room just comfortably big enough for +two. +</P> + +<P> +"This is where you're to wait," my man announced, "and where my part of +the business is done. Good night. I expect you won't be kept long." +</P> + +<P> +I offered him money, which he refused. "I've been paid, thank you," he +said; and touching his shabby cap with an attempt at a military salute, +returned to the main restaurant. He shut the door behind him, but not +quickly enough to prevent my recognising a face in the room outside: +the face of Donald Allendale's valet. +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove!" I heard myself say half aloud. I remembered now that the +man—Hanson or some name like that—had left his master in England, not +wishing, he explained, to go to America. Yet here he was; and I sprang +to the rash conclusion that it was he who had sent for me with this +mysterious ceremony. +</P> + +<P> +The door was shut in my face before I could even jump up from the chair +into which I had subsided; and when I threw the door open again to look +out, the face had vanished. A number of Europeans of middle-class and +a few Chinese, apparently respectable merchants, were dining at little +tables. Some were already going: others were coming in: and I saw at +the street door a tall woman in a long dark cloak and a kind of motor +bonnet covered with a thick blue veil. She had the air of peering +about through the veil, to find someone she expected to meet: and if I +had ever happened to see Lady Allendale's maid Pauline in automobile +get-up, when motoring with her mistress, my thoughts might possibly +have flashed to Irene. They did not, however, and I should have passed +the woman without remark if she had not darted at a man just making his +exit. I didn't recall Don's valet well enough from Indian days to be +as sure of his back as of his face, but I wondered if it were Hanson +whom the veiled woman sought. I was half inclined to step out and +accost him: but I knew by experience what errors arise from a change in +the programme when an appointment has been planned. Possibly Hanson +was not the person who should meet me here, and in following the valet +I might miss my aim. After a few seconds' hesitation I went back into +the tiny room and reluctantly closed the door. +</P> + +<P> +It was a dull little hole, though clean. The walls or partitions which +divided the place from others of its kind seemed to be of thin wood, +papered with red and hung with cheap Chinese banners. Even the back +wall was of wood, and boasted as decoration a large, ugly picture of a +Chinese hunter, in a bamboo frame. The only furniture consisted of two +chairs, and a small table laid for two persons. In one of these chairs +I sat, staring at the door, hoping that it might soon open for Hanson +or another. +</P> + +<P> +Hanson, I learned afterwards, had never intended to meet me or be seen +by me. His business in the restaurant concerned me, to be sure, but +only indirectly: and catching sight of my face in the door of the +private room, he had made a dash for the door of the street, to be +stopped by the veiled woman on the threshold. The veil was +impenetrable, but recognising the voice that spoke his name, he tried +to shove her aside and escape. She seized his arms, however, obliging +him to stop inside the restaurant or risk a street scene. She inquired +why he had come to America, and if he had been with Sir Donald. +</P> + +<P> +"No, your ladyship," the man stolidly answered to both questions, +doubtless longing to ask some of his own in return. He mumbled that he +had come to New York after his master died, for no object connected +with Sir Donald—merely wishing to "find a good job with some rich +American," a wish not yet realised. When asked if he had seen and +recognised in the restaurant his master's old friend Lord John Hasle, +at first he said, "No, he hadn't noticed anyone like him." But the +next words, following swiftly and excitedly, for some reason quickened +his memory as if by magic. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he is there. I saw him go in!" the veiled Lady Allendale +insisted. "I believe you know he is there. I'm sure there's a <I>woman</I> +in the case!" +</P> + +<P> +On this, Hanson admitted that he had seen "a man who looked a bit +<I>like</I> his lordship," and there was a woman with him, <I>not</I> the kind of +woman her ladyship would want to know. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got to get somewhere in a hurry," he added, "but if I might +advise, the best thing for your ladyship is to do the same—go +somewhere else, most <I>anywhere</I> else, in a hurry too." +</P> + +<P> +With this, he took advantage of a relaxed hold on his arm, and was off +like a frightened rabbit, old custom forcing him to touch his hat as he +fled. +</P> + +<P> +He doubtless hoped that Lady Allendale would be terrified into +abandoning her project, whatever it might be: and intended to disclaim +responsibility if she lingered. As it happened she did linger, +summoning courage to enter the restaurant and take a table close to the +door where, for an instant, she had seen me appear. +</P> + +<P> +"He was looking for <I>her</I>!" Irene said to herself; and as no woman had +passed in while she talked to Hanson in the street, she determined to +wait close to the door. It was almost incredible that Maida Odell +should come from the house of the Grey Sisterhood to such a place as +this, but Lady Allendale was in a mood when anything seemed possible. +Anyhow, if it were not Maida, it was some other—some other about whose +existence she might let Maida know—since Maida continued to write +letters to the guilty one! Irene ordered food as an excuse to keep the +table; but when it came she did little more than pretend to eat. +Alternately she consulted her wrist-watch and frowned at the closed +door. +</P> + +<P> +All this time she supposed me to be sitting alone, fuming with +impatience for the arrival of an unexpected woman: but as a matter of +fact while she questioned Hanson the door had quickly opened and shut. +It had admitted a man: and that man was with me when Lady Allendale sat +down at her table near by to watch. +</P> + +<P> +In appearance he was a Chinaman, a very tall, respectably dressed +Chinaman with a flat-brimmed hat shading his eyes, and a generous +pigtail whipping his back. But his long dark eyes were not Chinese +eyes, though Eastern they might be. He was magnificently made up, so +well that my impression of his falseness came by instinct rather than +by reason. I would have given much if my brain had carried away a +clearer picture of the "man with the scar" from the theatre, on the +first night of the play. If I could have got nearer to him then, the +difficulty of identifying him with Doctor Rameses might have +disappeared altogether, despite the Egyptian's genius for establishing +an alibi whenever I clamoured to the police. Now, in trying to pierce +the surface calm of the dark eyes I should have had certainty to go +upon, one way or the other. As it was I could only ask myself, "Is +this the everlasting enemy? Or—am I a monomaniac on that subject?" +</P> + +<P> +If it were Rameses, I could hardly help admiring his impudence in +sending for and meeting face to face—even in disguise—the man whose +business in life it had become to ruin him. +</P> + +<P> +"Good evening, sir," he began politely, with the accent of an educated +man and a suggestion of Chinese lisp—or a good imitation. "I am part +owner of this place. I have come to know through my partner a sad case +of a client of his, a poor man who was a friend of yours in another +country. My partner is a good man but he is hard. He would have put +this fellow out and not cared; but I said, keep him and I will send +word to that friend he talks about, that Lord John Hasle. Maybe +something can be done to help. My partner did not wish me to do this +thing, because there might be danger for him, from the police. If you +go further, you will soon understand why. But I have been years in +England. I know Englishmen. I said to my partner, if this lord is +asked to come alone, in a hurry, for the sake of his friend, he will +not be a traitor. That is why I had to do things in a prudent way. I +was right. You are here. But this is not all you have to do. You +give me your word you will make no noise if I show you the secret of +our place?" +</P> + +<P> +"As to that, I give you my word," I said, curious, but far from +trustful. "The message I received hints that Sir Donald Allendale +didn't die. Is he here?" +</P> + +<P> +"He is downstairs," replied the alleged Asiatic. +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke, he touched one of the big, brass-headed tacks which +appeared crudely to keep in place the bamboo frame of the Chinese +Hunter. Instantly the picture moved out of the frame, like a sliding +panel, and showed an opening or door in the wooden wall at the back of +the room. +</P> + +<P> +I felt that the long eyes watched to see if I "funked," but I think my +features remained as noncommittal as those of Buddha himself. As a +matter of fact I was scarcely surprised to find myself in one of those +secret rabbit warrens of which I had read. I guessed that each of the +private dining-rooms in the row I had seen, possessed a concealed door +leading down to a hidden "opium den" underneath. I guessed, too, that +only certain trusted habitués of the restaurant were allowed to learn +the secret. Whether my being let into it were a compliment, or a sign +that I shouldn't get a chance to betray it, I was not sure. But I +wished that I had looked to the loading of my revolver which, so far as +I remembered, held no more than one cartridge. I fancied that my +Chinese friend was Rameses himself, and that he might indeed be a +financial "power behind the throne" in the business of this house. +Deliberately I went to the table and selected a steel knife which lay +beside one of the plates. The tall Chinaman watched me pocket it, with +a benevolent smile, such as he might have bestowed upon a child arming +itself with a tin sword to fight a shadow. As he stood statue-like +beside the aperture in the wall, two men in Chinese costume, dressed +like the waiters of the restaurant, came through the panel-door from +the mysterious dusk on the other side. Each had a small tray in his +hand, as if to serve at a meal. With a bow for my companion and an +extra one for me they moved along the wall, one on either side of the +room, passing behind us both, and ranging themselves to right and left +of the exit to the restaurant. +</P> + +<P> +It was obvious that they were ready to prevent my making a dash if I +were inclined to do so. They were big fellows, regular "chuckers out" +in size; and my host himself was more than my equal in height. All the +same, if I'd wanted to escape, I thought I could have downed the three, +unless they were experts in ju jitsu, where I was an amateur. No such +intention, however, was in my mind. I determined to see the adventure +to the end, in the hope of finding Allendale. He might have fallen +into such hands as these, and be held for some reason which I hoped to +learn. +</P> + +<P> +"After you!" I said politely to my guide who would have let me go +ahead. We bowed like Chinese mandarins, and then, as if to prove that +he meant no harm, he passed before me through the panel-door. Whether +the two men closed it again in case of a police raid (which must always +be dreaded in such a place) I don't know; but I guessed that they were +under orders to follow at a distance. +</P> + +<P> +There was just enough light in a narrow passage behind the panel to +prevent those who entered it from stumbling over each other. I saw +that it was a long, straight corridor running between the wooden back +wall of the row of private dining-rooms and the house wall. Such light +as there was came from the end of the passage, and from below, where it +could be turned off in case of danger. I followed my companion, our +feet making no noise on the matting-covered floor: and voices of those +in the private rooms were audible through the thin partition. I smiled +rather grimly for my own benefit as my fancy pictured a raid: how an +alarm would be sent to those below stairs: an electric bell, perhaps: +and how those in a condition to move would swarm up from secret, +forbidden regions underground, running like rats through this corridor +to take their places in the row of dining-rooms. There they would be +found, calmly eating and drinking: and unless the "sleuths" had certain +information concerning the concealed doors, there would be no excuse to +look further! +</P> + +<P> +At the far end of the passage, as I expected, there was a steep +stairway. My guide still went in advance, as a proof of good faith. +Having opened a baize door which muffled sound, he held it open for me +to pass into a large room lit by green-shaded electric lamps that hung +from the low ceiling. There was gas also, which could be used if the +electricity failed. Here, men were gambling, silent as gambling +ghosts. They played fan tan and other games: Chinese and Europeans, +both men and women. Nobody glanced up when we arrived. We might have +been flies for all the interest we excited. I looked over my shoulder +as we came to the head of a second staircase leading down another +storey, to see if the supposed "waiters" were behind us. They were not +to be seen: nevertheless I "felt in my bones" that they were not far +off. +</P> + +<P> +The floor below the gambling-room was devoted to the smoking of opium. +There were several doors no doubt leading into private rooms for those +who could pay high prices: and ranged along the two side walls were +rows of berths protected by curtains. Two "cooks" were at work making +the pills to fill the pipes, handed to customers by attendants. There +was practically no furniture in the large, low room, which was filled +with the peculiar, heady fragrance of cooking opium. +</P> + +<P> +Yet even then we had not reached our destination. A third staircase +led down to a deeper cellar; and I could but think as I continued the +game of "follow my leader," what a neat trap the fly was allowing the +spider to land him in! However, I went quietly on, consoling myself +with the thought that it's a wise fly who is up to the spider's tricks +and watching for the lid of the trap to fall. +</P> + +<P> +This last cellar was evidently for the cheapest class of customers. +There were berths here too, but the curtains were poor, or +non-existent, and many Chinamen lay about the floor on strips of +matting. The atmosphere was foetid, and thick with opium smoke. As we +moved towards a rough partition at the further end, our figures tore +the grey cloud as if it had been made of gauze. +</P> + +<P> +"Your friend lies very sick in a room there," said my guide, speaking +for the first time since he had stepped through the panel. "We have +paid for his keep a long time now." +</P> + +<P> +I made no answer, only following with my eyes the gesture he made, +pointing at the unpainted wooden partition. In this partition were +three doors, also of rough, unpainted wood. Two stood ajar, showing +small rooms which I fancied were used by the attendants and opium +"cooks." One door was closed. My companion opened it, indicating, +with a smile, that it possessed no lock, only an old-fashioned latch. +"You need not fear to go in and talk with your friend alone," he said, +in his low, monotonous voice. "You see, he is not a prisoner! And we +cannot make you one." +</P> + +<P> +I shrugged my shoulders, and passed him without a word, shutting the +door behind me as I entered the wretched den on the other side. It was +lit by one paraffin lamp, supported by a bracket attached to the wall, +and such light as existed brought out from the shadows the vague +lumpish shape of a mattress on the floor. Two or three odds and ends +of furniture lurked in corners, but I scarcely saw their squalor. My +one thought was for a dark form stretched on the grey heap of bedding. +</P> + +<P> +I bent over it, and a hand seemed to grip my heart. "My God, poor old +Don! What have they done to you?" I broke out. +</P> + +<P> +A skeleton in rags lay on the filthy mattress. The yellow light from +the bracket lamp lit his great eyes as they suddenly opened, in deep +hollows. Even his face looked fleshless. There were streaks of grey +in the dark hair at his temples, and an unkempt beard mingled with the +shadows under his cheekbones. This was what remained of Donald +Allendale, one of the smartest and handsomest men in the army. +</P> + +<P> +He stared at me dully for an instant, his eyes like windows of glass +With no intelligence behind them. Then abruptly they seemed to come +alive. "Jack!" he gasped. "Am I—dreaming you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, dear old chap, no," I assured him, down on one knee by the +mattress, slipping an arm under his head. "It's Jack right enough, +come to take you out of this and make you the man you were again." +</P> + +<P> +As I spoke, slowly and distinctly, so that the comforting words might +reach his sick soul, I heard a faint, stealthy noise outside. There +was a slight squeak as of iron scraping against wood, and in a flash I +guessed what had happened. My guide had made a point of showing that +the door could not be locked; and I, like a fool—in my haste to see +Don—hadn't sought other means of fastening it, more efficient than any +lock. I guessed that a bar of wood or iron had now been placed across +the door, the two ends in rungs or brackets which I had passed +unnoticed. +</P> + +<P> +"Well!" I said to myself, "the mischief's done. No use kicking against +the pricks till I'm ready to kick. And I shan't be ready till I've +seen what can be done for Allendale." +</P> + +<P> +The worst of it was that as I'd allowed myself to be trapped, it was +difficult to see how anything could be done. My theory that I'd been +let into a secret, because I should never be in a position to betray +it, seemed to be the true one. But my fury at Donald's state gave me a +sense of superabundant strength. I felt like Samson, able to pull down +the pillars of the Temple. +</P> + +<P> +"You're—too late!" the man on the mattress sighed, his voice strange +and weak, sounding almost like a voice speaking through a telephone at +"long distance." "But I'm glad to see you, Jack! I've thought of you. +I've longed for you. Tell me—about Irene. Does she—believe I'm +dead?" +</P> + +<P> +"She's in New York, dear old boy," I said, evading his question. +</P> + +<P> +His eyes lighted. It seemed that a faint colour stained his ash-white +cheeks. "She came—to look for me! Oh, Jack, she did love me, then!" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," I answered truly enough: for she <I>had</I> loved him before +everything went wrong. Even if I hadn't been as sure of Don's loyalty +as of my own, I should have known by the radiance of his face. If he +had stolen her jewels, he would not be coming back from death to life +in the illusion that love had brought her across the sea. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God!" he breathed. "I can die in peace—but no, not yet. +There's a thing I must tell you first, It's the thing they've kept me +here to get out of me. They've tried every way they knew—torture, +starvation, bribes of freedom; everything. They'd have killed me long +ago, only if they had they could never have got the secret. But—how +is it you're here? Is it another trick of theirs?" +</P> + +<P> +As soon as I heard the word "secret" the mystery was clear. I was the +catspaw with which the chestnuts were to be pulled out of the fire. If +Doctor Rameses was the man who held us both, his intention was +evidently to kill two birds, two rare and valuable birds, with one +stone. How he had got Donald Allendale into his clutches I didn't know +yet, though I soon should: but having him, and learning that he and I +had been friends, he saw how to trap me securely and through me learn +Don's secret. +</P> + +<P> +Almost without telling I knew that the secret must concern Irene's +jewels, which were worth at least twenty thousand pounds; a haul not to +be despised. Bending over Don, I lifted my head and looked around. I +was sure that a knothole in the wooden wall had come into being within +the last five minutes. If there'd been an aperture there, it had been +stuffed with rags, now noiselessly withdrawn. It was distant not a +yard from Donald's face as he lay on the mattress, and a person +crouching on the floor outside could catch every word, unless we +whispered. Somebody had deduced that the prisoner would open his heart +to me. The "secret" would thus become the property of those who +coveted it; and once it was in their possession Donald and I could be +suppressed. Thus the two birds would be felled with that one cleverly +directed stone—so cleverly directed that I was sure of the hand which +had placed it in the sling. +</P> + +<P> +It was a case of kill or cure, to startle poor Don; but there was no +other way, and I took the one I saw. "Yes," I said, "they got me here +by a trick, but I don't regret coming. On the contrary. They—whoever +they are—want to hear what you tell me. But we can prevent that. Let +me help you to the other side of the mattress farther from that +knothole, and you'll whisper what you have to say. If that annoys +anyone—I know there are people made nervous by whispering!—why, they +can come in, and get a warm welcome. Put the story into few words; and +then we'll be prepared for the next thing." +</P> + +<P> +It was a tonic I had given him. He threw a look of disgust and rage at +the knothole, which was dark because, no doubt, the lights had been +turned down outside to make our cubicle seem lighter. Sitting up +without my help, Don flung himself to the other side of the mattress; +and as I knelt beside him, whispered. Unless they had a concealed +dictaphone the secret was safe. +</P> + +<P> +As I advised, this man raised from the dead, told his story in few +words. On shipboard, coming to America, he had been taken over the +ship one day, by the first officer. To his astonishment, he recognised +Hanson, his valet, in a rather clumsy disguise, travelling second +class. Controlling himself, he appeared not to notice: but as Hanson +had refused to make the voyage in his service, there must be some +curious motive for this ruse. Don could not guess it, but he had once +overheard a conversation between Hanson and Pauline which told him that +they were more than friends. Don didn't like Pauline, and believed +that she had set her mistress against him. After a little thought, he +determined to spring a surprise on Hanson. He learned the name under +which the valet was travelling, found out that the man had a state-room +to himself; and the night after his discovery opened the door and +abruptly walked in. He expected to catch Hanson unawares and surprise +a confession; but the room was empty. Don was amazed to see under the +berth a dressing-bag which had belonged to Irene. He could not believe +she had given it to Pauline or to Hanson, as it had been a present to +her from a friend. It flashed into his head that the thing had been +stolen, and that it might have valuable contents. Acting on impulse, +he took the bag and returned to his own cabin. There he opened it with +one of his own keys, and found most of his wife's jewellery. +</P> + +<P> +This happened on the night when the ship docked. Don meant to +telegraph Irene next day; and was debating whether to have Hanson +arrested on board ship, or catechise him first. He determined upon the +latter course, as he wished to learn if Pauline were involved in the +theft. He wrote a note and sent it to Hanson, saying that his one +chance lay in confession and that he—Sir Donald—would talk with him +on the dock. The man kept the appointment, begged his ex-master's +forgiveness, told a long story of temptation, exonerated Pauline, and +promised to reform. Don, who had been fond of Hanson and valued him as +a servant, decided that, as he now had the jewels in his own +possession, he could afford to be generous. He bade the fellow "go and +sin no more": and as far as Hanson was concerned, considered the +episode closed. The dressing-bag he gave with other luggage to an +express man to take to his hotel, but the jewels (a rope of pearls, a +flexible tiara of diamonds, and a number of brooches, pendants and +rings) he had put (congratulating himself on his own prudence) into a +tobacco pouch in a pocket of his coat. He engaged a taxi, giving the +name of a hotel; and had no suspicion that anything was wrong until he +realised that, instead of leaving poor streets behind, he was being +driven through a maze of slums. Not knowing New York, he still hoped +that his chauffeur had chosen an unattractive short cut: but instinct +cried loudly that he was the victim of a trick. Fancying that the taxi +slowed down, he took the tobacco-pouch from his pocket and searched for +a place to hide it, in case of trouble. He happened to find a curious +repository. Lifting the leather cushion which formed the seat, he +discovered an inconspicuous rip in the leather binding of the lower +edge. He clawed out a piece of horsehair stuffing, threw it from the +window, and tucked the tobacco-pouch into the hole that was left. +Knowing the number of the taxi (Don was always great at remembering +numbers) he could inform the police if necessary! Whereas, if all were +well, and he found himself arriving safely at his destination he would +take out the bag and laugh at his own suspicions. +</P> + +<P> +No sooner had he hidden the valuables, however, than the taxi stopped. +The chauffeur civilly informed him that a tyre was down, and apologised +for having to stop in such a poor neighbourhood. The fellow seemed so +frank, that Donald was ashamed of his own timidity. He stuck his head +out of the window to speak with the man at work, and—remembered no +more, till he came to himself in his present surroundings. +</P> + +<P> +How long ago that was, he could not tell. He had waked to find severe +wounds on his head, and fancied that he had been delirious. He had +thought constantly of Irene, and bitterly regretted their quarrels. It +occurred to him (as to me in hearing the story) that Hanson had crossed +on Sir Donald Allendale's ship with the jewels, intending by the help +of Pauline at home, to throw suspicion on his master. +</P> + +<P> +My evasive answers and the news of Irene's presence in New York, gave +Don new life and courage to fight for it, believing that through all +she had kept her love and faith. I, alas, knew that this was not the +case; but I hoped that Irene's heart would turn to him again if his +innocence were proved. "You <I>must</I> get out of this for her sake," I +urged. "Besides, I shan't try to escape without you. We stand or fall +together." +</P> + +<P> +"If I can find strength enough not to hinder instead of help!" he +groaned. "But there's little chance for either of us. For heaven +knows how long they've kept me chained to the wall. To-night, the +Chinaman who takes care of me after a fashion unlocked the iron ring +that was on my ankle. You can see the mark it's made! I wondered what +was up, but thought as I was so weak, it was no longer worth while to +waste the chain on me. Now I see they took it off because they didn't +want you to see at first glance that I was a prisoner, not a +<I>pensionaire</I>. The fact that they've left me free shows they've taken +their precautions, though!" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps they haven't taken enough," said I, still whispering as he +did, that ears outside might strain in vain. +</P> + +<P> +I rose from my knees, and began to look for the iron staple which I +knew must exist. I soon found it in the solid wall at the back of the +room; with the chain and the iron ankle-band attached. A heap of straw +and rags had been used to cover these from sight. No effort of Don's +wasted muscles could suffice to pull out the staple, as his gaolers +knew: and as for my strength, it had not occurred to them that I might +use it in that direction. Probably no one dreamed that blind Samson +would pull down the pillars! +</P> + +<P> +I made Don move to a position where his body blocked the knothole, and +unless there was another, which I failed to see, I could work without +being overlooked. Grasping the iron ring, with all my might I pulled +and jerked at the staple till I loosened it in the wall. The rest was +easy: and sooner than I'd dared hope I had in my hand a formidable +weapon. If there were a chance of smashing the partition and breaking +out on the other side, it lay in that. Also, it might be useful +afterwards, for if we got into the main cellar, our troubles would be +but just begun. Practically my one hope was that the men told off to +deal with us might be cowards. +</P> + +<P> +As for smashing the door, there was "nothing doing" there for us, +because of the bar certainly securing it. On examination, however, the +rough plank supporting the bracket lamp looked rotten. It had cracked +when the bracket was nailed up, and had never been mended. This was +good; and I had a plan too, in which the lamp itself was to play a +part. I took it from the bracket, and set it carefully on a rickety +stool which I propped against the back wall. Then I whispered to Don: +"Now for it! If I break through, I'll try and get hold of that bar +across the door. If I do, it will be another weapon: and besides, we +can make a quick dash. Here's my revolver for you. There's only one +cartridge in it; but nobody else knows that. And here's a knife I +stole upstairs. I'll have the iron staple and chain which will make a +good killing, and the bar too, if we're in luck." +</P> + +<P> +"They may shoot through the partition when they find what we're up to," +said Don. +</P> + +<P> +"They haven't got their precious secret yet!" I reminded him. "They'll +try and take us alive, and we'll give them a hot time doing it!" +</P> + +<P> +To weaken the cracked plank, I wrenched off the bracket, and had the +joy of hearing the wood tear as if a saw had bitten through. Then I +dealt blow after blow on the wounded spot, and when the wood began to +give I flung my weight against it. The noise drowned lesser sounds, +but I was conscious of a babble of voices like the chatter of angry +monkeys. Down went the upper half of the broken plank, and the one +next it gave way. It was close to the door, and reaching out an arm I +found the bar. Luckily it was held by a pair of wooden horns, for had +it been slipped into rings I could not have succeeded. As it was a +Chinaman jabbed at my hand with a knife: but I surprised him with a +smashing blow over the eyes, and seized the bar before he came at me +again. Instantly I had it out of the sockets, the door (which Don had +unlatched) fell open, and I burst through like a whirlwind, with him +behind me, carrying the lamp I'd yelled to him to bring. +</P> + +<P> +Half a dozen Chinamen stood lined up to beat us back. Two with +pistols, two armed with axes, and the one I had tackled brandishing his +carving-knife. I went for the pair with the pistols. My iron bar +cracked a shaved head like an egg-shell, and broke the hand of his +mate. One dropped his weapon without a groan, the other let his fall +with a yelp: and Don, unexpectedly darting forward, snatched up both +the pistols. Thrusting one into my free hand he kept the other. We +were thus doubly armed, and together made a rush for the stairs, I +keeping my eyes open for a surprise attack from my late guide. +</P> + +<P> +At the foot of the steps, I let Don lead with my revolver and the big +pistol, while I backed up stair by stair, keeping off the four Chinamen +who were still intact. It seemed too good to be true that we were to +get away so easily. Perhaps, I thought, the tug-of-war would come on +the floor above: but it was the enemy's game to finish us before we +gained a higher level. Here, the sound of shots could not reach the +street; and the witnesses of the fight were so besotted with their +drug, so lost to decency, that even if they woke to see strange doings, +all would be woven with their dreams. Above, there was more to fear; +some of the clients were still alive to human feeling: they might take +our part. An alarm might reach the police. Why then, if Rameses were +the hidden enemy, did he let his best chance go by? Almost +subconsciously I asked myself these questions, and half way up the +stairs, my answer came. Men shielded with mattresses flung themselves +upon us from above. They in turn were pushed forward by others and Don +and I fell back. I tried to use the iron bar like a battering ram, but +the weight I struggled against was too great. I stumbled, with Don on +top of me; there was a sound of shouting, and suddenly the lights went +out. I struggled in darkness with unseen enemies, as in a nightmare. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +Two storeys above, in the restaurant, Irene Allendale sat pretending to +eat, and glancing at her watch until she lost patience. It occurred to +her that she had been a fool—that the woman she waited for might have +arrived before her, might already be in the little private room, dining +with John Hasle. She sprang up and on a furious impulse flung open the +door which she had so long watched in vain. To her astonishment the +room was empty. +</P> + +<P> +This seemed a miracle; for she knew that John Hasle had gone in and +hadn't come out. As she stood staring at the empty room which seemed +to have no second exit, the Chinese proprietor came to her with a +threatening air. "You do what we no 'low this place," he said +bullyingly. "That plivate loom. You no pay plivate loom. You no +light look in. You give me five dolahs you' dinnah, and you go 'way. +We no like spies. You go, if you no want I call p'lice." +</P> + +<P> +Already hysterical, Irene lost her head. "How dare you talk of +police!" she cried. "<I>I</I> will call the police! You've very likely +murdered a friend of mine here and hidden his body." +</P> + +<P> +The man had threatened her in a low voice. She threatened him at the +top of her lungs. The diners at little tables jumped to their feet. +The Chinaman tried to catch her by the veil as she darted to the door, +but only pulled off her motor bonnet and loosened her hair, which +tumbled over her shoulders. In an instant the place was in an uproar. +An American in defence of a beautiful woman knocked the Chinaman down. +A policeman passing the restaurant window blew his whistle, and had +hardly dashed in before he had a couple of comrades at his heels. +</P> + +<P> +Nobody knew quite what had happened, but Lady Allendale gasped the word +"Murder!" and pointed to the open door of the private room. In jumped +two of the policemen, while the third tried to restore order in the +restaurant. A glance under the table in the little dining-room showed +that no corpse lay hidden there, but the lovely lady's persistence put +the idea of a secret entrance into their heads. One of them thumped +with his fist on the picture of the Chinese hunter. The hollow sound +suggested a space behind. An experienced hand passed over the bamboo +frame found a spring, and the panel slid back. Somehow the cry of +"Murder!" started by Irene flew from mouth to mouth. More policemen +appeared, and Europeans who had been peacefully dining in the +restaurant reinforced the courageous pair who had sprung through the +opening behind the picture. So the rescue-party reached us in the nick +of time, policemen's lanterns lighting up the darkness, revealing +stealthy flitting forms that would escape at any price, and a mass of +men struggling under and above a pile of mattresses. +</P> + +<P> +My first thought (after I had seen that Don was safe) rushed to +Rameses. But the tall Chinaman with the long dark eyes was not among +the prisoners. That night (the police gleefully informed me later) +Doctor Rameses was engaged in giving a lecture at his own house, and +could not possibly have been in Chinatown. As usual, he had known how +to save himself; and it was only long after that I learned the +remarkable way in which he invariably established an alibi. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +My hope for the reconciliation of Don and Irene was fulfilled even +before the overwhelming proof of his truth was obtained by finding the +tobacco-pouch intact, still hidden inside the seat of the ancient taxi +whose number Don had never forgotten. The man who had driven it the +night of the attack had been discharged, and could not be found. +Hanson, too, contrived to elude the vigilance of the police, and +Pauline passionately denied all knowledge of him. She was watched when +Lady Allendale sent her away, but returned quietly to Europe, while +Irene remained in New York to help nurse Donald back to health. With +Hanson and his accomplice of the taxi missing, and the Master Mind past +pursuit, it was impossible to clear up the mystery of the corpse found +floating in the East River. But after all, that mattered only to the +police, now that Captain Sir Donald Allendale was alive and safe, and +happier than he had been for years. +</P> + +<P> +The day that Irene and he made up their differences, she sent for me. +"You won't tell Don that I said I hated him and threw his picture on +the floor, will you?" she asked me piteously. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course not!" I assured her. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, if I could atone!" she sighed. +</P> + +<P> +"You have atoned. You saved our lives, and——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but you don't know all. If you did, you'd loathe me." +</P> + +<P> +"I can think of nothing which would make me loath you, Lady Allendale." +</P> + +<P> +"I—made Miss Odell believe—that—that—I can't tell you <I>what</I>! +But—never mind. I've written to her now. I've confessed that it was +a lie. If you wouldn't press me with questions, but just wait to hear +from her, you'd be an <I>angel</I>, Lord John." +</P> + +<P> +How long I could have remained an angel at that price I'm not sure. +But a letter came to me from Maida next day to say that she had decided +<I>not</I> to become a life member of the Grey Sisterhood. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +EPISODE VI +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE CLUE IN THE AIR +</H3> + +<P> +If I had been fighting my own battle, not Maida's, against Doctor +Rameses, I might have sometimes admired his cleverness. There seemed +to be no way of catching him. +</P> + +<P> +The police theory was that some person, not Rameses, took advantage of +the "philanthropist's" conspicuous appearance to commit crimes in a +disguise resembling his peculiarities. This, they thought, might be +done not only as a means of escaping detection, but with the object of +blackmail. My theory was different. I believed that Rameses had a +confederate enough like him in looks to deceive an audience assembled +for one of his lectures, or patients undergoing his treatment. +</P> + +<P> +I did not hesitate to assert this opinion, hoping to provoke the man to +open attack. +</P> + +<P> +After the affair of the opium den, he lay low. Nothing happened in +which, by any stretching of probabilities, he could have had a hand. +Perhaps, thought I, he had learned that I was a hard nut to crack! +Two-thirds of the time for which Maida had promised herself to the Grey +Sisterhood passed. Her doubts of me had been swept away, and I hoped +to find at the end of the year that I hadn't waited in vain. Now and +then I saw, or believed that I saw, light on the mystery of Maida's +antecedents. Altogether I was happier than I had been and I was +serving my country's interests while I served my own. +</P> + +<P> +I had been ordered to buy desirable new types of aeroplanes, and +luckily got hold of some good ones. The "story" of my mission suddenly +appeared in the newspapers, and interest in my old exploits as a flying +man were revived embarrassingly. I was "paragraphed" for a few days +when war tidings happened to be dull; and to my surprise received an +invitation to demonstrate my "stunt" of looping a double loop at a new +aviation park, opened on Long Island. The exhibition resulted in +another compliment. I was asked to instruct a class of young aviators, +and was officially advised by the British Ambassador to accept. I did +accept: and was given a "plane" and a hangar of my own; but I kept on +my suite in the hotel near Sisterhood House, starting at an early hour +most mornings to motor to the aviation ground. +</P> + +<P> +After a few weeks of this, a big aviation meeting took place, and when +my part in it was over I found myself holding quite a reception in my +hangar. Friends and strangers had kind things to say: and while I +explained new features of my 'plane to some pretty women, I saw a +prettier woman gazing wistfully at me between hats. +</P> + +<P> +Her face was familiar. I remembered that tremulous, wistful smile of +eyes and lips, which (the thought flashed through my head) would be +fine stock-in-trade for an actress. Still, for the life of me, I +couldn't recall the girl's name or whether we had ever really met, +until her chance came to dash into the breach made by disappearing +plumes and feathers. She seized the opportunity with a promptness that +argued well for her bump of decision: but she was helped to success by +the tallest, thinnest, brightest-eyed young man I had ever seen. +</P> + +<P> +"You've forgotten me, Lord John!" the girl reproached me. "I'm Helen +Hartland. Does that name bring back anything?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course!" I answered, remembering where and how I had met Helen +Hartland. She had made her debut on the stage several years ago in a +curtain-raiser of mine, my first and last attempt at playwriting "on my +own." Her part had been a small one, but she had played it well and +looked lovely in it. I had congratulated her. When the run ended, she +had asked for introductions to people I knew in the theatrical world, +and I had given them. She had written me a few letters, telling of +engagements she had got (nothing good unfortunately) and wanting me to +see her act. I had never been able to do so; but I had sent her +flowers once on a first night. +</P> + +<P> +Not trusting to my recollection, she reminded me of these things, and +introduced the tall, thin, bright-eyed young man. +</P> + +<P> +"You must have heard of Charlie Bridges, the California Birdman, as +everybody calls him!" she said. And then went on to explain, as if she +didn't want their relations misunderstood: "We met on the ship coming +over, and Mr. Bridges was <I>so</I> kind! Our steamer chairs were together, +and he lent me a copy of <I>Sketch</I> with a picture of him in it! Wasn't +it funny, there was a picture of <I>you</I>, too, and I mentioned knowing +you? Next, it came out that he was bringing a letter of introduction +to you from a friend of yours at home. We landed only two days ago. I +was so happy, for I've had hard luck for months, and I thought I was +falling into a ripping engagement. But it was a fraud—the <I>queerest</I> +fraud! I can't understand it a bit. I want to tell you all about it +and get your advice. Mr. Bridges brought me to the meeting here. It +<I>was</I> nice of him. But now I've paid him back, haven't I, putting him +in touch with you?" +</P> + +<P> +Charlie Bridges listened to the monologue with varying emotions, as I +could see in his face which was ingeniously expression-ful. Evidently +he had fallen in love with Helen Hartland, and was not pleased to stand +still listening to protestations of gratitude for small past favours +from me. She realised his state of feeling as well as I did, perhaps +better, being a woman: and what her motive in exciting him to jealousy +was, I couldn't be sure. Maybe she wished to bring him to the point +(though he looked eager to impale himself upon it!), maybe she simply +didn't care how he felt, and wanted him to understand this once for +all: or possibly it amused her to play us off against each other. +</P> + +<P> +In any case, I put myself out to be pleasant to Bridges, who seemed a +nice fellow, and was, I knew, a smart aviator. He had been in France +at the time of my accident, and had not returned to America since then. +He had news from London and Paris to give me, and even if Helen +Hartland had not insisted, we should have struck up a friendship. +</P> + +<P> +I invited them to have food with me at the brand new Aviation Park +Hotel (as it called itself), saying that we'd "feed" in the roof-garden +restaurant, of which the proprietors were proud. Bridges hesitated, +possibly disliking to accept hospitality from the hated rival: but as +Helen said "yes," rather than leave her to my tender mercies, the poor +chap followed suit. +</P> + +<P> +The hotel had been run up in next to no time, to catch aviation "fans," +and the roof-garden was a smart idea, as patrons could sit there eating +and drinking, and see the flying at the same time. It was small, but +nicely arranged, partly glassed in, partly open, with a "lift" to rush +dishes up from the kitchen (this was practically concealed with +trellis-work covered with creepers trying to grow in pots), and a low +wall or parapet with flowers planted in a shallow strip of earth. The +weather was fine, so we chose a table in the open, for our late +luncheon. My place—with Helen at my right, and Bridges opposite us +both—was close to the parapet, so close that I could peer over a row +of pink geraniums, to the newly-sodded lawn and gravelled paths below. +As it happened I did peer while we waited for our oysters, +sub-consciously attracted perhaps by the interest an elderly waiter was +taking in someone or somebody down there. I was just in time to see a +face look up, not to me but to the waiter. Instantly the head ducked, +presenting to my eyes only the top of a wide-brimmed soft hat of black +felt—an old-fashioned hat. +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove!" I said to myself, and had to beg Helen's pardon for losing a +remark of hers: for that quick, snap-shot glance had shown me features +like those of the priceless Rameses. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, what can <I>he</I> be doing here—if it is he?" I wondered. It was +absurd to fancy that he might bribe a waiter to poison my food, and so +rid himself of me once for all. No: poisoning—anyhow at second +hand—wasn't in Rameses' line. Besides, his waiter wasn't my waiter, +which would complicate the plot for a neat murder. As the man walked +away (I still watching) his back was not like that of Rameses, if I had +ever seen the real Rameses. The police thought I had not. I thought I +had: but the picture in my mind was of a person erect and +distinguished: this figure was slouching and common. +</P> + +<P> +I was not, however, to be caught napping. I called to the waiter who +now, instead of looking down to the lawn, was picking dead leaves off +the pink geraniums. "That was Doctor Rameses of New York, wasn't it?" +I fired at him, staring into his anemic Austrian face. It did not +change, unless to drop such little expression as it had worn. Utter +blankness must mean complete innocence or extreme subtlety. I could +hardly credit the fellow with the latter. "Doctor Ra—mps?" he echoed. +"Who—where, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"Down below: the man you were looking at," I explained, still fixing +him with a basilisk eye. +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head. "I wasn't lookin' at no man, sir," he protested. +"I was lookin' at nothin' at all." +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the slouch hat and slouching figure had disappeared into the +crowd which still ringed the aviation ground. I abandoned the inquest, +and turned my attention to Helen and Bridges. +</P> + +<P> +As we lunched, I learned the history of Helen's trip to America, and +the "fraud" she had spoken of as "queer." It seemed that, a few days +after the suburban theatre she was acting in had closed, she received a +long cable message from New York. A man signing himself "William +Morgan, Manager Excelsis Motion Picture Corporation" offered her the +"lead" in a forthcoming production. He explained expensively that he +had seen her act and thought her ideal for the part. She was to have +six months' certain engagement with a salary of a hundred dollars a +week, and her dresses and travelling expenses were to be paid by the +management. She was to reply by wire, and if she accepted, five +hundred dollars would be advanced to her by cable. +</P> + +<P> +The address given, "29, Vandusen Street, New York," did not sound +"swell" to an English actress who vaguely thought of Broadway and Fifth +Avenue as being the only streets "over there." Still, the promise of +an advance gave an air of bona-fides, and Helen had answered "Yes. +Start on receipt of money." +</P> + +<P> +By return, the money came, and the girl took the first ship available, +telegraphing again to Mr. Morgan. She expected him to meet her at the +docks, but he "never materialised," and "if it hadn't been for Mr. +Bridges she didn't know what she would have done!" Bridges it was who +took her in a taxi to 29, Vandusen Street, which address proved to be +that of a tobacconist in a small way of business. There she was told +that a man named William Morgan had paid for the privilege of receiving +"mail," but only a couple of telegrams had come. He had called for +them, but had not been seen since. The proprietor of the shop vowed +that he knew nothing of Morgan. The man had walked in one day, bought +a box of expensive cigars, and made the arrangement mentioned. Bridges +inquired "what he was like," but the tobacconist shook his head dully. +Morgan looked like everybody else, neither old nor young, fair nor +dark, fat nor lean. If you met him once, you couldn't be sure you +would know him again. +</P> + +<P> +"I've three hundred and fifty dollars left," Helen said at last, "all I +have in the world, for I was stoney-broke when the cable came. Of +course I can't live on that money long. But as I'm here, I shall stop +and try to get something to do. I'm puzzled to death, though, why +'Morgan'—whoever he is—picked <I>me</I> out, or why it was worth his while +to send a hundred pounds and then never turn up at the ship." +</P> + +<P> +"It does seem odd," I agreed. "He may have been scared off from +meeting you—or arrested. However, you'd better be careful what +acquaintances you make." +</P> + +<P> +"I <I>want</I> to be careful," the girl said. "But I <I>must</I> find work. And +I can't do that without making some acquaintances, can I?—whether +they're dangerous or not! Unless—oh, Lord John, if you could <I>only</I> +put me in the way of an engagement, no matter how small. I've heard +your play was a great success. You must know a lot of managers over +here and— +</P> + +<P> +"I don't," I answered her. "My activities lately haven't been in +theatres! I'm afraid——" I was going on, but stopped suddenly. She +had said "an engagement no matter how small." I would take her at her +word! +</P> + +<P> +"You've thought of something for me!" she exclaimed, while Bridges +sulked because he numbered no theatrical potentates among his friends. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm almost ashamed to suggest it," I said, "but I could get you a +'job' of a sort here. The proprietor of this hotel and his wife (good +creatures and ambitious to cut a dash in the fashionable world) want a +pretty girl—a 'real actress'—to sing and recite in the roof-garden +these fine summer evenings. I don't suppose you——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes I <I>would</I>! I'd love to be here. It would be <I>fun</I>!" Helen +broke in. "I adore flying; and I should see <I>you</I> often—and Mr. +Bridges too, perhaps. Anyhow, it would do to go on with till I got +something else, if they'd pay me a 'living wage.'" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be your agent, sing your praises and screw up your price," I +imprudently volunteered. Imprudently, because having arranged matters +between the hotel people and Miss Hartland, I found her gratitude +oppressive. She said it was gratitude; yet she seemed to think that I +had got her placed at the Aviation Park Hotel in order to enjoy her +society. This was not the case. Helen Hartland was pretty, with +charming ways for those who liked them: but I was in the state of mind +which sees superlative beauty and charm in one woman only. Because I +was separated from Maida Odell by force of circumstances while she +remained with the Grey Sisterhood, it was irritating to see other girls +flitting about free to do as they pleased. It bored me when I had to +lunch or dine at the hotel to find Helen always on hand with "something +to tell," or my "advice to ask." +</P> + +<P> +Whether the girl had taken a fancy to me, or whether she was amusing +herself by exciting Bridges' jealousy, I didn't know: I knew only that +I was bothered, and that Bridges was miserable. +</P> + +<P> +Helen lived in the hotel from the first, partly through kindness on the +part of her employers, partly perhaps because they thought her presence +an attraction. They gave her a decent salary—more than she had ever +earned in the small parts she'd played at home: she dressed well, and +made a "hit" with her sweet soprano voice, her really glorious +yellow-brown hair, and that wistful smile of hers. Next door to the +best and biggest bedroom in the house was a small room which connected +with the larger one, and could be used as a dressing-room. Nobody ever +engaged it for that purpose, however, and Mrs. Edson, the landlady, +suggested that Miss Hartland should occupy the little room until it was +wanted. The girl described it to me as delightful. There were double +doors between it and the large room adjoining, so that one wasn't +disturbed by voices on the other side. There was also a door opening +close to the service stairway which went up to the roof-garden. This +was convenient for Helen, before and after her songs and recitations. +She bought little knick-knacks to make her quarters pretty and, with a +patent folding-bed and a screen or two was able to ask her friends in, +as if she were the proud possessor of a private sitting-room. +</P> + +<P> +I made excuses instead of calls; but one day I was lured in to see +Charlie Bridges (who by then had a hangar on the grounds) do his +wonderful "stunt," considered by the Edsons a fine advertisement for +their hotel. It was not, however, for purposes of advertisement that +the California Birdman performed the "stunt" in question, but rather +for love of Helen Hartland. In the small, smart "one seater" which he +was using, he would dive from a height, swoop past Helen's open window +and throw in a bunch of roses. It was said that his aim was invariably +true, a more difficult feat than might be supposed: anyhow the day that +I was there to witness the exhibition it was a brilliant success. +Whether by accident or design the flowers hit me on the head, and if +Charlie were really jealous he accomplished a neat revenge. +</P> + +<P> +"I could see you as plain as a pikestaff sitting there," he said +afterwards. "Oh, I don't mean the 'plain' or the 'pikestaff' in a +nasty way, Lord John. I only mean I recognised you as I flew by." +</P> + +<P> +"And Mrs. Edson too, who was with us, I suppose," I hurried to say: for +I didn't wish the boy to think that he had anything to fear from me. I +saw from his manner, however, when we happened to meet, that he was +worried, and to give him the chance which I didn't want for myself, I +began to avoid Helen. +</P> + +<P> +This course wasn't easy to steer, I found, while duty kept me often at +the aviation grounds. She sent me notes. I had to answer them. She +asked me to lend her books. I couldn't refuse. At last she wrote a +letter, confessing that she had got into trouble about money. Her +salary "wasn't bad, considering"; but she hadn't understood American +prices. She'd been stupid enough to run into debt. Would I, as her +countryman, help her out of just <I>one</I> scrape, and she wouldn't get +into another? Of course, Mr. Bridges would be glad to do it, but she +didn't want to take a favour from him. I was "different." +</P> + +<P> +I sent her a hundred dollars, the sum she specified, but in writing her +thanks, she "chaffed" me for not making out a cheque. "I believe you +think me capable of trying to get a hold on you," she wrote. Naturally +I didn't bother to reply to that taunt, but kept out of Helen's way +more persistently than before, until one afternoon Mrs. Edson +buttonholed me. I happened to have seen Helen on her way to New York, +so I was venturing to lunch at the hotel. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm worried about Miss Hartland, Lord John," she began. "A sweet +girl, but I'm afraid she's being silly! Do you know what she goes to +New York for so often?" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know she did go often," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, she does. She's taking lessons in hypnotism or something and I +believe she's paying a lot of money. A circular came to her about a +course of lectures, claiming that the <I>will</I> could be strengthened, and +any object in life accomplished. That caught poor Helen. She simply +ate up the lectures, and became a pupil of the man who gave them. +That's why her salary's gone as soon as she gets it—and sooner! Poor +child, I'm sorry. The thing she <I>ought</I> to want, she won't take. The +thing she does want she can't have, if she spends every cent trying to +gain 'hypnotic power.'" +</P> + +<P> +"What does she so violently want, if it's permitted to ask?" I inquired. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Edson looked at me in a queer, sidewise way. "You'd only be cross +if I told you," she said. So instead of repeating the question, I +asked another. "Who is the professor of hypnotism who gives Miss +Hartland lessons?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't remember," the landlady replied. "I saw the circular, but +that was some time ago, and I've forgotten. Now, the child won't talk +about him." +</P> + +<P> +The thought of Rameses sprang into my mind. I recalled the mystery of +Helen's summons to America. Could it be possible that Doctor Rameses +had wanted a "cat's-paw" for some new chestnuts to be pulled out of the +fire? What would Helen Hartland's poor little paw avail him for that +work? I went on wondering. But the ways of the Egyptian were past +finding out—or had been, up to date. It was within the bounds of +possibility that thinking to compromise me, he had sought in England a +girl—preferably an actress—whom I had known; within the same bounds +that he might have induced her to cross the sea, in the hope that, once +on this side, we might play his game. So far-fetched an idea would +never have come into my head, had not Mrs. Edson mentioned the +circular, and the professor of hypnotism. But once in, I couldn't get +it out. I determined to take the next chance to catechise Helen. +</P> + +<P> +It arrived by accident, or I thought so, believing myself a free agent; +instead of which I was a fly blundering into a spider's web. +</P> + +<P> +From Maida Odell and from the elderly waiter who had looked over the +parapet at a man in a broad-brimmed hat, I have since obtained threads +which show how the web was woven: but some disastrous days were to pass +first. +</P> + +<P> +During this time I heard nothing from Maida, but I had memories to +comfort me, and it was good to feel how few miles were between us. +Strange that, few as they were, no telepathic thrill was able to warn +me of what was happening behind the high garden walls of the Sisterhood +House! +</P> + +<P> +Maida has told me since, how the Head Sister called her one day for a +talk. "I want to make a little journey and try to do a little good," +the grey-veiled lady said in the deep voice which Maida had once +thought sweet as the tones of a 'cello. "I should like you to go with +me, but—there is a reason why perhaps you would rather I took someone +else. Still, I feel bound to give you the choice, as you are my +dearly-loved and trusted friend through <I>everything</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"Why should I want you to take someone else, Sister?" Maida asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Because—a man who would steal you away from us if he could, is often +at the place where we must go. He visits the young English girl I am +asked to help; and I fear that his interest in her is not for her good. +Now, dear child, don't be angry with me for saying this! I don't ask +you to believe. I tell you only what I hear from my philanthropic +friend in New York who enables us to do some of our best work. I wish +he would let his name be mentioned, but even his right hand is never +allowed to know what the left hand doeth! In any case the girl is in +difficulties, as this doer of noble works hears from one of his +assistants. She is an actress who sings in a gay, rowdy sort of hotel +frequented by sportsmen and their friends. I am requested to offer her +a home here, if she chooses to come, and eventually to send her back to +England at the expense of the Sisterhood funds. Now you see why I +spoke. You shall go or stay, as you wish." +</P> + +<P> +Once Maida had thought all the Head Sister's precepts and acts beyond +criticism. But things had passed in Sisterhood House which had +slightly—almost imperceptibly—broken the crystal surface of perfect +trust. She found herself wondering: "Why does Sister advise me not to +think of Lord John? Why does she hint horrid things of him, yet take +me where we may meet?" +</P> + +<P> +There was no answer to this question in Maida's mind, but she said that +she would go with the Head Sister on the "mission": and in her heart +she hoped that we might meet. She had been tried and tested before, +and again she was loyal in thought. +</P> + +<P> +The conversation between those two at Sisterhood House took place the +day after my talk with Mrs. Edson. And while Maida and the Head Sister +discussed the short journey they planned to make, I was probably +dashing off a hasty letter to Helen Hartland. "I want to see you," I +wrote, "about something rather important. Please send a line in +answer, and tell me at what time I may call to-morrow afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +In answer to this, Helen replied that she would see me at five o'clock. +"I'm very unhappy," she added. "I know you want me to go back to +England, and I believe you're <I>afraid</I> of me. I think you are cruel, +but I'm thankful you're coming to see me of your own free will." +</P> + +<P> +I should have been dumbfounded at this morbid nonsense, if the thought +of Rameses hadn't been haunting my mind. If he were the power behind +the throne in this business, he might have stuffed the girl with false +ideas about me, or else actually have hypnotised her to write in this +unbalanced fashion. +</P> + +<P> +I had been in my hangar, or flying, most of the day, and came to the +hotel half an hour before the appointment, to make myself tidy for a +call. Looking out from the window I saw a grey automobile flash by and +slow down as if to stop at the door. Whether it did stop or no, I +couldn't be sure, as I could not see so far; nor should I have been +interested had the thought not flashed through my head that it looked +like the car which belonged to Sisterhood House. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing seemed less likely than that it should come to the Aviation +Park Hotel: and there were many autos of that make and colour on Long +Island. I thought no more about it, little dreaming of the surprise +Doctor Rameses' genius had prepared for Maida and for me. Now I ask +myself where was my prophetic soul wandering at that moment? Perhaps +it was searching for Maida: but it would only have to look close at +hand to see her walking in to the hotel in the adorably becoming +costume of the Grey Sisterhood. The inevitable Head Sister was with +her, of course: but not in command, according to custom. Even before +starting, she had complained of a headache, and Maida had suggested +putting off the expedition: but the sufferer refused such +self-indulgence. During the drive to the hotel, she was speechless +with pain, and Maida, who had never seen the strong, vital directress +in such a condition, was anxious. "I'm afraid we must take a room in +the hotel for a while, where I may lie down until I'm able to see Miss +Hartland," the Head Sister said as the grey car drew up at the door. +Maida was thankful for this concession, but surprised that she should +be told, in a faint voice, to engage the best room in the house. The +Head Sister was usually spartan in her ways, setting an example of +self-sacrifice to all those under her care. +</P> + +<P> +Maida obeyed without comment, however, and the big room adjoining Helen +Hartland's, with the double doors between, was given to the two ladies +of the Grey Sisterhood. +</P> + +<P> +These happenings—and certain developments which followed quickly—I +learned long afterwards from Maida's own lips, when we were putting +"two and two together." From the elderly Austrian who acted as a +waiter in the roof-garden I forced another part of the same story, +hearing from him that he had been one of Rameses' many servants. This +I succeeded in doing too late to pull myself out of the pit which was +waiting (at this very moment) for me to tumble into it. Nevertheless +there was satisfaction later in knowing that my researches had never +strayed from the right track. +</P> + +<P> +It had been raining that day, I remember—an unlucky thing for the +aviation "fans," come from far and near to see a new way of looping the +loop demonstrated by two American pupils of mine, and myself: a lucky +thing for the most daring experiment ever attempted by Doctor Rameses. +People were walking about between nights, with umbrellas held low over +their heads to protect them the better from a straight, steady +downpour. Thus, roofed with wet silk domes they could see little +except their own feet and each other. It was only when something +happened aloft that it was worth while to unroof themselves: and at +such moments all attention was concentrated on the sky. The air-show +was a good one. Soaked enthusiasts rushed to the hotel for a "quick +lunch" and drinks and rushed away again, or congregated on the roof +with sandwiches in their hands. Waiters in the roof-restaurant walked +with chins up: and there was a moment when one of their number—old +Anton, the Austrian—was able to lure even the kitchen staff, cooks and +all, out of doors for a few minutes. By a weird decree of fate, it was +a flight of mine that they were invited to desert duty in order to +witness! +</P> + +<P> +While the kitchen was empty and the door open, with men's backs turned +to it, Anton had given a signal. A mackintoshed figure slipped in, and +finding the coast clear, made for the food elevator, which was ready to +mount. Inside there was room for a man to crouch. Anton, darting into +the kitchen, sent the lift up: then darted out again to tell the cook +and cook's assistant a spicy anecdote about me! +</P> + +<P> +There was no stop for the elevator between kitchen and roof. It was a +slow traveller, and as the open front rose above the restaurant floor, +the crouching man within could see at a glance what hope he had of +running the gauntlet. The moment could not have been better chosen. I +was in the act of doubling my loop, and everyone on the roof—guests +and waiters—had crowded to the flower-fringed parapet. The lift was +artistically concealed by an arbour of white painted trellis-work, as I +have explained; but sharp eyes could peer between the squares overhung +with climbing plants, and see all that went on upon the other side. +The crouching figure crept out, rose, and precipitated itself down the +service stairway whose railed-in wall was also masked by the trellis +arbour. +</P> + +<P> +It could not have been long after this that I finished my work for the +day, and came to the hotel, as I have said, to keep my appointment with +Helen Hartland; but meanwhile there had been time for the man in the +high-collared mackintosh coat to finish <I>his</I> work also. He had not, +of course, ventured to try returning by the way he came, but had run +down the service stairs and walked out of the house by a side entrance. +Thanks to the rain and the umbrellas, and the call of the sky, he +escaped, as he entered, without being seen. If Anton had not been +compelled to betray him later, the mystery of the Aviation Park Hotel +would never have been solved. +</P> + +<P> +Before I went (as requested in Helen's last letter) to knock at her +door, a new cause of excitement had arisen. Charlie Bridges had +crashed to earth in his machine, close to the hotel, and crowds had +collected round the fallen aeroplane. Those who saw the fall, were +able to explain why the 'plane was scarcely injured. Bridges had been +swooping at the time, so close to earth that the drop amounted to +nothing: but for some curious reason he had lost control of the +machine. He was far more seriously hurt than he ought to have been, +for not having been strapped in, he had slid from his seat somehow, and +been caught under the machine. Unconscious and suffering from +concussion the "California Birdman" was carried into a ground floor +room of the hotel, while a "hurry call" was sent over the telephone for +the nearest doctor. +</P> + +<P> +All this happened unknown to me, for the room in which I was dressing +was on the opposite side of the house. Any shouts I heard, or running +men I saw through the window, were only part of the ordinary show for +me. At precisely five o'clock I went my way through various corridors +and knocked at Helen's door, in ignorance of Charlie Bridges' +misfortune. +</P> + +<P> +The door stood slightly ajar, as if Helen had left it so purposely for +me: but no answer followed my knock. I tapped again more loudly, and +the door fell open at my touch. No one was in the room; but close to +the window, on the floor, I saw a bunch of crimson roses, wet with rain. +</P> + +<P> +"Bridges!" I said to myself, with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment I hesitated outside the door: yet rather than go away and +miss the girl when she arrived (I imagined that she had run up to the +roof), or lurk in the corridor to be stared at by passing servants, I +decided to walk into the room and wait. Probably, I thought, this was +what Helen had meant, in leaving the door ajar. +</P> + +<P> +If the door of the next room had opened at that instant, and Maida had +looked out, the history of the wretched weeks which followed might have +been different for us both. But the door remained closed, and no +instinct told me who was behind it. No one saw me walk into Helen +Hartland's room; and therefore no one could tell at what hour I had +entered. +</P> + +<P> +I did not look out of the window, or I should have seen the fallen +aeroplane which must still have been on the ground. I left the +flowers—red as their giver's blood—lying on the floor for Helen to +find when she came: but minutes passed and Helen did not come. +</P> + +<P> +I sat down in a chair drawn up by the table and glanced at a couple of +books. Both had been lent by me at Helen's request, and had my name on +the flyleaf. I laid them down again impatiently on the gaudy cotton +tablecloth; and took out my watch. Ten minutes after five! ... Soon it +was the quarter past. I was resolving impatiently to scrawl a line on +a visiting-card, and go, when I heard a slight noise, as if someone in +the adjoining room were unlocking a door. I knew from Helen's +description that there were two doors, with a distance of at least +twelve inches between. +</P> + +<P> +"Can she be using that other room, too?" I wondered: when suddenly +there rang out a scream of horror, in a woman's voice. It seemed to me +that it was like Maida's, though that must be a mere obsession! but I +sprang to my feet, dragging off the tablecloth and bringing down on the +floor books, papers, and a vase of flowers. My chair fell over also: +and all this confusion in the room was afterwards used against me. +</P> + +<P> +I rushed to the door leading out to the corridor—which I had closed on +entering—and found a swarm of people, guests and waiters, already +pouring down the service stairs from the roof-garden just above. +Everyone saw me come out of Helen Hartland's room: but even if they had +not seen, there was my hat with my initials in it, on the floor with +the rest of the fallen things, to testify to my late presence. +</P> + +<P> +As we crowded the narrow corridor, the door of the "best room" whence +the scream had come, was flung wide open, and to my amazement, Maida +Odell—in her grey costume of the Sisterhood—rushed out pale as a dead +girl. +</P> + +<P> +"Murder! A woman murdered!" she whispered rather than cried, as one +strives voicelessly to shriek in a dream. Just then she saw me, and +held out both hands as if for help. I pushed past everyone else and +got to her: but others surged forward and she and I gave way before the +crowd. A dozen men at least must have jostled into the room after us; +but at the instant I hardly knew that they were there. I saw a big +woman in grey drawing a veil closely round her face as she rose from a +cushioned lounge: and I saw lying on the floor the body of Helen +Hartland with a thin stiletto sticking in her breast—a stiletto I had +lent her to use as a paper knife. I recognised it instantly in +redoubled horror, though not thinking then of consequences for myself. +</P> + +<P> +By this time a policeman—one of those always present on the aviation +grounds—forced his way through the crowd massed in the corridor. He +got rid in summary fashion of everyone, except the two ladies, +occupants of the room, myself (because I seemed to know and have some +business with them) and the landlord. Another policeman who followed +close on his heels, guarded the doors of the adjoining rooms, and +doubtless a third busied himself in sending off frantic telephone calls. +</P> + +<P> +Helen Hartland lay on her back on the pale grey carpet stained with her +blood; and Maida told tremulously how the tragedy had been discovered. +The Head Sister, feeling ill, had lain down on a sofa not far from the +door of communication between this room and the next. She had fancied +a noise on the other side, and asked Maida to try if the door were +fastened. Strangely, it was not (though Edson cut in to protest that +it, and all other communicating doors were invariably locked). The +door had opened as the handle turned, and to the girl's horror the +figure of a dead woman—standing squeezed in between the two doors—had +fallen into the room. +</P> + +<P> +Hardly had the faltering explanation reached this point when a doctor +arrived—the man who had been in the hotel, attending Charlie Bridges. +He examined the body, pronounced that life had not been extinct for +half an hour, and thought from the position of the weapon, that death +had been caused by another hand than Helen's own. +</P> + +<P> +There was, of course, no difficulty in identifying the girl, for the +landlord and I were both on the spot retained to give evidence. It +soon came out that Helen Hartland had told Mrs. Edson she expected a +visit from Lord John Hasle, and I without hesitation admitted making +it. The Head Sister chimed in, saying that she and her friend had come +for the express purpose of seeing Miss Hartland and persuading her to +leave "her unsuitable position." The adjoining room was entered, for +it was found that the second of the double doors was unlocked. The +confusion was remarked, and silence was maintained when I told how in +jumping up at the sound of the scream I had thrown down a chair and +pulled off a tablecloth. +</P> + +<P> +The books with my name written in them were handled by the policeman +who had taken charge, and by his superior who soon arrived on the +scene. Letters of mine—albeit innocent ones—were unearthed. A few +drops of blood were discovered on the strawberry-coloured carpet +between the table and the door, as well as between the double doors, in +the narrow space into which the body had been thrust. Worse than all, +my monogram was seen to adorn the stiletto paper-knife; and later (when +I had been rather reluctantly arrested on suspicion) the last letter +Helen had written turned up in my pocket. I had slipped it in and +forgotten about it; but with so many damaging pieces of evidence that +capped the climax. The girl accused me in so many words of wishing to +get her out of the way, to send her back to England. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed like a nightmare, and a stupid nightmare: one of those +nightmares when you know you are awake yet cannot rouse yourself: I, +John Hasle, brother and heir to the Marquis of Haslemere, lay under +strong suspicion of having murdered a pretty little third-rate actress +who had become troublesome to my "lordship"—Helen Hartland. +</P> + +<P> +Everything was against me, nothing apparently for me: yet I was almost +insolently sure that my innocence would prove itself, until the lawyer +my friends engaged in my defence showed me how seriously he took the +matter. +</P> + +<P> +"You're in a bad fix," he said, "unless we can find someone to prove +that you weren't in that room long enough to have killed the girl and +hidden her between the doors. You see, that would have been a smart +dodge on the murderer's part, putting her there. If the next room +hadn't happened to be occupied (it seldom is, the landlady says) the +man who did the trick would have had plenty of time to get away before +the crime was found out. It was an accident that there were ladies on +the other side to open the door of their room and see what was behind +it. Your letters, your books, your stiletto——" +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to me the stiletto is a proof of my innocence, not of my +guilt," I ventured. "If I'd wanted to kill the girl, I wouldn't have +done it in a way to incriminate myself, would I?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hobson's choice," said the famous James Jeckelman, shrugging his +shoulders. "You might have been in a rage and a hurry and had to take +what there was at hand. You couldn't have shot her, because of the +noise. It was a stab or nothing. No. If we're to save you, we must +get hold of someone who <I>saw</I>." +</P> + +<P> +That was easy to say, but not to do. Not a soul came forward to state +that I had opened Helen Hartland's door at precisely five o'clock, to +find the room empty; and that at a quarter past five the girl's body +had fallen into the room next door. Even if there had been such +evidence in my favour, it could not have freed me from suspicion. +There might have been time to murder the girl, and hide her between the +doors in less than fifteen minutes. But it was strange that she had +not screamed. +</P> + +<P> +Circumstantial evidence piled up: and the most hateful part for me was +that Maida, as well as the directress of the Grey Sisterhood, should be +called as a witness. I writhed at the thought that Maida was involved +in the case, a case concerning the murder of a woman supposed to have +loved me "not wisely but too well." +</P> + +<P> +At first I thought only of this distressing phase of the business: but +it wasn't long before I began to realise that Jeckelman had not +exaggerated. My "position" was not to be allowed to tell in my favour, +and socialists were hot in anger against the British "lord" who thought +he could break any commandment he chose in America. +</P> + +<P> +If only I had been sure how Maida felt, there might have been a rift in +the dark sky. Could it be that her loyalty had stood this greatest +test, or had the evidence and the Head Sister's hatred done their work? +I could not tell, and day after day I saw more clearly that I might go +to my death without knowing. +</P> + +<P> +The coroner's inquest had found against me: and the trial was coming on +when one day Charlie Bridges suddenly woke to consciousness. For weeks +he had lain between life and death. The concussion from which he +suffered was so severe that for a time he had been a mere log. His +soul seemed to have gone out of him. Delirium followed this state. +Then he fell into a long, sound sleep, and waking, his first words +were: "What's happened since I fell? Have they got the man who made +Helen Hartland kill herself?" +</P> + +<P> +The nurse who heard these questions thought that delirium had seized +her patient again: but the doctor, coming in at that moment, understood +that Bridges was in a normal state of mind. He realised that every +word the sick man said might mean life or death for me. Cautiously he +answered the question by another, speaking quietly, not to startle his +patient. "Did Helen Hartland kill herself? Weeks have passed since +you've been laid up, and the case was supposed to be murder." +</P> + +<P> +"It was the same as murder," Bridges answered wearily. "Nearly +everyone who knew us, knew I used to fly past her window and fling in a +bunch of flowers. It was one of my stunts. I could always see what +Helen was doing if she was in: and there was generally time for a +smile. A smile's a thing quickly done. And that was the reward I got. +This last time I saw a man standing over her in a strange way with his +hand on her forehead, for all the world as if he was hypnotising her: a +big tall man I'd never seen before. I was so surprised that I turned +and flew back. The fellow must have seen my flowers fall into the room +with my first go; but the second time I swooped past, Helen was +<I>stabbing herself</I> with a kind of stiletto. That was all I saw. I +went queer and sick, and felt that I'd lost control. My one thought +was to get out and save her. I believe I must have tried to jump. +That's the last thing I remember." +</P> + +<P> +When he had finished, he fell back exhausted, and had to be revived. +But there wasn't much time to waste. Knowing the immense importance of +the statement, Doctor Graves got Bridges to repeat it as soon as he was +able. As the words left his lips they were taken down, and then signed +by him. Later he swore that the man he had seen with Helen was not +Lord John Hasle. +</P> + +<P> +"If it had been, I'd have let him go to the chair, even if he didn't +kill her with his own hands. I'd not have opened my mouth to help +him," Bridges said. "I hated the fellow because Helen liked him better +than me. But I must say he didn't seem to encourage her much. Anyhow +I can't keep still and let an innocent man die." +</P> + +<P> +When asked if he could identify the hypnotist. Bridges was not sure. +All he could say "for certain," he persisted, was that "John Hasle was +younger and slighter and altogether a different type: there was no +chance of a mistake." +</P> + +<P> +I was saved—saved by my rival, poor Charlie Bridges, the last man on +earth to whom I should have looked for help. But then, his help didn't +precisely come from the earth: it came from the air. +</P> + +<P> +I had been a fool, and I felt unworthy of the traditions I had made for +myself, not to have suspected in what manner the crime had been +committed. Of course I had thought of Doctor Rameses. I thought +always of Doctor Rameses! But I had not seen any way of connecting him +with the murder of Helen Hartland, even if he were the man to whom she +had gone for lessons in "will power." Now, I saw the way, and I +believed that at last the police would see also. Indeed, they were +ready to see. When Rameses' name as one of the leading "crank doctors" +of New York was earnestly brought forward by me, it was arranged that +Bridges was to be given a sight of him. Unfortunately, however, on the +day when the California Birdman first woke from his long trance, and it +was prematurely announced in the papers that his delirium might be +followed by a return of normal consciousness, Doctor Rameses left town +for a holiday. His servants said that he had been suffering from +nervous strain through hard work, and had been preparing for some time +to take a rest. His favourite summer country resort was, it appeared, +the White Mountains. He was sought there, but not found. And I +believed that he never would be found—unless by me. +</P> + +<P> +My only happy souvenir of these miserable weeks was a letter from +Maida, which I shall keep as long as I live. +</P> + +<P> +"I knew from the first that you were innocent," she wrote, "and if I +had been called I intended to say so in the witness-box." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +EPISODE VII +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE WATCHING EYE +</H3> + +<P> +"What shall I do?" I asked myself as I read a letter from Maida. +</P> + +<P> +She begged a small and simple service, yet—I hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +Roger Odell had begged me to look after her as well as I could in the +circumstances, during his long absence. Those circumstances were +difficult ones: for I was not allowed to visit her at the Sisterhood +House, and she never went out unchaperoned by her "friend" the +directress. Her wish was that I should give her the key of her +"sanctum" at Roger Odell's shut-up house in New York. A caretaker +named Winter, one of the old servants, was in charge of the place; but +I had been appointed special guardian of the "shrine," as Maida called +this sacred room. +</P> + +<P> +"Shrine" was indeed rather an appropriate name; since it contained +treasures which formed the sole link between the girl and her lost +past. She had been brought, a child of four, by her dying mother to +the father of Roger Odell, and her sole possessions had been a couple +of miniatures, a curious Egyptian fetish, and an Egyptian mummy in a +fine, painted mummy-case. The miniatures had been enlarged into +life-size portraits of Maida's mother and a man in the uniform of a +British officer, whom she believed to be her father. Both portraits +hung on the wall of the "shrine," together with one of Roger Odell, +Senior. These, with the mummy-case, were the sole contents of the room. +</P> + +<P> +Roger and I had cause to think that enemies of Maida's unknown father +had followed the child and her mother to America: and that the vendetta +would not end until Maida—the last of the family—had paid with her +happiness or even with her life for the sin of some ancestor. We had +cause to think also, that the mummy in its painted case was of +importance to them, and that they had tried in various ways to get hold +of it. For its protection, Roger had had a clever electrical +contrivance fitted up, by means of which anyone not in the secret and +trying to touch the mummy-case would receive a violent shock. Before +going away he had given me the plan of this mechanism, with directions +for applying the current and turning it off. At the same time he had +handed me the key of the shrine which Maida had left with him on +departing for Long Island. +</P> + +<P> +Now, she wanted this key. +</P> + +<P> +"I went yesterday to my dear old home," she wrote, "to visit my +treasures. But the shrine was locked; and Winter told me that Roger +had given you the key. He said also that there was some kind of patent +burglar alarm which had frightened a couple of thieves away, since I +came to stay at Sisterhood House. Is that true? And is there danger +in opening the door? I know I can depend upon you, when you send the +key, to make it safe for me to go in. I'll post the key to you +afterwards, if you like—and if Roger wants you still to be troubled +with it. Please arrange for me to pay my visit to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +It seemed that there was only one way to answer this letter: by saying +that I would arrange for the safety of the visit; and enclosing the key +in my note. Nevertheless I hesitated. I was afraid to send Maida the +key. +</P> + +<P> +It was useless to explain to her the reasons for my seeming +boorishness. She trusted the Head Sister. Nothing that had happened +since she entered the Grey Sisterhood had opened the girl's eyes to the +cruel falseness of the woman, as I saw it. Nothing, not even the +affair of Helen Hartland, had made her believe that the friend she +respected was one of the agents working for her destruction and my +elimination. So I knew that if I refused the key I would seem a stupid +blunderer to Maida. +</P> + +<P> +"If only she'd waited a few days!" I thought. For after many +unsuccessful attempts, we (I and Paul Teano) had contrived to get an +employee—I may as well use the word "spy"—into Sisterhood House. She +was a young but singularly intelligent girl whom Teano's wife, once +known as "Three Fingered Jenny," had lately rescued from a set of +pickpockets and "sneak thieves." We hoped great things from "Nippy +Nance," as a protégée of the Head Sister, who did not suspect the +girl's change of heart and profession. If she could get evidence that +the directress of the Grey Sisterhood was the leader of a criminal +gang, posing as a charitable reformer, I could not only say "I told you +so!" to the incredulous police, but I could convince Maida of her own +peril. +</P> + +<P> +A few days more grace, and Nance might have been able to give us a +satisfactory report! But I dared not delay. I had to decide, for +Maida's letter must be answered. My desire to please her prevailed +over prudence. I persuaded myself that I had no right to refuse such a +request: that I must consent: that my vague fears were foolish. I had +only to watch, and see that no harm came to Maida or to the mummy in +its painted case. +</P> + +<P> +I wrote that, in loyalty to the promise I had made Roger (made for her +sake!) I couldn't leave the shrine without its "patent burglar +protection" (as she called it) over night: but I would go to the house +early in the morning and do everything necessary to ensure her safety +if she wished to touch or open the mummy-case. +</P> + +<P> +"I know if you had been willing to see me there, you would have +suggested my meeting you at the house," I went on. "As you haven't, I +daren't ask to be present: but I'll be in New York and at the Belmont +Hotel all day, expecting a word. Will you call me up, or if not, will +you send a line by messenger to say at what hour I shall go round again +to make the "shrine" burglar proof? I enclose the key: and perhaps you +will leave it for me with the caretaker." +</P> + +<P> +Maida's letter had come to the Long Island hotel. I sent my answer +from there by hand to Sisterhood House, where it would be taken in by a +lay sister at the gate. The boy was ordered to wait for a reply, if +reply there were, but I thought it unlikely Maida would answer so soon. +I fancied she would consult the Head Sister, and that a response would +be delayed till the last minute. I was mistaken, however. My +messenger presently came back with a letter. +</P> + +<P> +It was sweet, and full of gratitude for the "trouble" I was taking. "I +am 'willing' to see you," she quoted. "I'm more than willing! I shall +be glad to see you. I have <I>permission</I> to do so. Will you call at +Roger's house about two o'clock? I don't know what time I shall +arrive; perhaps much earlier; but I promise not to leave until I've had +a talk with you. I'll tell Winter to show you into Roger's study to +wait. I shall have a companion. But it's just possible I may be +granted a few minutes alone with my brother's best friend!" +</P> + +<P> +This made me happier than I had been since the night when I fell in +love with Maida. Nevertheless, I didn't forget the need to watch +Roger's house, from the moment that the "shrine" and the mummy-case +were released from their patent protection. Not that I distrusted +Maida. I believed in her as I believed in Heaven. But she might be +deceived: and it was my business to guard her interests. +</P> + +<P> +I went to the house, as I had agreed to do, early in the morning, and +not only switched off the electric current which protected the shrine +and its contents day and night, but removed the small visible parts of +the apparatus in case someone had the intention of studying the +mechanism. I informed Winter that he might expect Miss Odell with one +of the ladies from the Grey Sisterhood, and that I would return at two +o'clock. I then went back to the hotel where I stayed when in New +York, for I could not bear to do the necessary spying myself. A man +from Teano's agency was engaged to watch the house, and 'phone +instantly if anyone other than the ladies in grey uniform entered; also +if one or both of these ladies went away. +</P> + +<P> +No message came: and a little before two o'clock I arrived at the door. +My man, disguised as a member of the "white wings" brigade, was visible +in the distance. I gave the signal agreed upon to mean "You can go!" +and went, as arranged, into Roger's study at the back of the house, +Winter having told me that "the ladies were upstairs." +</P> + +<P> +I waited for half an hour; for three quarters: and then, growing +anxious, sought the caretaker, who had pottered down into the basement. +He was surprised at my question. "Why, I thought the ladies was both +in the library with you!" he stammered. "I was in the hall, where you +told me to wait. They came down and said they were going to talk to +you. Miss Maida's friend, the lady with the thick veil, had a telegram +to send. She asked me to take it, and gave me something for myself. I +supposed it was all right when I got back just now, to stop in my +quarters for a bit, as the lady said they'd be staying some time." +</P> + +<P> +What a fool I had been to think, because I had arrived on the scene, +that it was safe to send the watcher away! It was my trust of Maida +that had undone me. I had believed so blindly in her promise not to go +without seeing me, that I had thought all danger of a trick was over. +I hadn't reflected that the enemy was clever enough to trick her at the +last minute, as well as me! +</P> + +<P> +I dashed upstairs to the "shrine" found the door open and the +mummy-case gone! This was the worst blow that could fall, because, +once the mummy-case was actually in the hands of those who had schemed +to get it, every hope of Maida's safety seemed to vanish. In the +street, I could find no one who had seen the great painted box carried +from the house or taken away in any vehicle. Next, I inquired at the +houses adjoining, and opposite, with no better luck: but in the shame +and confusion which obscured my mind, it appeared probable that the +Sisterhood car had taken ladies and mummy-case as swiftly as possible +to the Sisterhood House. +</P> + +<P> +My own car was under repair, and I had been spinning round New York in +a taxi. Now, I returned for a moment to my hotel, in the desperate +hope of a message from Maida. There was nothing: but as I was hurrying +out, I met Teano. +</P> + +<P> +"Hurrah, my lord!" he exclaimed. "What luck to catch you like this! I +thought perhaps you'd have got back from Mr. Odell's house by this +time, but if you hadn't I was going round to find you. Is the young +lady all right?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you ask?" I caught him up. +</P> + +<P> +"Because Nance is at our flat. She had leave for the afternoon—the +first time she's got off: a sign they trust her. She's got a report, +my lord. It's a blood-curdler!" +</P> + +<P> +"Take me to your place and let me hear it," I said, reflecting that it +would be stupid to flash off to Long Island, when Nance's news might +save a wild goose chase. At worst, I should lose but a few minutes. +And taxying to Teano's, I told him in a few words what a mess I'd made +of things. +</P> + +<P> +"They won't have gone back to Long Island," he said excitedly. "You'll +understand when you hear Nance and perhaps you'll have some theory." +</P> + +<P> +Nance—a sharp-faced midget who would make as good a thief-catcher as +she had been a thief—was proud of her achievement. She was on the way +to get proof of the Sisterhood's secret. A girl had half confided in +her, and had stopped in fright; but Nance expected to prove soon that +the Grey Sisterhood was a "regular gang," associated with "high up +ones" in New York. "There's a big boss over the whole shebang," she +said, "but he's made a bolt. I don't know where—but I'll find out. I +guess he's jumped the country; and I guess m'lady o' the mask (that's +what we calls the Head Sister behind her back: we all know she wears +somethin' under her veil to hide a beauty spot) will be joinin' him. +She's been sort o' gatherin' things together as if for a flit, these +last two days, but I couldn't make a break to get word to you." +</P> + +<P> +Nance had more to tell, but nothing which directly concerned Maida. We +could only draw our own deductions that the Head Sister wouldn't "flit" +unless she could take the girl. Because Doctor Rameses had found +America too hot for him after his last plot against me, no doubt the +directress of the Grey Sisterhood had been waiting her chance to play +Ruth to his Boaz. +</P> + +<P> +She had now accomplished her great coup, in securing the mummy-case +which interested Rameses; and if she'd been able to force or wheedle +Maida into breaking faith with me, she could force or wheedle her to +the ends of the world. +</P> + +<P> +"Egypt!" I said aloud, as if the word had been spoken in my ear, and I +echoed it. "These devils want to get the girl to Egypt and finish the +vendetta that began there. What ships sail to-day?" +</P> + +<P> +We learned that one was leaving for Bordeaux, and another for Naples. +Both had been due to sail in the morning, but had been delayed, owing +to the strict inspection of cargo. Some lively telephoning followed, +but we could get no information from the agents concerning such +passengers as we described. Nance was ordered back post-haste to +Sisterhood House in case, contrary to our theory, the pair had +returned. Teano sent a man to the ship sailing for France; and I +myself started for the one Naples-bound, the night luggage I'd brought +from Long Island on my taxi. I had a mission from my Government, which +I served during my convalescence, and I had no right to leave without +permission. But I was ready to sacrifice my whole career, rather than +see Maida sail for Egypt with a cruel and unscrupulous enemy. +</P> + +<P> +I arrived at the dock just in time to see the ship moving out. In +desperation I tried to hire a tug, at no matter what price, to follow +and board her when she shed her pilot. The thing was impossible. It +was small consolation to be assured that no such ladies as I described +were on board. I felt almost certain they were there, in ordinary +dress, having changed from the uniform of the Grey Sisterhood. When +every effort had failed in this direction, however, there remained half +a hope that they might have been found by Teano's man on the ship +starting for Bordeaux. There was a chance of reaching her before she +steamed out, and that chance I took; but fate was against me again. +She had been gone twenty minutes when my taxi rushed me to the wharf. +"You've missed nothing. They weren't aboard," said the detective, who +awaited my arrival. But how could I be sure that he was right? +</P> + +<P> +The next thing was to cable the police at Naples and Bordeaux: yet so +far we had no definite proof against the Head Sister, who had the luck +as well as the ingenuity of her supposed partner, Doctor Rameses. She +could merely be watched on her arrival at a foreign port, not held: and +I dared not even take it firmly for granted that she and Maida had left +America, till Teano's frantic energies should bring further particulars +of their movements. I blamed myself for the embroglio: still, I would +not say, even in the privacy of my own head, "If I hadn't trusted the +girl so blindly!" +</P> + +<P> +I spent that night in New York, hoping for news from one direction or +other: and though it was not till the morning that Teano picked up +anything authentic, I had better fortune. A sudden inspiration came as +I walked up and down my room, smoking more cigarettes than were good +for me, and racking my brain for a solution of the puzzle. +</P> + +<P> +"What if Maida left a note for you in the shrine, hoping you'd have the +sense to look?" a voice seemed to whisper in my ear. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly I became certain that she had done so. It was past ten +o'clock, but I jumped into a taxi and flashed back to Roger's house. +After pressing the electric bell a dozen times at least, Winter +appeared in deshabille, inclined to grumble. I went straight to the +violated shrine, and switched on the electric light in its curious +globes of golden glass. The portrait of Maida's beautiful mother faced +the door and gazed into my eyes. Never had I quite realised its +likeness to the girl. It was as if Maida looked at me. +</P> + +<P> +"If there's anything, it will be behind that portrait," I thought. +Going straight to it, I lifted the heavy gold frame, and a folded piece +of paper fell to the floor. No writing was visible, but I knew I had +found what I sought. +</P> + +<P> +Opening the note, I had a shock of surprise. The paper had the name +and crest of my New York hotel upon it; and the few lines scrawled in +pencil were signed "John Hasle." So well was the writing imitated, +that my best friend would have sworn it was mine. +</P> + +<P> +The letter began abruptly (perhaps the forger didn't know how I was +accustomed to address Maida): "Something has happened. I am sending a +closed automobile to take you away and your friend also. Get her to +consent. It is necessary for the safety of your future. The chauffeur +and an assistant will carry down the mummy-case if you ask them. They +have my instructions already, and will bring a packing-box in which it +can be placed in the hall downstairs, in order not to be conspicuous. +The mummy will no longer be safe where it is. I'll explain when we +meet. I am called away from America at once, on official business, and +the man with the chauffeur knows the ship on which I sail this +afternoon. I beg you will do what he asks, as you may depend on him as +my mouthpiece, and I have time now for no more. Yours ever and in +haste, John Hasle." +</P> + +<P> +Underneath, Maida had scribbled, also in pencil, "Your letter has been +handed me just outside the door of this house. I don't understand it. +Though I suppose it's genuine, so many strange things have happened, I +am a little afraid. If there's any trick, and you come to look for me, +I earnestly pray you may find this in time. I shall leave a tiny end +of paper showing behind my mother's portrait, where I'll hide it." +</P> + +<P> +Rameses I believed to be far away, out of reach: but the assistant he +had left behind was worthy of him. She had reason to know the New York +hotel I frequented: the note-paper was easy to get: only the forgery +business needed an expert. And what a clever idea that the summons +should come from me! The Head Sister had known how hard, perhaps +impossible, it would have been to make the girl break her promise. Now +I saw why consent had been given to my calling on Maida at her +brother's house. Unconsciously I had been but a catspaw: and had not +my darling girl felt vaguely suspicious, I might never have guessed how +she had been enticed away. +</P> + +<P> +The message told little: but at least it confirmed my theory that the +two had gone on board ship. How Maida had been induced actually to +sail, was another question, but even that might be answered some day. +</P> + +<P> +In the morning, Teano was surprised, instead of receiving word from +Nance, to see her in person. She had been sent on an errand from +Sisterhood House to the nearest village, and rather than return had +simply—as she expressed it—"taken French leave." The Head Sister had +gone, leaving everything in charge of a woman next in authority. The +inmates, sisters, lay sisters, and protégées (women and children) were +told that the directress had news of a near relative's illness; she was +obliged to be absent for a few days, perhaps longer. Unless later +instructions arrived, all was to go on as if she were at home. Nance +knew that the grey automobile used by the Sisters had come back from +New York with a bundle in it; a bundle composed of two grey uniform +cloaks and bonnets with veils. Somehow the two ladies had changed +their outer garments, probably in that "closed motor" mentioned in the +forged letter: and the bundle had been transferred from one car to the +other, by the man with the chauffeur, doubtless a servant of the Head +Sister. +</P> + +<P> +Nance, prying for other details, had found and pieced together a few +torn scraps of paper—the remains of a letter—stuck between the +braided wicker-work and ribbon of a waste-paper basket in the +directress's study. There were three of these bits, the largest no +larger than a child's thumb nail, the smallest not half that size; but +patching them together Teano was able to show me the mutilated words +"meet—possible—Cair——" +</P> + +<P> +This strengthened my conviction that the Head Sister, with Maida and +Maida's mysterious mummy-case, was on the way to Egypt, where she would +meet Rameses in Cairo. The two must have been on board the ship +sailing for Naples, in some disguise not easy to penetrate. I +determined to act on this supposition, explain the circumstances as +best I could to our Ambassador, trying with his aid and, that of the +cable, to get leave for Europe. If leave were refused, rather than +abandon Maida to the mercy of her enemies, I would "chuck" the army. +Eventually I could volunteer again, when strong enough to serve. But +leave was not refused. My affairs were settled with lightning speed, +and I sailed a few days later. +</P> + +<P> +At Naples I got no definite news; but it appeared that, on board the +suspected ship, there had been a number of nurses wearing a navy-blue +uniform, with long veils attached to their small bonnets. Most of the +nurses wore their veils thrown back, but a few covered their faces on +leaving the ship. This gave me a clue—and a hope. The costume of a +nurse afforded the necessary concealment. I guessed that the Head +Sister had adopted it for herself and Maida, and that, through Rameses' +influence, she had obtained passports. +</P> + +<P> +No nurses in uniform had, so far as I could learn, lately left Naples +for Egypt; but with the aid of the police I learned that three days +before my arrival a tall, elderly woman, heavily cloaked and veiled, +accompanied by a beautiful blonde girl, had sailed for Alexandria. +Their papers described them as the wife and daughter of a French doctor +in Cairo, and though permission for women to enter Egypt was difficult +to obtain from British authorities at that time, they had it. +</P> + +<P> +Whether or no this "Madame and Mademoiselle Rameau" were the Head +Sister and Maida Odell, I could not be sure: but in any case my +destination must be Cairo. On arriving there I could hear of no such +person as Doctor Rameau: but I found army friends: help from "high up" +was forthcoming. I learned what non-military persons had travelled +during the last week, and what direction they had taken. Among the few +women on the list there were only two who might be those for whom I +searched; and <I>they were Egyptian ladies</I>. The sister and aunt of an +official in Government employ had left Cairo by rail for Asiut, whence +they were to do some days' desert travel, to reach the country house +belonging to their relative. +</P> + +<P> +I determined to follow; and at Asiut I engaged a small caravan. The +little oasis-town near which I had been told to find the house was two +days' journey from "The City of Sacred Cats"; and when we reached the +place, the servants of Ahmed Ali Bey were surprised by the questions of +my interpreter. Their master was in Cairo with his family, and they +had not been warned of the arrival of visitors. They were discreet and +guarded in their answers, after the first moment of blank astonishment: +but I realised instantly that the women I had followed from Cairo were +not bound for this place. I had come up against a blank wall, and had +only my own deductions to go upon. Were the supposed aunt and sister +of Ahmed Ali Bey, Maida and her companion, or had I taken a false +trail? Something within myself said that I was right as to their +identity, but that the two (protected by the name of some friend of +Doctor Rameses) had never intended to come to his house. Where, then, +should I look for them? +</P> + +<P> +They must, I thought, have come as far as Asiut, otherwise their passes +would not have availed them in these days of military supervision. But +beyond Asiut the desert stretched wide and mysterious. My only hope +lay in the fact that caravans could be tracked, and that there were +only certain directions in which stopping-places could be found. My +camel-leader, who spoke a little English, described to me the three or +four routes, one of which all travellers must choose in order to reach +a desert inn or "borg" on the way to distant oasis villages or towns. +But which should I choose? +</P> + +<P> +In any case, we were obliged to retrace our steps for ten or twelve +miles, as far as a certain well, and there I should have to decide +definitely. It was late in the afternoon when we reached the spot +again, and a wind which threatened simoom had covered the heart-shaped +footmarks made by our own and other camels, as with a tidal wave. The +sky was overcast, and of a faint copper colour, clouded with greyish +veils of blowing sand. The desert was empty, or so I thought at first; +but as I turned my field-glasses north, south, east and west, I saw +something very far off which moved uncertainly towards us. Presently I +made out that this something was a camel, alone, and without pack or +rider: yet he must, it seemed, have broken loose from a caravan. +</P> + +<P> +As he came nearer—perhaps sighting us from afar off and wishing for +our company—we saw that he was white, or a very pale grey. He was not +an ordinary pack-camel, but was of the aristocratic type, a <I>mehari</I>, +well bred, with graceful swaying movements and long slender legs. My +first year in the army I had spent in Egypt, where I'd picked up some +Arabic and Turkish, and had been enough impressed with the strangeness +of native life to remember many customs and superstitions. As the +white <I>mehari</I> approached, a timid air of wildness mingling with its +longing for society, I realised that it had been a pampered beast, dear +to the heart of its vanished owner. Round its neck was an elaborate +collar of beads and shells, with dangling fetishes of all sorts: brass +and silver "Hands of Fatma," metal tubes for texts from the Koran, +horns of coral and lumps of amber. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to me that there was something strange about the beast. It +held its head in a singular way, shaking it from time to time, and my +camel man thought as I thought. "This animal has been looked on by the +Evil Eye," he said. "It brings misfortune where it goes. Perhaps it +has had a fit of madness, and how comes to us in a quiet interval, only +to deceive and then attack us. I have seen such things in the desert. +A camel goes mad, kills its master, and seeks other victims for the +demon that has entered into it. I will drive it off." +</P> + +<P> +"No," I said, as the Arab would have threatened the camel with his +stick. "Keep out of the creature's way if you like. I'm going to see +if it will let me touch it." +</P> + +<P> +Very cautiously, in order not to frighten the wild-looking beast, I +urged my own mount a few steps forward, and held out a handful of +dates. The camel eagerly fixed its eyes on the food and moved towards +me as if magnetised. It stretched its neck so that the queer, +purse-like nostrils and loose lips quivered above the dates: it +hesitated: in another instant it would have snatched a mouthful had I +not exclaimed aloud at a thing I saw. +</P> + +<P> +Among the tubes and horns and Hands of Fatma hung a gold bangle with +the name "Maida" in emeralds, Madeline Odell's birthstone. I +recognised the ornament at a glance. She wore it always, even with the +uniform of the Grey Sisterhood. I knew she had ridden this camel and +that this was her call for help. She had hoped desperately that I +might follow, and feeble as was the chance that I should ever see the +bangle, she had snatched it because there was no other. +</P> + +<P> +"Good God!" I cried sharply—and foolishly, for the camel took fright, +and went loping away into the cloud of sand. "Come along!" I yelled to +my man, and rode after it. "We must keep up with the beast. We must +see where it goes." +</P> + +<P> +I explained no more. Doubtless the Arab thought me as mad as the white +camel, but I didn't care. The <I>mehari</I> had come to me as a messenger +from Maida, and to lose sight of it would be, I felt, to lose her. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately, after the first sprint, the creature slackened speed, even +turning its long neck now and then to see if we followed. So we went +on, behind the shadowy form in the sand-cloud, until we came to the +high adobe wall of a desert inn, a borg which my camel-man knew well. +Outside the closed gate our quarry paused: as we drew closer it bounded +away, stopped and hovered as if watching to see whether the gate would +be opened to let us in. It was opened; and we were greeted by the +landlord, a dull-faced fellow, half Arab, half French, who looked as if +his favourite tipple were absinthe. In the act of letting us into the +big, bare courtyard he spied the white camel in the distance. "Oh, +it's you again, is it?" he muttered, and would have shut the gate +quickly as my camel leader and I with the three animals of our tiny +caravan entered. +</P> + +<P> +"Is that white <I>mehari</I> yours?" I inquired. +</P> + +<P> +The landlord shook his head. "But no!" he protested. "It is mad. It +is a beast of evil omen." +</P> + +<P> +"What did I tell the honoured gentleman?" said my man, delighted. But +I was obstinate. "Don't shut the beast out," I directed. "It doesn't +seem dangerous. I will pay you well to let it in, and for its food—or +any damage it may do." +</P> + +<P> +The landlord shrugged his shoulders; and when we had passed into the +courtyard, he left the gate standing open. A moment later the white +camel walked in, and instead of joining my animals, or another which +was squatting on the ground to munch a pile of green alfalfa, it moved +with a queer air of purposeful certainty to a window of the inn. The +shutters of this window were closed, but the camel pressed its face +against them as if it were trying to peer in. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, that is what the brute always does!" exclaimed the landlord in his +<I>patois</I> of Arabic and the worst <I>Marseillais</I> French. "One would say +his master was there. But the room is empty." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me about this animal and what is the matter with it?" I said, +when I had got off my mount and it had been led away with the others by +my Arab. +</P> + +<P> +"All I know I will tell willingly," replied the man. "This white camel +was one of a caravan that stopped here perhaps ten days ago. There was +no other <I>mehari</I>. The rest were of the ordinary sort. I noticed this +one and wondered, for such fine animals are rare among my clients. But +soon I saw it was not right in its head. It was not mad in the +dangerous way, which kills; but it was restless and strange. As we +say, it had been looked on by the Evil Eye. Perhaps the leader of the +caravan had got the brute cheap for that reason. Unless he wished some +misfortune to fall upon the person who rode the white camel." +</P> + +<P> +"What sort of person rode it?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +The man shrugged his shoulders. "I cannot remember which one rode it, +coming here. There were several men and several ladies, the family of +the leader. They stopped here for the night—a night of simoom." +</P> + +<P> +"One of the ladies may have ridden the <I>mehari</I>?" I suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"May have: yes, monsieur." +</P> + +<P> +"And did one of the ladies occupy that room with the closed shutters?" +I persisted. +</P> + +<P> +"I do not know," said the landlord. "It was one of the rooms taken by +the party. We do not pry into the arrangements of a family when they +are clients for a night." +</P> + +<P> +I divined from his manner, despite an assumed carelessness, that on the +night in question something had happened to set that night apart from +other nights: so I carried on my catechism. I learned that the +travelling company had consisted of two Egyptian women, one possibly a +maid, under the protection of an elderly, bearded man who was in +bearing and speech a gentleman though his costume was that of a +well-to-do Bedouin; a long cloak and hood such as Arab camel-leaders +wear. His face had hardly been visible. Food had been sent to his +room, also to the women, one of whom seemed to be weak and ill. They +were both veiled and cloaked. She who was ill had not spoken. She had +been helped into the house by her companion. There had been a scream, +and some commotion in the night caused no doubt by the illness of this +lady. The landlord had been out attending to a sick camel in the +<I>fondouk</I>, and returning he saw the shutters of a window thrown back. +The window itself was open, and this mad <I>mehari</I> was staring in. Then +the window had been suddenly closed, in the camel's face. The creature +had seemed frightened, and had galloped wildly about the courtyard, +refusing to rest in the <I>fondouk</I> with its fellows, even when food was +offered as an inducement. It had returned again and again to the same +window, as if determined to look through the shutters. Early in the +morning, the travellers had made ready to start. The sick lady had +been worse. The old gentleman and his servants, of whom there were +several, all negroes, had to make a kind of couch for her on the +<I>mehari's</I> back, but the brute kept jumping up and refusing to be +touched. At last the old gentleman grew angry and struck the animal on +the head and face. It "went for" him furiously, and had to be caught +and chastised by the negroes. No further attempt was made to use it +after that. The leader of the caravan bought a good, steady pack-camel +from the landlord, and left the white aristocrat at the borg. At first +the proprietor thought that he was in luck to come into possession of +such a fine creature, but it soon proved worse than useless. It +refused food: it would not sit down. It was constantly at the window +into which it had previously stared, or else at the gate trying to +escape. After a day or two the Arabs employed about the <I>fondouk</I> said +it was accursed, and asked the <I>patron</I> to get rid of the brute, lest +misfortune fall upon the place. Accordingly the once valuable <I>mehari</I> +was driven out into the desert, disappearing in the distance. But +apparently it had not gone far. Since then it had returned several +times with caravans, entering the courtyard with them, and walking at +once to the window in which it was so strangely interested. "That is +why," explained the landlord, "I now keep the shutters closed. I fear +this accursed animal may break the glass before we have time to drive +it away. There is not much travel at this time of year, and we have +plenty of other rooms." +</P> + +<P> +"All the same I should like to be put into that room to-night," I said. +"And as you tell me the white <I>mehari</I> is not wicked, there can be no +danger in your letting it stay in the courtyard till morning. I'm +curious about the creature, and should like to see what it will do." +</P> + +<P> +The man tried to persuade me that there was nothing in the seeming +mystery. He had rooms more comfortable than the one with the closed +shutters. That had not been properly cleaned since the last +occupation. As for the white camel, it would probably roar and make a +disturbance in the night. I silenced these objections, however, in the +one effectual and classic way: and I refused to wait for the room to be +swept and dusted. I wished to go in immediately, I said, and later the +bed could be got ready while I dined. Reluctantly the landlord gave +his consent to this arrangement, and himself escorted me to the room in +question, bringing my bag and a lighted lamp. I watched him as we +entered, and noticed that he glanced about anxiously as if he feared I +might see something which it would be better for me not to see. But, +either he found nothing conspicuously wrong, or else he decided that it +was a case of "kismet." +</P> + +<P> +When he had gone, I didn't open the shutters at once. I wanted to have +a look round, unobserved. Indeed, I took the precaution of stuffing +paper into the keyholes of the two doors: one which opened into the +corridor; another which communicated with the next room. +</P> + +<P> +I knew it would be useless to ask the fellow whether the room had been +occupied since the departure of the caravan which first brought the +white camel. He would lie if it suited him to lie: and if there were +anything to find out, I must find it out for myself. Never in my life, +however, had I felt so strong an impression as I felt now that Maida's +wish, Maida's prayers, had brought me to this place. I was certain +that she had at last suspected treachery in the woman she had +worshipped: that she had prayed I might follow and search for her: that +she had made friends with the white camel in order to add a souvenir of +herself to his neck-adornment: that she had some reason to hope he +might be left behind at this desert borg when she continued her +journey: that she had been in this room (where I seemed distinctly to +feel her presence) and that something had happened there which the +landlord either knew or suspected. Anyhow, the white camel knew, and I +said to myself that I would give all I had in the world if the animal's +half-crazyed intelligence could communicate its knowledge to me. +</P> + +<P> +This borg, like most crude desert halting-places for men and beasts, +was a one storey building which enclosed a large courtyard on three +sides. The fourth side of the yard was composed of an ordinary wall +nearly as high as the roof of the house. One wing of the latter +contained a row of bedrooms for travellers, each room having a window +that looked on the court. The middle part, or main building, consisted +of dining-room and kitchens: the remaining wing was the dwelling-place +of the landlord's family, and at the end had a large open shed for +camels and horses. My room, therefore, was on the ground floor. It +was roughly paved with broken tiles, and had in front of the bed a +strip of torn Spanish matting with a pattern of flowers splashed on it +in black and red. There was very little furniture: a tin wash-hand +stand: a deal table: an iron bedstead: and two chairs; but what there +was had been left in a state of disorder since the flitting of the last +occupant. Both chairs had fallen: the table, which had evidently stood +in the middle of the room, was pushed askew, its cotton covering on the +floor, its legs twisted up in a torn woollen rug: and—significant sign +of a struggle—a curtain of pink mosquito netting had been wrenched +from its fastenings and hung, a limp rag, at the side of the window. +</P> + +<P> +The wretched paraffin lamp served only to make darkness visible; but +taking it in my hand I walked round, examining everything: and my heart +missed a beat as I saw that, among the scarlet flowers on the matting, +were spots of brownish red—that tell-tale red which cannot be +mistaken. They were few and small, and therefore had passed unnoticed, +perhaps, by the landlord: yet to me they cried aloud. I tried to tell +myself that the stains might be old: that I had no reason to connect +them with danger for Maida: that as she had been brought so far, +doubtless there was a further destination to which it was intended to +take her. But as I finished my examination of the disordered room, +turned out the light, and threw open the shutters my soul was sick. +</P> + +<P> +"What happened here?" I asked myself for the twentieth time; and as if +in answer to my question the white camel came glimmering towards me +through the dusk. It stopped at my window, and thrusting its neck +through the opening, stared into the room. The faint light gleamed in +its yellow eyes, and gave the illusion that they moved as if following +with emotion <I>something they saw</I>. The creature paid no attention to +me, though it could have seen me standing near the window. Even when I +spoke, coaxingly, it did not turn its head; and when I walked back and +forth, it remained indifferent. Its gaze concentrated on that part of +the room nearest the door leading to the corridor; and a shiver ran +through my nerves to see the white head float from right to left on its +long neck, as though eagerly watching a scene to me invisible. I felt +the impulse to chase the beast away, but I checked myself. I had a +queer conviction that what it could see I ought to see also: that if it +remained it might <I>make</I> me see. +</P> + +<P> +I turned up the wick of the lamp, and walked slowly towards the door, +glancing back to see what the camel would do. Its head was poked far +into the room. It looked like a queer white ghost, with glinting eyes. +For the first time they seemed to meet mine, and I felt that the animal +had become conscious of my presence in the picture its memory +constructed. Close to the door, in a crack between red tiles, I saw +something round and white which I took for a button; but picking it up, +it proved to be an American ten cent piece. Not far off lay an +Egyptian piastre, but it was the "dime" which thrilled me. The tiny +silver coin proved that an occupant of this room had lately come from +the United States. A little farther away I discovered broken bits of a +small bottle, with a torn label. Matching scraps of paper together I +made out part of a word which told its own sinister story. "Morph": +the missing syllable was not needed. And the label had the name—or +part of the name—of a New York druggist: +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +"C. Sarge——" + "Broadw——"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Already I began to visualise what the scene near the door might have +been. I went out hastily and questioned the landlord again as to the +destination of the white camel's caravan. I offered him so big a bribe +for information that, if he had known anything definite, he could +hardly have resisted the temptation to tell. But he had only vague +suggestions to make. Perhaps the party might have been bound for +Hathor Set, a small oasis-town with one or two country houses of rich +men on its outskirts. It was twenty miles distant, and he could think +of no other place within a day's march where persons of importance +lived. Farther away, however, there were oases where merchants and +officials owned houses which they occupied now and then, and where +their families sometimes stayed for months. +</P> + +<P> +If it had been possible I would have travelled on that night, but to do +so would have been madness. I must wait till dawn: and though I did +not expect to sleep I went back to my room when I had eaten some vile +food, and arranged for the start at five o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +"Weather permitting," added the landlord, with an ear for the moan of +the sickly south wind. +</P> + +<P> +"Weather must permit," I answered. +</P> + +<P> +My side of the house was somewhat sheltered from the blowing sand; +still, on such a night most desert dwellers would have shut their +windows. I kept my window open, however; and lying on the bed, the +lamp burning dimly, I faced it. The head of the white camel, on its +long, swaying neck, was always framed in the aperture. I had brought +from the dining-room a plateful of dates to tempt the animal, but it +refused to touch them; and the landlord had told me that, so far as he +knew, the <I>mehari</I> had eaten no food for ten days, since it first +appeared at the borg. This accounted in a normal way for its thinness +and the wild look of its eyes; but according to the man and his +servants the "mysterious curse" upon the beast was destroying it. "A +camel accursed can live twice as long as others with nothing to eat, +and even with no water," the landlord had announced gravely, as if +stating a well-known fact. "Then, suddenly, when the evil spirit is +ready to leave its body, the creature will fall dead." +</P> + +<P> +I was anxious that the <I>mehari</I> should not fall dead until I had +finished making use of it: therefore I was glad to see it staring +bleakly through the window, hour after hour. I hoped that, in the +morning, it might lead me along the way its lost caravan had gone, and +whereever it went I intended to follow. It was making me superstitious. +</P> + +<P> +Now and then I dozed for a few minutes, to wake with a start and look +for the watching face at the window, but at last I fell heavily asleep; +and I dreamed. +</P> + +<P> +I dreamed of the camel: and it seemed as if I dreamed <I>into</I> it. My +intense wish to see what it had seen, no doubt accounted for this +impression, but it could not account entirely for what followed. It +was as though the light of the lamp burned down, and blazed suddenly up +in the brain of the animal. I saw through its eyes, as by two +searchlights illuminating the sordid room. +</P> + +<P> +Maida Odell was led in by a taller woman. Both wore Arab costumes, +with cloaks and veils, as if they had been travelling. Maida moved +languidly. She let her companion take off her wraps. Her face was +white, her eyes dazed. I knew, in the dream, that she had been +drugged, and I hated the woman who touched her. The girl walked +unsteadily to the window and threw it open, drawing in long breaths; +and then the white camel came. I felt that it had been waiting for +this moment: that it loved and was grateful to the girl for kindness, +as no camel save a <I>mehari</I> ever can be. She took lumps of sugar from +her pocket and fed it. The animal accepted them daintily. The woman +ordered it away, closed the shutters, and drew the ragged mosquito +curtain across the window. Darkness fell between me and the two +figures. I saw no more; but after an interval of blankness I was +conscious that Maida, left alone in the room, had opened the shutters, +leaving only the mosquito-netting between her and the night. The +camel, which had refused to rest with its fellows in the <I>fondouk</I>, +came sliding towards the girl and let her caress it. Apparently they +were the best of friends. She slipped a bangle from her arm, and tied +it to the <I>mehari's</I> collar. She patted the white head, and whispered +in the flat ear. The animal was in an ecstasy. At last Maida pushed +it away gently, and leaning out of the window searched the courtyard. +I had the impression, in my dream, that she thought of climbing out and +attempting to escape on the <I>mehari</I> whose confidence she had gained +for that very purpose. But at this moment a tall, bent figure in a +hooded cloak walked slowly past, and turning his head, looked at Maida. +His face was so deeply shadowed by the hood that I could not see the +features. There was a glimpse of venerable whitish beard tucked into +the cloak; but I knew, in my dream, that the man was Rameses posing as +the leader of the caravan. I tried to speak, to call Maida's name, to +ask her how it was that she had trusted these people: but I was +powerless to make the girl feel my presence. "I must wait," I said to +myself. "Some day she will explain why she consented to sail for +Naples, and why she went on to Egypt." +</P> + +<P> +"Some day!" the words echoed in my brain. Would the day come in this +world, or must I solve the greatest secret of all before I solved +Maida's? +</P> + +<P> +The dream went on, but I saw nothing when the girl closed the shutters. +Soon, however, she flung them wide again; and though she had put out +the light, the moon was shining in. I could see her moving about. She +listened at the door, as if she heard something in the corridor. She +had fastened the bolt, but now she discovered that it was broken. The +door could be opened from the outside. She placed a chair against it, +with the back caught under the handle. Then she went and sat down +close to the window. The camel was there, and she spoke to it, as if +she were comforted by its nearness. For a time she was very still. +Her head drooped; but it was impossible to sleep for long in the high, +uncomfortable chair. Now and then the girl started awake, always +turning to glance at the door: but at last she fell into a deeper doze. +Slowly the door opened, almost without noise. Maida remained +motionless: but the watching <I>mehari</I> uttered a snarl. The girl sprang +to her feet, not knowing what to do. A cloaked figure which had +slipped in attempted to hide behind the open door, but was too late. +Maida saw the gliding shadow, shrieked, and would have run into the +corridor, but the man in the Arab cloak caught her on the threshold, +and muffled her head in his mantle. She struggled in his grasp, and +almost escaped. Chairs were overturned: the rug under the table was +twisted round the man's feet: I thought that he would trip and fall, +but he saved himself. Holding Maida with one hand, with the other he +drew a bottle from some pocket, and pulled out the cork with his teeth. +The girl freed an arm, but before she could push the bottle away the +man emptied a quantity of the liquid over the cloth that covered her +face. A sickly scent of chloroform filled the air. Still she fought +bravely, her freed hand seized the bottle, and dashed it on the floor, +where it broke with a crash. At this instant a woman in Arab dress +came swiftly into the room. She was very tall, as tall as the man, and +I noticed a likeness between their figures, a remarkable breadth of +shoulder, something peculiar in their bearing. The woman's face was +unveiled, but in the darkness I could not make out its features. +</P> + +<P> +She shut the door hastily. The two spoke to each other in a language I +could not understand. Maida struggled no more. The chloroform had +taken effect. In my dream I felt that the two did not wish her to die: +the time had not come. There was a climax towards which they were +working, had been working for a long time. Now it was close at hand. +The woman held a much smaller bottle than the one which lay broken. +She had also a glass with a little water, and a spoon. These she +placed on the wash-hand stand, and went swiftly to the window. Driving +away the camel with a threatening gesture, she closed the shutters. It +seemed as if they slammed in my face. I waked with a great start, and +found myself sitting up in bed, my face damp with sweat. +</P> + +<P> +The shutters, which I'd kept wide open, had banged together in the +rising wind. I bounded off the bed to the window, and flung them apart +again. Sand stung my face and eyelids. The white camel had +disappeared, but there was a wild snarling in the <I>fondouk</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"My wish has been granted," I said to myself, "I have seen what the +watching eye saw in this room. But what did it see after that? Which +way did the caravan go?" +</P> + +<P> +I must have slept soundly, and longer than I thought, for behind the +cloud of sand dawn was grey in the sky. Half an hour later I was out +of the room, in the courtyard, where the Arab servants had begun to +stir. From his own part of the building the landlord appeared. I told +him that I had sent to have my man roused, and that I would start in +spite of the storm. +</P> + +<P> +"What has become of the white <I>mehari</I>?" I asked. "Is he in the +<I>fondouk</I> after all?" +</P> + +<P> +The man called one of his Arabs, asked a question, got an answer, and +turned to me. "The beast snarled so wickedly it waked my fellows," he +explained, "and they, not knowing of my promise to you, drove it into +the desert. That must have been two hours ago." +</P> + +<P> +I was furious, but scolding was vain. I had hoped superstitiously for +the guidance of the watcher, till the end; but this was not to be. I +must trust to my own instinct. +</P> + +<P> +Despite the arguments of the landlord and my own man that it was +dangerous to set out in the face of a simoom, we started, taking the +route towards Hathor Set. +</P> + +<P> +The blown sand had obliterated the tracks of men and camels. The +desert, so far as we could see, was a vast ocean of rippling waves. I +had brought no compass, trusting to the sun: but the sun was hidden +behind the copper veil of sand. "We shall be lost, sir," said my man. +"Shall we not be wise while there is time, and go back before our own +tracks are blotted out? See, there ahead is a lesson for us: a camel +that has fallen and been choked to death by the sand. Before night we +and our animals may lie as it lies now, with the shroud that the desert +gives, wrapped round our heads." +</P> + +<P> +"A camel that has fallen!" I echoed. And striking my beast I rode +forward till I reached the low mound to which the brown hand pointed. +</P> + +<P> +The white <I>mehari</I> lay on its side, the head and half the body buried, +the bead collar faintly blue under a coating of yellow sand. The +watching eye was closed for ever: but I had the needed clue. +</P> + +<P> +"We're not lost," I said. "This is the right way. We'll push on to +Hathor Set." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +EPISODE VIII +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE HOUSE OF REVENGE +</H3> + +<P> +This chapter of my life, which stands last but one in my journal, is +Maida Odell's chapter rather than mine: and to make my part in it +clear, her part should come first. Then the two should join, like a +double ring of platinum and gold bound together with a knot. +</P> + +<P> +One day Maida waked, after confused dreams of pain and terror. The +dreams were blurred, as she began remembering. It was as if she were +in a dim room trying to see reflections in a dust-covered mirror; then, +as if she brushed off the dust, and the pictures suddenly sharpened in +outline. +</P> + +<P> +She saw herself reading a letter signed John Hasle. It seemed to be a +true letter, and if it were true she must obey the instructions it +gave; yet—she doubted. She saw herself scribbling a few words on the +back of the letter, and hiding it behind the portrait of her mother, in +the room she always called her "shrine," leaving just an end of white +paper visible in the hope that John Hasle's eyes might light on it +there. This picture was clear, and that of the mummy-case being taken +out of the shrine by two men in a hurry. Why were they taking it? Why +did she let it go? Oh, she remembered! The Head Sister had promised +long ago to try and discover the secret of the past. She knew people +all over the world, who were grateful, and glad to repay her goodness +to them. Because of the mummy-case and the eye of Horus, those two +mysterious treasures, the Head Sister believed that the enemy who +strove unceasingly to ruin the girl's life must be an Egyptian, working +to avenge some wrong, or fancied wrong. She suggested photographing +the mummy, and the pictures of Maida's father and mother, in order to +send snapshots to a man she knew well in Egypt—a doctor. He would +take up the affair, out of friendship for her, and with those clues to +go upon might learn details of inestimable value. Maida remembered +writing to John Hasle at the Head Sister's suggestion, asking him to +send the key of the shrine. He had answered, agreeing reluctantly; and +to prove her good faith, the Head Sister had offered permission for a +meeting at Roger's house. Then had come the letter from John Hasle, +with its warning that the mummy was no longer safe in the shrine. +Maida had done what he told her to do, and let the mummy-case be taken +away, although the Head Sister had objected, and had even seemed hurt. +But the Head Sister had not objected to go to the ship on which John +Hasle said he would sail. She wished to question him before he went, +and was as anxious as Maida was to know what danger threatened the +mummy. +</P> + +<P> +The girl recalled how, according to John Hasle's advice (brought by his +messenger), she and the Head Sister had exchanged their grey costumes +for blue ones, with veils hanging from neat bonnets. They had done +this in the closed motor according to instructions, and they had gone +on board the ship to bid John Hasle good-bye. There instead of finding +him they had found a second letter, written as before on his hotel +paper. It said that the plot against Maida was even more serious than +he had supposed. At the last moment he had been obliged to stop in New +York, and appeal to the police to help him thwart it. Her life was in +danger if she returned to Long Island, or even to the city, before the +enemy had been caught. There was every prospect that he would be +caught in a few days, after which John Hasle would sail for Egypt as he +had meant to do, and there unravel the whole mystery. The vendetta +which had cursed Maida's life, and her mother's before her, would be +ended. She might come into a fortune in her own right, instead of +depending upon money given by the Odells. He implored her to be brave +and take passage on the ship for Naples, though no doubt the Head +Sister would oppose the idea. The Head Sister had not opposed it. She +had read John Hasle's letter, and had offered to be the girl's +companion to Naples, to take her on to Egypt if necessary. Once, she +had not liked John Hasle; but she was obliged to agree with his +opinion. She believed that he was right about Maida's danger: things +she had found out in her researches convinced her that it existed. The +ship would not sail for an hour or more. The chauffeur was bidden to +take a letter from Maida to John Hasle at the Hotel Belmont, to bring +one if he were there, and also clothing necessary for the journey, of +which the Head Sister made a hurried list. +</P> + +<P> +A letter had come back—a hasty scrawl in John Hasle's handwriting—to +express joy in Maida's decision, and to tell her that the mummy in its +case would go with her on the ship, addressed to his name. +</P> + +<P> +Maida remembered how ungrateful she had thought herself in doubting the +Head Sister's intentions. She had tried not to doubt, for so far in +her experience she had received only kindness and sympathy from that +wonderful friend. Wonderful indeed! Everything the Head Sister did +was magnetic and wonderful, like her whole personality. This sudden +decision to go abroad for Maida's sake was no more extraordinary, +perhaps, than things she had done to help others. She said that she +would wire the woman who stood second in authority over the Grey +Sisterhood, and explain that, for excellent reasons, she had determined +to visit the lately established branch in Cairo (Maida had heard of it +and had subscribed, for its object was an excellent one: the rescue of +European girls stranded in Egypt); she would add that she might not +return for many weeks. +</P> + +<P> +Maida felt that she ought never to have doubted. As for the letters +from John Hasle, the handwriting seemed unmistakable; they could not be +forgeries: the idea was ridiculous. She remembered how she had argued +this in her mind, and how she had tried not to think of herself as +helpless. She was doing what she wished to do! And yet, when she had +asked "What else could I do, if I didn't wish to do this?" the answer +was disquieting. Short of making a scene on shipboard and appealing to +the captain, it was difficult to see how she could go against the Head +Sister's urgent advice. She did not try to go against it; and after +sailing, two or three wireless messages signed John Hasle brought her +comfort. It was a coincidence that there should be a band of nurses on +board the ship, with costumes almost precisely like hers and the Head +Sister's, chosen apparently at random by John Hasle: but then, after +all, there was a strong resemblance in the dresses of all nurses, +provided the colours happened to be the same. +</P> + +<P> +Even more clearly than the days on shipboard, Maida remembered arriving +at Naples, and being met by an Englishman who introduced himself as an +agent of John Hasle. He had a long comprehensive telegram to show, +purporting to come from his employer in New York. This announced that +John Hasle had not been able to obtain leave as soon as he expected, +but that he had learned the "whole secret of the past." Miss Odell was +to put herself in the hands of his agent who would conduct her and her +companion to Egypt and there to a house where all mysteries would be +cleared up. She would find herself in charge of important persons, old +acquaintances of her parents, who would watch over her interests and +explain everything connected with her family. All trouble and danger +would be over for ever. Her brother Roger with his wife, Grace, having +just returned to New York from the Argentine, would sail with John +Hasle a few days after the sending of the telegram, to join Miss Odell +and bring her home by way of France and England. +</P> + +<P> +Maida recalled with a dull aching of heart and head her disappointment, +her uneasiness; how she had insisted upon sending telegrams to her +adopted brother, and to John Hasle, in New York, waiting for answers +before she would consent to go on. The answers came, apparently +genuine, and she had gone on. There had been two days in Cairo, at the +house of a rich, elderly man who called himself French, but looked like +a Turk or Egyptian. He stated that he was a friend of Maida's +grandfather who was, he said, a general in Ismail's service. He had +done a great wrong to a noble family of ancient Egyptian aristocracy, +who had sworn revenge, and had taken it for several generations. But +now all its members were dead except one aged woman who wished to see +and atone to Maida for the cruel punishment inflicted on her people. +The mummy which had been stolen many years ago was to be given back; +and in return Maida would not only learn a great secret, but receive a +great fortune. The house was in the country, and could be reached by a +short desert journey after travelling to Asiut by rail. In order to +escape the surveillance of the British authorities, so strict in war +time, she and her faithful friend the Head of the Grey Sisterhood, were +advised to travel in the costumes of Egyptian women. +</P> + +<P> +All this seemed hundreds of years ago to Maida, as she relived incident +after incident. Everything was far in the background of a night in the +desert inn when she had seen—or thought she had seen—a face which had +been the terror of her life. Since her earliest childhood she had seen +it in dreams, and sometimes—she believed—in reality. It was as like +the face of the mummy in the painted mummy-case as a living face could +be, except that the expression of the mummy was noble and even benign, +whereas that of the dream-face—the living face—was malevolent. The +hood of the caravan leader had been blown aside by the fierce desert +wind in a sand-storm, and a pair of terrible eyes had looked at her for +an instant before the hood was drawn close again; and, after that—but +Maida could remember nothing after that, except a struggle and a sudden +blotting out of consciousness. +</P> + +<P> +She was afraid to wake fully lest she should find herself again in the +desert inn where it seemed that something hideous had happened. But +the room there had been shabby. This room in which she opened her eyes +was beautiful, far more beautiful than any in the house at Cairo. It +was soothingly simple, too, in its decorations, as the best Eastern +rooms are. The walls were white, ornamented with a frieze of +arabesques. There were one or two large plaques of lovely old tiles +let into this pure whiteness, and a wonderful Persian rug in much the +same faded rainbow hues hung between two uncurtained windows with +carved, cedarwood blinds. The ceiling also was of carved cedar, +painted with ancient designs in rich colours. There was very little +furniture in the room, except the large divan-like bed on which Maida +was lying; but on a fat embroidered cushion squatted a girl wearing the +indoors dress of an Egyptian woman—a girl of the lower classes. She +sat between Maida and the windows, so that her figure was silhouetted +against the light: and outside the windows was a glimpse of garden: a +tall cypress and a palm with a rose bush climbing up the trunk: dully, +Maida thought that it must be an inner patio, such as her room had +looked out upon in the house at Cairo. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is the white camel?" she heard herself say, aloud: and it seemed +that her voice was tired and weak, as if she had been ill. +</P> + +<P> +The girl who was embroidering looked up. Her face was very brown, and +the eyes were painted. She wore a dark blue dress, which was a lovely +bit of colour against the white wall. Smiling at the invalid as at a +child, she went to the door, and called out something in a language +Maida could not understand. Then she effaced herself respectfully, +stepping into the background, and the Head Sister came in—the Head +Sister, just as she used to be at the Sisterhood House far away on Long +Island. She wore a grey uniform and the short veil with which her face +had always been covered in the house. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear child!" she exclaimed, in her deep, pleasant voice, with its +slight accent of foreignness which could never quite be defined. "How +thankful I am to see you conscious! We have been waiting a long time. +You've been ill, and delirious; but I can see from the look in your +eyes that it's over now—those dreams of horror I could never persuade +you were not real." +</P> + +<P> +Maida looked earnestly at the Head Sister whom she had once so utterly +loved and trusted. Did she love and trust her now? The girl felt that +she did not. Yet she felt, too, that the sad change might be but the +dregs in her cup of dreams. Never had the wonderful woman's voice been +more kind. "If I tell you a piece of good news, will it make you +better, or will it give you a temperature?" the Head Sister went on. +</P> + +<P> +"It will make me better," Maida said, a faint thrill of hope at her +heart. There was only one piece of news, she thought, which would be +good. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, then. It is this: we are expecting your brother and Lord +John Hasle in a few days. Are you pleased?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," Maida answered. She composed her voice, and spoke quietly; but +new life filled her veins. The dullness was gone from her brain, the +lassitude from her limbs. She felt as if she had drunk a sparkling +tonic. +</P> + +<P> +"You look another girl already," said the Head Sister. "If this +improvement keeps up, you'll be able to walk about your room a little +to-day, and to-morrow you may be strong enough to be helped out into +the balcony that runs along over the patio, and leads to the room of +your hostess. She is impatient for you to be well enough to come +there; and it will be a test of your strength. Besides—I know you are +anxious to hear what you have travelled so far to find out." +</P> + +<P> +Maida could not have explained then, or afterwards, why the Head +Sister's suppressed eagerness brought back the fear she had known in +her dreams. She would have liked to answer that she preferred to wait +and see the unknown "hostess" after Roger and John had arrived. But +something told her she had better not say that. Instead, she smiled, +and answered that she would try to walk that afternoon, and test her +strength. +</P> + +<P> +The Head Sister seemed satisfied, seemed to take it for granted that +the plan she was making would be carried out; and then she made an +excuse to leave the room. The girl Hateb would watch over Maida, as +she had watched faithfully since the day when the unconscious patient +had been put into her care. Hateb, the Head Sister added, had learned +in Cairo to speak a little English and French. Maida could ask for +anything she wished. But for a long time Maida did not wish to ask for +anything at all. She lay still and thought—and wondered: and Hateb +went on embroidering. She finished a thing like a charming little +table cover on which she had worked a design in dull blues and reds, a +design like the patterns of old tiles from Tunis. Then, pausing to +roll up the square of creamy tissue, she began to make the first purple +flower of a new design on another square. +</P> + +<P> +At last, as if fascinated, Maida did ask a question. She asked what +Hateb did with these things when they were finished. Were they for her +mistress? +</P> + +<P> +The girl shook her head, and managed to make Maida understand that all +the women of the household who could embroider sent their work by the +negroes into the oasis town of Hathor Set where there was a shop which +sold such things to tourists. Very few tourists came now, but +sometimes there were officers and soldiers. They always bought +souvenirs for their families at home. Harem ladies sold their work for +charity among the poor, but their servants—well, it was pleasant to +earn something extra. This house was often shut up for months. The +master and mistress lived away, and seldom came, so there was much +time—too much time—and it hung heavy on their hands unless they were +kept busy. +</P> + +<P> +"I know how to embroider, too," said Maida, "not as you do, but after +the fashion of my country. I make my own designs. I should love to +embroider an end of a scarf or something like that, to show you how +fast I can work. Then you may sell what I do, and keep the money. If +any English or American people come to that shop in the town you speak +of they will be surprised to see such a thing if it is displayed well, +and they will be glad to offer a good price, because they will be +reminded of home. But you must let no one in this house see my work, +or they may be angry with you for allowing me to exert myself. It will +do me good, but they will not believe that." +</P> + +<P> +The girl was delighted with the idea. Her curiosity was aroused to see +the work of a foreigner, which would sell for much money, and she was +pleased with the prospect of having that money for herself. She gave +Maida materials, and the invalid sat up in bed to begin her task. With +a pencil she traced a queer little border which might have represented +breaking hearts or flashes of lightning. Inside this border she formed +the word "Help" with her name "Maida" underneath, in elaborate old +English letters impossible for Hateb to read with her scant knowledge +of English. Despite her weakness, Maida worked with feverish haste, +and finished the whole piece of embroidery, in blue and gold and +reddish purple, before evening. She pronounced herself too ill to +rise, but promised to make an effort next day. It was in her mind to +delay the visit to her unknown "hostess," and meanwhile to send out a +message, like a carrier pigeon. But there was the strong will of the +Head Sister to reckon with. The latter gently, yet firmly insisted +that, now dear Maida's delirium had passed, it would do her good to +take up life again where she had left it off. The Egyptian woman they +had made this long journey to meet was impatient. She was unable to +come to Maida. Maida must go to her. Besides, it would be +discouraging to Roger Odell and John Hasle to arrive and find their +dear one pale and ill. She must make the effort for their sakes if not +for her own. +</P> + +<P> +This solicitude for Roger and John was new on the part of the Head +Sister, who had deliberately taken Maida away from one, and separated +her from the other: but she frankly confessed that her point of view +had changed. She saw that the girl had no real vocation for the Grey +Sisterhood. If the mystery of her past could be solved, and happiness +could come out of sorrow, Maida would have a place in the world, and +John Hasle—the Head Sister admitted—deserved a reward for patience +and loyalty. +</P> + +<P> +These arguments did not ring true in the ears of Maida, but she had +reached a place where it was impossible to turn back. She was in the +woman's power, whether the woman were enemy or friend; and if she +refused to follow the Head Sister's counsel, she believed that she +would be forced to follow it. Maida was too proud to risk being +coerced; and when the first day after the sending out of the embroidery +passed without result, she obeyed the directress and let herself be +dressed. +</P> + +<P> +The girl suffered a great deal, but she had not lost physical or mental +courage. She believed that she had sprung from a family of soldiers, +and she wanted to be worthy of them, even if no one save herself ever +knew how she faced a great danger. Something in the Head Sister's air +of fiercely controlled excitement told her that she was about to face +danger when, with the elder woman's supporting arm round her waist, she +walked from her own room to the door of a room at the end of a long +balcony—the balcony overlooking the patio garden. +</P> + +<P> +As she went, the scent of magnolias and orange blossoms pressed heavily +on her senses like the fragrance of flowers in a room of death. It was +evening, just the hour of sunset, and as the girl looked up at the +sapphire square of sky above the white walls and greenish-brown roofs, +the pulsating light died down suddenly, as if an immense lamp had been +extinguished. +</P> + +<P> +Maida shivered. "What is the matter? Are you afraid?" the Head Sister +asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I am not afraid," Maida answered firmly. "It is only—as if +someone walked on my grave." +</P> + +<P> +"Your grave!" the woman echoed, with a slight laugh. "That is very far +away to the west, let us hope." +</P> + +<P> +Yet Maida's words must have brought to her mind the picture of a +highballed garden of orange trees, no further to the west than the +western end of that house. She must have seen the negroes digging +there, under the trees, digging very fast, to be ready in time. She +must even have known the depth and width and length of the long, narrow +hole they dug, for it had been measured to fit the painted mummy-case +brought to Egypt from Maida's "shrine" in New York. That mummy-case, +long wanted, long sought, was useful no longer. Its occupant for +thousands of years had been rifled of his secret. The jewels which had +lain among the spices at his heart had been removed. They were safe in +custody of those who claimed a right over them, and the revenge of +generations might now be completed. +</P> + +<P> +The Head Sister tapped at the door of the room, and then, after a +slight pause, when no answer came, opened it. Gently she pushed Maida +in ahead of her, and followed on the girl's heels, shutting the door +behind them both. +</P> + +<P> +The room was very large and very beautiful. Already the carved +cedar-wood blinds inside the windows shut out the light of day. Not a +sound in the room—if there should be a sound—could be heard even in +the patio or the orange gardens. Two huge Egyptian oil lamps of old, +hand-worked brass hung from the painted wooden ceiling. They lit with +a flittering, golden light the white arabesquesed walls, the dado of +lovely tiling, the marble floor and the fountain pool in the centre +where goldfish flashed. There was little furniture: a divan covered +with a Persian rug; a low, inlaid table or two; some purple silk +cushions piled near the fountain; and Maida's eyes searched vainly for +the "hostess" who waited eagerly to tell her the secret. The only +conspicuous object in the room was a familiar one—the painted +mummy-case, standing upright as it had stood in the shrine, far away in +Roger Odell's house in New York. It stood so that Maida, on entering +the room, saw it in profile. She was not surprised to see it there, +for she knew that it had travelled with them—by John Hasle's wish, she +had been told—and certainly with his name on the packing-box in which +it was contained. It was easy enough to believe that the mummy had a +connection with the "secret" she was to hear, for always it had been +for her a mystery as well as a treasure. It was easy, also, to +understand why the "hostess" should have had the thing brought into her +room and unpacked. But she—the hostess—was not there. +</P> + +<P> +"Patience for a few minutes, my child," said the Head Sister, no doubt +reading Maida's thought. "I have been asked to tell you a story. It +is a long story, but you must hear it to understand what follows. Sit +down with me, and listen quietly. Your questions may come at the end." +</P> + +<P> +Maida would have taken a few steps further, to look into the +mummy-case, and see if its occupant were intact after the journey by +sea and land: but the elder woman stopped her. With a hand on the +girl's arm, she made her sit down on a divan where the mummy-case was +visible still only in profile. +</P> + +<P> +"This room was once made ready in honour of a bride," the Head Sister +said. "All its beauties were for her: the pool, the rare old tiles, +the Persian embroideries and rugs. The bridegroom was an Egyptian of a +line which had been royal in the past. I speak of the long ago past, +thousands of years ago. He had records which proved his descent +without doubt. When I say he was an Egyptian, I don't mean a Turk. I +mean a lineage far more ancient than the Turkish invasion in Egypt. +The family, however, had intermarried with Turks and had become +practically Turkish, except by tradition. This mummy-case and its +contents was the dearest treasure of Essain Bey, the man who decorated +the room you see for the woman he adored. Immemorable generations ago +it had been taken from the Tombs of the Kings—not stolen, mind you, +but taken secretly by a descendant who had proofs that the mummied man +had been a famous, far-away ancestor of his own. Even so, though this +forbear of Essain's had a right to the mummy, he would have let it lie +in peace, hidden for ever in the rock-caverns of the tombs if illegal +excavations had not been planned. He saved the mummy-case from +violation, although he could not save the tomb; and though there was a +legend that the body was filled with precious things he vowed that it +should not be rifled—vowed for himself and his son and his son's son. +</P> + +<P> +"The legend ran that the last Egyptian king hid the royal treasure +inside the mummy of his father, before setting out to fight the +invader, and that after his death in battle, the secret descended from +one representative of the family to another: but the whereabouts of the +tomb was lost, and only found again a century ago through the +translation of a papyrus. As I said, the mummy in its case was +sacredly preserved, and was considered to keep good fortune in the +family so long as it remained intact. When Essain married his +beautiful Greek bride he would have given her his soul if she had asked +for it. Instead, she asked for the mummy of Hathor Set. It should be +hers, he promised, the day she gave him his first boy, and he kept his +word. But with the boy came a girl also. The Greek woman, Irene +Xanthios, was the mother of twins. The mummy in its case—the luck of +the family—was called hers. It was kept in this room, where she felt +a pleasure in seeing it under her eyes. She delighted her husband by +telling him she loved the dark face because of the likeness to his. He +was happy, and believed that she was happy too. Perhaps she would +always have remained faithful, had it not been for an Englishman, an +officer in the service of Ismail. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, when I speak of Ismail being in power, you will understand that +all this happened many years ago; to be precise it was fifty-four years +ago to-day that the twin boy and girl were born and the mummy given to +their mother, Irene. How she met the Englishman I do not know. I +suppose the monotony of harem life bored her, though she had adopted +the religion and customs of Essain Bey. She was beautiful, and maybe +she let her veil blow aside one day when she looked out of her carriage +window at the handsome officer who passed. How long they knew each +other in secret I cannot tell either; but the twins were four years old +when their mother ran away with the Englishman. She left them behind, +as if without regret, but—she took the luck of the family with +her—the mummy of King Hathor Set in his painted case. So, you can +guess who was the man: your grandfather. His name was Sir Percival +Annesley. He was no boy at the time. Already he had been made a +Lieutenant in Ismail's army: but he fled from Egypt with the woman he +stole—and the booty—and after that they lived quietly in England. +They hid from the world: but they could not hide from Essain's revenge. +</P> + +<P> +"In this room—coming back from a council at the Khedivial Palace in +Cairo—Essain learned how his wife had profited by his absence of a +week. In this room he vowed vengeance, not only upon her and the man +who took her from him, but upon that man's descendants, male or female, +until the last one had paid the penalty of death. In this room he made +his two children swear that, when they grew old enough, they would help +exterminate the children of Percival Annesley, and if unfortunately +these survived long enough to have children, exterminate them also. In +this room he branded the flesh of his young son and daughter with the +Eye of Horus, to remind them that their mission was to watch—ever to +watch. +</P> + +<P> +"Essain turned his back upon this house when it had become a house of +disgrace, but he did not sell or dispose of it. He had made up his +mind that, from a house of disgrace it must become a house of revenge. +His will was that the place should be kept up; that servants should be +ready to do anything they were bidden to do. With his own hands he +killed your grandfather, in sight of Irene and her baby boy, your +father. Later, Irene died of grief, but your father lived. He too +came to Egypt, and served in the army, by that time in the hands of the +British. Essain was dead, but Essain's son lived, and had one great +aim in his life; to kill Perceval Annesley's son, and retrieve the +mummy. Perceval Annesley's son was named Perceval too. He met your +mother when she was travelling in Egypt as a girl, and followed her to +America. The younger Essain would not have allowed him to leave Egypt, +if the mummy had been there, but he had left it at home in England. So +far as young Essain had been able to find out, the mummy had never been +desecrated: this was the one virtue of the Annesleys: they had left it +intact. +</P> + +<P> +"In New York, your father persuaded your mother to run away with him, +when she was on the eve of marrying Roger Odell—old Roger who became +your guardian. They went together to England, and lived in the +Annesley house, which is in Devonshire. Soon, young Essain's chance +came. He shot your father dead, in your mother's presence; but in +escaping he lost sight of her. She knew the curse which had fallen on +the Annesleys. She feared for you, if not for herself. She took you, +and the mummy-case, and an Eye of Horus which had been a gift from the +elder Essain to Irene, and she contrived to vanish from the knowledge +of Essain the younger. +</P> + +<P> +"It was only for a time, however, that he and his twin sister—able to +help him now—searched in vain. He traced the travellers eventually by +means of the mummy-case. Your mother was dead: but his vow to his +father was not fulfilled while you were alive, and the mummy of Hathor +Set under the roof of the Odells. You were too well protected to be +easily reached, but there are many ways of accomplishing an end. You +were never a strong girl. Plots against your peace of mind were +planned and carried out. Once or twice you came near death, but always +luck stood between you and what Essain and his sister Zorah believed to +be justice. The drama of your life has been a strange one. Your death +alone without the restoration of the mummy would not have sufficed, +though, had you died, Essain would have moved heaven and earth to gain +possession of the body of Hathor Set. At last he has obtained it. The +oath of his father's ancestor not to open the mummy was but for the son +and the son's son. That has run out many years ago, and Essain felt +that the time had come to learn and profit by the secret. He has done +so, and holds a wonderful treasure in his hands. The like of it has +never been seen in the new world, except in museums of the East. Now +the whole duty of Essain's son and daughter has been accomplished, +except in one last detail. What that is, you, Madeleine Annesley can +guess. I have finished my explanation. But if you would understand +more, go now, and look at the mummy-case." +</P> + +<P> +As if fascinated, Maida obeyed. Her brain was working fast. Was her +instinct right? Had she been brought here to the House of Revenge to +die, or would this soft, sweet voice, telling so calmly the terrible +story of two families, add that the last sacrifice would not be +permitted? Was the command to rise and look at the mummy-case a test +of her physical courage after what she had heard? +</P> + +<P> +To her own surprise, she was no longer conscious of fear. A strange, +marble coldness held her in its grip, as if she were becoming a statue. +She moved across the room and stopped in front of the mummy-case. +Living eyes looked out at her. She saw the dark face so like in +feature to the withered face of the mummy. This was the face of her +dreams. +</P> + +<P> +The girl recoiled from it and turned to the woman who had been her +friend. For the first time the Head Sister had lifted her veil and +taken off the mask always worn at the Sisterhood House. Her face +seemed identical with that in the mummy-case. It also was the face of +Maida's dreams, the haunting horror of her life. Without a word the +mystery of the mask and veil became clear to her. The Head Sister's +one reason for wearing them was to hide her startling likeness to +Essain, her twin brother. +</P> + +<P> +"The end has come," a voice said Maida did not know whether the man or +woman spoke. As the mummy-case opened and the figure within stepped +out, the world broke for the girl into a cataract of stars which +overwhelmed her. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +I have told already how I was guided in the direction of Hathor Set. I +hoped and believed that I was right, but even so I was far from the end +of my quest. Hathor Set is a small town, important only because of its +situation and the fact that several rich Arabs have their country +houses on the outskirts of the oasis. Each hour, each moment counted: +yet how was I to learn which of the houses was Maida's prison? Judging +by the precautions taken for the first stages of the journey, it was in +no optimistic mood that I rode with my little caravan into the +principal street—if street it could be called—of Hathor Set. Our +camels trod sand, but to our left was the market, and beyond, a few +shops. In the background the secretive white walls of houses +clustered, the plumed heads of palms rose out of hidden gardens, and +the green dome of a mosque glittered like a peacock's breast against +the hot blue sky. +</P> + +<P> +It was not market day, and the open square with its booths and +enclosures was deserted: but men stood in the doors of two small shops +hopefully designed to attract tourists. One exhibited coarse native +pottery, and the other, more ambitious, showed alleged antiques, silk +gandourahs, embroideries and hammered brasswork. Above the open door +was the name "Said ben Hassan," and underneath was printed amateurishly +in English: "Egyptian Curios: Fine Embroideries: French, English and +American Speaken." +</P> + +<P> +I had halted, meaning to descend and buy something as an excuse to ask +questions, when a dirty, crouching figure which squatted near the floor +scrambled up and flung itself before me whining for backsheesh. "Get +away!" roared my camel-man, who was in a bad temper because of a forced +march. He struck at the beggar with his goad, while the shopkeeper +rushed forward to prove his zeal in ridding a customer of the nuisance. +</P> + +<P> +"Wretch!" he exclaimed. "How often have I told thee to depart from my +door and not annoy the honoured ones who come to buy? This time it is +too much. Thou shalt spend thy next days in prison." +</P> + +<P> +Between the two hustling the lame man, he fell, crying; and humbug +though he might be, my gorge rose. For an instant I forgot that I had +meant to ingratiate myself with the shopkeeper, and abused him in my +most expressive Arabic. I scolded my own man, and, without waiting for +my camel to bend its knees and let me down, I slid off to the rescue. +</P> + +<P> +"The fellow is worthless," pleaded the shopkeeper, anxious to justify +his violence. "It was for Effendi's sake that I pushed him. He is +rich. He is the king of all the beggars—the scandal of Hathor Set." +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever he may be, he's old and weak, and I won't have him struck," I +said. "Here, let this dry your tears," I went on: and enjoying the +suppressed rage of Abdullah my camel-man, I raised the weeping beggar +from the ground and gave him a handful of piastres. With suspicious +suddenness his sobs ceased and turned to blessings. He wished me a +hundred years of life and twenty sons: and then, exulting in the rout +of Said ben Hassan and Abdullah, defiantly returned to the rag of +sacking he had spread like a mat on the sand. The keeper of the shop +glared a menace: but his wish to sell his goods overcame the desire for +revenge; and contenting himself with a look which said "Only wait!" he +turned with a servile smile to me. Would the honoured master enter his +mean shop, give himself the pain to examine the wonderful stock +superior to any even in Cairo, and sip sherbet or Turkish coffee? +</P> + +<P> +I paused, reflecting that it might be better to inquire somewhere else. +Humble as the man's tone was, his eyes glittered with malice; and once +he had my money he would delight in sending me on a wild-goose chase. +As I thought what to answer, my eyes wandered over his show window, and +suddenly concentrated on a piece of embroidery. Some small +table-covers and scarfs of thin Eastern silk were draped on a brass +jardinière. On the smallest of all I read, in old English lettering, +the words "Help. Maida." +</P> + +<P> +I kept my self-control with an effort. For a few seconds I could not +speak. Then I inquired the price of that piece of embroidery, pointing +it out. The shopkeeper's fat brown face became a study. He was asking +himself in an anguish of greed how high he might dare to go. "Five +hundred piastres," he replied, leaving generous room for the beating +down process. But I did not beat him down. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a large price," I said, "but I will pay if you tell me where +the embroidery came from. It's an old English design. That's why I'm +curious to know how you got it." +</P> + +<P> +Said ben Hassan seemed distressed. "Honoured Sir, I would tell you if +I could, but I cannot. It would be as much as my life is worth. +Ladies of the harem make these embroideries, or their women. I sell +them, and they use the money for their charities. It is a sacred +custom. I can say no more." +</P> + +<P> +"I will give you a thousand piastres," I said. +</P> + +<P> +The man looked ready to cry, but persisted. "It is a great pain to +refuse," he mourned. "But I would have to make the same answer if +Effendi offered two thousand." +</P> + +<P> +"I offer three," I went on. +</P> + +<P> +But the man was not to be tempted. He groaned that it was a question +of his life. Poor as it was, he valued it. He groaned, he apologised, +he explained, he pressed upon me the true history of all the +antiquities in his shop, and the five hundred piastres I was ready to +pay for the bit of embroidery had shrunk in his eyes to a sum scarcely +worth taking. At last, when I turned away, deaf to his eloquence, he +caught me by the coat. "If Effendi must know, I will risk all and give +him his will!" he wailed. "The embroidery came from Asiut. I will +write down the name of the powerful pasha who is master of the house: +that is, I will do so if Effendi is still ready to pay three thousand +piastres." +</P> + +<P> +I knew that the man was lying, yet my best hope lay in his +knowledge—practically my one hope. How to get the truth out of him, +was the question. +</P> + +<P> +"I must think it over," I said. As I spoke I became conscious that the +lame beggar who had crawled off his mat to the door of the shop was +whining again. +</P> + +<P> +To my astonishment he hurriedly jumbled in English words as if he +wished to hide them. Under his appeal, in Arabic that I should buy a +fetish he held up in a knotted old hand, he was mumbling in English, +that he would tell me for gratitude, what Ben Hassan dared not tell me +for money. "Do not give him one piastre: he is lying," muttered the +beggar. "Buy this fetish. Inside you will find explanations." +</P> + +<P> +The fetish was a tiny silver box of native make, one of those +receptacles intended to contain a text from the Koran, and to hang from +a string on the breast of the Faithful. I threw the man a look and I +threw him money. Squatting there, he seemed to pick up both before he +crawled away. I burned to call him back as I saw him wrap the sacking +over head and shoulders, and start—without a backward glance—to +hobble off. But I dared not make a sound. Hassan, if he suspected, +might ruin the beggar's plan. I slipped the fetish into my pocket, and +told the shopkeeper that I would content myself for the present with +buying the piece of embroidery. I must reflect before paying the price +he wanted for information. I should, I said, spend the night at the +inn, for I was tired. There would be time to think. +</P> + +<P> +The inn at Hathor Set is hardly worth the name, being little better +than the desert borg which, in my mind, I called the Borg of the +Watching Eye; but its goodness or badness did not matter. As for +Abdullah, he was glad of the rest. I had made him start before dawn in +the midst of a sand-storm which had blown itself out only late in the +baking heat of afternoon when we neared the oasis of Hathor Set. When +I shut myself into an ill-smelling room of the inn, to open the silver +fetish, it was still baking hot, but close upon sunset. If I had not +felt some strange impulse of confidence in the lame beggar who hid his +English under vulgar Arabic slang, I should have resented the coming of +night. As it was, I was glad of the falling dusk. I could work to +find Maida only under the cover of darkness, I knew: for there was no +British consul here, no Justice to whom I could appeal. There were +only my own hands and my own brain: and such help as the beggar might +give because he hated Said ben Hassan. +</P> + +<P> +A torn scrap of paper was rolled inside the tiny silver box: but it was +not a text from the Koran. +</P> + +<P> +"Dine at eight to-night with the beggar Haroun and his friends and hear +something to your advantage. Anyone can show you the house," I read, +written in English with pencil. If I had had time to think of him much +I should have been consumed with curiosity as to the brown-faced old +man who begged by day, and in faultlessly spelled English invited +strangers to dine with him by night. But I had time to think only of +what I might hear "to my advantage." The mystery of the "beggar king +of Hathor Set" was lost for me in the mystery of Maida Odell, as a +bubble is lost in the sea. +</P> + +<P> +The Eastern darkness fell like a purple curtain over a lighted lamp. I +went out long before eight, and showed a coin as I asked the first +cloaked figure I met for the house of Haroun the beggar. It was +strange that a beggar should have a house, but everything about this +beggar was strange! +</P> + +<P> +The house was in the heart of the crowded town, a town of brown adobe +turning to gold under a rising moon. All the buildings were huddled +together like a family of lion cubs, but my guide led me to a square of +blank wall on the lower edge of a hill. The door was placed at the +foot of this hill; and when a negro opened it at my knock I found +myself in a squalid cellar. At the far end was a flight of dilapidated +stone steps: at the top of this another door, and beyond the door—a +surprise. I came out into a small but charming garden court with +orange trees and a fountain. A white embroidered cloth was spread on +the tiled pavement, and surrounded with gay silk cushions for more than +a dozen guests. Coloured lanterns hung from the trees and lit with +fairy-like effect dishes of crystallised fruit and wonderful pink cakes. +</P> + +<P> +Figures of men in gandourahs came forward respectfully, and the King of +the Beggars bade me welcome. He offered a brass bowl of rose-water in +which to dip my fingers, and as he himself dried them with a +lace-trimmed napkin he spoke in English. +</P> + +<P> +"I am grateful," he said, "for your trust. You shall not regret it." +Then he went on, without giving me time to answer, "I am a beggar by +day, and the beggars' king at night, as you see. This is my existence. +It has its adventures, its pleasures; this meeting is one of the +highest. It reminds me that I have English blood in my veins. +Besides, if I help you I shall help myself to revenge. My father was +English, but turned Mohammedan for the love of my mother. English was +the first language I learned to speak. In the days of Ismail I was in +his army—an officer. I was proud of my English blood and I promised +my aid to an Englishman—an officer, too, named Annesley—aid against +one of my own religion. I helped him to run away with a beautiful +woman. He escaped with her. I was caught, wounded, and cruelly +punished. My career was at an end—my money gone. Lame and penniless, +I had no power to take revenge. Many years have passed. I was young +then. Now, I am old. The man who broke me is dead, but his children +live—twins, a son and a daughter. They have come home from some +country far away, to their father's house. I saw them come—I, the +lame beggar lying in the street, a Thing that does not count! Two +women were with Essain, his sister and another who was ill—perhaps +unconscious—lying upon a litter on camel back. The embroidery you +saw, with the English words which I, too, could read—came from his +house. It was brought by a negro, to-day, to the shop of Said ben +Hassan, and put in his window an hour before you rode into Hathor Set. +But Ben Hassan is afraid of Essain Pasha, the man I speak of, and he +would never have told you anything about his house: he would only have +lied and sent you off on a false track in repayment for your money. As +for me, I can tell all you wish to know: and when you have honoured me +by eating my food, I can show you the house. It is not more than a +mile distant from the town. If you wish to injure Essain, so much the +better. Because of what his father did to me, and because of your +kindness, I should like to help you do it." +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake, come with me now," I broke in at last. "You asked me +here to dine, but a girl's life may be hanging in the balance. Her +name is Madeleine Annesley. She must be the granddaughter of the man +who was your friend, and the woman you helped him take. You speak of +revenge! It is for revenge she has been brought here by the man you +call Essain and his sister who is as wicked as himself. I never knew +till I heard your story what that woman was to him, or why they worked +together. But now I understand all—or nearly all. I love Madeleine +Annesley, and I know she's in danger of her life." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought," said Haroun, "there might be some such matter afoot, and +that is why I asked my friends to be here. They are ready to obey my +orders, for they count me as their king; and I have chosen them from +among others for their strength and courage. I am the only one who is +old and lame, but I am strong enough for this work. When it is done, +we can feast, and we will not break our fast till then. Essain has no +fear of an attack in force. His house, though it is the great one of +the place, is guarded but by a few negroes, the servants who have kept +it in his absence. There are orange gardens which surround the house. +Without noise we will break open a little gate I remember, and once +inside, with fifteen strong men at our service, the surprise will be +complete—the house and all in it, male and female, at our mercy." +</P> + +<P> +Not a man of the fifteen but had a weapon of some sort, an +old-fashioned pistol or a long knife, and some had both. +</P> + +<P> +We started in the blue, moony dusk, walking in groups that we might not +be noticed as a band: and it was astonishing how fast the lame beggar +could go. We led—he and I—and such was the greedy haste with which +his limping legs covered the distance that he kept pace with me at my +best. +</P> + +<P> +Soon we were out of the huddled town, walking beside the rocky bed of +the <I>oued</I> or river; and never leaving the oasis we came at last to a +high white wall. +</P> + +<P> +"This is Essain's garden," Haroun whispered. "And here is the little +gate I spoke of. Listen! I thought I heard voices. But no. It may +have been the wind rustling among the leaves." +</P> + +<P> +"It wasn't the wind," I said. "There are people talking in the garden. +Don't try to break the gate. You may make a noise. I'll get over the +wall and open the gate from inside." +</P> + +<P> +"The wall is high," said Haroun, measuring it with his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"And I am tall," I answered. "One of your men will give me a leg up." +</P> + +<P> +In another moment I was letting myself cautiously down on a dark, dewy +garden fragrant with the scent of orange blossoms. There was broken +glass on the top of the wall, and my hands were cut: but that was a +detail. +</P> + +<P> +Noiselessly I slid back the big bolt which fastened the gate. The men +filed in like a troop of ghosts, and followed me as I tiptoed along, +crouching under trees as I walked. +</P> + +<P> +The voices, speaking together in low, hushed tones, became more +audible, though, even when we came near, we could catch no words. A +singularly broad-shouldered man in European dress, with a fez on his +rather small head, stood with his back to us, giving orders to four +negroes. They were out in the open, where the moon touched their +faces, and we in the shadow could see them distinctly. They had a +long, narrow box somewhat resembling a coffin, which, by their master's +directions, they were about to lower by means of ropes into a +grave-like hole they had dug in the soft earth. +</P> + +<P> +My heart gave a bound, and then missed a beat, as if my life had come +to an end. I sprang on the man from behind, and the beggar king with +his band followed my lead. Just what happened next I could hardly +tell: I was too busy fighting. Down on the ground we two went +together. Essain—whom I knew as Rameses—fought like a lion. +Surprised as he was, he flashed out a knife somehow, and I felt its +point bite between my ribs, before I got a chance to shoot. Even then, +I shot at random, and it was only the sudden start and collapse of the +body writhing under mine which told me that my bullet had found its +billet. The man lay still. I jumped up, released from his hold. His +face I could not see, but when I shook him he was limp as a marionette. +"Dead!" I said to myself. "Well, it's all to the good!" and wasted no +more time on him. +</P> + +<P> +The four negroes were down: they had shown no fight; and already Haroun +had begun with a great knife to prise open the coffin-shaped box. It +lay on the ground in the moonlight and I saw that it was the mummy-case +I had seen last in Maida's shrine in New York. There was no doubt—no +hope, then! I had come too late! +</P> + +<P> +Like a madman I snatched the knife from Haroun, and finished the work +he had begun. There she lay—my darling—where the mummy had lain so +long. But I was not too late after all. As the air touched her she +gasped and opened her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +There, you would say, with the girl I loved coming to life in my arms, +the story of my fight against her enemies might end. But it was not to +be so. There was still the one supreme struggle to come. For Essain, +alias Rameses, was not dead. He had feigned death to save himself, and +while we forgot him he crept away. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +EPISODE IX +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE BELL BUOY +</H3> + +<P> +A white yacht steamed slowly through calm water silvered by the moon. +Maida and I were the only passengers. We had been married that day, +and the yacht <I>Lily Maid</I> was ours for the honeymoon, lent by Maida's +newly found cousins, Sir Robert and Lady Annesley. +</P> + +<P> +"Look," I said, as passing through the Downs I caught sight of two dark +towers showing above a cloud of trees on the Kentish coast. "Those +towers are my brother's house. To-morrow I shall be there making him +eat humble pie—and my sister-in-law too." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want you to make them eat humble pie!" laughed Maida. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, they shall eat whatever you like. But would you care to anchor +now? It's nearly midnight." +</P> + +<P> +"Let's go on a little further," she decided. "It's so heavenly." +</P> + +<P> +It was. I felt that I had come almost as near heaven as I could hope +to get. Maida was my wife at last, and she was happy. I believed that +she was safe. +</P> + +<P> +We went on, and the throb of the yacht's heart was like the throbbing +of my own. Close together we stood, she and I, my arm clasping her. +So we kept silence for a few moments, and my thoughts trailed back as +the moonlit water trailed behind us. I remembered many things: but +above all I remembered that other night of moonlight far away in Egypt, +in a secret orange garden where men had dug a grave. +</P> + +<P> +Why, yes, of course Maida was safe! One of her two enemies had died +that night—the woman. Exactly how she died we did not know, but I and +the "king of the beggars" had found her lying, face downward, in the +marble basin of a great fountain, dead in water not a foot deep. The +fountain was in a room whence, from one latticed window, the orange +garden and the fight there could have been seen. That window was open. +Doubtless Essain's sister had believed her twin brother captured or +dead. She had thought that, for herself, the end of all things had +come with his downfall: punishment, failure and humiliation worse than +death. So she had chosen death. But the man had escaped and +disappeared. The treasure hidden for thousands of years in the +mummy—treasure which the Head Sister boasted to Maida had been found +by Doctor Rameses—had disappeared with him. +</P> + +<P> +The girl Hateb who had cared for Maida through her illness cared for +her again that night, while Haroun and I guarded the shut door of their +room. The next day Maida was able to start for Cairo, and Hateb (both +veiled, and in Egyptian dress) acted as her maid. Had it not been for +Haroun's testimony and the respect felt by the authorities for the rich +beggar, the happenings of that night and the woman's death might have +detained me at Hathor Set; but thanks to Haroun I was able to get Maida +away. Thanks again partly to him and what he could tell (with what +Maida had been told by the Head Sister) the girl's past was no longer a +mystery. We knew the name of her people: and luckily it was a name to +conjure with just then in Cairo. Colonel Sir Robert Annesley was +stationed there. He was popular and important; and I blessed all my +stars because I had met him in England. +</P> + +<P> +I wanted Maida to marry me in Cairo, with her cousin Sir Robert to give +her away: but the blow my brother had struck long ago had hurt her +sensitive soul to the quick. She said that she could not be my wife +until Lord Haslemere and Lady Haslemere were willing to welcome her. +She wanted no revenge, but she did want satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +I had to yield, since a man can't marry a girl by force nowadays, even +when she admits that she's in love. Sir Robert found her a chaperon, +going to England, and I was allowed to sail on the same ship. Maida +was invited to stay with Lady Annesley until the wedding could be +arranged on the bride's own "terms"; but Fate was more eloquent than I: +she induced Maida to change her mind. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Annesley was as brave (for herself and her husband) as a soldier's +wife must be; but she had three children. For them, she was a coward. +Maida had not been two days at the Annesley's Devonshire place, and I +hadn't yet been able to tackle Haslemere, when an anonymous letter +arrived for the girl's hostess. It said that, if Lady Annesley wished +her three little boys to see their father come home, she would turn out +of her house the enemy of a noble family whose vendetta was not +complete. At first, the recipient of the letter was at a loss what to +make of it. Frightened and puzzled, she handed the document to Maida +(this was at breakfast) and Maida was only too well able to explain. +</P> + +<P> +The letter had a London postmark: and the girl knew then, with a shock +of fear, that "Dr. Rameses" was in England—had perhaps reached there +before her. An hour later I knew also—having motored from the hotel +where I was stopping in Exeter. The question was, why did the enemy +want to get the girl out of her cousin's house?—for that desire alone +could have inspired the anonymous warning. Without it, he might have +attempted a surprise stroke: but of his own accord, he had for some +reason eliminated the element of surprise. +</P> + +<P> +As for me, I was thankful. Not because Essain, alias Rameses, had come +to England, but because he was throwing Maida into my arms. This +result might be intended by him; but naturally I felt confident that +she would be safe under my protection. I argued that she couldn't +expose Lady Annesley and the children to danger; the Annesleys had +suffered enough for a sin of generations ago: and if she gave up the +shelter of her cousin's house she must come to me. What mattered it, +in such circumstances, whether the family welcome came before or after +the wedding? I guaranteed that it would come. And so—owing to the +anonymous letter, and its visible effect upon Lady Annesley, Maida +abandoned the dream she had cherished. We were married by special +licence: and now, on the Annesley's yacht—too small to be needed for +war-service by the Admiralty—we stood on our wedding night. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing can ever separate us again, my darling!" I broke out suddenly, +speaking my thought aloud. +</P> + +<P> +"No, not even death," Maida said, softly, almost in a whisper. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't think of death, my dearest!" I cut her short. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll try not," she said. "But it seems so wonderful to dare be +happy—after all. And the memory of that man—the thought of him—I +won't call it fear, or let it be fear—is like a black spot in the +brightness. It's like that big floating black shape, moving just +enough to show it is there, in the silver water. Do you see?" and she +pointed. "Does that sound we hear, come from it—like a bell—a +funeral bell tolling?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's a bell buoy," I explained. "I remember it well. You know, +when I was a boy I spent holidays with my brother at Hasletowers; and I +loved this old buoy. I've imagined a hundred stories about it; and—by +Jove—I wonder what that chap can be up to!" +</P> + +<P> +The "chap" whose manoeuvres had caused me to break off and forget my +next sentence, was too far away to be made out distinctly. But he was +in a boat which I took to be a motor-boat, as it had skimmed along the +bright water like a bird. He had stopped close to the bell buoy, and +was fitting a large round object over his head. Apparently it was a +diver's helmet. In the boat I could see another figure, slimmer and +smaller, which might be that of a boy; and this companion gave +assistance when the helmeted one descended into the water over the side +of the boat. For an instant I saw—or fancied that I saw—that he had +something queer in his hand—something resembling a big bird-cage. +Then he plunged under the surface, and was gone. +</P> + +<P> +We were steaming slowly enough, however, for me to observe in +retrospect, that the huge round head bobbed up a minute later, and that +the black figure climbed back into the boat. But the cage-like object +was no longer visible. +</P> + +<P> +"Some repairs to the buoy, perhaps," I said, as the yacht took us on. +But it seemed odd, I couldn't put the episode out of my mind. By and +by I asked the yacht's captain to turn, and let us anchor not too far +from the landing at Hasletowers, for me to go ashore comfortably when I +wished to do so next day. The boat with the two figures had vanished. +The bell buoy swayed back and forth, sending out its tolling notes; and +the <I>Lily Maid</I> was the only other thing to be seen on the water's +silver. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +At three o'clock the following afternoon I rowed myself ashore, and +from the private landing walked up to my brother's house. I hadn't +seen him or my sister-in-law since the day when I ran—or rather +limped—away from Violet's London nursing home with its crowding +flowers and sentimental ladies. But I had written. I had told them +that I intended to marry Miss Madeleine Odell, the girl whom they had +driven from England, shamed and humiliated. I had told them who she +really was, and something of her romantic history. I had added that +they should learn more when they were ready to apologise and welcome +her. Later, I had wired that we were being married unexpectedly soon, +and that we should be pleased to have them at the wedding if they +wished. Haslemere had wired back that they would be prevented by +business of importance from leaving home, but their absence was not to +be misunderstood. He invited me to call at Hasletowers and talk +matters over. On this, I telegraphed, making an appointment for the +day after my marriage; because to "talk things over" was what I wanted +to do—though perhaps not in precisely the way meant by Haslemere. +</P> + +<P> +If I'd expected my arrival to be considered an event of importance, I +should have been disappointed. Haslemere and Violet had the air of +forgetting that months had passed since we met, that I'd been through +adventures, and that this was the day after my wedding. If we had +parted half an hour before, they could hardly have been more casual! +</P> + +<P> +I was shown into the library, where Haslemere (a big, gaunt fellow of +thirty-eight, looking ten years older, and with the red hair of our +Scottish ancestors) and Violet (of no particular age and much conscious +charm) were passionately occupied in reading a telegram. I thought it +might have been mine (delayed), but in this I was soon undeceived. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Jack!" said Haslemere. "How are you, dear boy?" said Violet: +and then both began to pour out what was in their hearts. It had not +the remotest connection with Maida or me. It concerned themselves and +the great charity sale of historic jewels which, it seemed, Violet was +organising. What? I hadn't heard of it? They were astounded. +England was talking of nothing else. Well, there was the war, of +course! But this subject and the war were practically one. The sale +was for the benefit of mutilated officers. Nobody else had ever +thought of doing anything practical for <I>them</I>, only for the soldiers. +Violet had started by giving the Douglas-heart ring which had come down +to her from an ancestress made even more famous than she would have +been otherwise, by Sir Walter Scott. This splendid example of +generosity had set the ball rolling. Violet had only to ask and to +have. All her friends had answered her call, and lots of outsiders who +hoped thereby to become her friends. Any number of <I>nouveaux riches</I> +creatures had actually <I>bought</I> gorgeous antique jewels in order to lay +them at Violet's shrine—and, incidentally, that of the Mutilated +Officers. +</P> + +<P> +"Nearly a hundred thousand pounds' worth of jewels is here, in this +room, at this moment," my sister-in-law went on impressively, "but it +won't be here many moments longer, I'm thankful to say! The +responsibility has been too great for us both, this last week, while +the collection grew, and we had to look after it. Now the whole lot is +being sent to Christie's this afternoon, and the sale by auction will +begin to-morrow. It's the event of the season, bar nothing! We hope +to clear a quarter of a million if the bidding goes as we think. You +<I>must</I> bring your bride, and make her buy something. If she's one of +the <I>right</I> Annesleys, she must be aw'fly rich!" +</P> + +<P> +"She is one of the right Annesleys," I managed to break in. "But, as I +wrote you and Haslemere, she has always been known as Madeleine Odell. +You and he——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, never mind that!" Haslemere cut me short. "You have married her +without consulting us. If you'd asked my advice, I should +certainly—but we won't stir up the past! Let sleeping dogs lie, and +bygones be bygones, and so on." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, we'll try and do our best for your wife," Violet added hastily, +with an absent-minded eye. "When the sale is over, and we have time to +breathe, you must bring her here, and——" +</P> + +<P> +"You both seem to misunderstand the situation, although I thought I'd +made things clear in my letter," I said. "You cruelly misjudged Maida. +You believed lies about her, and put a public shame upon the innocent +child. Do you think I'd ever bring her into my brother's house until +he and his wife had begged her forgiveness, and atoned as far as in +their power?" +</P> + +<P> +"Good heavens, Jack, you must be mad!" Haslemere exclaimed. "I'd +forgotten the affair until you revived it in my mind by announcing that +you intended to marry a girl whose presentation I'd caused to be +cancelled. Then I remembered. I acted at the time only as it was my +duty to act, according to information received. An American +acquaintance of Violet's—a widow of good birth whose word could not be +doubted, told us a tragic story in which Miss Odell had played—well, +to put it mildly, in consideration for you—had played an unfortunate +part." +</P> + +<P> +"The name of this American widow was Granville," I cut in, "and the +tragedy was that of her son." +</P> + +<P> +"It was. I see you know." +</P> + +<P> +"I know the true version of the story. And I expect you and Violet to +listen to it." +</P> + +<P> +"We can't listen to anything further now, dear boy. We've more +important—I beg your pardon—we've more <I>pressing</I> things to attend +to," said Violet. "You've a right to your point of view, and we don't +want to hurt your feelings. But I don't think you ought to want <I>us</I> +to go against our convictions, unless to be civil, for your sake, and +avoid scandal. We'll do our best, I told you; you must be satisfied +with that. And really, we <I>can't</I> talk about this any longer, because +just before you came we'd a telegram from Drivenny to say he and Combes +and Blackburn will be here an hour earlier than the appointment. That +will land them on us at any instant; and I don't care to be agitated, +please!" +</P> + +<P> +"Drivenny is the great jewel expert," Haslemere condescended to +enlighten my amateurish intelligence. "Combes is the Scotland Yard +man, as you know: and Blackburn is the famous detective from New York +who's in London now. We don't understand why they come before their +time, but no doubt they've an excellent reason and we shall hear it +soon. You shall see them, if you like. You're interested in +detectives." +</P> + +<P> +"It sounds like a plot," I remarked, so angry with my brother and his +wife that I found a mean pleasure in trying to upset them. "You'd +better make jolly well sure that the right men come. As you are +responsible for the jewels——" +</P> + +<P> +Haslemere laughed. "You talk as if you were a detective in a boy's +story paper! Not likely I should be such a fool as to hand the boodle +over to men I didn't know by sight! They have been here before, in a +bunch, Drivenny judging the jewels, the detectives——" +</P> + +<P> +"My lord, the three gentlemen from London have arrived in a motor-car," +announced a footman. "They wished to send their cards to your +lordship." He presented a silver tray with three crude but +business-like cards lying on it. +</P> + +<P> +"Show them in at once," said Haslemere. He stood in front of a +bookcase containing the works of George Eliot, Charles Dickens and Sir +Walter Scott. I knew that bookcase well, and the secret which it so +respectably hid. Behind, was the safe in which our family had for +several generations placed such valuables as happened to be in the +house. Haslemere slid back with a touch a little bronze ornament +decorating a hinge on the glass door. In a tiny recess underneath was +the head of a spring, which he pressed. The whole bookcase slipped +along the wall and revealed the safe. Haslemere opened this, and took +out a despatch box. While Violet received the box from his hands and +laid it on a table near by, my brother closed the safe, and replaced +the bookcase. A moment later, the three important visitors were +ushered into the room, their names pronounced with respect by the +servant: "Mr. Drivenny: Mr. Blackburn: Mr. Combes." +</P> + +<P> +Haslemere met his guests with civility and honoured them consciously by +presenting the trio to Violet. "This is my brother, back from a +military mission to America," he indicated me casually, without +troubling to mention my name. +</P> + +<P> +The three men looked at me, and I at them. It struck me that they +would not have been sorry to dispense with my presence. There was just +a flash of something like chagrin which passed across the faces: the +thin, aquiline face of Drivenny, spectacled, beetle-browed, +clean-shaven: the square, puffy-cheeked face of Combes: the red, round +face of the American, Blackburn. The flash vanished as quickly as it +came, leaving the three middle-aged countenances impassive; but it made +me wonder. Why should the jewel-expert and the two detectives object +to the presence of another beside Lord and Lady Haslemere, when that +other was a near relative of the family? Surely it was a trifling +detail that I should witness the ceremony of their taking over the +contents of the tin box? +</P> + +<P> +Whatever their true feelings might have been, by tacit consent I was +made to realise that I counted for no more in the scene than a fly on +the wall, to Haslemere and Violet. No notice was taken of me while +Haslemere unlocked the despatch box, and Violet—as the organiser of +the scheme—took out the closely piled jewel-boxes it contained. This +done, she proceeded to arrange them on the long oak table, cleared for +the purpose. I stood in the background, as one by one the neatly +numbered velvet, satin or Russia-leather cases were opened, and the +description of the jewels within read aloud by Haslemere from a list. +Each of the three new-comers had a duplicate list, and there was +considerable talk before the cases were closed, and returned to the +despatch box. Most of this talk came from Violet and Haslemere, both +of whom were excited. As for Drivenny, Blackburn and Combes, it seemed +to me that, in their hearts, they would gladly have hastened +proceedings. They were polite but intensely business-like, and as soon +as they could manage it the box was stuffed into a commonplace brown +kitbag which the footman had brought in with the visitors. The three +had motored from London to Hasletowers; and they smiled drily when +Violet asked if they "thought there was danger of an attack on the way +back." +</P> + +<P> +"None whatever," replied the square-faced Combes. "We've made sure of +that. There's too much at stake to run risks." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you remember I told you, Violet, what Mr. Combes said before?" +Haslemere reminded his wife: "that the road between here and Christie's +would swarm with plain clothes men in motors and on bicycles. If every +gang of jewel-thieves in England or Europe were on this job, they'd +have their trouble for their pains." +</P> + +<P> +"I remember," Violet admitted, "but there's been such a lot about this +affair in the papers! Thieves are so clever——" +</P> + +<P> +"Not so clever as our friends," Haslemere admonished her, with one of +his slightly patronising smiles for the jewel-expert and the +detectives. "That's why they've got the upper hand; that's why we've +asked their co-operation." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, of course!" exclaimed Violet. They all spent the next sixty +seconds in compliments: and at the end of that time Mr. Combes +announced that he and his companions had better be off. It would be +well to complete the business. Mr. Drivenny asked Haslemere if he +would care to go to Christie's in the car with them, as a matter of +form, and Haslemere replied that he considered it unnecessary. The +valuables, in such hands, were safe as in the Bank of England. The +three men were invited to have drinks, but refused: and Haslemere +himself accompanied them to their car. Violet and I stared at it from +the window. It was an ordinary-looking grey car, with an +ordinary-looking grey chauffeur. +</P> + +<P> +When Haslemere came back to the library, I took up the subject which +the arrival of the men had made me drop. +</P> + +<P> +What did my brother and sister-in-law intend to do, to atone to my +wife? Apparently they intended to do nothing: could not see why they +should do anything: resented my assertion that they had done wrong in +the past, and were not accustomed to being accused or called to account. +</P> + +<P> +My heart had been set on obtaining poetic justice for Maida; but I knew +she wouldn't wish me to plead. That would be for us both a new +humiliation added to the old; an Ossa piled upon Pelion. Losing hope, +I indulged myself by losing also my temper. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," I said. "Maida will be a success without help from you. +As for me——" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Drivenny, Mr. Blackburn and Mr. Combes," announced a footman—not +the same who had made the announcement before. +</P> + +<P> +"What—they've come <I>back</I>!" Violet and Haslemere exclaimed together. +"Show them in." +</P> + +<P> +Evidently something had gone wrong! Even I, in the midst of my rage, +was pricked to curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +The three men came in: thin, aquiline Drivenny, square, puffy-faced +Combes, and red, round Blackburn. It was not more than half an hour +since they had gone, yet already they had changed their clothes. They +were all dressed differently, not excepting boots and hats: and Combes +had a black kitbag in place of the brown one. Even in their faces, +figures and bearings there was some subtle change. +</P> + +<P> +"Good gracious! What's happened?" Violet gasped. +</P> + +<P> +The men seemed surprised. +</P> + +<P> +"We're a little before our time, my lady," said Combes, "but——" +</P> + +<P> +Haslemere snatched the words from his mouth. "But you telegraphed. +You came here——" +</P> + +<P> +"We didn't telegraph, my lord," the detective respectfully contradicted +him. +</P> + +<P> +Violet gave a cry, and put her hands up to her head, staring at the +trio so subtly altered. As before, I was a back-ground figure. I said +nothing, but I thought a good deal. The trick jokingly suggested by me +had actually been played. +</P> + +<P> +At first neither Violet nor Haslemere would believe the dreadful thing. +It was too bad to be true. These, not the other three, were the +impostors! Violet staggered towards the bell to call the servants, but +Combes showed his police badge: and between the trio it was soon made +clear that the Marquis and Marchioness of Haslemere had let themselves +be utterly bamboozled. They had of their own free will handed over to +a pack of thieves nearly one hundred thousand pounds worth of famous +jewels: not even their own, but other people's jewels entrusted to them +for charity! +</P> + +<P> +There was, however, not a moment to waste in repinings. The local +police were warned by telephone; the escaping car and chauffeur were +described, and the genuine detectives, with the jewel-expert, dashed +off in pursuit of their fraudulent understudies. Meantime, while the +others talked, I reflected; and an astonishing idea began to +crystallise in my brain. When Violet was left crying on Haslemere's +shoulder (sobbing that she was ruined, that she would kill herself +rather than face the blame of her friends) I made my voice heard. +</P> + +<P> +"I know you and Haslemere always hated my detective talents—if any. +But they might come in useful now, if I could get an inspiration," I +remarked. +</P> + +<P> +Violet caught me up. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Have</I> you an inspiration?" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps." +</P> + +<P> +"For heaven's sake what is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"If I have one, it's my own," I drily replied. "I don't see why I +should give it away. This is <I>your</I> business—yours and Haslemere's. +Why should I be interested? Neither of you are interested in mine." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean, your ideas are for sale?" Haslemere exclaimed, in virtuous +disgust, seizing my point. +</P> + +<P> +"My <I>help</I> is for sale—at a price." +</P> + +<P> +"The price of our receiving your wife, I suppose!" he accused me +bitterly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's higher than that! I may have guessed something. I may be +able to do something with that guess; but I'm hanged if I'll dedicate a +thought or act to your service unless you, Haslemere, personally ask +Maida's forgiveness for the cruel injustice you once did without +stopping to make sure whether you were right or wrong: unless you, +Violet, ask my wife—<I>ask</I> her, mind you!—to let you present her to +the King and Queen at the first Court after the war." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll do anything—anything!" wailed Violet. "I'll crawl on my knees +for a mile to your Maida, if only you can really get the jewels back +before people find out how we've been fooled." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want you to crawl," said I. "You can walk, or even motor to +Maida—or come out in a boat to the yacht where she's waiting for me +and my news. But if I can do any useful work, it will be to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think you can—oh, do you <I>think</I> you can?" Violet implored. +</P> + +<P> +"That's just what I must do. I must think," I said. "Perhaps +meanwhile the police will make a lucky stroke If so, you'll owe me +nothing. If they don't——" +</P> + +<P> +"They won't—I feel they won't!" my sister-in-law sobbed. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly I had become the sole person of importance in her world. She +pinned her one forlorn hope to me, like a flag nailed to a mast in a +storm. And I—saw a picture before my mind's eye of a dark figure in a +boat, putting on a thing that looked like a diver's helmet. Queer, +that—very queer! +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +So utterly absorbed was I in my new-born theory and in trying to work +it out, that for the first time since I met and loved her I ceased +consciously to think of Maida. Of course she was the incentive. If I +put myself into Haslemere's service, I was working for <I>her</I>: to earn +their gratitude, and lay their payment at her feet. Far away in the +dimmest background of my brain was the impression that I was a clever +fellow: that I was being marvellously intelligent: and at that moment I +was more of a fool than I had ever been in my life. I thought I saw +Rameses' hand moving in the shadows, using my brother and his wife as +pawns in his game of chess. Yet it didn't occur to my mind that he was +using me also: that he had pushed me far along the board, for his +convenience, while I believed myself acting in my own interests and +Maida's. I had flattered myself that my white queen was safe on the +square where I had placed her, guarded by knight, bishop and castle. +Yet while I went on with the game at a far end of the board, Rameses +said "Check!" Another move, and it would be checkmate. +</P> + +<P> +I was gone longer than Maida had expected, but she was not anxious. +The yacht at anchor, lay in sight of the towers Which I had pointed out +the night before, rising above a dusky cloud of trees. From Maida's +deck-chair she could see them against the sky; and she could have seen +the landing-place where I had gone ashore, had it not been hidden +behind a miniature promontory. She tried to read, but it was hard to +concentrate her mind on any book, while her future was being decided. +In spite of herself, she would find her eyes wandering from the page +and focussing on the little green promontory that screened the landing. +At any moment I might appear from behind those rocks and bushes. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, just as she had contrived to lose herself in a poem of Rupert +Brooke's, the throb of a motor-boat caught her ear. She glanced +eagerly up, to see a small automobile craft rounding the promontory. +Apparently it had come from the private landing-place of Hasletowers, +but the girl could not be certain of this until she had made sure it +was headed for the yacht. Presently it had stopped alongside, and +Maida saw that it had on board a man and a boy. The man, in a yachting +cap and thick coat of the "pea-jacket" variety, absorbed himself deeply +in the engine. What he was doing Maida neither knew nor cared; but it +took his whole attention. He humped his back over his work and had not +even the human curiosity to look up. It was the boy who hailed the +<I>Lily Maid</I>, and announced that he had a message for Lady John Hasle +from her sister-in-law, Lady Haslemere. It was a verbal message, which +he had been ordered to deliver himself; and three minutes later he was +on deck carrying out his duty. +</P> + +<P> +"If you please, m'lady, the Marquis and Marchioness of Haslemere send +their best compliments, and would you favour them by going in this boat +to meet her ladyship on board the yacht of a friend? You will be +joined a little later by the Marquis, and Lord John Hasle, who are at +the house, kept by important business." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't understand," Maida hesitated. "My hus—Lord John went on +shore some time ago. I thought—was Lady Haslemere not at home after +all?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's it, m'lady," briskly explained the lad. "She was away on board +this yacht I'm speaking of. Her ladyship hasn't been well—a bit of an +invalid, or she'd come to you. But Lord John Hasle thought you might +not mind——" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I don't mind," Maida answered him, believing that she began +to see light upon the complicated situation. "I'll be ready to start +in five minutes." +</P> + +<P> +And she was. Her maid gave her a veiled hat and long cloak; and she +was helped on board the motorboat. Still the elder member of its crew +did not turn, but went on feverishly rubbing something with an oily +rag. The dainty white-clad passenger was made comfortable, the boy +tucking a rug over her knees. As he did this, he glanced up from under +his cap, as if involuntarily, straight into Maida's chiffon-covered +face. She had been too busy thinking of other things to notice the lad +with particularity: but with his face so close to hers for an instant, +it struck her for the first time that it was like another face +remembered with distaste. There rose before Maida a fleeting picture +of a young lay sister at the house of the Grey Sisterhood far away on +Long Island. The girl had been of the monkey type, lithe and thin, +brown and freckled, her age anything between seventeen and twenty-two; +and she had seemed to regard Miss Odell, the Head Sister's favourite, +with jealous dislike. +</P> + +<P> +"The same type," thought Maida. "They might be brother and sister. +But the boy is better looking than the girl. Funny they should look +alike: she so American, he with his strong Cockney accent!" +</P> + +<P> +A minute more, and the motor-boat had left the side of the <I>Lily Maid</I> +and was shooting away past the private landing-place of Hasletowers. +She took the direction whence the yacht had come the previous night, +before the dark shapes above the trees had been pointed out by me. +Still, there was no other yacht in sight: the waters were empty save +for a little black speck far away which might be, Maida thought, the +bell buoy of which we had talked. Indeed, as the boat glided on—at +visibly reduced speed now—she fancied that she caught the doleful +notes of the tolling bell. +</P> + +<P> +"The yacht where Lady Haslemere expects us, must be a long way from +shore;" Maida said. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be impatient," the man's voice answered. "You will come to your +destination soon enough." +</P> + +<P> +A thrill of horror ran through her veins with an electric shock. She +knew the voice. She had heard it last in a house in Egypt. The man +turned deliberately as he spoke, and looked at her. The face was the +face of her past dream, the still more dread reality of her present—— +</P> + +<P> +And so, after all, this was to be the end of her love story! +</P> + +<P> +"You do not speak," Essain said. +</P> + +<P> +"I have nothing to say," Maida heard herself answer; and she wondered +at the calmness of her own voice. It was low, but it scarcely +trembled. So sure she was that there was no hope, no help, she was not +even frightened. Simply, she gave herself up for lost: and the sick +stab of pain in her heart was for me. She was afraid—but only afraid +that I might reproach myself for leaving her alone. +</P> + +<P> +"You've no doubt now as to what your destination is?" the voice went +on, quivering with exultation as Maida's did not quiver with dread. +</P> + +<P> +"I have no doubt," she echoed. +</P> + +<P> +"No appeal to my pity?" +</P> + +<P> +"I made none before. It would have been worse than useless then—and +it would now." +</P> + +<P> +"You are right!" the man said. "It would be useless. I have lived for +this. My one regret is that my sister sacrificed her life in vain. +But she and I will meet—soon it may be—and I shall tell her that we +did not fail." +</P> + +<P> +"If you tell her the truth, you will have to say you couldn't make me +die a coward," Maida answered, "and so your triumph isn't worth much." +</P> + +<P> +"It is the end of the vendetta, and our promise to our father will have +been kept," said Essain. "That is enough. I do not expect a woman of +your ancestry to be a coward." +</P> + +<P> +"She doesn't know yet what you're going to do with her," cut in his +companion. The Cockney accent was gone. Maida started slightly in +surprise, and stared at the brown, monkey face with its ears which +stuck out on the close-cropped head. The voice was only too easy to +recognise now. +</P> + +<P> +"Be silent, you cat!" Essain commanded savagely. "Your business is to +obey. Leave the rest to me." +</P> + +<P> +He turned again to Maida. "You see," he said, "my sister and I never +lacked for servants. I have many on this side of the water—as +everywhere when I want them. But this one is rather over-zealous +because she happened not to be among the admirers of Miss Odell at the +Sisterhood House. She wants you to realise that she is enough in my +confidence to know what is due to happen next. I intend to tell +you—not to please her, but to please myself. I have earned the +satisfaction! First, however, I have a few other explanations to make. +I think they may interest you, Lady John Hasle! .... My organisations +are as powerful in Europe as in the States. Through some of my best +men your new family is going to be disgraced. There will be a +first-class scandal, and they will have to pay, to the tune of one +hundred thousand pounds, to crush it. They're far from rich. I'm not +sure they can do the trick—unless your clever husband stumps up with +the fortune he'll inherit from you, on your death. I shall be +interested, as an outsider, to see the developments. Meanwhile I've +put into my pocket, and my friends' pockets, the exact sum which must +come out of theirs—or rather I shall in a few moments from now do so, +as you yourself will see." +</P> + +<P> +By this time they had come close to the bell buoy; and Maida remembered +how, with me, she had leaned on the deck-rail idly watching the +silhouettes of a man and a boy in a motor-boat. +</P> + +<P> +"It was you we saw last night!" she exclaimed. "You put on a diver's +helmet. You had a thing like an empty cage in your hand. You went +down under the water——" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, you saw that from the yacht, did you?" broke in Essain. "I was +afraid, when I caught sight of the passing yacht, that it might have +been so! But it doesn't matter. Lord John fancies himself a +detective—but it's luck, more than skill, which has favoured him so +far: and his luck won't bring him to the bell buoy until I want him to +come—which I shall do, later. The cage you saw isn't empty to-day, if +any of Lord John's luck is on my friends' side, and I'm sure it is. I +placed the receptacle ready last night. Now, I think it will be filled +with jewelled fish, which I have come to catch. In their place I shall +give it a feed of stones, heavy enough to hold it down. And deep under +the still water you shall be its guardian, till I'm out of England and +can let Lord John have a hint where to look for his lost wife." +</P> + +<P> +Maida remembered what I had told her last night: how, when I was a boy +I had loved the old bell buoy and "imagined a thousand stories about +it." Surely I could never have invented one so strange as this—this +end of our love story for which the bell tolled! +</P> + +<P> +"When he finds me gone, he will never think of the bell buoy," Maida +told herself. +</P> + +<P> +But I had thought of it even without knowing that she was gone. I had +put myself into Rameses' skin, and let my mind follow the workings of +his since the sending of the anonymous letter to Lady Annesley, just up +to the moment when those two dark silhouettes had passed near the +moonlit bell buoy. I had cursed myself for not seeing how it might +have suited Rameses' book to have Maida isolated on board the <I>Lily +Maid</I>—certain to be offered to her if she left Annesley's house to be +married in a hurry. I had called myself every kind of madman and fool +for leaving her alone at the mercy of the enemy, and—having done all +this I went straight to Southampton in my brother's highest-powered +car, to hire a motorboat of my own. +</P> + +<P> +That is how I got to the bell buoy just as Essain and his companion had +emptied the iron cage of its treasures and were filling it with stones +while Maida lay bound hand and foot in the bottom of the boat. +</P> + +<P> +Rameses had ready a tiny bottle of Prussic acid which he crushed +between his teeth at sight of me and the two policemen from +Southampton. But the disguised girl lived, and through her we found +the false Combes, Blackburn and Drivenny, members all of the old New +York gang who had played me so many tricks. Nobody outside has ever +yet heard the story of the imposture and the theft; nor will they know +till they see this story in print. By then the jewel auction will have +been forgotten by the world. Only we shall not forget. But we are too +happy, Maida and I, to remember with bitterness. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +PRINTED BY +<BR> +WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD. +<BR> +PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord John in New York, by +C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD JOHN IN NEW YORK *** + +***** This file should be named 38470-h.htm or 38470-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/4/7/38470/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Williamson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lord John in New York + +Author: C. N. Williamson + A. M. Williamson + +Release Date: January 2, 2012 [EBook #38470] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD JOHN IN NEW YORK *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + + + + +LORD JOHN + +IN NEW YORK + + + +BY + +C. N. & A. M. WILLIAMSON + + +AUTHORS OF "THE LIGHTNING CONDUCTOR" + + + + +METHUEN & CO. LTD. + +36 ESSEX STREET W.C. + +LONDON + + + + +_First Published in 1918_ + + + + + BY THE SAME AUTHORS + + The Lightning Conductor + The Princess Passes + My Friend the Chauffeur + Lady Betty Across the Water + The Car of Destiny + The Botor Chaperon + Set in Silver + Lord Loveland Discovers America + The Golden Silence + The Guests of Hercules + The Demon + The Wedding Day + The Princess Virginia + The Heather Moon + The Love Pirate + It Happened in Egypt + A Soldier of the Legion + The Shop Girl + The War Wedding + The Lightning Conductress + Secret History + The Cowboy Countess + This Woman to this Man + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +EPISODE I + +THE KEY + + +EPISODE II + +THE GREY SISTERHOOD + + +EPISODE III + +THE GIRL ON THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR + + +EPISODE IV + +THE DEATH TRYST + + +EPISODE V + +THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT + + +EPISODE VI + +THE CLUE IN THE AIR + + +EPISODE VII + +THE WATCHING EYE + + +EPISODE VIII + +THE HOUSE OF REVENGE + + +EPISODE IX + +THE BELL BUOY + + + + +TO A CERTAIN KING + +OF A CERTAIN CINEMA COMPANY + +WHO PUT + +"LORD JOHN IN NEW YORK" + +ON THE SCREEN + + + + +LORD JOHN IN NEW YORK + + + + +EPISODE I + +THE KEY + +"More letters and flowers for you, Lord John," said my nurse. + +Not that I needed a nurse; and, above all things, I needed no more +letters or flowers. The waste-paper basket was full. The room smelt +like a perfume factory. The mantelpiece and all other receptacles +having an army of occupation, vases and bowls were mobilising on the +floor. This would, of course, not be tolerated in hospital; but I was +off the sick list, recovering in a private convalescent home. I was +fed up with being a wounded hero; the fragrance of too many flowers, +and the kindness of too many ladies, was sapping and mining my brain +power; consequently, I could invent no excuse for escape. + +The nurse came in, put down the lilies, and gave me three letters. + +My heart beat, for I was expecting a note from a woman to whom somehow +or other I was almost engaged, and to whom I didn't in the least wish +to be engaged. She would not have looked at me before the war, when I +was only a younger brother of the Marquis of Haslemere--and the author +of a successful detective story called _The Key_. Now, however; simply +because I'd dropped a few bombs from a monoplane on to a Zeppelin +hangar in Belgium, had been wounded in one arm and two legs, and +through sheer instinct of self-preservation had contrived to escape, I +was a toy worth playing with. She wanted to play with me. All the +women I knew, not busy with better toys, wanted to play with me. My +brother Haslemere, who had been ashamed of my extremely clever, rather +successful book, and the undoubted detective talent it showed, was +proud of me as a mere bomb-dropper. So, too, was my sister-in-law. I +was the principal object of attraction at the moment in Violet's zoo--I +mean her convalescent home. She had cried because men were not being +wounded fast enough to fill its expensively appointed rooms; I was +captured, therefore, to make up for deficiencies and shown off to +Violet's many friends, who were duly photographed bending beautifully +over me. + +There was, as I had feared, a letter from Irene Anderson; there was +also--even worse--one from Mrs. Allendale. But the third letter was +from Carr Price. On the envelope was the address of the New York +theatre where the play he had dramatised from my book would shortly be +produced. He had come to England a million years ago, before the war, +to consult me about his work, which would have been brought out in +London if the war had not upset our manager's plans. I like Carr +Price, who is as much poet as playwright; a charming, sensitive, +nervous, wonderful fellow. I gave his letter precedence. + + +"DEAR LORD JOHN," he began, and I judged from the scrawl that he wrote +in agitation--"for goodness' sake, what have you done to Roger Odell +that he should have a grouch on you? It must have been something +pretty bad. I wish to Heaven you'd given me the tip last summer that +you'd made an enemy of him. Roger Odell, of all men in America! I +suppose the brother of a marquis can stand on his own feet in his own +country, but even if his brother's an archangel his feet are apt to get +cold in New York if Roger Odell turns the heat off. + +"The facts--as I've just heard from Julius Felborn--are these. +Yesterday Odell sent for Julius, who went like a bird, for he and Odell +are friends. Odell's money and influence put Julius where he is now, +as a manager, up at the top, though still young. What was Julius's +horror, however, when Odell blurted out a warning not to produce any +play dramatised from a book of yours, because he--Odell--would do his +best to ruin it! Julius asked what the dickens he meant. Odell +wouldn't explain. All he'd say was, that he'd be sorry to hurt Julius +and had nothing against me, but _The Key_ would get no chance in New +York or any old town in the United States where Roger Odell had a +finger in the pie. + +"Well, you must have heard enough about Odell to know what such a +threat amounts to. There are mighty few pies he hasn't got a finger +in. Not that he's a man who threatens as a rule. He's _made_ a good +many men. I never heard of his _breaking_ one. But when he decides to +do a thing, he does it. Julius is in a blue funk. He's not a coward, +but even if he felt strong enough to fight Odell's newspapers and other +influence, he says it would be an act of 'base ingratitude' to do so, +as he'd be 'walking on his uppers' now but for Odell's help, tiding +over rough places in the past. Julius took all night to reflect, and +rang me up this morning. I'm writing in his office at the theatre now, +after our interview. He says Odell would have put him wise before, but +he saw the pars (in his own papers!) for the first time yesterday +morning on the way back from the West Indies, where he'd been on a +short business trip. Queer place for such a man to go on a business +trip! But the whole thing is dashed queer. Now he's off again like a +whirlwind to England for _another_ 'short business trip,' so he told +Julius. But J. let drop one little item of information about a woman, +or rather a girl. _Can_ that be where _you_ come in on this? _Have +you taken this girl away_? Anyhow, whatever you've done, the +consequences seem likely to be serious. Julius is inclined to call a +halt, bribe, wheedle or bluster the star into throwing up his part at +the first rehearsal, by way of an excuse, and to put on Chumley Reed's +_Queen Sweetheart_, which he kept up his sleeve in case _The Key_ +failed. But, of course, it _couldn't_ fail, unless it was burked. The +whole cast was wild over _The Key_. Julius himself was wild, and is +sick at having to turn it down. But Odell's too big for him. And I +guess O---- has offered to stand the racket for the loss of wasted +scenery, which has been begun on an elaborate scale. (Think of the +great casino act at Monte Carlo!) Unfortunately, I'm constituted so I +can't help seeing both sides of the shield and putting myself in +others' places. I'm sorry for Julius. But I'm twenty times sorrier +for Carr Price. For you, too, my dear fellow, of course. But I stand +to lose more than you do on this deal. + +"I told you confidentially last June just what depends on the success +of _The Key_, and I've counted on that success as certain. So did +_she_. I wish to Heaven she weren't so conscientious--yet no, I love +her all the better for what she is. I shan't ask her to break the +promise she gave her father, who, you may remember, is Governor of my +own State, not to be engaged definitely till I've made good. But if +I'm to have even my _chance_ to make good snatched away, it's hard +lines. I wish to the Lord my dear girl weren't such a howling swell, +with such an important parent! No use hustling around to other +managers. Your book went like hot cakes here. So would your play, but +no man will pit himself against Roger Odell, if Odell means fighting. +And there's no doubt he does mean it--unless you can undo whatever the +fool thing is you've done. + +"Probably this letter will go to England in the same ship with Odell. +If you're well enough by the time it reaches you, to crawl about, can't +you see him? I've told Felborn that when you set your wits to work +you're as much of a wonder as your Prime Minister in _The Key_. I've +worked him up to some sort of superstitious belief in you. The next +thing is, to make him merely _put off_ the rehearsal on some pretext, +and do nothing one way or the other till I get a cable. I shan't sleep +or eat till I hear whether there's any hope of your straightening +things with Odell.--Yours, C.P.". + + +"Straightening things with Odell!" That might have been simple, if +things had ever been crooked with Odell. But I had never met, I had +never seen him. All I knew was what I had read, and vaguely heard from +Americans: that Roger Odell was a millionaire, still a young man, a +popular fellow who had made most of his money out of mines and had +bought up an incredible number of newspapers in order to make his power +felt in the world. But what grudge had he against me? How did he know +that I existed? I decided that I owed it to myself as an expert even +more than to Price and his girl, who was a "governor's daughter," to +turn on the searchlight. + +It was nearly my time for an outing. Lady Emily Boynton was coming in +about an hour to collect me in her car, take me to the park and there +let me try a combination of legs and crutches. But in my room was a +telephone. In general I cursed the noisy thing. To-day I blessed it. +I 'phoned to the doctor that, instead of his coming to me, I should +prefer to call on him, explaining my reason when we met. Next I rang +up Lady Emily to say that I was going to Harley Street. She mustn't +trouble to send, as I was ordering a taxi in a hurry. And lest she +should disobey, I hobbled off before her car could arrive--my first +independent expedition since I had been interned by Violet. + +I hoped that Roger Odell might be caught at some hotel in London, and +resolved not to stop going till I found him. I began at the Savoy, and +it seemed that luck was with me when I learned that he had arrived the +night before. He had gone out, however, directly after breakfast, +leaving no word as to his return. This was a blow, especially as it +appeared that he had hired a powerful automobile; and even American +millionaires do not hire powerful automobiles to run about town. + +They take taxis. + +I gave myself a minute's reflection, and decided that it would be +tempting Providence to intern myself again before seeing Odell, or else +definitely failing to see him. I refused to leave my name, saying that +I would call later; and on the way to keep my Harley Street appointment +stopped my taxi at a post office. Thence I sent a cable to Carr Price-- + + +"Count on me to make everything right with Odell. Postpone rehearsals +if necessary, but assure Felborn he can safely prepare production. +Will wire further details.--JOHN HASLE." + + +Perhaps Price and Felborn would have considered this assurance +premature had they known the little I possessed to go upon. But I had +confidence in myself, and felt justified in rushing off a cheerful +message. Delay and uncertainty were the two fatal obstacles to our +scheme. It seemed fair to presume that, as I've never met nor harmed +Odell, his objection to me must be founded on some misunderstanding +which a few frank words ought to clear up. All I had to do was to see +him; and I _would_ see him if I had to camp at his door for a week. + +Having got off my cable I called oh the doctor, explaining to him, as +man to man, that I was being killed with kindness, buried under flowers +and jellies, as Tarpeia was buried under shields and bracelets. "I +must get out from under," I said, "or I shall fade like a flower or +dissolve into a jelly myself. Can't you save me?" + +"I thought you were enjoying life," he replied. "You're well enough, +as a matter of fact, to do almost anything except go back to the front. +Your legs won't run to that, my boy, for the next six months at least. +If you're such an ungrateful beggar that you want to leave Lady +Haslemere's paradise and all its lovely houris, save yourself. Don't +put the responsibility on me." + +"Coward!" I said. (I would have hissed it, but, except in novels, it +is physically impossible to hiss the word "coward.") + +"The same to you," he retorted. "Get someone to send you on some +mission and I'll back you up. I'll certify that you're strong enough +to undertake it, if it doesn't depend on your legs, and is not too +strenuous." + +"I may need to run over to America," it suddenly occurred to me to say, +as if by inspiration. "I should have to depend on brains, not legs. +Would New York be too strenuous?" + +"I hear they're pretty strenuous over there, but--well----" + +"You don't know what I go through every day at that confounded home for +milksops when your back is turned," I pleaded, as he hesitated. That +settled it. We both laughed, and I knew he'd see me through. Five +minutes before nothing had been further from my mind than a trip to New +York; but now I felt that it had been my secret intention from the +first. It was strongly impressed upon me that I should have to go. +Why, I could not tell. But the thing would happen. + +It was two o'clock and luncheon time when I got back to the Savoy, but +Odell had not returned. I wired (I would not 'phone lest I should be +unearthed like a fox from his hole) to the convalescent home, saying +that all was well and I had the doctor's authority to stop out as long +as I liked. I then ate a substantial meal and inquired again at the +desk. No Odell. I said I would wait. Would they kindly let me know, +in the reading-room, when Mr. Odell arrived? I being wounded and in +khaki, they waived suspicion of a nameless caller. I was given the +freedom of the Savoy, and I waited. I waited three hours, and read all +the magazines and papers. Then I wandered into the foyer and ordered +tea. While I was having it, up trotted a sympathetic clerk with a +flurried manner to inform me that Mr. Odell was not coming back at all. +A telegram had just been received, saying that important business +called him home at once. He was on his way by automobile to Liverpool, +whence he would sail next morning on the _Monarchic_. His luggage was +to be forwarded by messenger in time to go on board the ship. + +For a few seconds I felt as if what remained of my tea had been flung +in my face, scalding hot. But by the time I'd thanked my informant, +paid my waiter and picked up my crutches, I knew why I had had that +presentiment. I taxied to Cook's and learned that, owing to the war, I +could get a cabin on any ship I liked. From Cook's to the doctor's; +found him going out, dragged him home with me, and utilised his +services in wrestling with the matron and nurses. "The play of my book +is being produced in New York, and I must be there, dead or alive," I +explained. This seemed to them important, even unanswerable. It would +not to my sister-in-law. But she was having influenza at home, and I +sneaked off before she knew (having got leave from the War Office), +sending her a grateful, regretful telegram from Liverpool. + +Even the amateur sleuth doesn't let a ship carry him away to sea +without making sure that his quarry is on board. Roger Odell's name +was not on the passenger list, but neither was mine; we were late +comers. Nevertheless, I knew he was certain to have a good cabin, and +I inquired casually of a steward on the promenade deck whether he had +"Seen Mr. Odell yet?" He fell into my trap and answered that he had +not, but his "mate" would be looking after the gentleman who was in the +bridal suite. + +I pricked up my ears, remembering that, according to Carr Price, there +was a girl in the case. Something unexpected had happened to upset +Odell's plans in England. Could he be running off with anybody's wife +or daughter? + +"I didn't know that Mr. Odell was on his honeymoon," I ventured as a +feeler. + +The steward looked nonplussed, then grinned. "Oh, you're thinking of +the bridal suite, sir!" he patronised my ignorance. "There's nothing +in _that_. Probably the gentleman wired for the best there was. He's +alone, sir. Do you wish to send word to him? I can fetch my mate----" + +I broke in with thanks, saying that I would see Mr. Odell later. No +doubt I would do so; but how I should recognise him was the question. +Meanwhile, I limped about the deck, hoping to come across a chair +labelled "Odell," and vainly searching I met a deck-steward. He took +pity on my lameness, and offered to get me a chair at once. "Where +would you like to sit, sir?" + +I wanted to say, "Put me next to Mr. Roger Odell," but that was too +crude a means towards the end. I looked around, hesitating and +hoping--in a way I have which sometimes works well--for an inspiration, +and my wandering eyes arrived at a girl. Then they ceased to wander. +She was extraordinarily pretty, and therefore more important than +twenty Roger Odells. She was just settling into her deck-chair. To +the right was another chair, with a rug and a pillow on it. To the +left was an unfilled space. + +"There's room over there," I said. "It seems a well-sheltered place." + +"It is, sir," replied the steward. Without allowing an eye to twinkle, +he solemnly plumped down my chair at the left of the girl, not too +near, yet not too far distant. She glanced up, as if faintly annoyed +at being given a neighbour, but seeing my crutches, melted and gave me +a brief yet angelic look of sympathy. If she had been a nurse in my +sister-in-law's home I should never have left it. For she was one of +those girls who, if there were only half a dozen men remaining in the +world at the end of the war, would be certain to receive proposals from +at least five. She was the type of the Eternal Feminine, the woman of +our dreams, the face in the sunset and moonbeams. Perhaps you have +seen such a face in real life--just once. + +The girl had on a small squirrel toque and a long squirrel coat. She +was wrapped in a squirrel rug to match. She had reddish-brown hair. +All the girls who can take the last men in the world away from all the +other women have more or less of that red glint in their hair. Yet she +seemed far from anxious to take the man who came striding along the +deck and stopped in front of her as the ship got under way. + +What she did was to look up and cry out a horrified "Oh!" Her cheeks, +which had been pale, flamed red. She half threw off her fur rug, and +would have struggled out of her chair if the man had not appealed to +her mercy. + +"Don't run away from me, Grace," he said, "after all these months." + +The name "Grace" suited the girl, or rather expressed her. The man +stared with hungry eyes. I was sorry for him. Somehow, I seemed to +know how he felt. He had an American voice and looked like an +American--that good, strong type of American who can hold his own +anywhere: not tall, not short, not slim, not stout, not very dark, not +very fair; square-jawed, square-shouldered; aggressive-featured, +kind-eyed; one rebellious lock of brown hair falling over a white +forehead. + +"But--I _have_ been running away from you all these months. I've been +doing nothing else. I could do nothing else," she reproached him. +They had both forgotten me. Besides, I was not obtrusively near. + +"Don't I know you've been running away--to my sorrow?" he flung back at +her. "I heard of you in the West Indies. I went there to hunt you +down. You'd gone. I dashed home. You hadn't come back. I was +told--I won't say by whom--that you were in England. I ran over and +got on your track yesterday; flashed off to Bath in a fast auto; +reached there just as you'd left for Liverpool to sail on this ship. +So now I'm here." + +She looked up at him, tears on her lashes. "Oh, Rod!" was all she +said. It did not need that name to tell me who he was, but eyes and +voice told me something more. She was not flirting with him. She was +not pretending to wish that he had not come. With all her heart and +soul she did wish it, yet--_she loved him_. I wondered if he knew +that, or if not how much he would give to learn it. + +"You can't get away from me this time," he said, not truculently, but +pleadingly, as if he were afraid she might somehow slip out of his +hands. "We'll have five days and a half--I hope six--together. If I +can't persuade you in five days and a half----" + +"You couldn't in five hundred years and a half! Rod, what do you +_think_ of me? Do you suppose I want you to _die_?" + +"Do you suppose I'm _afraid_?" + +"No. But I am--for you. Nothing on this earth can induce me to change +my mind. You only make us both miserable by keeping on. Oh, Rod, here +comes Aunt Marian! This is her chair." + +Roger Odell glanced in the direction the girl's eyes gave him. I did +likewise. A woman was coming, a tall woman in brown. A generation ago +she would have been middle-aged; in our generation such women are +young. She looked about thirty-eight, and so I put her down as ten +years older. She was dusky olive, with a narrow face, banded black +hair, and a swaying throat: rather a beautiful Leonardo da Vinci sort +of woman. + +Evidently she was as much astonished to see Odell as the girl had been, +but she had a different way of showing it. She did not seem to mind +his presence when she got over her surprise. She shook hands and let +him put her into her chair, tucking the brown fur rug around her body +and under her slim feet. I thought she seemed more Italian than +American. She was very agreeable to Odell, in a cool, detached way, +but when she inquired if he ought not to be going below to lunch, even +a man of his determination was obliged to take the hint. "We are +having something brought to us on deck," she explained. "Come back if +you like when you have finished." + +My lameness gave me an excuse for troubling the deck steward, who +fetched me a plate of cold chicken at about the time when more +elaborately furnished trays were placed before the two ladies. They +had more to eat than I, but they finished sooner; at least, it was so +with the younger. There was no sea on, yet she left her luncheon +almost untouched, and after five minutes' playing with it went indoors. +No sooner had she got safely away than Odell came back to accept the +invitation given by "Aunt Marian," only to find it no longer worth his +acceptance. (Recalling her words, I realised that she had never +expected "Grace" to stay.) Odell asked for a chair, nevertheless, and +had it put next to hers, evidently meaning to annex the place +permanently. These were the right tactics, of course. Even I should +have adopted them; but they were opposed to a more subtle and deadly +strategy. "Grace" proceeded to prove that being on board the same ship +with her did not mean being in her society. She did not appear on deck +again. Odell was forced to realise that he had made the girl a +prisoner in her cabin. + +That afternoon the list of passengers was given out, and I searched +eagerly for her name. I had not far down the alphabet to go. There +she was among the "C's"--"Miss Grace Callender." The name was an +electric shock; and seeing it I could guess but too easily why the girl +might love a man and run away from him. + +Nobody who read the newspapers three years ago could have helped +knowing who Grace Callender was; and if they forgot, she would +certainly have been recalled to their minds a year and a half later. +I, at least, had not forgotten. I owed to the "Callender-Graham +Tragedy" one detail which had helped to make the success of my novel, +and had suggested its name, _The Key_. Miss Callender was (and is) an +American heiress, but England has its own reasons for being interested +in American heiresses. Therefore, at the time of the two great +sensational events in Grace Callender's life, London papers gave long +paragraphs to the story. + +Her parents--cousins--were both killed in a motor accident in France +while she was a schoolgirl at home in charge of her aunt, a half-sister +of the father, Graham Callender. Both parents were rich, having, for +their lifetime, the use of an immense fortune, or rather the income +derived from it. The principal could not be touched by them, but +passed to their only child. This arrangement had come about through a +family quarrel in the previous generation; but, as Graham Callender and +his wife were of opinion that injustice had been done, they wished +their daughter to atone for it by her marriage. Half the money ought +rightly to have gone to Philip Callender-Graham, a cousin who had been +disinherited in their favour. He had died poor, leaving a couple of +sons a few years older than Grace. The two had been educated at Graham +Callender's expense, and had spent their holidays at his houses in town +and country. Grace had grown up to look upon both almost as brothers, +though they were only her second cousins. She was fond of the pair--a +little fonder of Perry, the elder, than of his younger brother Ned. As +for the brothers themselves, it appeared later that both were in love +with Grace; but Ned kept his secret and let Perry win the prize. The +engagement of Grace Callender and Perry Callender-Graham was announced +on the girl's nineteenth birthday. One night a few months later, and +just one week before the day fixed for the wedding, Perry +Callender-Graham was found dead in a quiet side street near Riverside +Drive. + +There were no marks of violence on his body, and apparently he had not +been robbed. In his pockets were several letters which could have no +bearing on the cause of his death, an empty envelope, a sum of money, a +jewel-case containing a diamond pendant, probably intended as a gift +for his fiancee, and two keys which seemed to be new. Both were +latchkeys: one rather large and long, looking as if it might belong to +the front door of a house; the other was small, not unlike the key to +the door of the dead man's flat. Neither fitted any door of the +private hotel in which he lived, however, and consequently suggested +mystery. But as three specialists certified death by natural causes, +the police came to regard the keys as of no importance. The doctors +testified to a condition known as "status lymphaticus," which cannot be +diagnosed during life, but which may cause a slight shock to be fatal. +It was thought that Callender-Graham--whose body lay close to a street +crossing--might have started back to save himself from being run over +by a swift automobile suddenly turning the corner, and in the shock of +falling have died of heart failure. + +Grace Callender was grieved and distressed, but not prostrated with +sorrow, as she would have been over the loss of an adored lover. +Everyone who knew her knew that she had been going to marry her cousin +not because she was in love, but in order to give him the fortune +wrongfully diverted from his father. In these peculiar circumstances, +many people prophesied the thing which happened a year later: her +engagement to Ned Callender-Graham, through whom the restitution could +equally well be made. He seemed to be a popular fellow, even better +liked in general than his dreamy, poetical brother; and as his friends +guessed that he had unselfishly stood in the background for Perry's +sake, all were pleased with his good fortune. The engagement went on +for six months; and then a week before the wedding was to take place, +Ned Callender-Graham was found dead in the same street and almost on +the same spot where his brother had fallen a year and a half before. + +This extraordinary coincidence was rendered even more remarkable by the +fact that nearly every detail of the first tragedy was repeated in the +second. Not only had the brothers met their death in the same street, +and almost on the eve of marriage with the same girl, but, according to +doctors' evidence, they had died in the same way and at practically the +same hour. Ned, like Perry, was afflicted with status lymphaticus. +There was no trace of violence on his body. He had not been robbed, +for his pockets were full of money. He carried his brother's watch +which Perry's will had left to him--the watch which Perry had worn on +the night of his death--and two or three letters, together with an +empty envelope. Stranger than all, perhaps, he had in his possession +two new latchkeys--duplicates of the keys found in his dead brother's +pocket. + +This time, owing to the almost miraculous resemblance between the +cases, foul play was suspected. But it seemed that the brothers had no +enemies and, so far as could be learned, no serious rivals with Miss +Callender. The girl and her aunt clung to the belief that Perry and +Ned had died natural deaths, and that the ghastly coincidence was no +more than a coincidence. Miss Marian Callender's theory was that Ned +had fallen a victim to his love for his brother, a too sensitive +conviction of guilt in taking Perry's place, and an unhappy +superstition which he had confided to her--though, naturally, not to +her niece. He believed himself to be haunted by his brother's spirit, +which influenced him to do things he did not wish. He said one day +that he doubted if Perry would ever let him marry Grace, but would +contrive to break off the engagement in some way, even if all went well +until the last moment. Miss Marian Callender suggested that the +apparently mysterious keys were the same keys which Perry had +possessed, they having been given, with other souvenirs of the dead +man, to his brother; that it was characteristic of Ned to keep them by +him, as well as the watch, in a kind of remorseful loyalty to the +brother he had superseded; and that the same half-affectionate, +half-fearful superstition had led him that night into the street where +Perry had fallen. Once there--at an hour the same as that of Perry's +death a week before his appointed marriage--in all probability Ned had +imagined himself confronted by his brother's accusing ghost. The two +were known to be temperamentally as well as physically alike, though +Ned was undoubtedly stronger physically. It was not strange if Perry +had a peculiar weakness of the heart that Ned should have the same; and +the shock of a fancied meeting with Perry's spirit at such a time and +such a place might easily have been too great for a man already at high +nervous tension. Others than Miss Marian Callender talked freely with +reporters and detectives, repeating her story that Ned Callender-Graham +had felt oppressed with a sense of guilt, that he had worried himself +into an emotional state which he had tried to hide, and that he had +attended spiritualistic seances. All this, together with the fact that +there was no evidence of murder, caused the second verdict to be the +same as the first. But Grace Callender found herself so stared at and +pointed at, and gossiped about wherever she went, that her life became +a burden. She knew that terrible nicknames were fastened upon her, +that she was called "Belladonna" and "The Poison Flower," as if her +promise to marry had brought death upon her lovers. She heard women +whispering behind her back, "If I were a man I simply shouldn't _dare_ +be engaged to her in spite of her millions"; and what she did not hear +she imagined. She in her turn grew superstitious, or so it was said. +She began to feel that there must be something fatal about her; that a +curse which the father of Perry and Ned was said to have pronounced on +her parents in his first fury at losing a fortune had been visited on +her. Though she had twice come near her wedding she had never yet +deeply loved a man; nevertheless, because of the "curse" and in fear of +it, she resolved to give up all hope of happiness in love, never to +marry, nor even engage herself again. + +All this I remembered distinctly, not alone because my memory is a +blotting-pad for such cases, but because the story had captured my +imagination, and because I had used the detail of the keys for my own +book, only substituting one for two. + +"By Jove!" I said. "The key! Now, can that be the clue to Roger +Odell's veto?" + +I set myself deliberately to think the matter over from this new point +of view. Evidently he was desperately in love with Grace Callender. +Could the mere fact that I had named a book of mine _The Key_, and +turned my plot upon a mysterious key found in a dead man's pocket, +have inspired Odell with revengeful rage? Except for the title, and +the key in the pocket, there was nothing in my book or in Carr Price's +play which bore even the vaguest likeness to the Callender-Graham +tragedy. I didn't see how the most loyal lover could feel that I had +"butted in" upon what to him was sacred; still, the new idea had some +substance in it. Not only had I hit on a possible clue to the man's +enmity, but into my mind from another direction suddenly flashed so +astounding a ray of light that I was almost blinded. I could hardly +wait to try weapons with Odell. + +How to get at him and hold him, so to speak, at my mercy was the next +difficulty. I had to think that out too, and I did it by process of +deduction. For reasons of my own, I had not yet secured a seat in the +dining-saloon, but now I limped down below with my inspiration. Others +had made their arrangements and gone, but I managed to catch the head +steward. + +"I suppose you're assigning seats for people who want to sit alone at +these small tables?" I began. + +"We have assigned only one such, sir," he cautiously admitted. "All +we're able to give." + +"Why all?" I wanted to know. "There are plenty of tables and only a +few passengers." + +"Yes, sir, that's true. But also, there's only a few stewards. We +haven't enough to spare for scattering around." + +"Is Mr. Roger Odell the one fortunate person to whom you've been able +to give a table to himself?" I threw out this question like a lasso. + +"Why, yes, sir, as a matter of fact he is," the caught steward +confessed. "We've several tables with parties of two or three, but for +one alone----" + +"I may wish to be alone just as much as Mr. Odell does," I argued. +"But the next best thing to being alone is to sit with another man who +wants to be alone. Then there's no fear of too much conversation. Put +me at Mr. Odell's table." As I spoke I slipped a five-pound note into +a surprised but unresisting hand. (I had to bribe high to outbribe a +millionaire.) Even as his fingers closed mechanically on the paper the +steward's tongue began to stammer, "I--I'm afraid he may object, sir." + +"He may at first; but not after three minutes. All I ask is to be put +at the table when Mr. Odell is seated, and without his knowing +beforehand that he's obliged to have a companion. If he still objects +after three minutes of my company I've had my money's worth. I'll +leave him in possession of the table; you can put me where you like." + +It was a bargain. The steward pointed out the table selected by Odell. + +I was dressed and ready for dinner before the bugle sounded, but did +not go down until I thought that most of the passengers would be +already seated. Hovering in the doorway, I saw that Odell was already +in his place. Then I made straight for the table and sat down in the +chair opposite his. + +He had been gloomily eating his soup, and looked up from it with a +glare. + +"I think you must be making a mistake," he remarked with an effort at +civility. "I asked to be alone." + +"So did I," I said. + +"But not at this table." + +"At this very table." + +"Then I'll leave it to you." + +"Please don't," I said. "If one of us goes, I'll be the one, as I'm +the last comer. But will you meanwhile be kind enough to answer two +easy questions? First, are you Mr. Roger Odell of New York?" + +"Yes, to question number one. If the next's as easy, perhaps I'll +answer that too." + +(He looked faintly amused. The space between his straight black +eyebrows was growing visible again. I had still two minutes and a half +out of the three.) + +"Thank you," I said. "The next should be even easier. Why have you +warned Julius Felborn that if he brings out Carr Price's play, _The +Key_, you'll quash it?" + +The man's face changed. From half-amused boredom it expressed white +rage. "You are that fellow John Hasle," he said. His voice was low +and in control, but his look was vitriolic. All the same, I liked him. +He was a man, and I had a man's chance with him. + +"Yes, I'm that fellow John Hasle. Let me introduce myself," I replied. + +"You've hunted me down. You said you wanted to sit alone. That was +not true." + +"I said, 'I asked to sit alone.' I wanted to sit with you. It was my +way of getting to do it. I took not only the table and the +opportunity, but my ticket to New York with the same object. I think I +have the right to inquire what's your motive for wishing to injure me +and to expect that you'll answer. If you think differently, I'll get +up at once and go. But I believe I shall have succeeded in spoiling +your appetite." + +"You're a cool hand," he said, with no softening of the eyes which gave +me look for look. "Sit still. If you get up and hobble away on those +crutches you'll have the whole room gaping at us." (Not for the first +time were my crutches a blessing in disguise:) "Whether you've a right +to question me or not, I don't mind telling you that I think Americans +are better at detective literature than any Englishman, speaking +generally, and a whole lot better than John Hasle, speaking +particularly." + +"I think," said I, "that I shall be able to prove my detective powers +to you later on, speaking very particularly." + +"Ah, indeed! In what way?" + +"'Later on' was what I said." + +"All right. I'm in no hurry." + +"I am. Because several matters have got to be settled before I can +progress much further. For one thing, you haven't answered my second +question. Your opinion of my book or my British limitations as a +detective has nothing to do with your attitude toward the play." + +"If you know so much, perhaps you know more." + +"Frankly, I don't. I ask you to tell me the rest as frankly." + +"Very well. Perhaps the medicine will go to the spot quicker if you +understand what it's for. It sounds sort of melodramatic, and maybe it +is so; but my wish--my intention--to strangle your play at birth, or +crush it afterwards, has revenge for its motive." + +"Revenge for what?" + +"For the cruel act of a member of your family to a member of mine." + +"There's only one other member of my family beside myself--my brother." + +"Exactly! That's the man. There's only one other member of _my_ +family beside myself. That's my adopted sister. I care more for her +than anyone else in the world--except one. Through your brother, my +sister's health and her hopes are both ruined. If you didn't know +before, you know now what you're up against." + +"I assure you I didn't know," I said. "This is the last thing that +occurred to me. I admit I thought of something else----" + +"Oh, is there something else? It's not needed. Still, you may as well +out with it, so I can put another black mark against the name." + +"I'll tell you, when I'm ready to talk of the detective test I spoke +of. But about my brother injuring your adopted sister. There must be +some mistake----" + +"Not on your life, if you're Lord John Hasle and your brother's the +Marquis of Haslemere." + +"I can't deny that." + +"It's a pity!" + +"So _he_ often says. He's not proud of me as an author. He'd be still +less proud of me on the stage. You'll be doing him a real service if +you prevent _The Key_ from being produced, and so keep the family name +out of the papers in connection with the theatre." + +"Oh, will I?" Odell echoed. He looked rather blank for a moment; then +gathered himself and his black eyebrows together. "You're mighty +intelligent, aren't you?" he sneered. + +"I've always thought so. I'm glad you agree. But there's no use our +rotting on like this. We're wasting time. Will you tell me what +Haslemere can possibly have done?" + +"Yes! What he positively _did_ do!" the man broke out fiercely, then +controlled himself and glanced quickly round the room as if looking for +someone. But not even Miss Marian Callender had come into the saloon. +Both she and her niece must have been dining in their own suite. "Lord +Haslemere wrote a letter to your British Lord Chamberlain, or whatever +you call his High Mightiness, and caused him to have my sister's +presentation at Court cancelled three days before it should have come +off in May last year." + +"Good heavens!" I exclaimed. "What an extraordinary thing to do!" + +"What a monstrous, what a beastly thing to do! A defenceless girl. A +beautiful girl. One of the best on earth. It broke her heart--the +humiliation of it, and the shock. She wasn't very strong, and she'd +been looking forward to making her bow to your Royalties. Lord knows +why she should have cared so much. But she did. She loved England. +She has English blood in her veins. She had a sort of loyal feeling to +your King and Queen. That is what she got for it. She's never been +the same since, and I doubt if she ever will be. All her friends knew +she was going to be presented--and then she wasn't. The damned story +leaked out somehow, and has been going the rounds ever since. That's +why, if your play is produced in New York, I shall see it gets what it +deserves--or, anyway, what your family deserves." + +"How do you know Haslemere wrote that letter?" I asked. + +"My sister got it from a woman who was to present her--a friend of Lord +Haslemere's wife. She'd seen the letter." + +"Then she must have seen some reason alleged." + +"She did. That to his certain knowledge Miss Madeleine Odell wasn't a +proper person to be introduced to their Majesties. Maida not a proper +person! She's a saint." + +"What lie about her could have been told to my brother?" + +"I know what lie was told, because it has been told to others. It's +blighted her life for years, go where she would on our side of the +water. She hoped it wouldn't have got so far as England; and if it +hadn't, she'd have settled down in that country to enjoy a little +peace. But there it was, like a snake in the grass! The thing I'd +give my head to find out is, _who spread the lie_?" + +"You don't know, then?" + +"No, I don't. It's a black mystery." + +"Better let me use my despised detective talents to solve it." + +"Oh, _that's_ what you've been working up to, is it?" + +"No. How could it be, as I hadn't heard the story when I began to +work? But I'm willing to take it on as an extra by and by. My brother +and I are scarcely friends. I'm not responsible for his act, and +whatever the motive, I don't excuse it. Why go out of his way to hurt +a woman? Yet I may be able to atone." + +"Never!" + +"Never's a long word. But just here the time has come to mention the +two things I promised to tell you 'later on.' I thought what you had +against me might be the name and the plot of my book, dramatised by +Carr Price." + +"What the devil is the name or plot of your play to me?" + +"Ah, that was what I wanted to know. It occurred to me as possible +that you resented the incident of a key being found in a dead man's +pocket, and the title of the book and play which might recall a certain +double tragedy to the public mind." + +The blood rushed to the man's face. He understood instantly, and did +not choose to pretend ignorance. "How dare you presume that I have a +right to resent any such reference?" he challenged me. + +"I dare, because of the second of the two things I reserved to tell you +later: the wish I have to prove my detective powers for your benefit. +I couldn't help seeing to-day your meeting on deck with Miss Callender. +I couldn't help hearing a few words. Because I play at being a +detective I keep my wits about me. Also I have a good memory for names +and stories connected with them. Mr. Odell, will you separate me in +your mind from my brother and give Carr Price's play a chance for its +life if I tell you who killed Perry and Ned Callender-Graham, and prove +to Miss Callender that there's no reason why she need be afraid to give +her love to any man?" + +Odell stared as if he thought I had gone mad or he was dreaming. + +"Who _killed_ Perry and Ned Graham?" he repeated. "No one killed them." + +"You are wrong," I said quietly. + +"That's your opinion!" he blurted out. + +"That's my opinion. And if I'm right, if those two were murdered, and +if the murderer or murderers can be found, won't Miss Callender feel +she may safely marry a man she loves without delivering him up to +danger?" + +"Yes," Odell admitted. "Great Heaven, _if_ you were right!" + +"Supposing I am, and can prove it?" + +"There's nothing on God's earth I wouldn't do for you." + +"Well," I said, "I believe there's something in that opinion of mine. +Don't dream that now I am getting at this truth I would bury it even if +you did worse than crush my play. I'll go on, anyhow, but----" + +"You say you are getting at the truth," he broke in. "What do you +think--what do you know? But how can you, a stranger, _know_ anything?" + +"A stranger to you and those connected with the case, but not to the +case itself. You may thank that despised detective instinct of mine +for my keen interest in its details." + +"If you thought you'd unearthed the clue to a mystery, why didn't you +advertise yourself by pointing it out to the police a year and a half +ago?" + +"I certainly should if I'd got hold of it then, though not for the +motive you suggest, Mr. Odell. My publishers were giving me all the +publicity I wanted. As it happens, I picked up the clue in question +only--a short time ago." + +"Only a few hours ago" were the words which all but slipped out. I bit +them back, however. My line with a keen business man like Roger Odell +was not to give away something for nothing. It was to sell--for a +price. + +He tried to keep his countenance, but his eyes lit. I saw that my +hint, like a spark to gun-cotton, had set him aflame with curiosity. +Already, in spite of himself, he began to look on me less as an enemy +than an agent; perhaps (a wonderful "perhaps" he could not help +envisaging) a deliverer. + +"For God's sake, speak out and say what you mean!" The appeal was +forced from him. He looked half ashamed of it. + +"I can't do that--yet," I returned. "I might tell you my suspicions; +but that wouldn't be fair to myself, or you, or--anyone concerned. I +must land first. Once off the ship, twenty-four hours are all I shall +need to find--I won't say the '_missing_ link,' because I have reason +to think it will not be missing, but the link I can't touch this side +of New York. I will make a rendezvous with you at the end of that +time, either to tell you I've put two and two together with the link, +or else to confess that the ends of the chain can't be made to fit." + +Odell stared at me hungrily. + +"You want only twenty-four hours to do what the best police in the +world haven't done in a year and a half," he growled at me. "You think +something of yourself, don't you?" + +"You see, I've known myself for a long time," I said modestly. "You've +only just been introduced to me, and were prejudiced to begin with. +About that rendezvous--do you consent to my appointing the place?" + +"Yes," he agreed. "Your hotel?" + +"No. In the manager's private office at the Felborn Theatre; the time, +twenty-four hours after we get away from the dock. That will be the +most convenient place for both of us in case of my success, for Julius +Felborn and Carr Price can be called in to fix a date for the first +rehearsal of _The Key_." + +The man could not keep back a laugh. It was harsh and short; but it +was a score for me and he knew it. "The Felborn Theatre let it be," he +said grimly. + +The weather was fine and we made almost a record trip in point of time. +There was nothing for Odell to regret in the briefness of the voyage, +for Grace Callender remained in her cabin till he sent a message by her +aunt, promising not to try for a word or a look if she came on deck. +After that she appeared again, as if to show appreciation, and Odell +didn't abuse her confidence. He kept himself to the other side of the +deck; but there was no reason why I should give up my place near the +two ladies. After the first night's dinner _en tete-a-tete_, Odell and +I had no more meals together; consequently, the Misses Callender, aunt +and niece, were unaware of our acquaintanceship. They had no reason to +shun their lame neighbour, and my crutches gave me their sympathy, as +they have given me various other blessings. Instead of my picking up a +dropped book, as a man usually contrives to do if he yearns to know a +girl on shipboard, Grace Callender retrieved one for me. After that, I +was permitted, even encouraged, to draw my deck-chair closer to theirs +and "tell them things about the war." I noticed that the girl caught +eagerly, nervously, at any subject which could hold her attention for a +moment, even that of my book and Carr Price's play. I, having the +secret clue, guessed that she was for ever trying to escape from a +thought too engrossing. Her aunt, Miss Marian Callender, had the clue +also; and often I caught her long dark eyes--eyes like those of La +Gioconda--fixed with almost painful intentness on Grace. "She knows +that her niece is thinking about Odell," I told myself. Evidently she +approved the girl's decision to put him out of her life. If she had +been Odell's friend and sympathiser, a woman of her superior age and +strong personal charm (for she had a sort of hypnotic charm, like a +velvet-petalled flower with a penetrating perfume) could surely have +influenced an impressionable girl, especially one so devoted to her as +Grace Callender was. + +It was nine o'clock on an April morning when we escaped from the +custom-house men and spun away from the White Star docks in a +glittering grey car. When I say "we," I refer to myself and the two +Misses Callender. They had befriended me to the extent of recommending +me to an hotel and offering to motor me to it; and I was malicious +enough to hope that Odell might see me going off with them. There was +little doubt in my mind that he did so, and none at all of what +feelings must have been roused by the sight. These would have been +still more poignant had he known that it was Grace who impulsively +invited me, Marian who merely followed with a polite echo. They lived +in a large old-fashioned house in Park Avenue, where the car dropped +the ladies and by their order took me on to the Hotel Belmont. There +Carr Price was waiting, for when--the day before our landing--the +Callenders had mentioned the Belmont I marconied him to meet me at the +hotel. + +"Why did you wire 'Don't come to the dock?'" he asked almost +resentfully. + +"Because I thought it might annoy Roger Odell if I dangled you under +his nose," I explained. + +"Roger Odell's nose!" Price gasped. "Where--where----" + +"Was it? On the _Monarchic_. And I didn't pull it; neither did he +pull mine. I even have hopes that the two features may come to terms. +To-morrow, at exactly this hour, you're due to know why. But meanwhile +I want you to promise me patience, blind faith and--unquestioning help. +There's no time to waste over it, so here goes! Who's the most +influential man you know in New York?" + +"George Gould," he said. + +"Pooh! a mere millionaire. He's no use to me. Do you know anyone in +the police force--high enough up to do you a favour?" + +Price pondered for an instant. "I know Sam Yelverton. Is that name +familiar to you?" + +"It is. Think we'll find him in now if you take me to call?" + +"If this is our lucky day we shall." + +"Let's put it to the test. I've noticed that New York has taxis as +well as London." + +"And you'll notice the difference when you've paid for one. But this +is on me." + +The omen of luck was good, for we found our man at the police +head-quarters, and, true to his promise, Carr Price sat as still and +expressionless as an owl while I did the talking. I had been +introduced to the great Sam Yelverton by my own request as the author +of _The Key_, and it really was a stroke of luck that he had read and +liked it. He looked interested when I said that I'd got an idea for my +book from a _cause celebre_ in New York--"The Callender-Graham affair," +I explained. + +"Ah, the latchkeys in the dead men's pockets!" he caught me up. + +"Exactly. Now it's a question of a play by Mr. Price, on the same +lines as my book and with the same title, soon, _very_ soon, to be +produced at the Felborn Theatre. It will be of the greatest assistance +to him and to me in working out an important detail if I can have Ned +Callender-Graham's latchkeys--anyhow, the smaller one--in my hands for +a few hours to-day. Indeed, I'm afraid we can't get much 'forrarder' +if you refuse." + +(This was the literal truth, for, unless I could obtain the more +important of those two keys and do with it what I hoped to do, I should +be unable to "deliver the goods" to Roger Odell. I should stand with +him where I had stood before the "hold up" interview, and the play +would be pigeon-holed indefinitely. Price's eyes were starting from +his head, but he kept his tongue between his teeth.) + +Mr. Yelverton seemed amused. "I guess I may be able to manage that," +he said, "if one or both of those keys are still in our hands, as I +believe they are. If I do the trick for you I'll expect a box for the +play on the first night, eh?" + +"It's a bargain, isn't it, Carr?" said I. + +The dazed Price assented. + +"Oh, and by the way, Mr. Yelverton"--I arrested the famous man as he +picked up the receiver of his desk telephone--"if the letters and the +empty envelopes found on the bodies of the two brothers are still among +your police archives, would it be possible for me to have a look at +them?" + +Yelverton--a big man with a red face and the keenest eyes I ever saw, +deep set between cushiony lids--threw me a quick glance. "You do +remember the details of that case pretty well, Lord John!" he said. + +"I'm an amateur follower in your famous footsteps," I reminded him. He +smiled, called up a number and began telephoning. I admired the clear +way in which he put what he wanted--or what I wanted--without wasting a +word. He asked not only for the keys, but for the whole dossier in the +double case of the Callender-Graham brothers. Then came a moment of +waiting in which my heart ticked like a clock; but I contrived to +answer Mr. Yelverton's mild questions about our weather on shipboard. +At last a sharp ring heralded an end of suspense. + +"Sorry, Lord John," the big man began, taking the receiver from the +generous shell of his ear. "They're sending round the dossier, but our +chaps have got none of the Callender-Graham 'exhibits in their +possession--haven't had for nearly a year. I feared it was likely to +be so. You see, there was no proof that any crime had been committed +on either of the two brothers; in fact, the theory was against it. +When the police definitely dropped the case--or cases--the family was +entitled to all personal property of the deceased. Everything found on +the body of Ned Callender-Graham was handed over to the relatives by +their request, as had been done a few weeks after the elder brother's +death, even the letters and those empty envelopes you were intelligent +enough to single out for observation. We had done the same, naturally, +but, in every sense of the word"--he grinned--"there was nothing in +'em." + +"The keys on Ned's body were handed over to the Misses Callender, +then?" I inquired, stiffening the muscles of my face to mask my +disappointment. + +"Yes. Perhaps, as you remember so much, you recall the fact that the +first two keys were given to the relatives. Miss Marian Callender and +her niece believed that Ned had Perry's keys in his pocket, which would +mean there were but the two. The Callender ladies are the sole +surviving relatives, or, anyhow, the nearest ones. But I've saved my +bit of good news from head-quarters till the last. They 'phoned that +there are duplicate keys. I thought I recalled something of the sort. +Not sure but I suggested making them myself. That pretty millionairess +girl might get herself engaged a third time, and if there were any more +dead men found with latchkeys in their pockets, sample specimens might +be very handy for our fellows." + +Sam Yelverton finished with a laugh; but I couldn't echo it. I thought +of Odell, of Grace Callender's lovely face and her young, spoilt life. +I remembered the cruel nicknames "Belladonna" and "Poison Flower." If +even the police prepared for a third tragedy, in case she thought again +of marriage, no wonder the poor girl refused the man she loved. + +"Will duplicates do for you, or do I lose my stage-box?" the big man +asked. + +I said aloud that I thought duplicates would answer my purpose, and +silently to myself I said that they must do so. + +Ten minutes later a policeman of some rank (what rank I couldn't tell, +he being my first American specimen) brought in a parcel of +considerable size. It contained many affidavits concerning the +Callender-Graham tragedy; and on the top of these documents was a +small, neatly labelled packet containing two keys. + +The larger was entirely commonplace; and even the smaller one was at +first glance a rather ordinary latchkey, of the Yale order. To an +experienced and observant eye, however, it was of curious workmanship. + +"Not a Yale, you see," said Yelverton, taking a magnifying glass from a +small drawer of his tidy desk and passing it on to me. "What do you +make of the thing?" + +"Foreign, isn't it?" I remarked carelessly. + +"Yes, we thought so. German--or Italian. Both the brothers had +travelled abroad. On a Yale you would read the words 'Yale +paracentric,' and a number. There's neither name nor number on that." +He flung a gesture toward the key in my hand. + +"May I take it away and keep it till to-morrow morning, to work out my +plot with?" I asked. "The big one I don't care about. I give you my +word I'll send this back in twenty-four--no, let's say twenty-five +hours. I have an engagement for the twenty-fourth hour." + +"All right," replied Yelverton good-naturedly. "You might bring the +box-ticket with you. Ha, ha!" + +"I will," I laughed. "And as to the dossier, may I sit somewhere out +of your way and glance through it in case there's anything we can work +up to strengthen the realism of our scenario? Of course, we'll +guarantee to use nothing that might recall the Callender-Graham case to +the public or dramatic critics." + +"You can sit in the outer office and browse over the bundle till +lunch-time, if you like," said Yelverton. "There's a table there in a +quiet corner. I shall be off on business before you finish, I expect. +See you later--at the Felborn Theatre, your first night. Wish you +luck." + +I thanked him and got up. Carr Price followed suit. + +"Weren't you a bit premature mentioning the Felborn?" he reproached me +in the next room, beyond earshot of Mr. Yelverton's secretaries and +stenographers. + +"No," I reassured him. "To-morrow, at this time or a little later, +you'll know why. Meanwhile, don't worry, but take my word--and a taxi +to the theatre. Tell Felborn I'm on the spot, and there's a truce +between Odell and me, an armistice of twenty-four"--I pulled out my +watch--"no, twenty-two and a half hours. Ask him to lend me his +private office to-morrow morning from nine till ten o'clock. After +that time you and he had better hold yourselves ready to be called in +to discuss dates." + +"You're either the wonder child of the British Empire or its champion +fool," remarked Price somewhat waspishly, as he prepared to leave me +alone with the Callender-Graham dossier. + +"You've got till to-morrow to make up your mind which," said I, sitting +down to my meal of manuscripts in order not to waste a minute out of +the twenty-two and a half hours which remained to me. It would not +have been wise to add that I didn't know which myself. + +Many of the papers I passed over rapidly. Others gave me information +that I couldn't have got from Odell without a confession of ignorance, +or from the Misses Callender without impertinence. Among the latter +was one summarising much of the family history; and, profiting by some +smart detective's researches, I learned a good deal about Miss Grace +Callender and her almost equally interesting aunt. + +Even before the girl reached the age of sixteen, it seemed, she had +begun to have offers of marriage. After her parents' death, when she +was not quite fifteen, she had lived for a while with Miss Marian +Callender at the house in Park Avenue left to her by her father. She +had been taught by French governesses, German governesses and English +governesses, but all had failed to prevent a kind of persecution by +young men fascinated with the child's beauty or her money. At last +Miss Callender senior had sent her niece to a boarding-school in the +country where the supervision was notoriously strict, and had herself +gone to Italy, her mother's native land, for a few months' visit. +Eight or nine years before this Marian Callender had fallen in love +with an Italian tenor, singing with enormous success in New York. The +lady's half-brother--Grace's father--had objected to the marriage, and +for that reason or some other the two had parted. Gossips said that +the singer, Paolo Tostini, had not cared enough for Marian Callender to +take her without a _dot_; and all she had came from her millionaire +half-brother. At Graham Callender's death Marian's friends were +surprised that she was left a yearly allowance (though a magnificently +generous one) only while she "continued unmarried and acted as Grace's +guardian." In the event of Grace's marriage, the girl was free to +continue half the same allowance to her aunt if she chose. This was +generally considered unjust to Marian, and the only excuse for the +arrangement seemed to be that Graham Callender feared Paolo Tostini +might come forward again if the woman he had jilted were left with a +fortune. + +The police of New York had apparently thought it worth while to ferret +out further facts in connection with the singer, who had not again +returned to America. They learned that the once celebrated tenor had +lost his voice and had spent his money in extravagance, as many artists +do. He was living in comparative poverty with his father (a skilled +mechanician and inventor of a successful time lock for safes) and his +younger brother in Naples at the time of Miss Marian Callender's visit +to Italy, and Grace's school life. Although these facts were inquired +into only after some years had passed, and the two brothers +Callender-Graham had died, Marian's movements must have been easily +traced, for it was learned that she had openly visited the Tostinis at +their small villa between Posilipo and Naples. The family had also +called and dined at her hotel, where they were not unknown. After that +their circumstances had apparently improved, and it appeared not +improbable that Marian Callender had helped her late lover's people. + +When she returned to New York it was to find that Grace was being +bombarded with love letters at school, and that the hotel in the +village near by had for its principal clients a crowd of young men +whose whole business in life was lying in wait for the heiress. In +consequence, Marian brought her niece back to the house in Park Avenue; +and soon after, before the girl had been allowed to come out in +society, Antonio, the younger brother of Paolo Tostini, arrived in New +York. His business was that of an analytical chemist. He had +first-rate recommendations, and was an extremely brilliant, as well as +singularly good-looking young man, some (who remembered the tenor) +thought even handsomer than Paolo. Antonio Tostini, thanks to his own +ability and the introductions he had from Miss Callender and others, +got on well both in business and society. No one was surprised, and no +one blamed her, when Marian Callender threw the clever young Italian +and Grace Callender together--except that the girl was young to make up +her mind, and her dead father had favoured a match with one of the +disinherited cousins. + +From these rough notes, crudely classifying Antonio Tostini's courtship +of Grace Callender, I gathered that the young Italian had fallen +desperately in love with the girl. He had assured friends whom they +had in common that even if, to marry him, she were obliged to give up +her fortune, he would still think himself the happiest man on earth to +win her. Grace's aunt, who had tried to keep the girl out of other +men's way, evidently favoured her old love's brother. She chaperoned a +yachting party, of which Grace and Antonio were the most important +members, a party in which the Callender-Grahams were not included, +though they wished for invitations. This match-making effort on +Marion's part stifled all suspicion that she discouraged Grace from +marrying in order to retain a charming home, a large, certain income, +and all kinds of other luxuries for herself. She had taken Grace's +refusal of Antonio Tostini almost as hard as he had taken it himself. +She had even been ill for several weeks when for the third time Grace +had sent him away, and he returned in despair to Italy. It was not +long after this affair (the dossier informed me) that, in accordance +with her father's desire, the girl engaged herself to Perry +Callender-Graham, and Marian consented to the inevitable. Her +affection and support during the tragic experiences that followed had +given great comfort to Grace, and, so far as was known, Antonio Tostini +had had the good taste never to appear on the scene again. + +Here were many details which I had been anxious, but not decently able, +to learn, as the Misses Callenders' shipboard friendship had confined +itself to lending me books, telling me what to do in New York, inviting +me to call, listening to talk about the war or the play, and allowing +me to snapshot them on deck. + +Having looked through the dossier, I took my departure with the key. +It was only a duplicate, yet I couldn't rid myself of a queer, +superstitious feeling for the thing, as if it were offered to me by the +unseen hand of a dead man. + +I taxied back to my hotel and mentioned to a clerk that I wanted to see +houses and flats in the direction of Riverside Drive. Could he direct +me to an agent who would have the letting of apartments in that +neighbourhood? If my foreign way of expressing myself amused him, he +hid his mirth and looked up in a big book the addresses of several +agents. + +I had not cared to be too specific in my questions, but I chose the +address nearest the street I wanted, taxied there, found the agent, and +inquired if there were anything to be let. It was the street in which +Perry Callender-Graham and Ned, his brother, had met their death. + +"I have been recommended to that particular street by an American +friend in England," I said. "He has told me that it's very quiet. +There are several apartment houses in it, are there not? + +"Yes," replied a spruce young man who looked willing to let me half +residential New York. "But it's a favourite street; I'm afraid there's +nothing doing there now. As for houses, they're all owned, or have +been rented for many years. A little farther north or south----" + +"Hold on," I pulled him back. "Somebody might be induced to let. My +friend was telling me about a charming flat--oh, apartment you call +it?--in that street which a friend of _his_ took---let me see, it must +have been three years ago or thereabouts. Anyhow, not later. He had +reason to believe I might get that very flat. Stupid of me! I can't +remember the number or name--whichever it was--of the house. I know +the flat was a furnished one, however; and if your agency----" + +"Oh, if the apartment was furnished, and changed hands three years ago, +there's only one it _could_ be, if you're sure it's in that street?" + +"I'm sure," I replied. I staked all on that sureness, though +logically---- But I would not let my mind wander to any other +deduction than the one to which, for better or worse, I pinned my faith. + +"We had the letting of a furnished apartment in the Alhambra, as the +house is named, put into our hands three years ago on the 30th of last +month," said the youth, referring to a book. "To my certain knowledge +no other furnished one was to be had in the street at that time, and +there hasn't been since. Isn't likely to be either, so far as I can +see. That was the grand chance. German-American lady and gentleman, +Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Lowenstein, going unexpectedly to Europe, and glad +to get rid of their apartment to a good tenant at a nominal price." + +"You found the good tenant?" I asked. + +"We did, sir--or the tenant found us. Wanted a furnished apartment, +not too large or expensive, in a quiet street, quietness the great +consideration. Above all, the proprietors mustn't want to use the +place again for at least five years. That just fitted in, because our +clients were anxious to let for seven years; the husband had a business +opening in Hamburg. The new tenant took the place for that period; and +as there's a long time to run yet, I shouldn't have thought there was +much hope for you. However, your friend may have private information." + +"Does the new tenant live there altogether?" I wanted to know. + +"Only comes up from the country occasionally. Expensive fad, to rent a +New York apartment that way. But what's money _for_? Some people have +it to burn." + +"Quite so," I admitted. "Have you ever met the tenant?" + +"Only once--when the apartment was engaged; fixed up in one interview. +The rent comes through the post." + +"It must be the apartment my friend talked about!" I exclaimed. + +"Can't be any other. Is the name of your friend's friend Paulling?" + +"Why, yes, I have the impression of something like that. By the way, I +might be able to find an old photograph, to make quite sure. Would you +recognise it?" + +"I might--and I mightn't. Three years is a long time." + +"Well, I'll do my best through some acquaintances," I finished. "If +we're speaking of the same person, you may be able to introduce me and +save the delay of communicating with my friend in England." + +Each was flattering himself on his discretion, the whole catechism +having been gone through without the question on either side, "Is the +person a man or a woman?" Eventually we parted with the understanding +that I should return later if, after looking at the Alhambra from the +outside, I fancied it as much as I expected to do. And then I was to +bring the photograph with me. + +So far so good. But the next steps were not so simple. + +I stopped my taxi at the corner (not to advertise myself with +unnecessary noise) and limped the short distance which Perry +Callender-Graham and his brother Ned must have travelled on the secret +errands that led them to their death. The Alhambra was neither as +picturesque nor as imposing as its name suggested. It was just a +substantial brick building, six or seven storeys in height, with +facings of light-coloured stone, and large, cheerful windows. Luckily +for my lame leg, the entrance was but a step above the street level. +As I arrived the door was opened by a chocolate-brown negro in +chocolate-brown livery. He helped a smart nurse to pass out with a +baby in a white and gold chariot, and while he was thus engaged I +hobbled into the hall. A hasty glance at a name board on the wall +opposite gave me the list of occupants and the floor on which each +tenant lived. Evidently there were two flats to each storey. T. +Paulling had an apartment on the third, so also had G. Emmett. I had +to risk something, and so when the brown hall-porter turned to me +(which he did with embarrassing swiftness) I risked inquiring for Mr. +Emmett. I believed, I added, that he was expecting me. + +"That's all right, sir. He's in," was the welcome reply, with a +compassionate grin at the crutches which guaranteed the harmlessness of +an unknown visitor. "I'll take you in the elevator." + +Up we shot to the third floor, where I feared that my conductor might +insist on guiding me to the door of Mr. Emmett. Fortunately, however, +someone rang for the lift and the porter shot down again, directing me +to the right. + +The instant he was out of sight I turned to the left, and, with the +police key in my hand, I stood before the door of T. Paulling. + +My blood leaped through my veins, and the hand that tried the key in +the lock shook with the rush of it. I heard its pounding in my ears, +and through the murmurous sound the question whispered, "What if the +key won't fit? Down goes the whole theory. You'll have to confess +yourself a fool to Roger Odell." + +As I blundered at the lock in haste and fear that someone might pass, +or that this might be one of T. Paulling's rare days at the flat, I was +aghast at my late self-confidence. Face to face with the test, it +seemed impossible that my-boast to Odell and Carr could succeed. I +felt callow and stupid, altogether incompetent. The key seemed too +large and the wrong shape, which meant that the mystery of the +brothers' death was closed to me, like the door. A voice not far off +made my nerves jump, and--the key slipped into the lock! From +somewhere above or below came the sound of voices, but I could not be +seen from the lift. Almost before I knew what I was doing or what had +happened, I was on the other side of the door, in a dark and stuffy +vestibule. + +The sound of voices was suddenly stilled. It was as if with a single +step I had won my way into another world. I drew a long breath of +relief after the strain, for the silence and darkness said that the +tenant was not at home, and I might hope to have the flat to myself. + +I groped for an electric switch, touched it, and flooded the vestibule +with light. It was small, with nothing to distinguish it from any +other vestibule of any other well-furnished flat. Beyond led a narrow +corridor which, when lit, showed me several doors. I opened the +nearest, switched on another light, and found myself on the threshold +of a moderate-sized sitting-room or study, with bookshelves ranged +along one of the walls. The window was so heavily curtained that I had +no fear of the sudden illumination being noticed from the street. The +air was heavy and smelled of moth powder. The mahogany table in the +centre of the room and the desk under the window were coated with thin +films of dust, but everything was stiffly in order: no books lying +about, no woman's work, no trace of cigarette ash, dropped glove, nor +pile of newspapers with a tell-tale date. + +I walked over to the desk and, pulling out the swivel chair, sat down. +In the silver inkstand the ink had dried. In a pen-rack were two pens, +one stub, the other an old-fashioned quill, both almost new, but +faintly stained with ink. Neither, it struck me, could have been used +more than once or twice. There were several small drawers; all were +empty. No paper nor envelopes, no sealing-wax nor seal, not so much as +an end of twine. But the blotting-pad--the only movable thing on the +desk beside the inkstand and pen-rack--was more repaying. It also +appeared to be nearly new. Just inside the soft green leather cover +lay two sheets of plain, unmonogrammed grey-blue paper with two +envelopes to match. I annexed one of the latter and made a mental note +that, in the police dossier of the Callender-Graham case the empty +envelope found in the pocket of the younger brother was said to be +blue-grey in colour and of thick texture. No record had been kept +concerning the colour of the envelope in Perry's pocket, as little +importance had been attributed to it, until the coincidence of the +second envelope was remarked later. + +The blotting-pad was as new-looking as the pens. The two uppermost +sheets were of unspotted white, but the middle pages had both been +used, and traces were visible of two short notes having been pressed +against the paper while the ink was still very wet. Apparently these +documents had had neither heading nor signature, and consisted of a few +lines only. On another page a longer letter began "Dearest," and had +been signed with an initial. There was no mirror in the room in which +to reverse these writings, and, carefully separating the used sheets +from their unsoiled fellows, I folded and slipped them into an inner +pocket. There was nothing else in the room which could help me, with +the exception, perhaps, of the books; and most of these were in sets, +bound in a uniform way. These had a book-plate and the monogram +"M.L.," no doubt meaning Maurice Lowenstein. Of new novels or other +publications there were none: an additional proof (if it had been +needed after the clue of the dried ink and almost unused blotter) that +the new tenants were seldom in the place. + +Having deduced this fact, I then went through the remaining six rooms +of the flat without any discoveries, and finally reached, in its due +order, the problem I had left for the last. This was the examination +of the lock which the dead brothers' latchkeys had fitted. The work +had to be done with the door open, and therefore I waited until the +hour when most people lunch. It would look like burglarious business, +what I had to do, and it was important not to be interrupted or +arrested. + +The hands of my watch were at one o'clock as mine were on the latch +which, if I were right, could with a single click solve the +Callender-Graham mystery. If I were wrong, not only were four out of +my twenty-four hours wasted, but my theory fell to the ground and broke +into pieces past mending. + +I opened the door of the flat and made sure that, for the moment, no +one was in the hall. Then, bending down with my back to possible +passers-by, I whipped out a magnifying glass and pocket electric torch +which I had bought on my way to the agent's. + +During the next five minutes I had good cause to thank Heaven for the +mechanical bent that had turned my mind to motors and aeroplanes. + + +The same evening, at a little after six, a "commuter's" train landed me +at the station of a small Long Island town almost too far away from New +York to be labelled suburban. Big automobiles and small runabouts were +there to meet the tired business men who travelled many miles for the +sake of salt breezes and the latest thing in Elizabethan houses. I was +more tired than any business man; also, I had encountered as many +setbacks as successes, but nobody and nothing came to welcome me. I +was able, however, to get a place in an old-fashioned horse-drawn +vehicle whose mission was to pick up chance arrivals. There were +several of us, and as my rate of locomotion was slow, by the time I had +hobbled off the platform the one seat left was beside the driver. I +was not sorry, as the other men appeared to be strangers in Sandy +Plain, and having said I would go to the hotel (for the sake of saying +something), I asked my companion if he knew anybody named Paulling. + +"There's two families of that name hereabouts," he replied. + +"My Paullings," I hazarded, "are retiring people, don't make friends, +and are away a good deal." + +"Ah, they'd be the Paullings of Bayview Farm!" returned the driver. +"There's no others answer that description around here that I ever +heard of, and I've lived at Sandy Plain since before the commuters +discovered it." + +"Yes, I mean the Paullings of Bayview Farm," I caught him up. + +"The farm's about a mile and a half past Roselawn Hotel," my seat mate +went on. "I can take you there after I drop the other folks." + +I thanked him and said he might come back for me if he cared to after I +had dined, and inquired casually if the Paullings were staying at their +farm just then. + +The driver shook his head. He didn't know. Few persons did know much +about the Paullings, who weren't old residents, but had rented Bayview +Farm two or three years ago. Maybe the hotel folks might be able to +tell me whether I was likely to find them. + +They could not do so, I soon learned. Mr. Paulling was said to be an +invalid, though he never called in the local doctor. He was often at +home alone for weeks together, except for a man-servant, a foreigner as +reserved as himself, whom he had brought with him to Sandy Plain. +There was another servant sometimes--a woman--also a foreigner; but +when the Paullings were both away a Mrs. Vandeermans, a country +dressmaker who lived in a cottage near by, looked after the house, +going in occasionally to see that all was well. + +I asked as many questions as I dared, but learned little; and as soon +as dusk had begun to fall I started off in the nondescript vehicle +which had returned for me. The driver spent most of the twenty minutes +it took him to reach the farm in explaining that it wasn't really a +farm except in name. Nothing was left of it but the house and two or +three acres of orchard; all the rest had been sold off in lots by the +owner before he let it to the Paullings. What "city folks" admired in +it was beyond the knowledge of my companion, but when we arrived at the +gate and saw the far-off house gleaming white behind a thick screen of +ancient apple trees, I realised the attractions of the place, +especially for such tenants as I believed the Paullings to be. The +farm-house, with its wide clapboarding, its neat green shutters, and +its almost classic "colonial" porch hung with roses, had the air of +being on terms of long familiar friendship with the old-fashioned +garden and the great trees which almost hid it from its neighbours and +the road. Its front windows, closed and shuttered now, would look out +when open over sloping lawns and flowerbeds to distant blue glints of +the sea; and altogether Bayview Farm seemed an ideal retreat for +persons who could be sufficient to themselves and each other. + +Those shuttered windows, however, hinted at disappointment for me. Not +a light showed, behind one of them, and when I had rung the bell of the +front door, and pounded vainly at the back, I had to make up my mind +that the Paullings were either away or determined to be thought so. +"Mrs. Vandeermans 'll know all about 'em," my conductor comforted me. +"She lives next door, a quarter of a mile farther on." + +We drove the quarter mile, only to be struck by another blow. The one +person at home in Mrs. Vandeermans' cottage was that widowed woman's +mother, very old, very deaf, half blind, knowing little about anything, +and nothing at all about the tenants of Bayview Farm. + +"My darter's gone to my son's in Buffalo," she quavered when I had +screamed at her. "He's sick, but she'll be back to-morrow to look +after me. She knows them Paullings. You come again to-morrow +afternoon if you want to talk to her." + +"You seem sure disappointed," remarked my companion, as he drove me and +my crutches back to Roselawn Hotel. + +"I am," I admitted; but the words were as inadequate as most words are. +I was bowled over, knocked out, or so I told myself in my first +depression. Nothing was of any use to me after to-morrow morning at +nine o'clock. + +On my way back to New York in a slow train I gloomily thought over the +situation. Certain startling yet not unexpected discoveries made early +in the day had elated me too soon. I had collected evidence, but only +circumstantial evidence. I had no absolute proof to give Roger Odell, +and nothing less would suffice. I had counted on getting hold of proof +at Sandy Plain, from which place on Long Island (I had learned from the +agent) cheques came regularly each quarter to pay the rent of the flat +in the Alhambra--cheques sometimes signed T. Paulling, sometimes M. +Paulling. One had arrived only a few days before with the former +signature, so I had reason to hope that T. Paulling might be unearthed +at Sandy Plain. + +I could, I told myself, write to Roger Odell and ask for a delay, but +that would kill such feeble faith in me as I had forcibly implanted in +him. He would think me a fraud, and believe that I had been trying to +gain time in order to spring some trick upon him. Besides, the +Paullings might come to New York, if they were not already there, and +discover that some person unknown was on their track and had been +tearing sheets out of their blotting-book. No, I must keep my +appointment with Roger Odell or face the prospect of complete failure. +But how to convince him of what I was myself convinced, with the +disjointed bits of evidence in my possession? Just as my train came to +a stop with a slight jolt in the Pennsylvania station, I saw as in an +electric flash a way of doing it. Perhaps it was the jolt that gave +the flash. + +I could not wait to get back to my hotel. I inquired of a porter where +I could get a messenger boy. He showed me. I begged two sheets of +paper and two envelopes. They were pushed under my hand. I scratched +off six lines to Roger Odell: "Don't think when you get this I'm going +to ask you to put off our interview. On the contrary, I ask you to +advance it. Please be in Julius Felborn's private office at a quarter +to nine instead of nine. This is vitally important. If he has a large +safe in his office, get the key or combination so that you can open it. +Small safe no use.--Yours hopefully, J.H." + +I finished this scrawl and sent it away by messenger to the club where +Odell had said I might 'phone, if necessary, up to one o'clock that +night. It was only just eleven. + +The second letter was longer and more troublesome to compose. It was +to Grace Callender, and I trusted for its effect to the kindness she +professed for me. Her aunt also had been friendly and had shown +interest in the prospects of Carr Price's play. Neither, however, +dreamed that success depended in any way upon Roger Odell. + + +"DEAR MISS GRACE," I wrote,--"You will think the request I'm going to +make of you and Miss Callender a very strange one, but you promised +that if you could help me you would do so. Well, extraordinary as it +may seem, _you can make my fortune if you_ will both come to the +Felborn Theatre at the unearthly hour of nine to-morrow morning, and +ask to be shown into Mr. Felborn's private office. I shall be there, +waiting and hoping to see you two ladies arrive promptly, as more than +I can tell depends upon that. You happened to mention in my presence +something about dining out to-night and returning rather late, so I +feel there is a chance of your getting this and sending me a line by +the messenger to the Belmont. He will wait for you, and I will wait +for him.--Yours sincerely, JOHN HASLE." + + +An hour later the answer came to my hotel. "Of course we'll both be +there on the stroke of nine. Depend upon us," Grace Callender replied. + +"Thank Heaven!" I mumbled. Yet I was heavy with a sense of guilt. If +it had been only for punishment, or only for my own advancement, I +could not have done what I planned to do. No man could. But Grace +Callender's happiness was at stake. + + +Roger Odell was five minutes before his time in Felborn's office next +day, yet he found me on the spot. I saw by his face that his +well-seasoned nerves were keyed not far from breaking-point. But he +kept his role of the superior, indifferent man of the world. He hoped +I didn't see the strain he was under, and I hoped that I hid my +feelings from him. Each probably succeeded as well as the other. + +"Well, what have you got to tell me?" he asked, when we were alone +together in Julius Felborn's decorative private office. + +"I've nothing to tell you," I said. "Nevertheless, I believe you will +hear something if you've done as I suggested. Have you got the key or +the combination of that big safe in the wall behind the desk?" + +"I have the combination for to-day. Felborn was at the club last night +when your letter came, and I asked him for it. There aren't many +favours he wouldn't grant me. But what has Julius Felborn's safe to do +with the case?" + +"Please open it. We haven't much time to spare." I looked at my +watch. In a quarter of an hour the Misses Callender ought to be +announced. If they failed me after all--but I would not think of that +"if." + +Odell manipulated the combination, and the door of the safe swung open. +I saw that there was room for a man inside, and explained to Odell that +he must be the man. "It's absolutely necessary for you to hear for +yourself," I insisted, "all that's said in this room during the next +half-hour. If you didn't hear with your own ears, you'd never believe, +and nothing would be said if you were known to be listening." + +"You want me to eavesdrop!" he exclaimed, ready to be scornful. + +"Yes," I admitted. "If you can call it eavesdropping to learn how and +by whom Perry and Ned Callender Graham were done to death." + +Without another word Odell stepped into the safe. + +"With the door ajar you can hear every word spoken in this room," I +said. "In a few minutes you'll recognise two voices--those of Miss +Grace and Miss Marian Callender. I tell you this that you mayn't be +surprised into making an indiscreet appearance. Remember your future's +at stake and that of the girl you love. All you have to do is to keep +still until the moment when the mystery is cleared up." + +"How can it be cleared up by either of those two?" Odell challenged me, +anger smouldering in his eyes. + +"It will be cleared up while they are in the room," I amended. +"Further than that I can't satisfy you now. By Jove! there goes the +'phone! I expect it's to say they're here, though it's five minutes +before the time." + +My guess was correct, and my answer through the telephone, "Let them +come up at once," passed on the news to the man behind the door of the +safe. I went out to the head of the stairs to meet my visitors, and +led them into Felborn's office. The two were charmingly though very +simply dressed, far more _les grandes dames_ in appearance than they +had been on shipboard, and their first words were of amused admiration +for the Oriental richness of Julius Felborn's office. It was evident +that, whatever their secret preoccupations were, both wished to seem +interested in their bizarre surroundings and in my success which they +had come to promote. I made them sit down in the two most luxurious +chairs the room possessed. Thus seated, their backs were toward the +safe, and the light filtered becomingly through thin gold silk curtains +on to their faces. I placed myself opposite, on an oak bench under the +window. If the door of the safe moved, I could see it over the +fashionable small hats of the ladies with their haloes of delicate, +spiky plumes. + +When I got past generalities I blurted out, "I've a confession to make. +I won't excuse myself or explain, because when I've finished--though +not _till_ then--you'll understand. On shipboard I talked of my book, +and told you it was called _The Key_, but I didn't tell you that the +title and one incident in the story were suggested--forgive my +startling you--by the murder of Perry and Ned Callender-Graham." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Grace, half rising, "you asked us here to tell us +_that_? It doesn't seem _like_ you, Lord John." + +"Give me the benefit of the doubt and hear me to the end," I pleaded, +grieved by her stricken pallor and look of reproach as she sank into +the chair again. Marian was pale also, even paler than usual, but her +look was of anger, therefore easier to meet. + +"You must not use the word 'murder,'" she commented, a quiver in her +voice. "Your doing so shows that you've very little knowledge of the +case." + +"I beg your pardon," I said. "On the contrary, it precisely shows that +I have knowledge of it. The brothers were murdered by the same hand, +in the same way, and for the same motive." + +Marian rose up, very straight and tall. "It would be more suitable to +give your theories to the police than to us. I cannot stay and let my +niece stay to listen to them." + +"I shall have to give not my theories, but my knowledge, my proof, to +the police," I warned her; "only it's better for everyone concerned for +you to hear me first." + +"You've brought us to this place under false pretences!" Marian cried, +throwing her arm around the girl's waist. "It's not the act of a +gentleman. Come, Grace, we'll go at once." + +"For your own sakes you must not go," I insisted. "If you stay and +hear me through some way may be found to save the family name from +public dishonour." + +"Dearest, we _must_ stay," Grace said steadily, when the older woman +urged her toward the door. + +Marian looked at her niece with the compelling look of a Fate, but the +girl stood firm. Gently she freed herself from the clinging arm and +sat, or rather fell, into the big cushioned chair once more. Her aunt +hesitated for a moment, I could see, whether or not to use force, but +decided against the attempt. With a level gaze of scorn for me, she +took her stand beside Grace's chair, her hand clenched on the carving +of its high back. I realised the tension of her grip, because her grey +suede glove split open across a curious ring she always wore on the +third finger of her left hand, showing its great cabochon emerald. I +had often noticed this stone, and thought it like the eye of a snake. + +"Say what you wish to say quickly, then, and get it over," she sharply +ordered. + +"The double murder was suggested and carried out by a man, but he had +accomplices, and his principal accomplice was a woman." (Miss +Callender's command excused my brusqueness.) "They had the same +interest to serve; purely a financial interest. It was vital to both +that Miss Grace Callender shouldn't marry--unless she married a person +under their influence who would share with them. They preferred some +such scheme, but it fell through. That drove them to extremes. Now +I'll tell you something about this couple--this congenial husband and +wife. Afterwards I'll give you details of their plot. They were +married secretly years ago, and lived together when they could, abroad +and on this side. The man was rich once, but lost his money--and the +capacity to make it--by losing his health. Life wasn't worth living to +either unless they could have the luxury they'd been used to. They +took an old house on Long Island--Bay View Farm, near Sandy Plain. The +man lived there for several months each year under the name of +Paulling. His wife paid him flying visits. She provided the money, +and had a banking account in the town. At Bay View Farm, when Miss +Grace first engaged herself to her cousin, the two thought out their +plot to suppress Perry. It took them some time to elaborate it, but a +week before the wedding they were ready. The woman, still under the +name of Paulling, engaged a furnished flat in New York, near Riverside +Drive. She took this flat for a term of years, realising it might be +needed more than once as time went on. In this apartment, in a house +called the Alhambra, she sat down one day at her desk and wrote an +anonymous letter to Perry Callender-Graham. She asked him to call at +that address at midnight the next night and learn a secret concerning +his cousin Grace's birth, which would change everything for them both +if it came out. Her handwriting was disguised by the use of a quill +pen, which used so much ink that most of the words left traces on the +blotter. The envelope and paper were blue-grey, and thick. Inside was +enclosed a small latchkey and a key to the front door of the house, for +the hall-porter would be in bed by the time she named. Perry +Callender-Graham could not resist the temptation to keep the +appointment. He went to the Alhambra, let himself in, was seen by +nobody, walked up to the third floor, and fitted the latchkey into the +door on the right side of the hall. As he tried to turn the key +something sharp as a needle pricked his forefinger. He was startled, +yet he went on trying to unlock the door. The key turned all the way +round, but the door stuck. It seemed to be bolted on the inside. He +began to feel slightly faint, but he was so angry at being cheated that +he pushed the electric bell, determined to get in at any cost. No +answer came, however, and at last he gave up in despair. Some vague +idea of warning the police and of going to see a doctor came to his +mind, but he was already a dying man. Before he got as far as the +street corner he fell dead. Exactly the same thing happened in the +case of Ned, when every effort to frighten him into breaking his +engagement had failed, when his love for his brother, his sensitive +conscience and his superstitious fear had all been played upon in vain. +Even the same formula was used for the anonymous letter, with a +slightly different wording. That was safe enough, for if Perry had +mentioned the first letter to Ned he would have told the police at the +time of Perry's death; it would have been a valuable clue. It wasn't +necessary to make new keys, for the two originals had been +returned--'to the family.' They were sent anonymously to Ned as they'd +been sent to Perry, and he also yielded to curiosity. + +"The same ingenious lock, made for the plotters by a skilled +mechanician (whom they had reason to trust), shot out its poisoned +needle at the first turn of the latchkey in his hand. As for the +poison, it, too, was supplied by a trusted one---one who had something +to gain and vengeance to take as well. As the mechanician specialised +in lock-making, so did the chemist employed specialise in poisons. The +one he chose out of his repertory had two virtues: first, it began to +stop the heart's action only after coursing through the blood for +twenty or thirty minutes. Anything quicker might have struck down the +victim in front of the door and put the police on the right track. +Secondly, the poison's effect on the heart couldn't be detected by +post-mortem, but presented all the symptoms of status lymphaticus, +enlargement of the thyroid gland and so on. As for the lock, the +second turn of the key caused the needle to retire; and for a further +safeguard, an almost invisible stop, resembling a small screw-head, +could hold the needle permanently in place inside the lock, so that the +door might be opened by a latchkey and the existence of a secret +mechanism never suspected, except by one who knew how to find it. The +mechanism is in working order still, ready for use again, in case Miss +Grace Callender should change her mind and decide to marry." + +"Who is it you are accusing, Lord John?" Grace stammered in a choked +voice. + +I glanced from the drooping figure in the chair to the tall figure +standing erect and straight beside it. Marian Callender no longer +grasped the oak carving. The hand in the ragged glove was crushed +against her mouth, her lips on the emerald which had pressed through +the torn suede. The woman gave no other sign of emotion than this +strange gesture. + +"I accuse Paolo Tostini, with his father, his brother, and his +wife--known still as Miss Marian Callender--as his accomplices," I said. + +Grace uttered a cry sharp with horror, yet there was neither amazement +nor unbelief in the pale face which she screened with two trembling +hands. The story I had told--hastily yet circumstantially--had +prepared her for the end. But the keen anguish in the girl's voice +snapped the last strand of Odell's patience. He threw the iron door of +the safe wide open, and in two bounds was at Grace's side. I saw her +hold out both arms to him. I saw him snatch her up against his breast; +and then I turned to Marian Tostini, who had not moved from her place +beside the big carved chair. She was staring straight at me, her dark +eyes wide and unwinking as the eyes of a person hypnotised. The hand +in the torn glove had dropped from her lips again and clasped the +carving. She seemed to lean upon the chair, as if for support. Her +fingers clutched the wood. The grey suede glove was slit now all +across its back, but the snake-eye of the emerald had ceased to shoot +out its green glint. The stone hung from its setting like the hinged +lid of a box, showing a very small gold-lined aperture. + +"There need be--no stain on the name of--Callender--if you are as +clever in hiding the secret as you've been--in finding it out," she +said, with a catch in her breath between words. + +"What have you done?" I asked. + +"You know--don't you--you who know everything? The ring was my Italian +mother's--and her mother's before her. Who can tell how long it has +been in our family? It was empty when it came to me, but----" + +"But you put into it some of the same poison Antonio Tostini made up +for Perry and Ned Callender-Graham?" + +"Do you think you can force me to accuse the Tostinis? You shall not +drag a word from me. When Paolo hears I am dead he will die also, +before you can find him. Antonio you cannot touch. He is in Italy. +Thank Heaven their father is dead! And now I think--I had better go +home or--or to my doctor's. Grace and Roger Odell--wouldn't like me to +die here. It might--start scandal. I am feeling--a little faint." + +"Aunt Marian!" Grace sobbed. But Odell held the girl in his arms and +would not let her go. + +"Take Miss Callender away, Odell--quickly," I advised. "I'll attend +to--Mrs. Tostini." + +Like one who walks in a dream I shut the safe on my way to the desk, +and telephoned downstairs for a taxi. "One of the ladies who called +has been taken ill, I must drive her to a doctor's," I explained. + +"You think of everything," Marian Tostini said. She laughed softly. +"My heart has always been weak." + +"Taxi is here, sir," a voice called up through the 'phone. + +"Very well. We'll be down at once. Tell Mr. Felborn his office is +free. Now, Miss Callender--I mean Mrs. Tostini, let me help you." + +"I'm afraid I must say 'Yes,'" she smiled. "My heart--beats so slowly. +Tell me, Lord John, as we go--how did you find out--the secret? It +seemed so--well hid!" + +"I guessed part, and bluffed the rest. I had to," I confessed, half +guiltily. The woman could make no ill use of such a confession now. +"I found the flat--and the lock--and two sheets of blotting paper. I +made out the anonymous letters, and one to your husband. I showed the +snapshot I got of you on shipboard to the house-agent. But he couldn't +be sure--said Mrs. Paulling wore a veil when he saw her. The name +'Paulling' was a clue too--enough like Paolo to be suggestive. Some +criminals love to twist their own names about. And Paolo Tostini is a +criminal. He has brought you to this----" + +"If there is guilt, I am the guilty one," she said calmly. "So sorry. +I have to lean on you a little. Ah! it's good to be downstairs--and in +the air. My doctor's name is Ryland. His address is The Montague, +East 44th Street. It's so near--we can get there, I think, in time. +You'll tell him--nothing?" + +"I'll tell him nothing," I echoed. + +As I put her into the taxi I noticed that she had snapped the emerald +back in its setting, and the green snake-eye glinted up harmlessly once +more from the limp hand in the torn glove. + + + + +EPISODE II + +THE GREY SISTERHOOD + +LORD JOHN'S FIRST ADVENTURE IN LOVE + +When applause forced the curtain up again and again on the last scene +of our play--Carr Price's and mine--I wasn't looking at the stage, but +at a girl in the opposite box. The box was Roger Odell's, and I was +sure that the girl must be his adopted sister Madeleine. But because +of the insult she had suffered through my brother, I might not visit +the box uninvited. + +If Grace had been with her husband and sister-in-law there might have +been hope. But the wedding had been private, because of Miss Marian +Callender's death, and it was not to be supposed that the bride would +show herself at the theatre, even as a proof of gratitude to me. I was +in Governor Estabrook's box, with him and Carr Price, and the girl +whose engagement to Price depended, perhaps, on the success of this +night; but I thanked my lucky stars--that I was invited by Grace to +dine after the theatre, _en famille_. + +"Surely I shall meet _Her_," I tried to persuade myself. "She's here +with Roger, to show that she bears no grudge against my family. She +can't stop away from supper when I'm to be the only guest." + +This hopeful thought repeated itself in my head whenever I was thwarted +by finding my eyes avoided by the girl--the wonderful girl who, with +her lily face, and parted blonde hair rippling gold-and-silver lights +was like a shining saint. She was so like a saint that I would have +staked my life on her being one, which made me more furious than ever +with Haslemere. I felt if she would give me one of her white roses +lying on the red velvet of the box-rail, it would be worth more to me +than the Victoria Cross I was wearing for the first time that night. + +"Author! Author!" everybody shouted, as the curtain went down for the +tenth time. I heard the call in a half-dream, for at that instant +Madeleine Odell dropped the opera-glasses through which she had been +taking a look at the audience. They fell on the boxrail among the +roses, and pushed off one white beauty, which landed on the stage close +to the footlights; but I had no time to yearn for that rose just then. +I had thought only for the girl, who shrank back in her chair as if to +hide herself. Startled, Roger bent down with a solicitous question. +Thus he screened his sister from me, as a black cloud may screen the +moon; and my impulse was to search the house for the cause of her alarm. + +The audience as a whole had not yet risen, therefore the few on their +feet were conspicuous, and I picked out the man who had seemingly +annoyed Miss Odell. Just a glimpse I had of his face before he turned, +to push past the people in his row of orchestra chairs. It was a +strange face. + +"That man has some connection with the mystery of Madeleine Odell's +life!" was my thought. I knew I had to follow the fellow, and there +wasn't a second to lose, because, though he was perhaps twice my age, I +had to get about with a crutch and he had the full use of his long, +active legs. Before I'd stopped to define my impulse I was on my feet, +stammering excuses to Governor Estabrook and his daughter. + +"You mustn't leave now. We're wanted on the stage!" Carr Price caught +my arm; but a muttered, "For God's sake, don't stop me," told him that +here was some matter of life or death for me, and he stood back. After +that, I must have made the cripple's record; and I reached the street +in time to see the quarry step into a private car. I knew him by the +back of his head, prominent behind the ears and thatched with sleek +pepper-and-salt hair; but as he bent forward to shut the door, he +stared for half a second straight into my eyes. His were black and +long--Egyptian eyes, and the whole personality of the man suggested +Egypt; not the Arabianised Egypt of to-day, but rather the Egypt which +left its tall, broad-shouldered types sculptured on walls of tombs. He +made me think of a magnificent mummy "come alive," and dressed in +modern evening clothes. + +After the meeting of our eyes the man turned to his chauffeur for some +word, and the theatre lights seemed to point a pale finger at a scar on +the brown throat. The length of that thin throat was another Egyptian +characteristic, and though the collar was higher than fashion decreed, +it wasn't high enough to cover the mark when his neck stretched +forward. It was the queerest scar I ever saw, the exact size and shape +of a human eye. And on the white neck of Miss Odell I had noticed a +black opal with a crystal centre, representing the eye of the Egyptian +god Horus. This fetish was the only jewel she wore; and if I hadn't +already been sure of some association between her and the man now +escaping, that eye would have convinced me. + +Roger Odell had forced on me the gift of an automobile, and Price and I +had motored Governor Estabrook and his daughter to the theatre; but as +it was waiting in the procession which had just begun to move, my only +hope of following the man was to hail a passing taxi. I was about to +try my luck, when a hand jerked me back. + +"Good heavens, Lord John, are you going to leave us in the lurch? The +audience are yelling their heads off!" panted Julius Felborn. + +I would have thrown him off, but the second's delay was a second too +much. The dark car was spinning away with its secret--which might be a +double secret, for I caught a glimpse of a grey-clad woman. Somebody +grabbed the taxi I'd hoped to hail, and it was too late to do anything +except note the licence number. Since my war-experience and wounds, +I've lost--temporarily, the doctors say--my memory for figures. It is +one form which nerve-shock takes; and fearing to forget, I made a note +with a pocket pencil, on my shirt cuff. + +"A man like that is no needle in a haystack," I consoled myself. "I +can't fail to lay my hand on him if he's wanted." Then, making the +best of the business, I allowed Felborn to work his will. He dragged +me back into the theatre, and on to the stage, where I bowed and +smirked at the side of Price. Queer, how indifferent the vision of a +girl made me to this vision of success! But I'd never fallen in love +at first sight before, or, indeed, fallen in love at all in a way worth +the name. + +The vision was still there when I looked up, though it would soon be +gone, for Roger had put on his sister's cloak, and both were standing. +The girl shrank into the background; but as I raised my eyes perhaps +the S.O.S. call my heart sent out compelled some faint answer. Miss +Odell leaned forward and it seemed that she threw me a glance with +something faintly resembling interest in it. Perhaps it was only +curiosity; or maybe she was looking for a rosebud she had lost. I +couldn't let the flower perish, or be collected by some Philistine; so +I bent and picked it up. I trusted that she would not be angry, but +when I raised my head the vision and the vision's brother had both +disappeared. + +This was the happiest night of Carr Price's life, because Governor +Estabrook had journeyed from his own state with his daughter to see the +play. If he could, he would have kept me to supper in order that I +might talk to the Governor while he talked to the fascinating Nora; but +I had yet to learn whether there was a chance of its being the happiest +night of my life, and I flashed off in my new car at the earliest +moment, to find out. Down plumped my heart, however, when only Grace +and Roger appeared to welcome me. + +As soon as I dared, I invented an excuse to ask for the absent one; or +rather, I blurted out what was in my mind. "I hoped," I stammered, "to +see Miss Odell again--if only for a few minutes. I felt sure it was +she at the theatre. And I wanted to beg--that she'd let me try to +atone--to compel Haslemere to atone." + +"Oh, she's sorry not to meet you," Roger broke in, "But she's not +strong. And she--er--was rather upset in the theatre. She doesn't go +out often; and she never takes late supper. She's probably in bed by +this time----" + +"Oh, Roger, do let me tell him the truth!" exclaimed Grace. "Think how +he helped us in our trouble? What if he could help Maida? You must +admit he has a mind for mysteries, and if he could put an end to the +persecution which has spoiled her life, Maida wouldn't join the +Sisterhood." + +"She's going to join a Sisterhood?" I broke out, feeling as if a hand +had squeezed my heart like a bath sponge. + +"Yes," said Grace, glancing at Roger. "You see, Rod, it slipped out!" + +"I suppose there's no harm done," he answered. "Only, it's for Maida +to talk of her affairs. Lord John's a stranger to her." + +"But," I said on a strong impulse, "I've taken the liberty of falling +in love with Miss Odell, without being introduced, and in spite of the +fact that she has a right to despise my family. This is the most +serious thing that's ever happened to me. And if she goes into a +Sisterhood the world won't be worth living in. Give me a chance to +meet her--to offer myself----" + +"Great Scott!" cried Roger. "And the British are called a slow race!" + +"Offer myself as her knight," I finished. "Do you think I'd ask +anything in return? Why, after what Haslemere did----" + +"Oh, but who knows what might happen some day?" suggested Grace. "Rod, +I _shall_ make Maida come down." + +Without waiting to argue, she ran out of the room. She was gone some +time, and the secret being out, Roger talked with comparative freedom +of his adopted sister's intentions. The Sisterhood she meant to join +was not a religious order, but a club of women banded together for good +work. At one time the Grey Sisters, as they called themselves, had +been a thriving organisation for the rescue of unfortunate girls, the +reformation of criminals, and the saving of neglected children; but the +Head Sister--there was no "Mother Superior"--had died without a will, a +promised fortune had gone back to her family, and had not a lady of +wealth and force of character volunteered for the empty place, the +Sisterhood might have had to disband. The new Head Sister had +persuaded Madeleine Odell to join the depleted ranks. They had met in +charity work, which was Maida's one pleasure, and the mystery +surrounding the woman had fired the interest of the girl whose youth +was wrecked by mystery. The New York home of the Sisterhood had been +given up, owing to lack of money, but the new Head Sister, whose life +and fortune seemed dedicated to good works, had taken and restored an +old place on Long Island. More recruits were expected, and various +charities were on the programme. + +"It's a gloomy den," said Roger, "and stood empty for years because of +some ghost story. But this friend of Maida's has a mind above ghosts. +They're going to teach women thieves to make jam, and child pickpockets +to be angels! No arguments of mine have had the slightest effect on +Maida since she met this foreign woman. + +"The child has vowed herself to live with the Sisterhood--I believe it +consists at present of no more than five or six women--for a year. +After that she can be free if she chooses. But I know her so well that +my fear is, she _won't_ choose. I'm afraid after all she's suffered +she won't care to come back to the world. And the sword hanging over +our heads is the knowledge that Maida's pledged herself to go whenever +the summons comes." + +If Roger's talk had been on any subject less engrossing, I should not +have heard a word. As it was, I drank in every one. Yet the soul +seemed to have walked out of my body and followed Grace upstairs. It +was as if I could see her pleading with my white-rose vision of the +theatre; but I was far enough from picturing the scene as it really +was. Afterward, when I heard Maida Odell's story, I knew what strange +surroundings she had given herself in the rich commonplaceness of that +old home which had been hers since childhood. + +"The shrine" adjoined her bedroom, I know now, and for some girls would +have been a boudoir. But the objects it contained put it out of the +"boudoir" category. There were two life-size portraits, facing each +other on the undecorated walls, on either side the only door; there was +also a portrait of Roger's father; and opposite the door stood on end a +magnificent painted mummy-case such as a museum would give a small +fortune to possess. Even without its contents the case would have been +of value; but behind a thick pane of glass showed the face of a +perfectly preserved mummy, a middle-aged man no doubt of high birth, +and of a dynasty when Greek influence had scarcely begun to degrade the +methods of embalming. When I saw these treasures of Madeleine's and +learned what they meant in her life, I said that no frame could have +been more inappropriate for such a girl than such a "shrine." + +Grace told me afterwards that she induced Maida to put on her dress +again and come downstairs, only by assuring her that "Poor Lord John +was dreadfully hurt." That plea touched the soft heart; and my fifteen +minutes of suspense ended with a vision of the White Rose Girl coming +down the Odells' rather spectacular stairway, with Grace's arm girdling +her waist. + +We were introduced, and Maida gave me a kind, sweet smile which was the +most beautiful present I ever had. How it made me burn to know what +her smile of love might be! + +Supper was announced; indeed, it had been waiting, and we went into the +oak-panelled dining-room where the girl was more than ever like a white +flower seen in rosy dusk. At the table I could hardly take my eyes off +her face. She was more lovely and lovable than I had thought in the +theatre. Each minute that passed, while I talked of indifferent +things, I spent in mentally "working up" to the Great Request--that she +would show her forgiveness by accepting my help. At last, after butler +and footman had been sent out, and words came to my lips--some sort of +inspiration they seemed--a servant returned with a letter. + +"For Miss Odell, by district messenger," he announced, offering the +envelope on a silver tray. + +"Is there an answer?" Maida asked, her face flushing. + +The footman replied that the messenger had gone; and with fingers that +trembled, Maida opened the envelope. Quite a common envelope it was, +such as one might buy at a cheap stationer's; and the handwriting, +which was in pencil, looked hurried. "I have to go to-morrow morning," +the girl said simply. She spoke to Roger, but for an instant her eyes +turned to me. + +"Oh, darling," cried Grace, springing up as Maida rose, "it's not +fair--such short notice! Send word that you can't." + +"The only thing I _can't_ do, dear, is to break my promise," the girl +cut in. "I must go, and she asks me to travel alone to Salthaven. +That's the nearest station for the Sisterhood House. She gives me the +time of the train I'm to take--seven o'clock. After all, why isn't one +day the same as another? Only, it's hard to say good-bye." + +To leave my love thus, and without even the chance to win her, which +instinct whispered I might have had, seemed unbearable. But there was +no other course. She gave me her hand. "Could it be that she was +sorry?" I dared ask myself. But before I had time to realise how +irrevocable it all was, I stood outside Odell's closed door. I stared +at the barrier for a minute before getting into my car, and tried to +make the oak panels transparent. "I won't let her go out of my life +like this," I said. "I'll fight." + +Before I'd reached my hotel I had thought out the first move in a plan +of action. But maybe there is another thing I ought to mention, before +I speak of that plan. Roger gave me, when I left him, an interesting +description of an electrical contrivance by which he protected the +chief treasure of his sister's shrine from burglars. He insisted on +giving me the secret in writing, also, because he would have to go away +shortly, and wanted someone to know what to do "in case anything went +wrong." The servants, though trustworthy, were aware only that such a +protection existed and was dangerous to meddlers. + +Consulting with West, the chauffeur, I learned that to reach Salthaven, +Long Island (the nearest village to Pine Cliff), passengers must change +at Jamaica. I told him to get to that junction in the morning without +fail, before the seven o'clock train was due, and we arranged to start +even earlier than necessary, to allow for delay. In the hotel office I +asked to be waked at five, in the unlikely event that I should +oversleep, and was going to the lift when the clerk at the information +desk called after me, "I believe, Lord John, a big box arrived for you. +It was before I came on duty, but you'll find it in your suite." + +Nothing seemed less important in that mood of mine, than the arrival of +a box. I had ordered nothing, expected nothing, wanted nothing--except +a thing it seemed unlikely I could ever have; so when I found no box in +my bedroom or small sitting-room, I supposed that it--whatever it might +be--would be sent next morning. Then I forgot the matter. + +I wished to sleep, for I needed clearness of brain for my task. But +sleep wouldn't come. After I had courted it in the dark for a few +minutes, I switched on the electric light over my bed, smoked a +cigarette or two; and when my nerves were calmer, began studying +Roger's electrical invention as described in two documents, a sketch of +Miss Odell's famous mummy-case, with the wiring attached, and a +separate paper of directions how to set and detach the mechanism. + +Suddenly, in the midst, a wave of sleep poured over me, sweeping me to +dreamland. I have a vague recollection of slipping one paper under the +pillow, and I must have dropped off with the other in my hand. I was +seeing Maida again, asking her permission to keep the white rose, and +receiving it, when some sound brought me back to realities. I sat up +in bed and looked around the room, my impression being that someone had +been there. Nothing was disarranged, however. All seemed as I had +left it--except--yes, there was one change! My eyes fastened upon the +shirt cuff on which I had written the licence number of the automobile. +I had flung the shirt over a low screen, and had forgotten, in the rush +of crowding thoughts, to copy the number in my journal. There hung the +shirt as I had left it, but the number, which I had written clearly and +distinctly, had become a black blur on the glazed linen. + +I sprang out of bed, and switched on more lights. Surely I had not +smudged the number by any clumsy accident. The noise I had heard--that +sound like the "click" of a lock? One swift look at the shirt cuff +came near to convincing me that a bit of rubber eraser had been used, +and then I remembered Roger's documents. The one I had slipped under +my pillow was gone. Fortunately it was useless to the uninitiated +without the other! + +I got to the door almost as quickly as if I'd never been wounded, but +found the key still turned in the lock. To have slipped out and locked +the door on the _inside_, meant a clever thief, a skilled _rat +d'hotel_, provided with a special instrument; but that the trick could +be done I knew from hearsay. I threw open the door and looked into the +dimly lit corridor. No one was visible, except the flitting figure of +a very small child, in a sort of red-riding-hood, cloak, with a hood. +The little creature seemed startled at the noise I made, and ran to a +door which it had nearly reached. Someone must have been waiting for +its return, for it was let in and the door closed. + +"If anyone's been in my rooms, he's probably there still," I said, and +began to search in the obvious way--looking under the bed. What I +found sent me to the door again; for a curious, collapsible box, just +big enough to hold a small child, turned the innocent, flitting figure +I'd seen into something sinister. Quicker than light, thoughts shot +through my head; the arrival of a "big box," my failure to find it in +my room, the click of the lock, some knowledge of me by the man with +the scar, and a fear of my vaunted "detective skill." Slipping on a +dressing-gown as I went, I stalked down the corridor to the door which +opened to admit the child; and the knob was in my grasp when a voice +spoke sharply at my back. "Haven't you mistaken the room, sir?" the +night watchman warned me. + +I had met the man before, when coming in late, and he knew my number. +He was a big Irishman, twice my size. I foresaw trouble, but went to +meet it. "I've reason to believe a thief's been in my rooms, and taken +refuge here," I explained. "I want this door opened." With that I +rattled the knob and knocked threateningly. Almost at once the door +was unlocked, and the sweet face of a young woman in a neat, plain +dressing-gown peeped out. "Oh, what's the matter?" she faltered. "Is +it fire? We have a child here." + +"I _thought_ yuh was mistaken, sir!" cut in the watchman. "Two ladies +and a little midget came in late. I saw 'em. No, madam, there's no +fire. This gentleman thought a thief had slipped into one of your +rooms." + +"Indeed, he is mistaken," the young woman assured us. "We haven't +finished undressing yet. I'm the child's nurse. If necessary, I can +call my mistress, but she's very nervous." As she glanced back into +the room I caught a glimpse of a woman in grey who hadn't taken off her +hat. A sort of motor bonnet it seemed to be, with a long veil +attached. I got no sight of her face, for the nurse hastily shut the +door, all but a crack which scarcely showed her rather piquant nose. + +"That's enough, I guess, sir?" suggested the watchman. "These ladies +mustn't be disturbed. All the rooms along here are occupied by old +clients. You go back to your suite and if there's any thief we'll find +him. But maybe you was dreamin'?" + +I heard the key turn again in the lock; but I realised that unless I +wanted to risk a row and perhaps arrest for "disorderly conduct," I +must bow to circumstances. For a moment I was tempted to persist, but +I thought how much more important than anything it was to be free from +entanglements, and able to reach Jamaica before seven o'clock. "Spilt +milk," I said to myself, and took the watchman's advice. But outside +the forbidden door, I picked up a tiny rosetted slipper. + +In my own rooms, I searched again for traces of a hostile presence. +The collapsible box was a strange thing to find under a bed, but I +couldn't prove that Little Red Riding Hood had been in it. Neither +could I prove that a small pile of silver that I had poured out of my +pockets on to the dressing-table had diminished, or that two letters +which I had received--one from my brother Haslemere, one from Grace +Odell--had been stolen. Nevertheless, while putting off my principal +researches, I did telephone down to inquire who occupied rooms 212, +214. The man who answered from the office had "come on" since the +people arrived, but, the name in the hotel register was "Mrs. W. Smith, +nurse and child, Sayville, Long Island." Nothing could sound less +offensive; but next morning when I descended at an unearthly hour it +seemed that "the party" had already gone, by motor; and the man at the +door "hadn't noticed no child." All I could do then was to reserve +those rooms for myself, for two days, with orders that they should not +be touched until investigated by me. + +It lacked twenty minutes of train time when my chauffeur got me to +Jamaica. This made me feel almost cheerful, but my heart sank as I +reached the arrival platform. There were not many passengers, and even +if there had been a crowd one figure would have stood out +conspicuously--that of a tall woman in a grey dress, a long grey cloak, +and a close-fitting grey bonnet with a thick grey veil falling over the +face and breast. There was not a doubt in my mind but this was the +formidable directress of the Grey Sisterhood, come in person to meet--I +had almost said "her victim." If the woman had known of my plan she +could hardly have found a better way of thwarting it. + +As I glowered at the figure stalking up and down, I hated it. And I +wondered if there were more than a coincidence in the fact that this +was the third grey-veiled woman I had seen since last night. In the +car at the theatre there had been too brief a glimpse to be sure of a +resemblance, and the woman in 212 had left on my mind an impression of +comparative shortness. But then, it is easy to stoop and disguise +one's height, I told myself viciously, eager to find a connection +between this woman and the others. + +I could see nothing of her face, as we passed and repassed on the +platform; but she was hovering not far off when I learned that the +train from New York would be late. It was "hung up," a few miles away, +owing to the breakdown of a "freighter." Instead of regret at this +news, I felt joy. It gave me--with luck--a way out of my difficulty. +Here was the Head Sister, waiting for Maida Odell; but if my car could +get me to the delayed train before it was restarted only Maida herself +could keep me from saying what I had come to say. + +There wasn't a moment to waste, and I didn't waste one. Thinking I had +won the first point in the game, I hurried to my car without glancing +back at the veiled woman. I gave directions to West and was about to +get into the auto, when a look in the chauffeur's eye made me turn. +Close behind stood the grey lady. There was no doubt that her purpose +was to speak to me. I took off my hat and faced her; but it was like +trying to look at the moon through a thick London fog. + +"You are Lord John Hasle, I believe?" she said, in a resonant contralto +voice, with a slight suggestion of foreign accent. "I have heard of +you," she went on. "You have been pointed out to me, and I know of +your acquaintance with the Odells. You are going to motor back along +the line. Your inquiries told me that. I would thank you, and so +would Miss Odell, for taking me to her in your car." + +Here was a situation! Rudely to refuse a favour asked by a lady, +or--to lose, for ever, perhaps, my one hope? I chose to be rude. I +stammered that I meant to go at such a pace it would be risking her +life to grant the request. Very sorry; more lifting of the hat; a +sheepish look of feigned regret; and then West, thoroughly ashamed of +me, started the car. The next moment we had shot away, but not without +a startling impression. + +"The worst turn you can possibly do Miss Odell will be to prevent her +coming into the Sisterhood House. It is the one place where she can be +safe." Those were the words I heard over the noise of the starting +motor; and as we left the tall statue of a woman, the high wind blew +her thick veil partly aside. Instantly she pulled it into place; but I +had time to see that the face underneath was covered with a grey mask. +The effect on my mind of this revelation was of something so sinister +that I felt physically sick. What could be the motive for such double +precautions of concealment? Was it merely to hide a disfigurement, I +wondered, or was there a more powerful reason? I determined to tell +Miss Odell what I had seen. + +Fortunately there was little traffic on the country road at that hour, +and we did the eight miles in about eight minutes. I thanked my lucky +stars that the hold-up train had not moved; and my heart bounded when I +saw Maida among a number of passengers who had descended to wander +about during the delay. She in a grey travelling dress and small +winged toque, walked alone at a distance from the others. Here back +was turned to me, but she was unmistakable, with the morning sun +ringing her hair with a saint's halo. I tried not to frighten her by +appearing too abruptly, but she gave a start, and there was pain rather +than pleasure in her eyes. + +"Do forgive me!" I pleaded. "I _had_ to finish what I couldn't say +last night. I wouldn't intrude by travelling in your train from New +York without permission, but I thought if I came to Jamaica, maybe +you'd grant me a few minutes. Won't you let me atone--won't you let me +help? I feel that I can. Roger has hinted of trouble. If you would +trust me, I'd put my whole soul into the fight to save you from it." + +So I ran on, with a torrent of arguments and all the force of love +behind them. Something of that force the girl must have felt, for +slowly she yielded and told me this strange story. + +Roger Odell's father--Roger senior--had fallen in love with a girl who +afterwards became Maida's mother. He was a widower, and young Roger +was a boy of eight or nine at the time. Old Roger--he was not old +then--had acted as the girl's guardian, and she had promised to marry +him, when suddenly she disappeared, leaving behind a letter saying that +she was going with the only man she could ever love. + +Five years passed, and then one day she came back bringing a little +daughter four years old. Both the Rogers were away when she called at +the house in Fifth Avenue; one at his office, the other at school. A +housekeeper received the pair, realising that the mother was +desperately ill. She would say nothing of herself, except that they +had come from England; could not even tell her married name. She had +lived through the voyage, she said, to put her daughter under the +protection of her only friend. Some strange luggage she had brought, +on which were London labels. She forbade the servant to telephone the +master of the house. She would write a letter, and then she would go. +The letter was begun, but before it could be finished the writer fell +into unconsciousness. For a few days she lingered, but never spoke +again, and died in the arms of the man she had jilted. + +"If you ever loved me, keep my child as if she were your own," began +the written appeal. "She is Madeleine, named after me. Don't try to +find out her other name. Give her yours, which might have been mine. +Make no inquiries. If you do, the same fate may fall on her which has +fallen on her father and others of his family. It is killing me now. +Save my little Maida. The one legacy I can leave her is a jewel which +I want her to keep; a miniature of myself taken for someone I loved, +and an Egyptian relic which, for a reason I don't know, is immensely +important. I promised her father that this child should never part +with it. The one reward I can offer you is my grat----" + +There the letter broke off. + +Roger Odell, Senior, had obeyed every one of his dead love's requests. +The "Egyptian relic" was a mummy case, with the human contents +marvellously preserved; the jewel, an opal and crystal eye of Horus. +In taking out the miniature from its frame, to be copied in a large +portrait, Maida found the miniature of a man she supposed to be her +father, and had ordered that enlarged also, to hang in her shrine. Her +memories of the past before coming to America were vague; but her +childhood, happy as it had been in other ways, was cursed by the dream +of a terrible, dark face--a face appearing as a mere brown spot in the +distance, then growing large as it drew nearer, coming close to her +eyes at last in giant size, shutting out all the rest of the world. +Whether she had ever seen this face in reality, before it obsessed her +dreams, she could not be sure; but the impression was that she had. As +she grew older, the dream came less frequently; but once or twice she +had seen a face in a crowd which reminded her--perhaps morbidly--of the +dream. Such a face had looked up from the audience last night. + +This mystery was one of two which had clouded Maida's life. From the +second had come her great trouble; and she did not see that between the +two could exist any connection. When I heard the rest of the history, +however, I differed from her. Some link there might be, I thought; and +if I were to help, it must be my business to find it. + +One day, on leaving school for the holidays, when she was seventeen, +Maida, and a woman servant sent to fetch her from Milbrook to New York, +had met with a slight railway accident, much like that of to-day. It +was this coincidence, maybe, which inclined her to confide in me, for +she had been thinking of it, she said, when I came. A young man had +been "kind" to Miss Odell and her maid; had brought them water and +food. Later he had introduced himself. He was Lieutenant Granville, +of the Navy. Also he was an inventor, who believed he could make a +fortune for himself and his mother, if he could patent and get taken up +by some great firm an idea of his, in which he had vainly tried to +interest the heads of the Navy. This concerned a secret means of +throwing a powerful light under water, for the protection of warships +or others threatened by submerged submarines. Granville believed that +experiments would demonstrate immense usefulness for his invention and +so interested was Maida that she tried to induce Roger to finance it. +He refused, and did not like Granville when the girl brought them +together. + +This seeming injustice roused Maida's sympathy. She met Granville +occasionally at his mother's house, without Roger's knowledge. It was +the child's first adventure, and appealed to her love of romance. The +natural consequences followed. Granville proposed. She asked to +remain his friend. Then to give her "friend" a glorious surprise, she +worked to interest a great financier, a friend of the Odell family, in +Granville's undersea light. + +Unfortunately for her unselfish plan, millionaire Orrin Adriance had a +son, Jim, who had been in love with Maida since she was in the +"flapper" stage. This fact complicated matters. When Granville's +chemical formula, in a sealed envelope, was stolen from a safe in the +Adriance house, before business was completed between financier and +inventor, George Granville--already jealous of Jim Adriance--was mad +enough to believe that Maida had joined in a plot to trick him. He +accused the Adriances of wishing to get his secret without paying for +it, prophesying that a tool of theirs would presently "invent" +something of the kind, after they had refused to take up his +proposition. Pretending illness, he had induced his mother to send for +Maida, and she, only too anxious to defend herself, had gone to the +Granville house. After a cruel scene between her and the sailor, he +had locked the door, put the key in his pocket, and shot himself +through the heart. Mrs. Granville, who had heard a scream from the +girl, before the shot, swore to the belief that Maida had killed the +young man to defend herself against his love-making. + +Roger, learning of the tragedy, had stifled the lie as he would have +crushed a snake. How he had done this, Maida was not sure. He had +refused to tell. But her name had not been connected with Granville's +at the inquest. Mrs. Granville, who had been poor and lived poorly, +migrated to France and was reported to have "come into money through a +legacy." In any case she seemed to have been silenced. No word of +scandal could be traced to her, though detectives had been employed by +Roger. Nevertheless, the story had risen from time to time like the +phoenix from its own ashes. Maida's fellow school-mates had whispered; +her debut in society had been blighted by a paragraph in a notorious +paper, afterwards gagged by Roger. Then, last and worse, had come the +cancelling of the girl's presentation to the King and Queen of England. + +"You see now," she said, "why I shall be happier out of the world, in a +Sisterhood where I can try to help others even sadder than I have been." + +"But," I threw out the bold suggestion, "what if there's a plot to get +you into the Sisterhood--into this old house!" + +"Oh, but that's impossible!" she cried. "You wouldn't dream of such a +thing if you could meet the Head Sister and see what a splendid woman +she is!" + +There was my opportunity to tell about the mask, and I took it. But it +availed me nothing. The mask, Miss Odell said, was no secret. She +understood that the Head Sister, in saving a child from fire, had so +injured her face that for the sake of others she kept it hidden. +Another version had it that the motive for wearing the mask was some +"sacred vow." In any case, Maida assured me, it was an honour to the +good and charitable woman; and no arguments would break her resolution +to give the next year to work with the Sisterhood. After that year--if +I could solve the mystery of the stolen formula, and put an end for +ever to scandal--she would come back and face the world again. But how +could I, a stranger, do what Roger had failed to do? + +That was the question. Yet I made up my mind that it must be answered +in _one way_, or my life would be a failure. Not only would I solve +that mystery, I told myself--though I dared not boast to the girl--but +I would link together the old one with the new. The way to do this, I +told myself, was to learn whether an enemy of Maida Odell's father had +found her under her borrowed name, and had made the Granvilles and +Adriances his conscious or unconscious tools. + +This talk we had while the train stood still. We were sitting on a log +together, out of earshot from the other passengers, when--with the name +of the Grey Sisterhood on our lips--we looked up to see its veiled +directress. She had, she said, been put to much trouble in securing an +automobile to come for Madeleine, and see that she was not persuaded to +break a promise. Maida, embarrassed and protesting, assured her friend +that there was no thought of such disloyalty. Lord John--timidly the +girl introduced us--had come only to try and help her throw off an old +sorrow, as I had helped Roger and Grace. So she tried to "explain" me; +and the Head Sister, having triumphed, could afford to heap coals of +fire on my head by being coldly civil. Her one open revenge she took +by requesting me not to follow them to their automobile. The chauffeur +would fetch Miss Odell's hand luggage out of the train, and my +"kindness would no longer be needed." I was dismissed by the +conqueror; and left by the wayside with but one consolation: Maida had +said "au revoir," not good-bye. + +For a moment I stood crushed. Then a thought jumped into my mind: +"What if this woman is the one I saw in the auto outside the theatre?" + +I felt that I had been a fool to obey Maida, and took steps to retrieve +my mistake. But the veiled lady had been too clever for me. The car +was gone past recall. If it hadn't been for that viper-thought--and +the thought of what had happened in my rooms last night--I might not +have had the "cheek" to make my next move in the game. But things +being as they were I couldn't stand still and take a rebuff. + +Instead of motoring back to New York, I went to Salthaven, and +breakfasted at a small inn there. Of the Sisterhood I could learn +nothing, for it had but lately taken up its quarters near by. Of those +quarters, however, I was able to pick up some queer stories. The place +had been bought, it seemed, for a song, because of its ghostly +reputation, which had frightened tenant after tenant away. + +"What a good pitch to choose if any 'accident' were planned, and lay it +to the ghosts!" I thought. And I knew that I couldn't go without +learning more about the Sisterhood House than the landlord at Salthaven +could tell me. I must see for myself if it were the sort of place +where "anything could happen." + +I meant to wait until late, when all the Grey Sisters and their +protegees were safely asleep. Then, with a present of meat for a +possible watch dog, I would try a prowl of inspection. I made a vague +excuse of fancying the inn, and of wanting to rest till time to meet a +friend who would motor back with me to New York. I engaged a room in +order to take the alleged rest; but spent long hours in striving to +piece together bits of the most intricate puzzle my wits had ever +worked upon. + +"In an hour more now I can start," I said at ten, and composed myself +to forget the slow ticking of my watch. But suddenly it was as if +Maida called. Actually I seemed to hear her voice. I sprang up, and +in five minutes had paid the bill and was off in my car for Pine Cliff. + +I left West sitting in the auto at a little distance from the high +wall, which shut the old garden in from the rocks above the Sound. +Then I struck my crutch into a patch of rain-sodden earth, and used it +to help me vault over the wall. Just as I bestrode the top, a dog gave +out a bell-toned note. I saw his dark shape, and threw the meat I had +brought from the inn. He was greedily silent, and I descended, to pat +his head as he ate. Luckily he was an English bull, and perhaps +recognised me as a fellow-countryman. At all events, he gave his +sanction to my presence. + +The neglected garden, which I could dimly see, was mysterious in the +night hush. There was no sound except the whisper of water on the +shore outside. The substantial building with its rows of closed blinds +looked common place and comfortable enough. Lights showed faintly in +two or three windows. Not all the household had gone to bed. As I +stood staring at a low balcony not far above the ground, which somehow +attracted and called my eyes, the blinds of a long French window +looking out upon it were opened. I saw Maida herself, and a tall woman +in grey, wearing a short veil. They stood together, talking. Then +with an affectionate touch on the girl's shoulder, the Head Sister--I +knew it must be she--bade her newest recruit good night. + +The window was left open, but dark curtains were drawn across, no doubt +by Maida. Presently the long strip of golden light between these +draperies vanished. No scene could be more peaceful than the quiet +garden and the sleeping house. Still, something held me bound. How +long I stood there, I don't know: an hour, maybe; perhaps less, perhaps +more. But suddenly a white figure flashed out upon the balcony. So +dim was it in the darkness, I might have taken it for one of the famous +ghosts, but Maida's voice cried out: "_The face--the face_! God send +me help!" + +"He has sent help. I've come, to take you away," I called, and held up +my arms. + +Five minutes later she was with me in my car, rushing towards New York +and her brother's house. + + * * * * * + +"A gilded amateur detective," Roger Odell once called me in a joke. +But I knew he would listen to theories I'd formed concerning this +mystery which, like an evil spirit, had haunted his sister since +childhood. All night I spent in elaborating these theories and +dove-tailing them together. The girl had had a fright in the theatre. +I had seen a man with strange eyes and a scar, looking at her; and +through certain happenings at my hotel, I believed that a link between +him and Maida's "Head Sister" might be found. That, of course, would +free the girl from the promise she thought sacred. + +By eight-thirty in the morning I was in touch with Pemberton's Private +Detective Agency, and I had just been assured that a good man, Paul +Teano, would be with me in ten minutes, when my telephone bell rang +shrilly. It was the voice of Grace Odell which answered my "Hello!" + +"Oh, Lord John," she called distressfully, "isn't it dreadful? Maida's +going back to the Sisterhood House! The Head Sister has written her a +letter. Maida's answering it. She doesn't blame the woman for +_anything_. She thinks she herself was a coward to take fright at a +bad dream. Do come and argue with her. The child wants to start this +morning. That woman seems to have her hypnotised." + +My answer goes without saying. I determined to put off the detective, +but he arrived as I finished talking to Grace, and as his looks +appealed to me I spared him a quarter of an hour. His eyes were as +Italian as his name--with the shadow of tragedy in them. +"Temperamental looking fellow," I said to myself. + +My business with Teano had nothing to do directly with Maida. What I +had to tell him was the invasion of my rooms two nights before, but out +it came that I had been helping a woman, and that success in this case +might mean her safety. + +"I, too, work for a woman, my lord," the detective said. Though he had +spent years in America, I noticed how little slang of the country he'd +chosen to pick up. He spoke, perhaps in the wish to impress me, with +singular correctness. "Now you have told me this, I shall be the more +anxious to serve you. I turned detective to find her. I've been five +years trying. But every morning I think, 'Perhaps it will be to-day.'" + +There was no time then to draw him out as he would have liked to be +drawn out. I showed him what there was to work upon, in my rooms as +well as the two others, and then dashed off to Maida. + +As my car stopped in front of Roger Odell's home, out of the house +bounced a small boy--a very small boy indeed, with the eyes of an imp, +and the clothes of a Sunday-school scholar. He looked at me as he +flashed past, and it was as if he said, "So it's _you_, is it?" + +I had never seen the boy before, but I thought of the collapsible box; +and leaving a flabbergasted footman at the door, my crutch and I went +after the small legs that twinkled around the corner. The elf was too +quick, however. By the time I had got where he ought to have been, he +had made himself invisible. Whether a taxi had swallowed him, or a +door had opened to receive him, it was useless to wonder. All I could +do was to question the footman. The child had brought a letter to Miss +Odell, and had taken one away. "Meanwhile," the servant added, seeing +my interest, "he has entertained below stairs, making faces and turning +handsprings. Quite a acrobat, your lordship," remarked the man, who +hailed from my country; "and that _sharp_, though dumb as a fish! We +gave 'im cake and jam, but money seemed to please 'im most, an' his +pockets was full of it already. 'E's got enough to go on a most +glorious bust, beggin' your lordship's pardon." + +I gave it--and something else as well. Then I asked him for the plate +from which the child had eaten. It was to be wrapped in paper, and put +into my car--for Teano. (It has never mattered that a footman should +think his master, or his master's friends, insane!) + +If the child messenger from the Sisterhood, and the child-thief in the +collapsible box were one, the dumbness was an obstacle. Nevertheless +Teano might catch him, I thought, little dreaming how my desire and +his, working into one, were to be brought about. + +I was shown into Roger's den, and confessed the theft of the document +he had given me--luckily useless, without the plan. I told him also +the history of the night. "Two and two generally make four," I said, +"and though this affair is irritating, it may help eventually. The man +who frightened Miss Odell had the look of an Egyptian. Now, isn't it +more likely that a mummy should be wanted by an Egyptian than another? +Miss Odell's treasure is a mummy, in a painted mummy-case. You know +that several attempts have been made to break into the 'shrine,' as +Miss Odell calls it. With what other object than to get the mummy? +You've had its case protected with an ingenious system of electric +wiring. Now, you are going away with your wife. You give me the +secret of the mechanism. The same night somebody tries to steal it; +also he rubs off my shirt-cuff the number of the Egyptian-looking +fellow's car. Then, there's the directress of the Sisterhood. She +fascinates Miss Odell. She revives the glory of a dying order. She +takes an old ghost-ridden house by the seashore--where anything might +happen. And something _does_ happen. A dream--so vivid, that I +venture to believe it wasn't a dream but a trick. The woman tries to +induce a girl to bring all her possessions with her into seclusion. +'_All_ her possessions,' mind! That would have included the +mummy-case, if you hadn't put your foot down. Have I your leave to +repeat these ramblings to her?" + +"She has heard them, Lord John!" I turned, and sprang to my feet. +Maida was at the door, with Grace. + +"You were talking so fast, we didn't interrupt. And I _wanted_ to +hear. I thought you'd wish me to. You have a wonderful theory, but +it's _all_ a mistake so far as the Sisterhood is concerned. The Head +Sister is the _best_ woman I ever knew. I'm breaking my heart with +shame because I deserted my post. Oh, don't think I blame _you_ for +bringing me away, Lord John. I blame only myself. You were splendid. +And I'm grateful for everything. To convince you of that, I promise if +you can prove anything against the Sisterhood, I'll consider myself +free from my bond--even before the twelve months are up. That's a +_safe_ promise. You can't think what a beautiful letter the Head +Sister has sent me this morning. I'm eager to go back and earn her +forgiveness by helping in the work she'll give me to do. In justice to +her I _must_ tell you a secret. That mask you saw--which prejudiced +you--is to hide burns she got in saving a slum-child from death in a +great fife. The Sister wears it to spare others pain. As for the +_dream_--I have it everywhere, and often. Don't be anxious. I'll +write, and--_you_ can write if you will. Dear Roger, is the car ready?" + +"No," said Roger bluntly. "I hoped John would make you see reason." + +"I do see it," the girl answered. "I didn't last night." + +"How I wish you weren't over twenty-one!" her adopted brother growled. + +Maida laughed, almost gaily. "As it is, I'm an old maid, and must be +allowed to go my own way." + +"May I motor you and Roger to Pine Cliff, if you must go?" I begged. + +She gave me a long look before answering. Then she said, "Yes." + +I shall never forget that run from New York to Long Island. I made the +most of every moment; but my heart turned to ice whenever a voice +seemed to mutter in my ear, "You're going to lose her. You've failed, +John Hasle, in the big crisis of her life and yours." + +But I wouldn't believe the voice. So far as my own story was +concerned, I thought this chapter of it had come to a close with the +closing of the gate at the Sisterhood House between me and Maida Odell. +Yet after all it hadn't, quite. There was more to come. + +A little veiled woman had opened the gate at the sound of the +motor-horn, evidently expecting Miss Odell. And the same little woman +shut us out when the new sister had gone in. I noticed her +particularly, because she shrank from our eyes, though her face was +covered with the conventional mist of gauze. And it seemed that she +was glad to get rid of us. Not rudely, but with eagerness, she pushed +the gate to; and as she did so I noticed her hand. The left hand it +was--small, daintily shaped, with delicate, tapering fingers; but the +third finger was missing. + + +Teano was not in my rooms when I arrived once more at my hotel; but +opening the door of 212 I found him at the telephone. So absorbed was +he that he did not hear me enter, and I stood still in order not to +disturb him. I supposed that he had called up the Agency, and was +talking of my business. + +"If I could get out of the job, I would," he almost groaned. "But +they'd put another man on, and that would be worse for Jenny. Everyone +heard of 'Three-Fingered Jenny' at the time of the gang's getaway. The +only thing I can do is to keep her out of the business at any cost, and +go along on other lines. I'll call you up again, Nella, if I get +anything on my _own_, about Jenny." + +"Who, pray, are Nella and Jenny, Mr. Teano?" I asked, realising that he +meant to play me false. + +He jumped as if I had shot him, and dropped the receiver. "I--thought +I'd locked the door," he stammered. + +"It's a good thing you didn't," I said. "I've heard enough to guess +you came on some clue you didn't expect. That's why you forgot to lock +the door, before you called up 'Nella.'" + +"Nella's my sister," Teano blurted out. "She's employed in the +Priscilla Alden, the hotel where only ladies stay. She's the telephone +girl on the thirteenth floor." + +"Thanks for the explanation," I replied with more coolness than I felt. +"As for 'Jenny'--well, before I ask more questions I'll tell you what I +think. 'Jenny' is the woman for whose sake you took up your +profession. You'd lost, and wanted to find her. Now, you have found +her--or rather, her fingerprints--unmistakable, because they happen to +be those of her left hand. Rather than get her into trouble, you'd +sacrifice my interests." + +Teano remained dumb as the impish child, when I finished and waited for +him to speak; so I went on. "I don't want to hurt a woman; yet you see +I know so much I can carry on this case without you. Suppose we work +together? I'll begin by laying my cards on the table. I can save you +the trouble of a search if I choose. I know where 'Jenny' is, and can +take you to her." + +"You--you're bluffing!" Teano stammered. + +"I swear I'm not. Luckily you're a _private_ detective. The police +needn't get an inkling of this case, unless you fail me, and I turn to +them. All I want is to find out who instigated the affair of night +before last. Who carried it out isn't so important to me, though it +may be to you. And by the by, has 'Jenny' any personal interest in a +little boy of four or five who is dumb?" + +"My God!" broke out the detective. + +"Don't you think I can be as useful to you as you can to me?" I +insinuated. "Why not be frank about 'Jenny'? I promise to hold every +word in confidence. Hang up that receiver. You'd better sit down or +you'll fall! Now, let's have this out." + +The man was at my mercy; yet I knew he was no traitor. "Probably," I +reflected, "I'd have done the same in his place." + +We sat facing each other, across the bare little table; and Teano began +the story of Jenny. There was drama in it, and tragedy, though as yet +the story had no end. The sad music was broken; but I began to see, as +he went on, that he and I might find a way of ending it, on a different +key. + +Paul Teano and his sister had come to relatives in New York when he was +nineteen and she twelve. That was ten years ago. Paul was now a +naturalised American citizen, but at the time of the Italian war in +Tripoli he hadn't taken out his papers. There had been other things to +think of--such as falling in love. In those days Paul was a budding +newspaper reporter. He had gone to "get" a fire, and incidentally had +saved a girl's life. Her name was Jenny Trent. It was a case of love +at first sight with both. The mother took lodgers, and Teano became +one. In a fortnight, Jenny and he were engaged in spite of a rival +with money and "position"--that of a bank clerk. + +Mrs. Trent wanted Jenny to marry Richard Mayne, and Jenny had vaguely +entertained the idea before she met Teano. There was something +mysterious and different from the men she had known, about Mayne, which +piqued her interest. But the mystery ceased to attract her after the +Italian's appearance. Teano, afraid of Mrs. Trent's weakness for +Mayne--or his presents, would have married Jenny at once, and trusted +to luck for a living; but the girl's mother fell ill, and while Jenny +was nursing her, Italy's war broke out. Paul was called to the +colours, and sailed for "home" with thousands of other reservists. It +was hard luck, and harder still to be wounded and taken prisoner in his +first battle. Teano's adventures with his Arab captors would make a +separate story, as exciting as Slatin's though not so long, for he +suffered only a year and six months' imprisonment. At the end of that +time he escaped, made his way to Sicily, and thence back to America as +stoker in an Italian ship. His first thought was to see Jenny; but at +Mrs. Trent's he found himself taken for a ghost. The report had come +that he was dead; and Mrs. Trent had "thought it best" for Jenny to +accept Dick Mayne. "For Heaven's sake, keep away," pleaded her mother. +"She's not happy with Dick. There was trouble at the bank, and he lost +his job. Jenny's wretched. But she's got a baby boy to live for--a +poor little thing, born dumb. The sight of you will make things +harder." + +Perhaps Teano might have had strength to remain in the background if an +old fellow-lodger had not whispered what "people were saying about Dick +Mayne." It was asserted that for years he had led a "double life." +Nothing had been actually proved against him, except, that he was a +dope fiend. But gossip had it that he was a dope-seller as well, a +receiver of stolen goods, and a friend of thieves and gunmen. There +was likely to be an awful "bust-up" and then--Heaven help Jenny! + +Naturally Teano went to the address given him--that of a tenement house +a long way east of Fifth Avenue. There, Fate stage-managed him into +the midst of a scene destined to change the course of two lives and put +an end to one. His knock was unanswered; but something was happening +in the kitchen of the wretched flat. The door was not locked; it had +been forgotten. Teano burst in, to find Jenny fighting for her life +with a madman. Mayne had snatched a bread-knife from the table, and +Jenny's hand dripped blood. Without a word Teano sprang to her +defence; but Mayne slipped out of his grasp. Darting to an adjoining +room, he rushed back with a Colt revolver. To save Teano, Jenny flung +herself between the two men; but Paul caught and put her behind him, +leaping on Mayne with a spring of a tiger. Then came a life and death +tussle. The revolver went off as both fought to get it, and Mayne +fell, shot through the heart. + +"You'd have thought things couldn't have been worse with us than they +were," the detective groaned. "But you'd have thought wrong. We were +up against it, Jenny and me. If I stayed and gave evidence, she was +afraid of a scandal. If I made a getaway, she argued, she would be all +right, on a plea of self-defence; because it was known by the +neighbours what her husband was. I thought the same myself; and she +persuaded me for her sake to disappear. That was the mistake of my +life. What happened after I went, I don't know. I can only guess. +But something caused Jenny to change her mind. I got off without being +seen, and lay low to watch the papers. But if you believe me, for +three days there was nothing! Then came out a paragraph about Mayne's +body being discovered by some friend, who pounded in vain on the door, +and at last broke it in, to find the man dead. Doctors testified that +he'd been a corpse for forty-eight hours. The revolver lay beside him. +The verdict was suicide. He was known for his habits, you see; and +just by pulling the catch down, Jenny could get out, leaving the door +locked on the _inside_. Folks thought she'd deserted him--and that and +other troubles, brought on by himself, had preyed upon his mind. She +and I hadn't been cool enough to plan a stunt like that, in the minutes +before she forced me out of the place. But _somebody'd_ helped her; +and things that happened later put me on to guessing who. + +"Never a word or a line has Jenny sent me from that day to this. Do +you know why? Because a pack of thieves got hold of her and the child. +One of Mayne's secret pals must have come along and offered to save her +and the boy. I don't believe she knew what she was letting herself in +for, till she was in. But--well, a girl called 'Three-Fingered Jenny' +travelled with a gang of international thieves last year in France, and +I bounced over there like a bomb when I heard. You see, when I found +her struggling with Mayne, he'd been trying to cut off her finger, +because she _would_ stick to an old ring of mine; refused to give it +up. She'd just time to tell me that and show me what he'd done. I saw +the poor finger would have to come off. My poor little Jenny! She'd +loved her pretty hands! The European war broke out just as I was +getting on her track--or thought I was--and I lost her again. I'd +stake my life she never stole a red cent's worth. But they may have +forced her to act as a decoy--using the child to bring her up to time. +I've always felt the gang's game would be to train the boy for a dip. +It was a frame-up on Jenny from the first. Why, the little chap would +do star turns, and never spill. He's dumb. Made for the job. I've +seen babies in the business, sharp as traps! Now you see, my lord, +what a knockout I had, finding those finger-marks on the +window-sill:--three, of a small left hand, the third finger missing; +and traces that a child had been let out of the window by a rope. The +footprints are below in the court. 'Jenny and her boy,' I said to +myself. I've prayed God I might find them; but it's the devil has sent +them to me at last." + +"I'm not so sure of that," I said, and told Teano where and how I had +seen a slender little woman with big, scared eyes and a left hand with +its third finger missing. + +When I had explained my rapidly developed theory, we discussed the +means of proving it. We might as well batter at the gates of Paradise +as those of the Grey Sisterhood. We would be turned away, as with a +flaming sword. Trust the Head Sister for that! But we were not at the +end of our resources. + + +That evening towards dusk, two ruddy-faced coastguards left a somewhat +dilapidated car in charge of a local youth. They walked for a short +distance, where a group of pines on a promontory had suggested the name +"Pine Cliff." They rang a gate bell, although aware that tradesmen +were the only males of the human species allowed to cross the +threshold. When their summons remained unanswered, they tugged again +with violence, until a _grille_ opened like a shutter. "Who is there?" +questioned a timid voice. + +The elder of the coastguards, seeing his companion start at the sound +of her voice, answered, to give his comrade breathing space. They had +come, he announced, by order, to search the garden for a suspected +hiding hole of smuggled opium. Not that the Sisterhood was implicated! +This was an old place, and had been used by dope smugglers. The coast +police had received the "tip" that this had happened again. + +The veiled eyes behind the _grille_ vanished; and a moment later +another voice took up the argument. As Teano had recognised Jenny's +voice, I knew the Head Sister's. The idea was _absurd_, said the +latter. We could not be admitted. I stepped aside, not trusting my +disguise, and Teano held out a folded document to which we had given an +official semblance. + +"I don't want to make trouble for you, ladies, but----" he hinted. The +paper and a glimpse of a red seal said the rest. Bolts slid back +indignantly, and the gate was flung open. I beheld the Head Sister, +tall and formidable. Behind her I glimpsed a group of other forms less +imposing, among them Maida, flowers in her hands, and surrounded with +children. As for Teano, no doubt he saw only the shy figure retiring +from the gate. + +"This is preposterous!" exclaimed the Head Sister. "But search the +garden if you must. You will find _nothing_." She moved away to join +her satellites, motioning to the door-keeper that the gate might be +closed. Before the gesture could be obeyed, however, Teano put himself +between the tall woman and the little one. + +"Beg pardon, madam. I admit we've got in on false pretences," he said +sharply; "but we're detectives sent to arrest Three-Fingered Jenny, and +here's our warrant." + +He flourished the faked document. Before the mistress of infinite +resource had time to collect her forces--we had swept Jenny outside the +gate, and slammed it. We raced with her to Teano's waiting car, +and--cruel to be kind--stopped to explain nothing till Pine Cliff was +more than a mile away. + +I took the wheel and gave Paul a place by Jenny. I heard him plead, +"Don't you _know_ me, Jen?" But not once did I turn my head until +Teano spoke my name. + +"She's my Jenny," he said, "and she _cares_, but she doesn't _want_ to +be rescued! It's a question of her boy. She won't give him up." + +"Quite right," I agreed. "Why should she give him up? Has she left +him in the Sisterhood House?" + +"No, he's lost," Jenny answered. "I don't know where he is--since this +morning. But the House has been our home for weeks. The Head Sister +took us in, and promised to save Nicky from bad people and bad ways. +He'll go back there, and----" + +"But where is he now?" I cut in, having slowed down the car. "Can't we +head him off? The child has money, I know. Where would he go and +spend his earnings?" + +"I--can't tell," she stammered. "He's always wanted me to take him to +Coney Island--to some amusement park. But----" + +"To Coney Island we'll go," I exclaimed. + + * * * * * + +What followed was a wild adventure. I had never been to Coney Island. +But I seemed to have been born knowing that it was a place dedicated to +the people's pleasure. No doubt it was a toss-up which amusement +ground to choose. By hazard, we began with Constellation Park; and +almost at once came upon traces of Nicky. "A little dumb boy with +black eyes, all alone, with plenty of money, and a grin when asked if +he were lost?" Oh, yes, he was doing every stunt. We tracked him +through peanuts and ice cream, lions' dens and upside-down houses, to +the Maze of Mystery. + +The name was no misnomer. Hampton Court, and the Labyrinth of Crete +itself could have "nothing on it." In a bewildered procession Teano, +Jenny and I wandered through streets of mirrors, complicated groves, +walled concentric alley ways, with unexpected and disappointing outlets +until at last a pair of elf-eyes stared at me from a distant and +unreachable surface of glass. I cried out; so did Jenny and Teano, for +all of us had had the same glimpse and quickly lost it. + +"_Nicky_," gasped Jenny, just behind my back. "And, oh, _Red Joe's got +hold of him_! It's all up--if we can't get between them. It's Red Joe +I stole him back from when we went into the Sisterhood." + +I looked back to console her--and she was gone. Teano, too, had +suddenly separated from us, whether accidentally or for a purpose, I +could not tell. But the maze would have put any rabbit warren to +shame. When you thought you were in one place, you found to your +astonishment that you were in another, with no visible way of getting +out. + +Then again, eyes looked at me from a mirror which might be far off or +within ten yards. There were mirrors within mirrors, dazzling and +endless vistas of mirrors. Child's eyes, mischievous as a squirrel's, +met mine, peering from between crowding forms of grown-ups. The man +Jenny had spoken of as "Red Joe" (I picked him out by a ferret face and +rust-red hair) was trying to push past a fat father of a family, to +reach the child in grey. Whether Nicky knew that he was a pawn in a +game of chess, who could tell? There was but one thing certain. He +was having "the time of his life." + +"If I could get him for Jenny, what would Jenny do for me in return?" I +asked myself. It might turn out that she could unlock the door that +had shut between me and Maida Odell. + +A desperate, a selfish desire to beat Red Joe, seized me; but now the +mirrors told, if they did not deceive, that glassy depths of distance +between us were increasing in space and mystery. Suddenly I reached a +turning-point. Nicky was straight ahead. He paused, looked, made +ready to dart away like a trout from the hook. But--inspiration ran +with my blood. + +I pulled a wad of greenbacks from my pocket and smiled. Red Joe had +flattened pater familias unmercifully, and was squeezing past. A hand, +a thief's hand if I ever saw one, caught at Nicky's collar. But he +dipped from under, slipped between a surprised German's legs, and--I +grabbed him in my arms. + + + + +EPISODE III + +THE GIRL ON THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR + +When Teano first spoke to me of his sister, nothing was further from my +thoughts than a meeting with the telephone girl at the Priscilla Alden, +a hotel sacred to ladies. But unexpected things happen in the best +regulated lives, especially in New York, as anyone may learn by the +Sunday papers. Not many days after the gate of the Sisterhood House +shut for the second time between Maida and me, I changed my residence +from New York to a hotel about five miles from Pine Cliff. Roger Odell +and Roger's bride had gone to South America on one of those business +trips which financiers seem to take as nonchalantly as we cross a +street. His last words to me were: "You know, I rely on you to look +after Maida, as well as she can be looked after, under that brute of a +woman's thumb." + +I did the best I could; but whether my wounds or my love sickness were +to blame, the fact was that something had made me a bundle of raw +nerves. + +I slept badly, and my dreams were of some hideous thing happening to +Maida; or else of the mummy-case being stolen. In my waking hours I +chased back and forth between town and country, trying to find in New +York the "Egyptian-looking man" who had disturbed Maida's peace of +mind, and who had reasons for wishing me to forget the number of his +automobile: trying to make sure on Long Island if a connection existed +between this man and the head of the Sisterhood. + +At last I realised that I was in no fit state of nerves for a guardian. +The hotel people recommended me to a celebrated doctor practising on +Long Island; and one morning, ashamed of myself as a "molly-coddle," I +went to keep an appointment with him. Thorne was his name and he lived +in a grey-shingled house set back from the road behind a small lawn. +The place was outside the village; but since abandoning my crutch, I +had begun to take as much exercise as possible. I walked, therefore, +to the doctor's, rather than use the car presented to me by Roger. +This seems a small detail to note, but deductions following certain +events proved it to have been important. + +I was received by the keen-eyed Thorne, in his private office, and +during the catechism to which he subjected me, I thought nothing of +what went on in the outer room through which I had passed. I should +ill have earned Roger Odell's nickname ("the gilded amateur +detective"), however, if I hadn't ferreted it out afterwards and "put +two and two together." + +It was an ordinary room, with a desk at which sat a young woman who +answered the door and kept the doctor's appointments classified. I was +vaguely aware that I had interrupted her business of stamping letters, +which a boy would post. She had not finished when a few minutes later +the next patient arrived. This person gave his name as Mr. Genardius, +and confessed that he had no appointment; but his face--covered with +bandages--presented such a pitiful appearance that the girl agreed to +let him wait. "When the gentleman who's in the office now goes away," +she explained, "the doctor's hour for receiving is over. But he may +give you a few minutes." + +"Isn't the gentleman an English officer, Lord John Hasle?" inquired the +would-be patient, whose face as seen under a wide-brimmed, +old-fashioned felt hat, and between linen wrappings, consisted of +deep-set black eyes, wide nostrils, and a long-lipped mouth. + +"Why, yes, he is," admitted the young woman, to whom I had given my +name. "Do you know him?" + +"Not at all," replied Mr. Genardius, who appeared to her a rather +unusual figure in his quaint hat and an equally quaint overcoat. "But +as I got out of my automobile I saw him at the gate. I recognised him +from portraits in newspapers. He was an army aviator, I believe, who +got leave on account of wounds, and came over to see a play produced." + +"Oh, yes, _The Key_--a _lovely_ detective play," was the flattering +reply, as reported to me later. + +As she spoke, the young woman (Miss Murphy) gave the letters to the +boy, who went out, needing no directions. Hardly had the door shut, +when Mr. Genardius rose. "Oh, that reminds me!" he exclaimed, "I +should have wired to a friend! The doctor is sure to be engaged for +some moments. I'll step out and send my chauffeur with the telegram." +For an invalid, he walked briskly. The boy hadn't disposed of his +letters and parcels, or mounted the bicycle which leaned against the +fence, when Mr. Genardius reached the gate. Miss Murphy glanced from +the window, interested in the queer personage. She was unable to see +the motor from where she sat; but it must have been near, for the black +felt hat and the black caped coat came flapping up the garden path +again in less than five minutes. The thought flitted through Miss +Murphy's head that the bandages worn by the invalid wouldn't make a bad +disguise. Mr. Genardius returned to his chair, and selected a +newspaper. + +About this time came a telephone call, which Miss Murphy answered. And +though two days had passed before I realised the need of questioning +the young woman, she was able to recall a rustle as of tearing paper at +this moment. Her attention was occupied at the 'phone; but when +Genardius had departed, and she wished to glance at the theatrical +advertisements, she noticed that a page was gone from _The World_. Had +she not remembered the name of the paper, a link would have been +missing from the chain of evidence. As it was, I was able to deduce +that the torn page contained a news item "exclusive to _The World_." +Mr. Genardius had doubtless read some other newspaper at home, and it +had interested him that "Millionaire Roger Odell's Egyptian Present for +His Bride" was likely to reach New York that night on an Italian liner. + +How _The World_ had got hold of this story remains a mystery. It had +leaked out that Roger had bought for a great sum an opal "Eye of +Horus," supposed to be the mate of a curious ornament possessed by his +adopted sister, and the only other jewel resembling it, in existence. +Grace Odell (nee Grace Callender) had admired Maida's fetish. That was +enough for Roger. He made inquiries, and learned from a firm of +jewellers that a duplicate of Miss Odell's opal had been sold years ago +by a certain Sir Anthony Annesley to the Museum of Cairo. + +How it had come into Annesley's hands was not known; and he had long +ago died. Maida had been satisfied with her fetish, and did not covet +its fellow, but Grace's chance word caused Roger to cable an agent in +Egypt, and, after bargaining, the Museum authorities had consented to +part with the treasure. This information the newspapers had obtained, +but the time and the way of the opal's arrival in America had, Roger +thought, been kept a dead secret. + +In order that jewel-thieves, ever on the alert for a prize, should not +stalk the messenger, Roger's agent had engaged the services of a +private person. A relative of his, an American girl who had acted as +stenographer in Naples, was giving up her position to return to New +York. Taking advantage of this fact, and his confidence in her, the +agent had given Miss Mary Gibson charge of the Eye of Horus. Having no +connection with any jewel firm it was believed that she might pass +unsuspected. The curio being thousands of years old, was not subject +to duty, and could, it was hoped, be placed by Miss Gibson directly in +the hands of its owner, before anyone discovered that it had been in +hers. Roger Odell had intended to meet the young woman; but his +suddenly arranged journey upset that plan, and the day before my visit +to Dr. Thorne I had received the following cable: + +"Stenographer will go straight from ship to Priscilla Alden. If ship +late, meet her there early morning after. Will be expecting you." + +Had I not come to an understanding with Roger before he sailed for Rio +Janeiro, this message would have been gibberish. But he had asked me +to take over the jewel because he hoped thus to bring me into touch +with Maida. If I could bestow the opal in Roger's bank, Miss Odell +(whose vows did not bind her to absolute seclusion) might run up to New +York and compare it with her own curio. I had caught eagerly at the +plan. Gladly would I have waited hours on the dock for Miss Gibson, +but fearing I might be suspected as his agent, if thieves were on the +watch, Roger had thought it best for the young woman not to be met. In +order to avoid attention, she was to proceed as if she had been the +insignificant stranger she was supposed to be. She was to inquire on +shipboard for an hotel in New York, taking lady guests only. The +Priscilla Alden would be mentioned, and she would send a wireless, +engaging a room. As clients of the Priscilla Alden were allowed no +male visitors after ten p.m., my call would have to depend upon the +time the ship docked. Even before Roger's cable, I had ascertained +that the _Reina Elenora_ was likely to get in late, and I made up my +mind to spend the night at my own old hotel in New York. That would +enable me to present myself early next day at the Priscilla Alden. + +While I described my nightmare dreams to the doctor (keeping Maida's +name to myself), Miss Murphy left Mr. Genardius for a few moments. A +rich old lady patient drew up at the gate in an automobile and sent her +chauffeur to fetch the young woman. There was a verbal message to be +delivered, and while Miss Murphy committed it to heart, doubtless the +bandaged man listened at the keyhole. He heard enough to realise that +John Hasle was close upon the trail of Miss Odell's enemies. + +Thorne was sympathetic. He talked of nerve-shock in various forms, +from which most returning soldiers suffered. + +As he fumbled among medicine bottles he went on: "I'll prescribe you a +tonic; I keep a few things at hand here, and I can fix you up from my +stock. Some of the ingredients are rare. You couldn't get a +prescription made up nearer than New York. No, by George! there's one +thing missing from my lot! Luckily it's not one of the rare ones. Did +you come in a car? What, you walked? Well, I'll get the boy to sprint +into the village on his bike, to the pharmacy. He can be back inside +fifteen minutes. I'll write to the druggist." + +Thorne touched an electric button. No one came in response. +Impatiently the doctor flung the door open to glare at Miss Murphy. +Miss Murphy was not visible, however, and away dashed the master of the +house, leaving me in his private office to wonder at his absence. This +office being behind the outer room gave no view of the front gate, +therefore I could not see what Thorne saw. It wasn't until he appeared +that I learned why he had bolted. The boy whom he had intended to send +for the missing ingredients had been run down by a motor-car, while +bicycling to the post-office. The chauffeur had, through coincidence, +been despatched by a patient waiting for Thorne. He had taken a corner +too sharply, and knocked the boy off his bicycle, but Joey was more +frightened than hurt. He had been picked up by the chauffeur, a +foreigner, and when Thorne had looked from the window, it had been to +see the lad lifted half conscious from the returning car. At the gate +stood not only Miss Murphy, but the owner of the automobile, who had +hurried out on hearing the young woman's cry. So it was that the +waiting-room had been left empty. + +"Joey's as right as rain now, or will be when he's pulled himself +together," Thorne explained. "My new patient, whoever he is--a +stranger to me--seemed to feel worse than Joey. He gave the kid ten +dollars! It may have been as much the boy's fault as the chauffeur's. +Anyhow, I bet Joey won't complain. Your medicine will be ready as soon +as if nothing had happened, for the owner of the auto (Genardius, his +name is) offered to drive to the druggist's and back." + +It was Miss Murphy who presently handed the doctor a small, neatly +wrapped bottle. "That chauffeur brought me this," she announced. "It +seems that Joey's accident upset the invalid gentleman more than he +realised at first. He was taken faint at the pharmacy, and decided not +to consult you this morning. He'll 'phone, and ask for an appointment." + +Dr. Thorne tore the wrapper off the phial, and began pouring its +colourless contents into a bottle already two-thirds full, which he had +prepared. Suddenly he stopped. "I guess I'll let that do for this +time! Take a tablespoonful when you get home, and twice more during +the day; once just before bed." + +Dr. Thorne inspired me with confidence; and, as I was anxious to keep +my wits for Maida's sake, I intended to follow directions. Arriving at +my hotel, however, I found a cablegram in answer to one I'd sent +Haslemere, in London. I had demanded whence came the scandal which +darkened the life of Maida Odell. Replying, he refused details, but +deigned to admit that his informant was an American, the widow of a +naval officer, of "unimpeachable respectability." That word +"unimpeachable" was so characteristic of Haslemere that I laughed, but +the description answered closely enough to Mrs. Granville to excite me, +and I forgot the medicine. + +Later, I had remembered it once more when Teano called, bringing the +dumb child Nicky, now his adopted son. I set down the bottle and +thought no more about it, for I hoped to learn something of the man who +had frightened Maida. My hope that Nicky might turn informant seemed, +however, doomed to disappointment. It was difficult to elicit facts, +because of his dumbness; but Teano and I agreed that the imp took +advantage of his infirmity to bottle up secrets. "He's in fear of some +threat," pronounced the detective. "It's the same with his mother. +Jenny and I were married the day after you found her. She says she's +happy, and she ought to know I'm able to protect her. But she's afraid +to speak against the Sisterhood. I shouldn't wonder if they've made +her swear some oath." + +We talked long on the subject, and Teano produced a list of Egyptians +living in New York, obtained at my request. Some were rich. The +greater number appeared to be engaged in the import of tobacco and +curios, or Eastern carpets. A few were doctors; more were +fortune-tellers; while one extraordinary creature whose description +caught my fancy was a mixture of both: an exponent of ancient cults and +religions, and a qualified physician who treated nervous ailments with +hypnotism. This man gave weekly lectures on "Egyptian Wisdom applied +to Modern Civilisation," and was known as "Doctor" or "Professor" +Rameses. The name was, of course, assumed; but Teano had learned that +Dr. Rameses was more than respectable; he was estimable. Following his +religion, which claimed that each soul was a spark from the one Living +Fire, he aimed to help all mankind, and was apparently a true +philanthropist. + +When Teano spoke of returning to New York it was time for me to start. +I invited him into my car, and preparing to depart, I came upon the +forgotten medicine. Thorne had prophesied that I would prove a bad +patient; but I tried to atone by swallowing an extra large dose. The +bottle I slipped into my overcoat pocket, intending to take the stuff +again at bedtime. + +"Stop at the Priscilla Alden Hotel," I directed my chauffeur; and it +was only when Teano spoke of "Nella" that I recalled the sister +employed there. I had seen Nella's photograph at Paul's rooms, taken +with her fiance, Maurice Morosini, and had pleased Teano with praise of +the girl's beauty. Morosini, too, was of an interesting type. I was +sorry to hear from the detective that he had been ordered to join the +colours, and would sail at dawn for Naples. + +"The worst thing is," Teano went on, as we sped toward New York, "that +those two can't even bid each other good-bye. Anywhere but at the +Priscilla Alden, Morosini might walk into the hotel, take the elevator +and go to her floor for a word." + +As Teano talked a pain behind my eyes began to run through my temples, +and into the back of my neck to the spine. + +Something queer was the matter. I was conscious that Teano was asking +alarmed questions, and that Nickey was staring. I was thankful that we +had got to New York before the attack overwhelmed me, for I must leave +the letter at the Priscilla Alden. As the motor slowed down in front +of the hotel I remember pushing Teano aside and stumbling out of the +car, the letter in my hand. I wasn't even aware of dropping the +envelope addressed to Miss Gibson. Only Nickey, peering from the +depths of the car, saw the fall, and would have darted to retrieve it, +had not a man grabbed the letter as it touched the pavement. Teano was +occupied with me, and so it seems was Maurice Morosini, who had been +wandering up and down before the hotel, in the hope that Nella might +come out. He sprang to help Paul, and there was no one for Nickey to +tell, in his queer way, by gestures and rough sketches on a slate, what +had happened. Afterward the detective did learn in this fashion that +the man who picked up the letter was a chauffeur from a car following +us, which had stopped when we stopped. But then it was too late for +the knowledge to be useful. + +Despite protests from the doorman, Teano and Morosini half carried, +half dragged me into the hotel. Once inside, they suggested that it +would be inhuman not to give me shelter; they made great play with my +name and title, and threatened reprisals if I should be turned out. + +"I suppose under the circumstances we'll have to give his lordship a +room and get a doctor in," groaned the manager. "But it's against +rules. However, we'll smuggle Lord John up to the thirteenth floor, +where there's a small room vacant." + +It's an ill wind that blows nobody good, and Morosini must have praised +the saints for my illness when he found it giving him the chance he +would have bought with half a year of life. He was going to the +thirteenth floor of the sacred Priscilla Alden; and on that floor was +Nella Teano! + +One glance he threw at Paul across my head, as the two helped me out of +the lift, and then his heart bounded with great joy, for close by was +the telephone window. + +"The only room disengaged to-night is farther down the corridor," the +manager explained. "I wish we could spare this one just opposite, but +there's a lady coming into it later," and he threw a regretful glance +at a door barred by a chambermaid, her arms full of linen and towels. +She had been getting ready Number 1313 for its next occupant, but in +her surprise dropped a wad of sheets and pillow-cases. Stooping to +pick them up, a sharp word from the manager sent her flying; and +Morosini noticed that she had forgotten to take her pass-key from the +lock. + +I had revived enough to walk mechanically, like a man in a dream, +without support, so Morosini left me to the guidance of Teano and the +manager, and ran back to the lighted window which framed his adored +one. She sprang to her feet as Morosini held out his arms. + +"Oh, Maurice!" she gasped. + +"Give me a kiss to take with me--perhaps to my death," he implored. +The girl gave it, leaning over the narrow edge of her window. Nella +Teano would have dared anything rather than refuse what might be a last +request; yet the danger was great, and she started at sound of the +lift. "What _shall_ we do?" she gasped. "You mustn't be seen----" + +But Morosini did not await the end of her sentence. For the girl's +sake he must hide. Besides, he hoped to snatch another moment when the +coast should be clear. With a bound he crossed the corridor, opened +the door of 1313, and shut himself in. Meanwhile the manager, +telephoning to the office from my room, had learned that the doctor he +wished to get was in the hotel, just leaving a patient. Out hurried +the manager to meet the doctor at the lift and discuss the case before +returning to my room. That room, as fate would have it, happened to be +on the other side of a narrow court, opposite 1313, the windows facing +each other. + +Poor Morosini had thought himself blessed by Heaven in his unhoped-for +chance to see Nella. He still thought the same, as he stood inside the +room across from the telephone bureau; but luck had turned. Hardly had +the door closed upon Morosini, when the chambermaid crept back to lock +number 1313, and regained the forgotten pass-key. Nella would +desperately have called the girl, making some excuse, or, if worst came +to worst, even telling her the truth. At that instant, however, the +doctor came from the lift, to station himself in front of the telephone +window. He could see the manager advancing, and so also could the +maid. In fear of meeting this awe-inspiring personage again, she +snatched the key with frenzy and fled, while Nella sat doomed to +silence. + +Morosini's first hint of trouble came with the grating of the key in +the lock. He dared not try the door at the moment, for he could hear +the voice of the manager. What could he do if Nella were unable to +open the door? If there were a ledge or cornice running under the +window, he might attempt to creep along it and find a way of descent by +a fire escape. He had switched on a light, and had seen the window, +covered with a dark blind, when a faint rattle of paper attracted his +eyes to the door. A white envelope was being slipped underneath. +Morosini seized it, and read in Nella's handwriting, "I'll try to get a +pass-key and let you out, but can't tell how or when. Turn off the +electricity. It can be seen through the transom." + +Meanwhile, in my room, while I lay in a half-doze on the bed, the +doctor listened to Teano's story of my sudden seizure. The medicine +bottle was found and produced, and as I had mentioned my visit to +Thorne, the detective could supply some information. The New York +doctor got into communication with the Long Island man over the 'phone, +and thus started the train which enabled us later to make valuable +deductions. The bandaged patient had doubtless tampered with the +bottle in the shelter of his automobile, and remained at the pharmacy +until the return of his chauffeur. The nature of the added ingredient +was discovered eventually by analysis; and had I taken one more of the +doses directed by Dr. Thorne, nothing could have saved my life. As it +was, the effects were temporary; and when some nauseous stuff had been +poured down my throat, increasing the heart action, consciousness of +surroundings came like the waking from a dream. Teano it was who had +run out with the hotel doctor's prescription and returned with it made +up. So great had been his haste that Nella's appeal detained him at +her window only for an instant. He had no time to give help, for my +life might depend on promptness, but he promised aid later. + +As it was, the effect of his treatment satisfied the doctor. He +stopped by my bedside till I crudely invited him to go, and let me +sleep. All I needed to restore me was a night's rest. My presence in +the hotel was not to be talked about, but the manager would look in +from time to time, and call the doctor if needed. I slept fitfully, +glad of the cool air blowing through the open window. Suddenly light +struck my eyelids. I was roused with a start, and sat up in bed. My +impression was that someone had come in and switched on the +electricity. But the room was dark, save for a radiant circle on the +wall at the foot of my bed. From a bright surface of crystal framed in +gold, a woman's face looked out. + +For a dazed second, I thought I had to do with a ghost. I realised +that what I saw was the reflection of a reflection. My narrow bed +stood with its back to the wall beside the window. Opposite the +window, and therefore facing the foot of the bed, was a round mirror in +a gilt frame. A dark blind had suddenly been thrown up, across the +narrow court, and a woman, pausing before the glass in her room, sent +into the dusk of mine her image. She was taking off her hat, looking +at herself; and there she was fantastically, at the foot of my bed, for +me to look at too. The effect was so extraordinary that it held me +fascinated, until another woman came into the room. + +When Maurice Morosini heard the sound of a key in the lock, it was +music to his ears. He believed that at last (hours had gone) Nella +found herself able to open his prison. But another second undeceived +him. A voice was saying, "One moment, madam. Let me find the electric +switch before you go in." + +All the young man's blood seemed to flow back upon his heart. The +thought in his mind was, that Nella would suffer disgrace. While a +hand groped for the switch he flung himself on the floor, and crept +under the bed. + +"My moment will come," he reflected, "when the woman falls asleep. +Then I can let myself out." + +But the occupant for whom 1313 had been reserved was in no hurry for +sleep. Morosini heard her moving about, and ventured to peep. He saw +a small woman, young and rather pretty, of what might be classified as +the "governess type." She did not undress, but seemed restless. +Fussing round the room, she shot up the green blind and opened the +window. Then she flew to the door. There had been a faint knock. +Maurice peered from his hiding-place, and saw another woman come in. +She, too, was plainly dressed, but older and with a harder, more +experienced face. + +"What _can_ Nella be doing?" the trapped prisoner wondered. If she +were still at the telephone bureau she must know that 1313 now had an +occupant. Poor girl! Her misery must be equal to his. + +Nella did know. She had seen the young woman go in. When no alarm +followed, however, the girl's stopped heart beat again. But the +situation had become impossible. She seized the first chance to call +Teano. "It's too late for you to help, even if you could get in +again," she whispered into the telephone, fearing to be overheard by +some one passing. "A lady has gone into 1313 for the night. And I'm +supposed to shut my window and go off duty in half an hour. Here comes +Shannon, the night watchman, now." + +As she spoke, a woman knocked at the door of 1313. Nella listened; +soon she could hear voices speaking earnestly. Then they grew loud and +shrill. "The women are quarrelling!" she thought. "Can it have +anything to do with Maurice?" The transom snapped shut as she asked +herself the question. The speakers were afraid of being overheard. +That, at least, proved they believed themselves alone together! + +"Well, here I am. I've given you time enough to make up your mind, +haven't I, Miss Gibson?" began the new-comer. + +"Yes, and I have made it up," answered the younger. "I don't say +you're not acting in good faith. The note you brought to the dock +looks like Mr. Odell's handwriting. And it's just as you said it would +be. I found no letter of instructions waiting here. All the same, +Miss Parsons, I won't give up the jewel till morning, when I've made +sure the person I expected is not going to call." + +"You _are_ silly!" cried the other. "Now, how _could_ I have known +there _was_ a jewel coming with a Miss Gibson on this ship, if I wasn't +all right?" + +"That's true," the younger woman admitted. "I don't see how you could +have known except from Mr. Odell. But I'm not taking chances! If +nobody else shows up before nine to-morrow morning, why then----" + +"I have to go west to-morrow morning," explained Miss Parsons, her +voice quivering with impatience. "I can't wait. I told you so on the +dock. You _must_ give me the thing now." + +"I won't--so there!" shrilled Miss Gibson. + +The older woman stared at the obstinate young face in desperate +silence. Then she broke out fiercely, all effort at suppression over. +"I believe you want me to _bribe_ you!" And she pulled from a velvet +handbag a roll of bank-notes. + +Mary Gibson drew in her breath with a gasp. "_Why_--you've got +hundreds and hundreds of dollars! I believe you're a _fraud_! You're +after me to steal the jewel. Get out of this room, you thief, or I'll +call----" + +The sentence broke off with a queer gurgle. The woman who called +herself Miss Parsons had snatched a long hatpin from the other girl's +hat on the table, and stabbed Mary Gibson through the heart. She fell +without a cry. + +This was the tragedy mirrored on my wall at the foot of my bed. I saw +the fall. I saw the murderess stoop; I saw her rise with something in +her hand--something that gleamed green and blue, like a wonderful +butterfly's wing. As I stumbled out of bed and groped for the +dressing-gown which Teano had unpacked, I saw the woman tiptoe towards +the door. Then a man's face came into the picture. + +The murderess turned and saw the face also. But instead of trying to +escape, she did a wiser thing. Wide open she flung the door and +screamed at the top of her lungs, "Help! Murder! A burglar has killed +my friend!" + +The big night watchman, who had paused on his round for a chat with +Nella, seized Morosini as the Italian sprang on the woman at the +threshold. + +"Maurice!" shrieked Nella, betraying her secret, yet caring not at all. +Her one thought was of the man she loved. "He's innocent. He came to +see _me_, not to steal, or murder." + +Morosini realised quickly how the case stood. He was lost if he could +not get free, he thought. And so it might have been, if that lighted +picture had not appeared on the wall at the crucial instant. I came +tottering around the corner in time to shout: + +"Don't let that woman go: she committed the murder. I saw it. I've +enough evidence to convict her, and the jewel she did it for is in her +hand now." + +Miss Parsons stared at me like a mad creature, flung from her the Eye +of Horus, and rushing back into the room of death, was out of the +window before we could reach her. + +Never before had the Priscilla Alden been smirched by scandal. The +managers were in despair. But the suicide from a window on the +thirteenth floor, and the story of my vision in the room opposite, +combined with the romance of Nella and Morosini, attracted new clients +instead of driving away the old. + +"Miss Parsons," identified in death, proved to be an ex-convict, who +had mysteriously disappeared from the ken of the police months before. +Thanks, however, to that page of _The World_, missing from Dr. Thorne's +office, her tragedy in an attempt to steal the Egyptian Eye of Horus +carried me one step further on my own quest. + + + + +EPISODE IV + +THE DEATH TRYST + +For me, one of the strangest things in a strange world is this: the +compelling influence exerted upon our lives by people apparently +irrelevant, yet without whom the pattern of our destiny would be +different. + +Take the case of Anne Garth and her connection with Maida +Odell--through Maida Odell, with me. Of my adventures in America while +attempting to protect Maida, that in which Anne Garth played her part +was among the most curious. + +It happened while Paul Teano, the private detective, and I were trying +our hardest to bring "Doctor Rameses" to book. We were morally certain +that he was the Egyptian who had, for a mysterious reason of his own, +persecuted the girl's family, and followed her (as its last surviving +member) from Europe to New York. Unfortunately, however, a moral +certainty and a certainty which can be proved are as far from one +another as the poles. We might believe if we liked that "Doctor +Rameses," controlling the Grey Sisterhood, intended evil to the girl +who had been induced to join it: but it was "up to us" to prove the +connection. So far as the police could learn, Doctor Rameses was as +philanthropic as wise. If, as we suggested, his was the spirit guiding +more than one criminal organisation in New York, he was the cleverest +man at proving an alibi ever known to the force. If we reported his +presence in a certain place at a certain time, he was invariably able +to show that he had been somewhere else, engaged in innocent if not +useful pursuits. As for Maida, her confidence in the veiled woman at +the head of the Sisterhood was apparently unbroken. Judging from the +little I could find out, she was irritatingly happy in her work among +rescued women and children, at the lonely old house on Long Island. No +doubt there were genuine cases cared for, which made it hard to prove +anything crooked, especially to a girl so high-minded. + +She had promised to remain for a year, and I had met her too late to +change that determination. The rules of the House did not permit the +sisters (of whom there were only six) to receive the visits of men, and +though now and then I contrived to snatch a glimpse of Maida, seldom or +never since our real parting had I had word from her except by letter. +How could I be sure the letters were genuine? + +While I was in the state of mind engendered by these difficulties, +Teano rushed in one morning to say that he was off to Sing Sing. +"There may be something for us," he said, and asked me to go with him. +It seemed that the Head Sister had departed at dawn in her automobile +from the Sisterhood House (Teano had someone always watching the place +night and day, in these times), and "putting two and two together" he +deduced that she might be en route for the prison. He had learned that +a notorious woman criminal was coming out that day, after serving a +heavy sentence. She had been a member of an international band of +thieves; and if the head of the Grey Sisterhood intended to meet her, +it could hardly be a case of "rescue." + +"I know a 'con. man' whose time is up," Teano went on, "and I shall +make an excuse of meeting him if I see the lady's head turned my way. +The same excuse would do for you, my lord. 'Twon't matter putting the +woman on her guard, for if she's going to meet Diamond Doll, they'll +have met before we give 'em the chance to spot us and we'll know what +we want to know." + +I was keen on the expedition, and offered my car for it. We overtook +the Head Sister, and our hearts bounded with hope: but, though we were +able to follow in her wake all the way, our hopes were dashed by +finding that she had come to "rescue" a person of a different class +from buxom "Diamond Doll." The latter was met at the moment of release +by a virtuous looking mother; and the tall grey form of the Head Sister +advanced toward a small, shabby young woman who might have been a +teacher in a Sunday-school. + +The latter, unless she were a good actress, could hardly have feigned +the start of astonishment with which she received the veiled lady's +greeting. She had been glancing about as if she expected someone but +that one was not the head of the Grey Sisterhood. She listened with +reserve for a moment, then brightened visibly. She had rather a tragic +face, as if she were born for suffering, and could not escape. +Evidently, so far, she had not escaped; but she was young, not more +than twenty-eight. Her oval face was pale with prison paleness, and +there were shadows under the deep-set grey eyes which held no light of +hope. + +Why should the Head Sister single this girl out? If her object were +charitable, there were other women being released who needed +encouragement; yet it was to this one alone that help was offered. + +As the veiled lady explained herself with the dignity of manner which +had won Maida Odell's admiration, a young man joined the two, with an +apologetic air. He had to be introduced to the Head Sister, and as he +pulled off his cap I recognised a vague likeness between him and the +girl. + +His decent, ready-made clothes were of the country, and proclaimed +themselves "Sunday best." His sunburnt complexion was of the country, +and his shy, yet frank manners were of the country too. + +The new-comer was out of breath, and apparently had hurried to make up +time lost. He kissed the girl; and presently, without seeming to +notice us, the Head Sister walked away with the two. She was +favourably known to the prison authorities for her "kindness" in +finding work for discharged women prisoners, and for her offers of +shelter in the Sisterhood House till work could be found. If we had +attempted to give warning against her, we should have been laughed at +for our pains, and there was nothing we could do but play watchdog. + +This we did, making ourselves inconspicuous, but not resorting to the +pretext Teano had suggested. We let the "con. man" go off to face the +world without a salutation, and devoted our attention to the friends of +the Head Sister. It was only the girl who went with her in the closed +automobile. The man bade them good-bye, but not with an air of sorrow. +He looked grave as he set off for Ossining station, but satisfied +rather than sad. Plainly it pleased him to think that the young woman +had a powerful protector. + +"Well?" I asked, when Teano and I had let the strapping figure stride +out of sight: for the detective had been trying to unearth some memory +of the girl's features. "Have you got her dug up?" + +"Yes, milord," said the Italian, grinning at my way of putting it. +"She'll be no use to the grey dame in any shady job. They say I have +'camera eyes.' When I see a face--or even a photograph--I don't +forget. Anne Garth is the girl's name. She was not bad at heart." + +"She doesn't look it," I said. "She'd be beautiful if she were +fattened up and happy." + +On our way back to Long Island Teano told me Anne Garth's story. She +was a country girl, ambitious to become a nurse. Somehow she had +worked her way up with credit in a New York hospital. There she had +fallen in love with one of the younger doctors; and when his engagement +to another woman was announced, she had waited for him outside the +hospital one day, and shot him. The wound was not serious, but Anne +Garth had spent two years in Sing Sing to pay for the luxury of +inflicting it. + +"Doran the doctor's name was," Teano remembered. "Not much doubt he +flirted with the girl and made her believe he would marry her. She +might have got off with a lighter sentence, but she wouldn't show +regret. The jury thought her hard. She doesn't look hard to me, +though! I expect the fellow we saw was the brother--her only relative, +I recall the papers saying. Let me think! Didn't he have some job in +the mountains? Something queer--something not usual! I can't bring it +to mind. But it doesn't matter." + +"I suppose not," I agreed. "Did Doran marry the other girl?" + +Teano shook his head. "No," he said. "After what happened, she was +afraid to trust him, or else--but there's no use guessing!" + +I agreed again. Neither was there much use in "guessing" the Head +Sister's object in taking Anne Garth into the Sisterhood House; but +there might be more use in trying to find out. During the weeks that +followed I did try, with Teano's help, but succeeded only in learning +that Miss Garth was employed as a nurse. She was seen in the garden by +Teano's watchers, wearing a nurse's dress, but she did not appear +outside the gates. + +A month later, I happened to hear talk of a fancy dress ball in honour +of an Egyptian prince visiting America. He was a relative of the +ex-Khedive, and being a handsome man with romantic eyes, was being made +much of by more than one hostess. The ball was to be given by Mrs. +Gorst, a rich "climber," a lady who was, I heard from Teano, one of the +hypnotist Rameses' devoted patients. She lived in the fashionable new +Dominion Hotel, where the ball would take place. Her guests would +dance, newspapers announced, in the "magnificent Arabian room, so +congenial in its Eastern decorations to the taste of the principal +guest, Prince Murad Ali." + +It occurred to me that Dr. Rameses was certain to be one of these +guests. I did not know Mrs. Gorst, but I knew some of her friends, and +to get an invitation was "easy as falling off a log." As it was only a +fancy dress affair, and no masks were to be worn, if Rameses were +present I ought to recognise him. I hoped to make sure whether he was +or was not the man with the scar, who had frightened Maida Odell at the +theatre on the night when I met, fell in love, and--lost her. Since +that night I had discovered Doctor Rameses' existence and had seen him +more than once, but without the clue of the scar it was impossible to +identify a man seen for a few seconds only. If Rameses' throat bore +the mark, there could no longer be room for doubt, and I determined to +lay hands on him if necessary. + +How I was to manage this, I didn't see: but that was a detail. I +secured the card, and 'phoned to my old hotel in New York for a room. +If I had dined there, everything that followed would have been +different, but I went with the man who had got me invited (a friend of +Odell's) to dine at his club. There I stopped till it was time to go +back and rig myself up as a Knight Templar: and taking my key from one +of the clerks I was told that a young lady had called. + +"A young lady?" I echoed. My thoughts created a white and gold vision +of Maida, but the clerk's next words broke it like a bubble. + +"She was dressed as a nurse," he explained. "She wouldn't give her +name; said you'd not know it--but she mentioned that she'd called first +at your Long Island hotel. When she told them there that her errand +was urgent they consented to give this address." + +"The errand was urgent!" I felt my blood leap. After all, the vision +might not have been so far-fetched. What if this woman were the nurse +from Sisterhood House--Anne Garth, whom I had seen come out of +prison--Anne Garth with a message for me from Maida? + +"What did you tell her?" I asked. + +"Well," the clerk hedged, "she seemed anxious to know where she could +find you--insisted it was a matter of life and death, so I suggested +you might be at Mrs. Gorst's ball for that Egyptian Prince." + +My first impulse was of anger. The man was a fool, not to have known +that I must come back to dress! But in a flash I realised that if he +hadn't known, it was my fault. I had left no word when I went out at a +quarter to eight. + +"I may see or hear from her later," I said, holding out a hand for my +key. With it, the clerk gave me an envelope--one of the hotel +envelopes, sealed and containing a thing which felt like a small +account book. It was addressed in pencil, evidently in haste. Inside +the flap I caught sight of something else hurriedly pencilled, luckily +discovering it as I tore the envelope, to extract a black-covered +note-book. "I was going to write a letter," I read, "but I fear I'm +watched. This is the best I can do, unless they let me in at the ball." + +There was no signature, not even an initial. + +I went up to my room, and opened the book under the light of a +reading-lamp. Its contents suggested a diary, with a number of +disjointed notes dashed down in pencil (the same handwriting as that +inside the envelope) with many blank spaces. + +"I never hoped for anything like this," were the only words on the +first page, under the vague date, "Wednesday." On the next page was +jotted: "It's like heaven after hell, and _she_ is an angel. I never +saw anyone so beautiful or sweet. Would she be as kind if she _knew_?" + +"This must mean Maida," my heart said. Certainly it could not refer to +the Head Sister! But, after all, how did I _know_ that the "woman +dressed like a nurse" was Anne Garth? So far, I merely surmised. +Eagerly I turned over the leaves. Often the writer spoke of herself, +or of things that had no special meaning for me. Then came a note +which held my eyes. "I've confessed to _her_ the truth. She says I +was more sinned against than sinning. Heaven bless her! She has +confided in me what is making her ill. The poor child suffers! I +never heard of one as sane as she, having illusions. I suppose they +_are_ illusions. She can have no enemies." + +Again, on the next page: "She has told me her history. What a strange +one! She _has_ enemies. But none of them can have got in here? I'm +glad she has a love story. I pray it may have a happier end than mine." + +A few blank leaves, and then: "There's a room with a locked door over +hers. Nobody sleeps in it. I wonder why they keep it locked? I +suppose it's a coincidence. If they wished her harm why should they +send for a nurse to take care of her, when she isn't ill, except for +dreams.... A beautiful thing she said last night. 'I should die of +horror if I didn't make _his_ face come between me and the wicked face. +His love saves me.' I envy her the _saving_ love! Through mine I was +lost. I wish I were allowed to sleep in her room. _She_ wouldn't ask, +because she thought it cowardly, but I did, and was refused. I'm +needed at night for the children's room." + +Further on, after more blanks: "It's against the rules for men to come +here, but I saw a man going upstairs--or a ghost. They say there _are_ +ghosts in this house. A woman told me that the room over my sweet +girl's is haunted. That's why it's locked. I wonder if the man-ghost +was going to it? I wish it hadn't been dark in the hall, so I could +have seen what he was like. He seemed a tall moving shadow." + +Later: "I hope there's nothing wrong with _my_ head! I was going to +the room of our H.S. for orders. I thought the message was for me to +tap at her door at nine o'clock, but before I had time to knock she +came out and met me. She shut the door as she asked what I wanted--the +first time she's spoken sharply! But I caught one glimpse of the room +inside. Opposite the door, there's a picture of the desert by +moonlight, and the Sphinx. It's in a carved black frame, set in the +middle of a bookcase. The frame is part of the bookcase. But as I +looked into the room this time--I didn't mean to look or spy--the +picture of the Sphinx _wasn't there_. It seemed to have opened out +like a door of a cabinet, and behind it was a white space with names +and dates written in red. On top was a sign like an eye, and +underneath I thought I saw the words, 'I watch, I wait.' Then came the +dates. I can't be sure what they were, but I think the first was 1865. +There was a General and a Captain, and a Madeleine or Margaret, all of +the same name, which I _think_ was Annesley. Anyhow, there were three +dates and four names, and opposite the fourth name--that of my +beautiful girl--was a question mark. A black line had been drawn +through the other names as if they were done with, but there was no +line through hers. + +"It's queer how quickly one sees things--all in a flash. I'd only time +to draw in my breath before the door of the room was closed, yet I kept +the impression, as one goes on seeing the sun with one's eyes shut. +Now, _could_ I have imagined the whole thing? I _did_ imagine things +at night in my cell, but I _knew_ they weren't there. They never +seemed as real as this." + +These notes, hastily pencilled, covered several of the blue-lined +pages. There were more blanks; and then, in a shaky hand was written: +"I'm frightened. I caught H.S. dropping something from a tiny bottle +into the glass of milk on the tray I was getting ready to take +upstairs. I'd turned my back to fetch a bunch of violets H.S. had +brought in for me to put with the breakfast. I don't know if she knew +I caught her, but she said she put phosferine for a tonic into the milk +twice a week, and asked if I approved. Perhaps I oughtn't to say I +'_caught_' her. Perhaps it's all right. But if we had a cat in the +house I'd have tried to make it drink the milk. I tasted it, and there +was a faint bitter tang, yet phosferine would give that. I dared not +drink more, because if anything were wrong, and I were ill or died, I +couldn't protect _her_. But I poured out the milk and got fresh, in +another glass, when I was sure H.S. was back in her study with the door +shut. This can't go on. If anything is wrong, I mayn't be able to +save _her_. And the fear is getting on my nerves. Yet I can't bear to +give the poor child a warning. She has enough to worry about. All day +this horrid thought has been in my head. Was _I_ chosen because if +_she_ died, I could be blamed--a prison bird, with a black heart too +full of evil to be reclaimed by kindness? If my darling girl will give +me the name of the man who loves her and where he is, I'll make some +excuse to get a day off--perhaps to meet my brother Larry--and tell her +lover what has been going on." + +This was the last entry in the book, and it gave me the certainty for +which I groped. The nurse must have come from the Sisterhood House and +from Maida; and--Maida cared for me more than I had made her confess. + +I could hardly wait to get to the ball. My first object in going was +forgotten in anxiety to find Anne Garth, to hear all she'd meant to +tell me when she called, and missed me. It was still important--more +than ever important, perhaps--to identify Dr. Rameses as a conspirator +against Maida; but I could no longer concentrate my thoughts upon him. +My fear was that Anne Garth might not have been admitted, lacking the +card of invitation which every guest was asked to bring. But I judged +that she would not give up easily. If her costume (which she might +make pass as fancy dress) and her determination did not get her into +the ballroom, I believed that she would think of some other plan. + +Though the Dominion Hotel is new, its Arabian room is famous. It might +be called "Aladdin's Cave," so gorgeous are its glimmering gold walls, +and the stage jewels which star the ceiling and the gilded carvings of +its boxes. Even its drapery is of gold tissue, embroidered with +jewelled peacock feathers: its polished floor gleams like gold, +reflecting thousands of golden lights, and its gold-framed +panel-mirrors repeat again and again a golden vision. I was an early +arrival, but there were many before me, because Prince Murad Ali had a +reputation for un-oriental promptness, and lovers of pageants wished to +see his entrance with his suite. If Doctor Rameses were present among +the gorgeous groups scattered like bouquets about the ballroom, my most +searching glances failed to pick him out. I had no intention of giving +up the quest, however; and wishing to be independent I tried to evade +my hostess's offer of pretty partners who "danced like angels." +Unfortunately, as I thought, fortunately as it turned out, the lady +conquered. I evaded a "Fox trot" on the plea that my wounded leg was +too stiff: but I could not refuse to sit out with a countrywoman of +mine, just over from England, who had "come to look on." We had known +each other slightly at home, and I was obliged to sit through a dance +telling Lady Mary Proudfit who people were. + +"At least," I tried to console myself, "if Anne Garth or that brute +Rameses comes along, I can see them." + +But the crowd increased, and with many dancers on the floor it was +difficult to distinguish faces. The Prince and his attendants arrived, +magnificent as figures incarnated from the "Arabian Nights"; and the +entrance of the principal guest was the signal for a charming surprise. +From hidden apertures in the carved ceiling, rose petals--pink and +white and golden yellow--began to flutter down, light as snowflakes. +The great room was perfumed with attar of roses, and silver ribbon +confetti, glittering like innumerable strands of spun glass, descended +on the laughing dancers. My companion and I were lassoed by the fairy +ropes, and looking up I was struck on the cheek with a rose thrown from +a box. + +The flower was thrown, not accidentally dropped. It came from a +distance, aimed by a woman dressed as a nurse. She was sitting in a +chair drawn close to the front of her box--a box in the second tier, +close to the musicians' gallery--and was leaning on the ledge in order +to take good aim. Behind her stood a tall man in chain armour, his +visor so nearly covering his face as practically to mask it. He was +bending over the nurse, as if to see where her rose fell. + +Before I could grasp the flower it had fallen to the ground, and I had +to stoop to pick it up. I was rude enough to have forgotten Lady +Mary's existence until--as I was unwinding the thread which bound a +thin bit of paper to the stem--she exclaimed, "A melodrama, Lord John! +The jealous husband's on your track. Be careful, or he'll see that +note--no, he's gone from behind her now. Perhaps he's coming down to +you." + +"Forgive me, Lady Mary," I said, "but this is serious. Not a love +affair, I assure you, but it may be a vital matter. I must go to that +box. I----" + +"Don't mind me!" She took the cue, and changed her teasing tone to +friendly common sense. "Here comes a man I know. He'll look after me. +Go along! Why, how odd! Your friend who threw the rose is pretending +to be asleep--or she's fainted!" + +I glanced up from the note I had been reading while my companion +talked. The nurse still leant on the broad ledge with its golden +fringe, but she had laid her head on her arm. Her face I could not see. + +I did not wait to make sure that Lady Mary had secured her friend in +need: but semi-consciously I heard their greetings as I turned away. +The entrance to the boxes was outside the ballroom, and there might +have been some delay in identifying the one I wanted, but for the note +attached to the rose. Anne Garth bade me come quickly to Box 18, as +she feared she had been followed. "I have a letter for you from +_her_," was added as a further inducement. + +On the door of each box was a number. I knew 18 was in the second +tier, and hurried up the narrow stairway which led to that row, almost +rudely pushing past a Harlequin and Columbine who were coming down. +Apart from them I had the stairs and corridor to myself. If the man in +chain armour had altogether deserted Box 18, he had made haste to +disappear--a fact so disquieting that I regretted not having smuggled +Teano into the hotel to help. Being alone, I had to obey orders and go +at once to the box, although I saw that keeping track of the man was +equally important. + +I knocked, and when no answer followed, opened the door of Number 18. +The nurse sat in the same position which Lady Mary had remarked, +bending forward from her chair across to the broad ledge and leaning +her whole weight on it, her head on her arm. + +"Miss Garth?" I said, knowing now for certain it was she, as in looking +up I had recognised the face seen outside Sing Sing prison. How she +had recognised me would have been a puzzle, had I not conceitedly +deduced that Maida had annexed a photograph given by me to Roger. But +it was not important to solve this puzzle. "Miss Garth?" I repeated, +raising my voice over the music. + +No reply: and a prickling cold as the touch of icicles shivered through +my veins as I laid a hand on the grey-clad arm. It was responseless +like her lips, and sick at heart I raised the limp figure in the chair. +The head in its long veil and close-fitting bonnet lolled aside, and +there was no consciousness in the half-open eyes. The girl had fallen +into a dead faint, or--she had been murdered, I could guess by whom. +But selfishly, my first thought was not for her. It was for the +promised letter, and in her lap half concealed by the folds of her grey +cloak--I found it: a blank envelope, unsealed, but evidently containing +a sheet or two of paper. + +"Thank God it's not been stolen!" I muttered, and pocketing the +envelope turned my thoughts to the thing which must next be done. + +No wound was visible, not even a drop of blood to cover a pinprick: but +I could feel no beating of the heart; and the swift vanishing of the +man in chain armour was ominous. I realised that, if the girl had died +by violence, I might come under suspicion, unless I could quickly prove +innocence. Needing my liberty in order to protect Maida, I could run +no risk of losing it, and I realised that with Lady Mary Proudfit lay +my best hope. There wasn't a minute to waste; and without a glance at +the letter I was dying to read, I peered through the sparkling of +ribbon confetti and rose petals. What a mockery the brilliance was, +and the gay ragtime melody in the musicians' gallery next door! Yet +the bright veil had its uses. It was like a screen of shattered +crystal hiding the tragedy in Box 18. + +Lady Mary, as I hoped, sat where I'd left her. I beckoned. Surprised, +but evidently pleased, she spoke to her companion, a British financier +on government business in New York. Instantly they began to thread +their way through the crowd, and less than five minutes brought them to +the box. + +"This lady had important news for me," I explained, "news of a dear +friend she has been nursing. It was as important for others that the +news shouldn't reach my ears. I fear there's been foul play, and I +want a doctor. Everything must be done quietly--and the girl can't be +left alone. But the police must be called, if she turns out to be +dead, and----" + +"Oh, I can bear witness that her head dropped suddenly on her arm, +while that man in chain armour bent over her--before you even left me. +He was in fearful haste to get away!" Lady Mary interrupted. + +"Hello, what's this!" exclaimed the financial magnate, Sir Felix +Gottschild, stooping to drag from under a chair, pushed against the +wall, a peculiar bundle. "Here is chain armour--a whole suit, rolled +up and tucked under the chair! By Jove, it tells a tale--what? You'll +be all right, whatever happens, Lord John. We'll stop till you get +back." + +I waited for no more, but went down to inform one of the men keeping +the ballroom door what had happened. The police and a doctor were +'phoned for, and arrived with almost magical promptness. The gold +tissue curtains were quietly drawn across Box 18 while two "plain +clothes" men took note of what Lady Mary Proudfit and I had to tell, +and the doctor probed the mystery of Anne Garth's condition. He was +soon able to pronounce her dead, but it was not till later that he +discovered the prick of a hypodermic syringe at the base of the brain. +The girl had been killed as sick dogs are suppressed with an injection +of strychnine. Pre-occupied as I was with my own affairs, I could not +help remarking the doctor's emotion. He was a young man, and at the +time I credited him with unusual sensitiveness and sympathy: but when I +learned that his name was Doran I was less sure that he deserved +credit. Poetic justice had gone out of its way to avenge Anne Garth by +ordering this coincidence. + +I told what I knew of the girl, beginning with the day I saw her leave +Sing Sing prison with the directress of the Grey Sisterhood, and going +on to the episode of the note dropped, weighted with a rose. I had +reason to emphasise Anne Garth's connection with the Sisterhood, hoping +to fasten suspicion upon it, and secure aid more powerful than +mine--that of the police--for Maida. I described the tall Harlequin +who had passed me in the corridor as I hurried toward Box 18, and urged +my theory that the murderer of Anne Garth had worn this disguise under +his chain armour. With the help of a confederate (the Columbine) +waiting in an adjoining box, he could have made the change, and so +escaped without drawing attention. I did not hesitate to suggest, +also, that the man was Doctor Rameses, the hypnotist: but the police of +New York had come to consider me mad on the subject of Rameses and the +Grey Sisterhood. I was assured that enquiries would be made: and they +were made. It was ascertained that Doctor Rameses had accepted Mrs. +Gorst's invitation, but at the last moment had telegraphed that an +attack of "grippe" had laid him low. Another alibi as usual! It was +proved (to the satisfaction of the police) that he had not left his +house that night. The disjointed diary of Anne Garth contained no +names, and was not even an accusation, still less a proof of evil +intent on the part of any member of the Grey Sisterhood. + +I heard early next day that the police had duly, if discreetly, visited +Pine Cliff, and learned that all was "above board." Anne Garth had +been impudent, and careless about her duties. She had been discharged +some days before the ball, her principal patient having gone away on a +visit, in order to "get rid of the nurse without a fuss." Some gossip +in the house must have turned the woman's thoughts to Lord John Hasle, +and she had seen a way of embarrassing the ladies of the Sisterhood. +As for the murder, a theory was suggested by a bundle of love letters +found among Anne Garth's effects, forgotten when she departed. From +these it appeared that she had been in the habit of meeting a man who +signed himself "Dick," whenever she was given a day off from her duties +at Sisterhood House. The last letters threatened reprisals if she +persisted in seeing a certain "Tom," otherwise unnamed. + +As for the Harlequin and Columbine, they were as impossible to trace as +ghosts. No one could be discovered who had seen them enter the +ballroom or leave it. Had it not been for Lady Mary Proudfit's +testimony, I might have floundered into serious difficulties, in spite +of the chain armour. Thanks to her (and perhaps a little to my own +position) I was free to come and go; which was well, because Anne Garth +had left me a tryst to keep for the following night. + +The one fact I hid was the existence of the letter found by me in the +dead girl's lap. It was typed, and unsigned: but Anne Garth's journal +proved to me, if not to the police, that she was loyal; and the note +tied to the rose promised a letter from Maida. "From _her_," the nurse +had written, expecting me to understand, and I had understood. I had +also believed, because I could see no reason why Anne Garth, risking +much to deliver the message, should deceive me. The man in chain +armour had had too great a need for haste to seek a letter, nor had he +reason to suspect the existence of one. His object, if I read it +right, was to prevent Anne Garth from telling her story. + +The note so fortunately hidden under the nurse's cloak was not in +Maida's writing, but had been neatly typed. It was not the first time, +however, that I had received typed letters from her. Sometimes I had +doubted their genuineness, but one of them explained that she had +learned to use a typewriter, to help the Head Sister with charitable +correspondence. After that I had felt more at ease about those clearly +typed communications. + + +"My dear Friend," the letter began (Maida never gave me a warmer +title), "I've been ill with grippe, which is an epidemic here. Now I'm +better, but so weak that I long for tonic air, and it has been decided +to send me up to the Crescent Mountain Inn. I'm looking forward to the +change after my hard work and illness. But how glorious it would be if +you could come to see me! I hope to start the day after you receive +this. If I can get off then, I shall arrive at the Crescent Mountain +railway station in the train which reaches there at nine-fifteen. I +don't know what time the train that connects with it leaves New York, +but you can find out--if you care to! At the station a team of dogs +with a driver who serves the Inn (his name is Garth) meets the train if +ordered. As my departure is a little uncertain, because I'm not +strong, no telegram has been sent so far, and the team is free for +anyone who wishes to engage it. If you _should_ do so, and I should +happen to be in the train, I'm sure you wouldn't mind having me for an +extra passenger! I've spoken only to one person about my brilliant +idea of our meeting. Yours ever, M." + + +Nobody who reads this can wonder that I didn't show it to the police, +or that I was ready to believe the letter genuine. Despite the gloom +cast upon me by the death of Maida's messenger, despite my annoyance +with the police, I was selfishly happy. I saw that I was in great luck +to have got out of a tangle which might have enmeshed me in bonds of +red tape; and it goes without saying that I telegraphed the Crescent +Mountain Inn, ordering a room, and Larry Garth the dog-driver to meet +me with his team. + +I remembered Teano's mentioning that Anne Garth's brother lived in the +mountains; and I 'phoned him to ask if the man were employed by the +Crescent Mountain Inn. The answer was, "Yes, he drives their +dog-team"; and I was the more firmly convinced that Maida and Anne +Garth had concocted the typewritten letter together. + +In deducing this, I belittled the Enemy's intelligence. But one lives +and learns. Or, one dies and learns. + +The Crescent Mountain Inn--as most people know--is one of the most +famous winter resorts in America. It is also an autumn and spring +resort for those who love winter sports, for snow falls early at that +great height, and rests late. Its comparative accessibility from New +York adds to the charm, and the sledge with a team of Alaskan dogs +(instead of an ordinary sleigh drawn by mere horses) was an inspiration +on the part of the landlord. + +I told no one but Teano of my intention. He, oppressively prudent +where I was concerned, wished to accompany me "in case of queer +business," but I discouraged this idea without hurting his feelings. +If there were hope of an "accidental" meeting with Maida in the train, +I didn't want even a companion. + +To my disappointment, I searched the train from end to end without +finding her. But enquiring of the conductor, I learned that the +morning train was preferred by ladies. Perhaps--I thought--she had +already got off, in which case Garth might bring a note to the Crescent +Mountain station. I hoped for Maida's sake it might be so, because if +she'd started early she would not have heard of her messenger's fate, +and I could break the news to her gently. As for the dead girl's +brother, it seemed improbable that he would be informed by telegram. +The pair were said by Teano to be alone in the world; and as Garth's +evidence wouldn't be needed--anyhow for days to come--in the affair of +Anne's murder, he would not be sent for post-haste. + +Again I underrated the intelligence of the Enemy. + +The train arrived on time at the little mountain station built for +clients of the famous Inn. As it was still early in the season (it is +only for Christmas that crowds begin going up), I wasn't surprised to +find myself alone on the platform. The mountain train (into which I'd +changed long ago from the train starting from New York) went no further +that night. Snow-covered shoulders and peaks glistened dimly in +half-veiled starlight, and I was glad to hear the jingle of bells. A +big sledge, capable of carrying several passengers and a little light +luggage, was in waiting with a fine team of impatient dogs: but the +driver who touched his fur cap with a mittened hand was not the +honest-faced country man who had met the released prisoner at Sing Sing. + +"You're not Garth!" I exclaimed, when he asked if I were Lord John +Hasle, and had been answered affirmatively. + +The dim yellow light from the little station building shone into his +face, and I thought it changed as if with chagrin. It was not as +pleasant a face as the one I remembered. In fact, it was not pleasant +at all. The eyes were brave enough, or anyhow bold; but the nose was +big and red as if the fellow warmed his chilled blood generously with +alcohol. He was older than Anne Garth's brother. The heavy features +framed in fur ear-laps might have belonged to a man of forty. + +"Oh, yes, I'm Garth," he assured me, in a voice roughened by the same +agent which had empurpled his nose. + +"You're not the Garth I've seen," I persisted. + +"That may be," he admitted. "We're brothers. I'm a bit older than +Larry. He had to go to New York. Between the two of us, we do the +driving for the Crescent Inn." + +This explanation was good enough, if Teano was wrong about the family. +"Have you a note for me?" I asked. + +"No note," was the reply. "But you're expected at the Inn all right." + +"They have other guests by this time, I suppose?" + +"Yes, a few. The last that came's a young lady. I took her up from +the afternoon train." + +This was what I had wanted to find out. My instinctive dislike of the +ugly-faced chap vanished. I felt almost fond of him. + +"Let's get on," I said. + +Another man had been looking after his dogs, a man also coated and +capped in fur--a big chap whose face I could not see, as he didn't +trouble to salute or look my way before climbing into his seat beside +the driver's place. The suitcase I'd brought from New York was +disposed of: I tucked myself into the strong-smelling rugs of rough +black fur, and the dogs flashed away like a lightning streak, their +forms racing with shadow ghosts on the blue whiteness of starlit snow. +Soon we came to a cross track, marked with a sign-post. A red lantern +on the top seemed to drip blood over the words "Crescent Mountain Inn. +Winter Sports." + +To my surprise, though the dogs made as if to swerve leftward and dash +up this beaten white way, the driver swore, and with his long whip +forced them straight ahead. + +"We take the short cut. 'Tisn't everyone who knows it," he deigned to +fling over his shoulder at me. + +I made no comment, and we sped along, until abruptly the dogs balked as +at something unseen. With oaths and savage lashings they were goaded +on through deep, new-fallen snow. The leaders yelped but obeyed. +Then, suddenly, the driver flung reins and whip full in my face. The +unlooked-for blow dazed me for a second as it was meant to do: but, as +in one of those photographic dreams which come between sleeping and +waking, I saw the two fur-coated figures in the front seat spring from +the sledge into snow drifts. I tried to follow suit, too late, for +down slid the team over the brim of a chasm dark as a cauldron, and +dragged the sledge in their wake. + + * * * * * + +Teano, it seems, though too polite to say so, did not like my mountain +expedition. As he was not allowed to join me, he decided that the next +best thing was to watch my interests in New York. He and his wife +Jenny (who had an exaggerated sense of gratitude for me) discussed, +according to their habit, what they would have done and what they would +do were they in the "Enemy's" place. + +"I'll tell you how _I'd_ have acted to begin with!" said Jenny, who +knew too well the ways of the underworld; "I'd have had a letter ready +to leave for Lord John on that poor dead girl's lap--a letter supposed +to be from Miss Odell. Typing's easier than forging! Then, if I +_found_ a letter there I'd take it away and leave mine. Supposing +_they_ did that? They could get Lord John to go alone to that mountain +place he told you about, and they could have him put out of the way, so +he'd never bother them again as he's always doing. They could bring +him to his death and make it seem an accident--they're so smart! +Suppose, for instance, they telegraphed that brother of Anne Garth's, +and told him his sister was murdered; why, he'd catch the morning train +for New York. The Inn folks would be in a fix, and grab anyone who +came along, and knew how to drive dogs." + +Teano had reason to respect Jenny's suggestions, and he thought enough +of this one to meet a train connecting with that which left Crescent +Mountain station in the afternoon. My train had been gone only a short +time, but--it had gone irrevocably. + +Jenny's forebodings were justified. Teano recognised Larry Garth and +accosted him, mentioning his own name and profession. Garth asked if +he had sent the telegram received that morning, and produced it from +his pocket. This told Teano, as the message was unsigned, that no +member of the police had wired. He explained to Garth the +circumstances of Anne's death, giving extra details which he had +ferreted out that day: the fact that the girl had asked to see young +Mr. Gorst (our hostess's son) privately, and begged to be allowed to +sit in a box, because she had a "very important appointment with Lord +John Hasle, and a letter to give him from a lady." It seemed certain, +therefore, that her desire to see me had been genuine. Teano told +Garth something of our suspicions, confessing however that nothing was +proved. Still, he impressed the young man so forcibly that Garth gave +up trying to see his sister's body, and instead was persuaded to return +at once to Crescent Mountain. + +There was no other train that day; but Teano, believing that my life +might be at stake, drew some of his savings out of the bank and paid +for a special. It reached its destination not ten minutes after the +9.15, but had to stop at a distance, owing to the presence of the +latter on the track. By that time both train and station were +deserted, but Garth quickly discovered the fresh traces of his dogs and +sledge in the snow. He and Teano, armed with an electric torch, +started on the trail. Reaching the cross road, Garth pointed to the +tracks which led away instead of towards the hotel. In the dull red +light of the lantern above, the two men looked into each other's eyes; +and snow, falling anew, was like pink-edged feathers in the crimson +glow. If evil deeds were doing, this new snowfall would help the +doers, for soon their footsteps would be blotted out of sight, and all +hope of tracing them might be lost for ever. + +For the moment the only tracks to be seen were those of the team and +the sledge-runners. Garth and Teano followed. Not far on a difference +in level in the white blanket of the earth indicated a seldom-used road +to a mountain farm. But the sledge had not taken that turn. It had +dashed straight on. + +"Good heavens!" stammered Garth. "That way leads nowhere--except to a +precipice. They call it 'The Lovers' Leap'!" + +The two hurried along, stumbling often, a strong cold wind blowing +particles of snow almost as hard as ice into their faces. The glass +bulb of the small electric lantern was misted over. Teano was obliged +constantly to wipe it clear. Suddenly Garth seized him by the arm. +"My God, stop!" he cried. "We're on the edge. The sledge has gone +over here. Two men have jumped clear--one each side the sleigh. Oh, +my poor dogs!" + +It was of me Teano thought. Clearing his lantern he examined the holes +where the men had jumped, so near the verge of a great gulf that they +had had to throw themselves violently back in the snow to keep from +falling over. His trained eye detected delicate markings in the snow +which proved that both men had worn coats of stiff fur. Also their +boots had been large and heavy. Teano knew that I had had no fur coat +when I started, and that my boots had not been made for mountain wear. + +"These two chaps were confederates," he announced confidently to Garth. +"They knew when to save themselves, and Lord John has gone down with +the sledge and the team." + +Garth blurted out an oath, swearing vengeance for his dogs rather than +for me, but Teano's face of despair struck him with pity. + +"There's hope yet," he said, "if your lord guessed at the end what was +up and had the wit to chuck himself out. Thirty feet down, just under +this point, there's a knob sticking up they call the Giant's Nose. +It's deep with snow now. It wouldn't hurt to fall on it--and there's a +tree stump he could catch hold of to save himself if he kept his +senses. But my poor dogs with the heavy sledge behind 'em wouldn't +have the devil's chance. A man wouldn't either, unless he jumped as +the sleigh went. Well, we shall see, when I've got the rope." + +"What rope?" Teano managed to move his stiff lips. + +"A rope we keep for the summer trippers," Garth explained. "More than +once some silly gabe has got too close and lost his head, lookin' over +the Lovers' Leap. It's a suicide place too--though we don't tell folks +that. If anyone's caught on the Giant's nose, we can fish him up. The +rope's in a hut near by, that's never locked." + +Teano is a smaller man than Garth, and it was Teano who, with the rope +in a sailor knot under his arms, was let down by the big fellow, to +look for me. I had kept consciousness at first, and had saved myself +in the way suggested by the mountaineer: but by the time Teano came +prospecting, I had dropped into a pleasant sleep. An hour or two more +in my bed of snow, I should have been hidden for ever by a smooth white +winding-sheet, and so have kept my tryst with Death. + +As it was, Death and I failed to meet. I lived not only to help avenge +Anne Garth, but to go on with my work for the girl I loved, and--living +or dead--shall love for ever. For a time after my adventure on +Crescent Mountain (where it's needless to say Maida had neither arrived +nor been expected) that vengeance and that work moved slowly. But so +also move the mills of the gods. + + + + +EPISODE V + +THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT + +I was bringing my journal up to date one day at my Long Island hotel, +when a page-boy brought me a card engraved with the very last name I +should ever have guessed: "Lady Allendale." + +"Is the lady downstairs?" I asked, dazed. + +"The lady is here!" answered a once familiar voice at the half-open +door of my sitting-room; and I jumped up to face a tall, slim figure in +widow's weeds. "I hope you don't mind my surprising you?" went on the +charming voice. "I wanted to see how you looked, when you saw my name." + +"How do you do?" I greeted her, as we shook hands, and the page melted +away and was forgotten. I tried to sound sincerely welcoming, for here +she was, and I didn't want to hurt her feelings. But I wasn't as glad +as some men would have been to see a celebrated beauty and charmer. + +She explained that she had found herself in need of rest after her war +work (the last time I had seen her was the day when I fled from the +private hospital in London of my sister-in-law, Lady Haslemere), and +she had thought a sea voyage might be beneficial. She added, with an +air of beautiful boldness, that perhaps she'd come partly to meet me +again. "I read that you were at the Belmont in New York; so I went +there. But they said you were staying on Long Island. Country air +will be as good for a tired nurse of wounded officers as it is for the +wounded officers themselves, _n'est ce pas_? And it will be nice +hearing your news, for we were rather pals!" + +"Don was my best friend," I reminded her. "Here's his picture." And I +took from the flat top of the desk where I had been writing, one of +several framed photographs. A flush sprang to her cheeks as the +husband's eyes looked into hers, and snatching the frame she dashed it +down so violently that the glass smashed on the parquet floor. + +"How cruel of you!" she cried. "He was a thief! He threw away my love +and made me hate him. I thank Heaven he died!" + +An impulse of anger shook me. If she had been a man I should have +struck her. I'm not sure I didn't want to, as it was, in spite of her +beauty--or even because of it, so did it flaunt itself like an enemy +flag. + +"It's you who are cruel," I said. "Not to me, but to Don's memory. I +could never believe he did what you thought. There may have been some +horrible mistake. And his death has never been proved----" + +"He's dead to me; and the proof's incontestable, or I shouldn't wear +these things," she almost sobbed, indicating with a gesture her black +dress and veil. + +In my secret heart I had thought in London, and continued to think, +that the motive for draping herself in black might be more complex than +she admitted. Sir Donald Allendale had sailed for America on strange +circumstances months ago; had disappeared, and a body found floating in +the East River had been (superficially, I thought) identified as his. +If widow's weeds hadn't been an effective frame for Irene Allendale's +dazzling beauty, I wondered if she would have mourned in so many yards +of crape for a husband she professed to hate? + +"Oh, well," I said, controlling myself, and realising that she had some +excuse to execrate Donald's memory, "let's not discuss Don now. There +were faults on both sides. He was jealous, and you made him miserable. +You were the greatest flirt as well as the greatest beauty in India +that year, and--but come to think of it, we needn't discuss that +either. The present's enough. You've arrived on this side, and----" + +"You're not glad to see me. No use pretending. I _know_, and--here's +the reason!" She darted forward and seized from the desk, close to my +open journal, the greatest treasure I had in the world--Maida Odell's +picture. + +Roger had given it to me, knowing how I felt towards Maida. It was a +miniature painted on ivory, and almost--though of course not quite--did +Maida justice, as no photograph could do. I kept it in a gold, +jewelled frame with doors like the doors of a shrine which could shut +the angel face out of sight. Usually the doors of the frame were not +only shut but locked. When I sat at the desk, however, and expected no +visitors, I opened and put it where each time I glanced up from my +writing I could look straight into Maida's eyes. Lady Allendale, +however, had come as a bolt from the blue, and for once I neglected to +shut the shrine. + +If I had been angry before, I was doubly angry now; but I said not a +word. Gently I took the frame, closed, and placed it in a drawer of +the desk. + +"Did you say you thought of spending a few days on Long Island?" I +asked, when I could control my voice. + +"I've engaged a suite at this hotel," Lady Allendale answered sharply. +"My maid's putting my things in order now. I do think, Jack, you're +being _horrid_ to me, and if it weren't too late to change without +making gossip I should give up the rooms and go somewhere else." + +I didn't want a scene, so I reminded myself how sweet she had been when +Don had brought her as a bride to India, and I had always been welcome +at their bungalow. I soothed her as well as I could; refused to talk +personalities, and when she decided that her visit to my sitting-room +had better end, I took her to the door. At that moment a face almost +as familiar as hers appeared at a door opposite--the face of Irene +Allendale's French maid who had come with her to India four years ago. +This woman (Pauline, I remembered hearing her called) was receiving big +trunks with White Star labels on them; and I realised not only that the +lady's new quarters were close to mine, but that she was provided for a +long stay in them! + +When she had gone, and the door of her sitting-room had been shut by +Pauline (whose personality I disliked) I picked up Don's photograph, +and sat down to look at it, reviewing old times. + +Poor Don! Whatever his failings might have been, fate had been hard on +him! + +He was among the smartest officers my regiment ever had, one of the +most popular--despite his hot temper--and the best looking. Everyone +said when Irene Grey came to India to be married, chaperoned on the +voyage by a dragon of a maid, that she and Donald were the handsomest +couple ever seen. The trouble was--for trouble began at once--that +Irene was _too_ pretty. She was a flirt too; and her success as _the_ +beauty went to her head. She ought to have understood Don well enough +to know that he was stupidly jealous. Perhaps she did know, and +thought it "fun." But the fun soon turned to fighting. They +quarrelled openly. She would do nothing that Don wanted her to do. In +black rage, he told her to live her own life, and he would live his. +Both were miserable, for she had loved him and he--had adored her. She +flirted more than ever, and Don tried to forget his wretchedness by +drinking too much and playing too high. So passed several years. I +left the regiment and India, and took up flying. Then came the +outbreak of war. Don was ordered to England. Irene sailed on the same +ship, though by that time they were scarcely civil to each other. Don +used influence and got ordered to America to buy horses for the army, +he being a polo man and a judge of horseflesh. + +I was in France then, but running over to England on leave, Irene sent +for me to tell the astounding news that Don had taken with him all her +jewellery. She had money of her own--not a great fortune; but her +jewels, left her by a rich aunt, were magnificent and even famous. +This scene between Irene and me, when she accused Don and I defended +him, lingered in my memory as one of the most disagreeable of my life: +and the maid Pauline was associated with it in my mind, as Irene had +called her, to describe certain suspicious circumstances. Later I +couldn't help admitting to myself, if not to Irene, that Don's +disappearance on reaching New York, before he had begun to carry out +his mission, did look queer. Search was made by the police of New York +in vain, until a body past recognition, but wearing a watch and +identification papers belonging to Captain Sir Donald Allendale, was +found in the East River. I induced Irene to give Don the benefit of +the doubt, not to blacken his memory by connecting him with the loss of +her jewels; and she seemed to think that yielding to my persuasions was +a proof of friendship for me. + +"Well," I said to myself, extracting bits of broken glass from the +frame of Don's portrait, "better let sleeping dogs lie. Irene'll get +tired of this quiet place before long, and be off to New York--or home." + +I felt that it would be a relief to have her go; but I had no idea that +it was in her power, even if she wished it, to do me harm. + +But while I was thinking of her presence in the hotel as a harmless +bore, the lady had instructed Pauline to make inquiries concerning me. +This I learned later: but had I guessed, I should have supposed there +would be nothing to find out. I had no idea that gossip about me and +my affairs was a dining-room amusement among the maids and valets of +the hotel guests: that all Lady Allendale's _femme de chambre_ need do +was to ask "What's the name of the girl Lord John Hasle's in love +with?" in order to have my heart bared to her eyes. That first day she +heard all about Maida--with embellishments: the beautiful Miss Odell, +adopted sister of a well-known millionaire who had lately married and +gone abroad with his bride: girl not fond of society: pledged to the +Grey Sisterhood for a year: the Sisterhood House being near Pine Cliff, +Lord John's reason for living in the one hotel of the neighbourhood. + +That was enough for Irene. Her anger having brought "to the scratch" +all the cat in her nature, she made herself acquainted with the +visiting days and hours of the Grey Sisterhood. Though men were not +received, ladies interested in the alleged charitable work of the +Sisterhood were welcomed twice a week, between three and five in the +afternoon. Maida was a valuable asset to the Head Sister, as a young +hostess on these reception days, for she believed in the genuineness of +the mission, and was enthusiastic on the subject of "saving" women and +children. In her innocence she could not have been aware that most of +those "saved" were hardened thieves protected in the old house at Pine +Cliff till their "services" should be needed in New York. It was a +splendid advertisement for the Sisterhood that so important a girl as +Miss Odell should be a member, and she was always bidden to show +visitors about, even if the veiled Head Sister were able to receive +them. + +So it fell out, while I was assuring myself of Irene's harmlessness, +that she was making acquaintance with the original of the portrait in +the gold frame. She wore, it seems, an open-faced locket containing a +photograph of me, painted to look like an ivory miniature: and seeing +Maida glance at it she asked if Miss Odell had ever met Lord John Hasle. + +The girl admitted that she had; whereupon Lady Allendale said, "We are +_very_ good friends," and purposely said it in such a way as to convey +a false impression. I had told Maida that I loved her, but she had +given me no answer except that, if I cared, I must care enough to wait. +Many weeks had passed since then, and it was long since we had set eyes +upon each other. Lady Allendale was the most beautiful woman she had +ever seen; and the miniature in the locket, the meaning of the smile +which went with the words, were too much for the girl's faith in my +constancy. She thought, "Why should he go on loving me when I've given +him no real hope? No wonder he forgets me for such a dream of beauty!" + +Perhaps no girl as lovely as Maida ever thought less of her own charm. +She believed that the one interest which had held her to the world and +given her strength to resist the Head Sister's persuasions was a false +star. It came into her mind that the best way to forget would be to +promise, as her friend the grey lady had begged her to do, that she +would become a life member of the Sisterhood. + +Maida made no irrevocable decision that day: but when the Head Sister +said next time (there were many of these times), "Dear child, how happy +I should be if I could count upon you in the future!" she answered, +"Perhaps you may. I don't feel the same wish to go out into the world +that I have had." + +She was praised for this concession: and it seems to me probable that +the grey lady set her intelligence to work at discovering the motive +for the change. She had seen Irene, and had without doubt noticed the +locket. She was aware that the visitor and the youngest, sweetest +member of the Sisterhood had talked in the garden. She must have put +"two and two together": and the thing that happened later proves that +she reported all she knew and all she guessed to that "great +philanthropist" Doctor Rameses. It was certain that, soon after Lady +Allendale arrived, he was informed of her presence at my hotel. There +were ways in which he could ascertain that my friendship had been for +Donald Allendale and not his wife: therefore the theatrical effect of +the locket would have been lost upon him. + +Irene and I were on friendly terms, but I manoeuvred to keep her out of +the way. This was comparatively simple, as I had a lot of work to do; +but I invented extra engagements, and was never free to go anywhere +with her. I even tried to take such meals as I ate in my hotel, at +hours when she wasn't likely to be in the restaurant: but one evening, +as I stepped out of my sitting-room dressed for dinner, she appeared at +her door. It was almost as if she had been on the watch! + +It was early, and I intended motoring to New York, for Carr Price and +his bride were there for a day or two. I had my overcoat on my arm, +and a hat in my hand, which advertised the fact that I was not dining +in the hotel. Lady Allendale also was dressed for the evening, and +Pauline was giving her a sable cloak. + +"How do you do, stranger?" Irene exclaimed, with a kind of spurious +gaiety, more bitter than merry. "I've been here a week, and this is +the fourth time we've met." + +As she spoke, and I composed a suitable answer, two messengers came +along the corridor. One was a seedy-looking individual who might, I +thought, be a messenger from Teano, and the other was a boy employed by +the Grey Sisterhood to run errands. My heart leaped at sight of an +envelope in his hand. It was of the peculiar dove grey used by the +Sisters: and I know now that it was recognised by Lady Allendale. +She'd sent money for the Sisterhood's charities, and had received their +thanks written on this paper. + +"No answer, sir," said the boy, giving me the letter, pocketing a +"tip," and passing out of the way to let the shabby man advance, +directed by a page. He, too, put a letter in my hand, with a mumble of +"This is pressing." + +Irene could not hide her curiosity; but she dared not stand staring in +the hall. She went on, as if to go to the lift: but I learned later +that she took refuge in the maid's room, to see (without being seen) +what I might do next. + +What I did do was to return for a moment to my own room. And there, +despite the alleged "pressing" importance of the second letter, I +opened Maida's first. + + +"Please don't feel in any way bound to me," she wrote. "Indeed, +there's no real reason why you should: but lest there should be the +slightest shadow over your happiness, I wish to tell you that most +probably I shall become a life member of the Sisterhood. I must write +Roger before deciding, but when he knows that after these many weeks I +have less longing than ever for the world, I think he will withdraw his +objections.--Yours ever sincerely, M.O." + + +This was a blow over the heart. I had hoped so much, since the +wonderful night when she had let me take her home to Roger! True, she +had gone back next day to the Sisterhood House, but I had thought I +might read between the lines of the message left for me, and other +messages since then. + +I did not think of any connection between Irene Allendale and Maida's +change of mind, but attributed the adverse influence wholly to the Head +Sister. I determined to see Maida somehow: and then remembered the +letter which I had not yet opened. Envelope and paper were of the +cheapest, and the handwriting was crude, most of the words being +absurdly spelt. + +"If yu haven't furgot yur old friend Donald Allendale and wud like to +help him in grate truble cum at wuns with the messenger and dont wate a +secund or it may be tu late." + +Nothing else could have taken me out of myself in a moment of deep +depression, as did this cry from the grave of a lost friend. I had +said to Irene "we have no proof of his death," yet I had hardly doubted +it: and it was now as if I heard the voice of a dead man. If I had +stopped to reflect I might have reasoned that the letter was more than +likely a trick of the "enemy," as I named the Egyptian doctor to myself +and Teano: but even if I had, I should have chanced it, for the call +was too urgent to admit of delays--such as telephoning Teano to meet +me, for instance. I ought to have seen (and perhaps did +sub-consciously see) that the appeal for haste was in itself +suspicious, framed in the hope of inducing me to do precisely what I +did do, rush off on the instant without taking any companion or leaving +word in the hotel that I was bound for an errand that might be +dangerous. + +The man who had brought the letter had prudently gone to wait outside, +where, if needful, he could make a quick "getaway." This detail seemed +of small importance at the time, but its influence on the fate of two +others besides myself was great. If Lady Allendale had seen me +starting with the messenger, she would have known that I was not going +out in answer to the letter written on grey paper--the letter she +believed to be from Maida Odell. Pauline's window overlooked the noisy +front entrance of the otherwise quiet hotel. From behind the curtains +Irene could see anyone coming or going. If the messenger had waited +outside my door, she would have seen us together: but as he stood close +against the wall, she could see only that I stopped to speak with +someone. She could not hear the man explaining that he had been +directed to travel back to New York in the taxi which had brought him +to Long Island, and that instead of accompanying, I was to trail him. +"Somebody's afraid I might get something out of you--what?" said I. +Since argument with such a person was useless, Irene must have heard me +order a taxi, and have telephoned down for one herself. If I'd +suspected the interest she still felt in my movements, I might have +been more on the alert, and have noticed a taxi always pursuing mine: +but my eyes were for the one ahead. + +When my leader's taxi drew up at last, it was the signal agreed upon +for me to do the same. The neighbourhood was unfamiliar, but as I +followed the man on foot I soon saw that we were in the heart of +Chinatown. It was agreed that I should not try to speak with him +again, but simply to go where I saw him go. He entered a Chinese +restaurant which made no pretence at picturesqueness for the attraction +of sightseers. I, close upon his heels, entered also, and had scarcely +an instant to take in the scene, so promptly did the man make for a row +of doors at the back of a large, smoke-dimmed room. Determined not to +be left behind, I too made for the little low-browed door he chose in +the row, and saw a private dining-room just comfortably big enough for +two. + +"This is where you're to wait," my man announced, "and where my part of +the business is done. Good night. I expect you won't be kept long." + +I offered him money, which he refused. "I've been paid, thank you," he +said; and touching his shabby cap with an attempt at a military salute, +returned to the main restaurant. He shut the door behind him, but not +quickly enough to prevent my recognising a face in the room outside: +the face of Donald Allendale's valet. + +"By Jove!" I heard myself say half aloud. I remembered now that the +man--Hanson or some name like that--had left his master in England, not +wishing, he explained, to go to America. Yet here he was; and I sprang +to the rash conclusion that it was he who had sent for me with this +mysterious ceremony. + +The door was shut in my face before I could even jump up from the chair +into which I had subsided; and when I threw the door open again to look +out, the face had vanished. A number of Europeans of middle-class and +a few Chinese, apparently respectable merchants, were dining at little +tables. Some were already going: others were coming in: and I saw at +the street door a tall woman in a long dark cloak and a kind of motor +bonnet covered with a thick blue veil. She had the air of peering +about through the veil, to find someone she expected to meet: and if I +had ever happened to see Lady Allendale's maid Pauline in automobile +get-up, when motoring with her mistress, my thoughts might possibly +have flashed to Irene. They did not, however, and I should have passed +the woman without remark if she had not darted at a man just making his +exit. I didn't recall Don's valet well enough from Indian days to be +as sure of his back as of his face, but I wondered if it were Hanson +whom the veiled woman sought. I was half inclined to step out and +accost him: but I knew by experience what errors arise from a change in +the programme when an appointment has been planned. Possibly Hanson +was not the person who should meet me here, and in following the valet +I might miss my aim. After a few seconds' hesitation I went back into +the tiny room and reluctantly closed the door. + +It was a dull little hole, though clean. The walls or partitions which +divided the place from others of its kind seemed to be of thin wood, +papered with red and hung with cheap Chinese banners. Even the back +wall was of wood, and boasted as decoration a large, ugly picture of a +Chinese hunter, in a bamboo frame. The only furniture consisted of two +chairs, and a small table laid for two persons. In one of these chairs +I sat, staring at the door, hoping that it might soon open for Hanson +or another. + +Hanson, I learned afterwards, had never intended to meet me or be seen +by me. His business in the restaurant concerned me, to be sure, but +only indirectly: and catching sight of my face in the door of the +private room, he had made a dash for the door of the street, to be +stopped by the veiled woman on the threshold. The veil was +impenetrable, but recognising the voice that spoke his name, he tried +to shove her aside and escape. She seized his arms, however, obliging +him to stop inside the restaurant or risk a street scene. She inquired +why he had come to America, and if he had been with Sir Donald. + +"No, your ladyship," the man stolidly answered to both questions, +doubtless longing to ask some of his own in return. He mumbled that he +had come to New York after his master died, for no object connected +with Sir Donald--merely wishing to "find a good job with some rich +American," a wish not yet realised. When asked if he had seen and +recognised in the restaurant his master's old friend Lord John Hasle, +at first he said, "No, he hadn't noticed anyone like him." But the +next words, following swiftly and excitedly, for some reason quickened +his memory as if by magic. + +"Well, he is there. I saw him go in!" the veiled Lady Allendale +insisted. "I believe you know he is there. I'm sure there's a _woman_ +in the case!" + +On this, Hanson admitted that he had seen "a man who looked a bit +_like_ his lordship," and there was a woman with him, _not_ the kind of +woman her ladyship would want to know. + +"I've got to get somewhere in a hurry," he added, "but if I might +advise, the best thing for your ladyship is to do the same--go +somewhere else, most _anywhere_ else, in a hurry too." + +With this, he took advantage of a relaxed hold on his arm, and was off +like a frightened rabbit, old custom forcing him to touch his hat as he +fled. + +He doubtless hoped that Lady Allendale would be terrified into +abandoning her project, whatever it might be: and intended to disclaim +responsibility if she lingered. As it happened she did linger, +summoning courage to enter the restaurant and take a table close to the +door where, for an instant, she had seen me appear. + +"He was looking for _her_!" Irene said to herself; and as no woman had +passed in while she talked to Hanson in the street, she determined to +wait close to the door. It was almost incredible that Maida Odell +should come from the house of the Grey Sisterhood to such a place as +this, but Lady Allendale was in a mood when anything seemed possible. +Anyhow, if it were not Maida, it was some other--some other about whose +existence she might let Maida know--since Maida continued to write +letters to the guilty one! Irene ordered food as an excuse to keep the +table; but when it came she did little more than pretend to eat. +Alternately she consulted her wrist-watch and frowned at the closed +door. + +All this time she supposed me to be sitting alone, fuming with +impatience for the arrival of an unexpected woman: but as a matter of +fact while she questioned Hanson the door had quickly opened and shut. +It had admitted a man: and that man was with me when Lady Allendale sat +down at her table near by to watch. + +In appearance he was a Chinaman, a very tall, respectably dressed +Chinaman with a flat-brimmed hat shading his eyes, and a generous +pigtail whipping his back. But his long dark eyes were not Chinese +eyes, though Eastern they might be. He was magnificently made up, so +well that my impression of his falseness came by instinct rather than +by reason. I would have given much if my brain had carried away a +clearer picture of the "man with the scar" from the theatre, on the +first night of the play. If I could have got nearer to him then, the +difficulty of identifying him with Doctor Rameses might have +disappeared altogether, despite the Egyptian's genius for establishing +an alibi whenever I clamoured to the police. Now, in trying to pierce +the surface calm of the dark eyes I should have had certainty to go +upon, one way or the other. As it was I could only ask myself, "Is +this the everlasting enemy? Or--am I a monomaniac on that subject?" + +If it were Rameses, I could hardly help admiring his impudence in +sending for and meeting face to face--even in disguise--the man whose +business in life it had become to ruin him. + +"Good evening, sir," he began politely, with the accent of an educated +man and a suggestion of Chinese lisp--or a good imitation. "I am part +owner of this place. I have come to know through my partner a sad case +of a client of his, a poor man who was a friend of yours in another +country. My partner is a good man but he is hard. He would have put +this fellow out and not cared; but I said, keep him and I will send +word to that friend he talks about, that Lord John Hasle. Maybe +something can be done to help. My partner did not wish me to do this +thing, because there might be danger for him, from the police. If you +go further, you will soon understand why. But I have been years in +England. I know Englishmen. I said to my partner, if this lord is +asked to come alone, in a hurry, for the sake of his friend, he will +not be a traitor. That is why I had to do things in a prudent way. I +was right. You are here. But this is not all you have to do. You +give me your word you will make no noise if I show you the secret of +our place?" + +"As to that, I give you my word," I said, curious, but far from +trustful. "The message I received hints that Sir Donald Allendale +didn't die. Is he here?" + +"He is downstairs," replied the alleged Asiatic. + +As he spoke, he touched one of the big, brass-headed tacks which +appeared crudely to keep in place the bamboo frame of the Chinese +Hunter. Instantly the picture moved out of the frame, like a sliding +panel, and showed an opening or door in the wooden wall at the back of +the room. + +I felt that the long eyes watched to see if I "funked," but I think my +features remained as noncommittal as those of Buddha himself. As a +matter of fact I was scarcely surprised to find myself in one of those +secret rabbit warrens of which I had read. I guessed that each of the +private dining-rooms in the row I had seen, possessed a concealed door +leading down to a hidden "opium den" underneath. I guessed, too, that +only certain trusted habitues of the restaurant were allowed to learn +the secret. Whether my being let into it were a compliment, or a sign +that I shouldn't get a chance to betray it, I was not sure. But I +wished that I had looked to the loading of my revolver which, so far as +I remembered, held no more than one cartridge. I fancied that my +Chinese friend was Rameses himself, and that he might indeed be a +financial "power behind the throne" in the business of this house. +Deliberately I went to the table and selected a steel knife which lay +beside one of the plates. The tall Chinaman watched me pocket it, with +a benevolent smile, such as he might have bestowed upon a child arming +itself with a tin sword to fight a shadow. As he stood statue-like +beside the aperture in the wall, two men in Chinese costume, dressed +like the waiters of the restaurant, came through the panel-door from +the mysterious dusk on the other side. Each had a small tray in his +hand, as if to serve at a meal. With a bow for my companion and an +extra one for me they moved along the wall, one on either side of the +room, passing behind us both, and ranging themselves to right and left +of the exit to the restaurant. + +It was obvious that they were ready to prevent my making a dash if I +were inclined to do so. They were big fellows, regular "chuckers out" +in size; and my host himself was more than my equal in height. All the +same, if I'd wanted to escape, I thought I could have downed the three, +unless they were experts in ju jitsu, where I was an amateur. No such +intention, however, was in my mind. I determined to see the adventure +to the end, in the hope of finding Allendale. He might have fallen +into such hands as these, and be held for some reason which I hoped to +learn. + +"After you!" I said politely to my guide who would have let me go +ahead. We bowed like Chinese mandarins, and then, as if to prove that +he meant no harm, he passed before me through the panel-door. Whether +the two men closed it again in case of a police raid (which must always +be dreaded in such a place) I don't know; but I guessed that they were +under orders to follow at a distance. + +There was just enough light in a narrow passage behind the panel to +prevent those who entered it from stumbling over each other. I saw +that it was a long, straight corridor running between the wooden back +wall of the row of private dining-rooms and the house wall. Such light +as there was came from the end of the passage, and from below, where it +could be turned off in case of danger. I followed my companion, our +feet making no noise on the matting-covered floor: and voices of those +in the private rooms were audible through the thin partition. I smiled +rather grimly for my own benefit as my fancy pictured a raid: how an +alarm would be sent to those below stairs: an electric bell, perhaps: +and how those in a condition to move would swarm up from secret, +forbidden regions underground, running like rats through this corridor +to take their places in the row of dining-rooms. There they would be +found, calmly eating and drinking: and unless the "sleuths" had certain +information concerning the concealed doors, there would be no excuse to +look further! + +At the far end of the passage, as I expected, there was a steep +stairway. My guide still went in advance, as a proof of good faith. +Having opened a baize door which muffled sound, he held it open for me +to pass into a large room lit by green-shaded electric lamps that hung +from the low ceiling. There was gas also, which could be used if the +electricity failed. Here, men were gambling, silent as gambling +ghosts. They played fan tan and other games: Chinese and Europeans, +both men and women. Nobody glanced up when we arrived. We might have +been flies for all the interest we excited. I looked over my shoulder +as we came to the head of a second staircase leading down another +storey, to see if the supposed "waiters" were behind us. They were not +to be seen: nevertheless I "felt in my bones" that they were not far +off. + +The floor below the gambling-room was devoted to the smoking of opium. +There were several doors no doubt leading into private rooms for those +who could pay high prices: and ranged along the two side walls were +rows of berths protected by curtains. Two "cooks" were at work making +the pills to fill the pipes, handed to customers by attendants. There +was practically no furniture in the large, low room, which was filled +with the peculiar, heady fragrance of cooking opium. + +Yet even then we had not reached our destination. A third staircase +led down to a deeper cellar; and I could but think as I continued the +game of "follow my leader," what a neat trap the fly was allowing the +spider to land him in! However, I went quietly on, consoling myself +with the thought that it's a wise fly who is up to the spider's tricks +and watching for the lid of the trap to fall. + +This last cellar was evidently for the cheapest class of customers. +There were berths here too, but the curtains were poor, or +non-existent, and many Chinamen lay about the floor on strips of +matting. The atmosphere was foetid, and thick with opium smoke. As we +moved towards a rough partition at the further end, our figures tore +the grey cloud as if it had been made of gauze. + +"Your friend lies very sick in a room there," said my guide, speaking +for the first time since he had stepped through the panel. "We have +paid for his keep a long time now." + +I made no answer, only following with my eyes the gesture he made, +pointing at the unpainted wooden partition. In this partition were +three doors, also of rough, unpainted wood. Two stood ajar, showing +small rooms which I fancied were used by the attendants and opium +"cooks." One door was closed. My companion opened it, indicating, +with a smile, that it possessed no lock, only an old-fashioned latch. +"You need not fear to go in and talk with your friend alone," he said, +in his low, monotonous voice. "You see, he is not a prisoner! And we +cannot make you one." + +I shrugged my shoulders, and passed him without a word, shutting the +door behind me as I entered the wretched den on the other side. It was +lit by one paraffin lamp, supported by a bracket attached to the wall, +and such light as existed brought out from the shadows the vague +lumpish shape of a mattress on the floor. Two or three odds and ends +of furniture lurked in corners, but I scarcely saw their squalor. My +one thought was for a dark form stretched on the grey heap of bedding. + +I bent over it, and a hand seemed to grip my heart. "My God, poor old +Don! What have they done to you?" I broke out. + +A skeleton in rags lay on the filthy mattress. The yellow light from +the bracket lamp lit his great eyes as they suddenly opened, in deep +hollows. Even his face looked fleshless. There were streaks of grey +in the dark hair at his temples, and an unkempt beard mingled with the +shadows under his cheekbones. This was what remained of Donald +Allendale, one of the smartest and handsomest men in the army. + +He stared at me dully for an instant, his eyes like windows of glass +With no intelligence behind them. Then abruptly they seemed to come +alive. "Jack!" he gasped. "Am I--dreaming you?" + +"No, dear old chap, no," I assured him, down on one knee by the +mattress, slipping an arm under his head. "It's Jack right enough, +come to take you out of this and make you the man you were again." + +As I spoke, slowly and distinctly, so that the comforting words might +reach his sick soul, I heard a faint, stealthy noise outside. There +was a slight squeak as of iron scraping against wood, and in a flash I +guessed what had happened. My guide had made a point of showing that +the door could not be locked; and I, like a fool--in my haste to see +Don--hadn't sought other means of fastening it, more efficient than any +lock. I guessed that a bar of wood or iron had now been placed across +the door, the two ends in rungs or brackets which I had passed +unnoticed. + +"Well!" I said to myself, "the mischief's done. No use kicking against +the pricks till I'm ready to kick. And I shan't be ready till I've +seen what can be done for Allendale." + +The worst of it was that as I'd allowed myself to be trapped, it was +difficult to see how anything could be done. My theory that I'd been +let into a secret, because I should never be in a position to betray +it, seemed to be the true one. But my fury at Donald's state gave me a +sense of superabundant strength. I felt like Samson, able to pull down +the pillars of the Temple. + +"You're--too late!" the man on the mattress sighed, his voice strange +and weak, sounding almost like a voice speaking through a telephone at +"long distance." "But I'm glad to see you, Jack! I've thought of you. +I've longed for you. Tell me--about Irene. Does she--believe I'm +dead?" + +"She's in New York, dear old boy," I said, evading his question. + +His eyes lighted. It seemed that a faint colour stained his ash-white +cheeks. "She came--to look for me! Oh, Jack, she did love me, then!" + +"Of course," I answered truly enough: for she _had_ loved him before +everything went wrong. Even if I hadn't been as sure of Don's loyalty +as of my own, I should have known by the radiance of his face. If he +had stolen her jewels, he would not be coming back from death to life +in the illusion that love had brought her across the sea. + +"Thank God!" he breathed. "I can die in peace--but no, not yet. +There's a thing I must tell you first, It's the thing they've kept me +here to get out of me. They've tried every way they knew--torture, +starvation, bribes of freedom; everything. They'd have killed me long +ago, only if they had they could never have got the secret. But--how +is it you're here? Is it another trick of theirs?" + +As soon as I heard the word "secret" the mystery was clear. I was the +catspaw with which the chestnuts were to be pulled out of the fire. If +Doctor Rameses was the man who held us both, his intention was +evidently to kill two birds, two rare and valuable birds, with one +stone. How he had got Donald Allendale into his clutches I didn't know +yet, though I soon should: but having him, and learning that he and I +had been friends, he saw how to trap me securely and through me learn +Don's secret. + +Almost without telling I knew that the secret must concern Irene's +jewels, which were worth at least twenty thousand pounds; a haul not to +be despised. Bending over Don, I lifted my head and looked around. I +was sure that a knothole in the wooden wall had come into being within +the last five minutes. If there'd been an aperture there, it had been +stuffed with rags, now noiselessly withdrawn. It was distant not a +yard from Donald's face as he lay on the mattress, and a person +crouching on the floor outside could catch every word, unless we +whispered. Somebody had deduced that the prisoner would open his heart +to me. The "secret" would thus become the property of those who +coveted it; and once it was in their possession Donald and I could be +suppressed. Thus the two birds would be felled with that one cleverly +directed stone--so cleverly directed that I was sure of the hand which +had placed it in the sling. + +It was a case of kill or cure, to startle poor Don; but there was no +other way, and I took the one I saw. "Yes," I said, "they got me here +by a trick, but I don't regret coming. On the contrary. They--whoever +they are--want to hear what you tell me. But we can prevent that. Let +me help you to the other side of the mattress farther from that +knothole, and you'll whisper what you have to say. If that annoys +anyone--I know there are people made nervous by whispering!--why, they +can come in, and get a warm welcome. Put the story into few words; and +then we'll be prepared for the next thing." + +It was a tonic I had given him. He threw a look of disgust and rage at +the knothole, which was dark because, no doubt, the lights had been +turned down outside to make our cubicle seem lighter. Sitting up +without my help, Don flung himself to the other side of the mattress; +and as I knelt beside him, whispered. Unless they had a concealed +dictaphone the secret was safe. + +As I advised, this man raised from the dead, told his story in few +words. On shipboard, coming to America, he had been taken over the +ship one day, by the first officer. To his astonishment, he recognised +Hanson, his valet, in a rather clumsy disguise, travelling second +class. Controlling himself, he appeared not to notice: but as Hanson +had refused to make the voyage in his service, there must be some +curious motive for this ruse. Don could not guess it, but he had once +overheard a conversation between Hanson and Pauline which told him that +they were more than friends. Don didn't like Pauline, and believed +that she had set her mistress against him. After a little thought, he +determined to spring a surprise on Hanson. He learned the name under +which the valet was travelling, found out that the man had a state-room +to himself; and the night after his discovery opened the door and +abruptly walked in. He expected to catch Hanson unawares and surprise +a confession; but the room was empty. Don was amazed to see under the +berth a dressing-bag which had belonged to Irene. He could not believe +she had given it to Pauline or to Hanson, as it had been a present to +her from a friend. It flashed into his head that the thing had been +stolen, and that it might have valuable contents. Acting on impulse, +he took the bag and returned to his own cabin. There he opened it with +one of his own keys, and found most of his wife's jewellery. + +This happened on the night when the ship docked. Don meant to +telegraph Irene next day; and was debating whether to have Hanson +arrested on board ship, or catechise him first. He determined upon the +latter course, as he wished to learn if Pauline were involved in the +theft. He wrote a note and sent it to Hanson, saying that his one +chance lay in confession and that he--Sir Donald--would talk with him +on the dock. The man kept the appointment, begged his ex-master's +forgiveness, told a long story of temptation, exonerated Pauline, and +promised to reform. Don, who had been fond of Hanson and valued him as +a servant, decided that, as he now had the jewels in his own +possession, he could afford to be generous. He bade the fellow "go and +sin no more": and as far as Hanson was concerned, considered the +episode closed. The dressing-bag he gave with other luggage to an +express man to take to his hotel, but the jewels (a rope of pearls, a +flexible tiara of diamonds, and a number of brooches, pendants and +rings) he had put (congratulating himself on his own prudence) into a +tobacco pouch in a pocket of his coat. He engaged a taxi, giving the +name of a hotel; and had no suspicion that anything was wrong until he +realised that, instead of leaving poor streets behind, he was being +driven through a maze of slums. Not knowing New York, he still hoped +that his chauffeur had chosen an unattractive short cut: but instinct +cried loudly that he was the victim of a trick. Fancying that the taxi +slowed down, he took the tobacco-pouch from his pocket and searched for +a place to hide it, in case of trouble. He happened to find a curious +repository. Lifting the leather cushion which formed the seat, he +discovered an inconspicuous rip in the leather binding of the lower +edge. He clawed out a piece of horsehair stuffing, threw it from the +window, and tucked the tobacco-pouch into the hole that was left. +Knowing the number of the taxi (Don was always great at remembering +numbers) he could inform the police if necessary! Whereas, if all were +well, and he found himself arriving safely at his destination he would +take out the bag and laugh at his own suspicions. + +No sooner had he hidden the valuables, however, than the taxi stopped. +The chauffeur civilly informed him that a tyre was down, and apologised +for having to stop in such a poor neighbourhood. The fellow seemed so +frank, that Donald was ashamed of his own timidity. He stuck his head +out of the window to speak with the man at work, and--remembered no +more, till he came to himself in his present surroundings. + +How long ago that was, he could not tell. He had waked to find severe +wounds on his head, and fancied that he had been delirious. He had +thought constantly of Irene, and bitterly regretted their quarrels. It +occurred to him (as to me in hearing the story) that Hanson had crossed +on Sir Donald Allendale's ship with the jewels, intending by the help +of Pauline at home, to throw suspicion on his master. + +My evasive answers and the news of Irene's presence in New York, gave +Don new life and courage to fight for it, believing that through all +she had kept her love and faith. I, alas, knew that this was not the +case; but I hoped that Irene's heart would turn to him again if his +innocence were proved. "You _must_ get out of this for her sake," I +urged. "Besides, I shan't try to escape without you. We stand or fall +together." + +"If I can find strength enough not to hinder instead of help!" he +groaned. "But there's little chance for either of us. For heaven +knows how long they've kept me chained to the wall. To-night, the +Chinaman who takes care of me after a fashion unlocked the iron ring +that was on my ankle. You can see the mark it's made! I wondered what +was up, but thought as I was so weak, it was no longer worth while to +waste the chain on me. Now I see they took it off because they didn't +want you to see at first glance that I was a prisoner, not a +_pensionaire_. The fact that they've left me free shows they've taken +their precautions, though!" + +"Perhaps they haven't taken enough," said I, still whispering as he +did, that ears outside might strain in vain. + +I rose from my knees, and began to look for the iron staple which I +knew must exist. I soon found it in the solid wall at the back of the +room; with the chain and the iron ankle-band attached. A heap of straw +and rags had been used to cover these from sight. No effort of Don's +wasted muscles could suffice to pull out the staple, as his gaolers +knew: and as for my strength, it had not occurred to them that I might +use it in that direction. Probably no one dreamed that blind Samson +would pull down the pillars! + +I made Don move to a position where his body blocked the knothole, and +unless there was another, which I failed to see, I could work without +being overlooked. Grasping the iron ring, with all my might I pulled +and jerked at the staple till I loosened it in the wall. The rest was +easy: and sooner than I'd dared hope I had in my hand a formidable +weapon. If there were a chance of smashing the partition and breaking +out on the other side, it lay in that. Also, it might be useful +afterwards, for if we got into the main cellar, our troubles would be +but just begun. Practically my one hope was that the men told off to +deal with us might be cowards. + +As for smashing the door, there was "nothing doing" there for us, +because of the bar certainly securing it. On examination, however, the +rough plank supporting the bracket lamp looked rotten. It had cracked +when the bracket was nailed up, and had never been mended. This was +good; and I had a plan too, in which the lamp itself was to play a +part. I took it from the bracket, and set it carefully on a rickety +stool which I propped against the back wall. Then I whispered to Don: +"Now for it! If I break through, I'll try and get hold of that bar +across the door. If I do, it will be another weapon: and besides, we +can make a quick dash. Here's my revolver for you. There's only one +cartridge in it; but nobody else knows that. And here's a knife I +stole upstairs. I'll have the iron staple and chain which will make a +good killing, and the bar too, if we're in luck." + +"They may shoot through the partition when they find what we're up to," +said Don. + +"They haven't got their precious secret yet!" I reminded him. "They'll +try and take us alive, and we'll give them a hot time doing it!" + +To weaken the cracked plank, I wrenched off the bracket, and had the +joy of hearing the wood tear as if a saw had bitten through. Then I +dealt blow after blow on the wounded spot, and when the wood began to +give I flung my weight against it. The noise drowned lesser sounds, +but I was conscious of a babble of voices like the chatter of angry +monkeys. Down went the upper half of the broken plank, and the one +next it gave way. It was close to the door, and reaching out an arm I +found the bar. Luckily it was held by a pair of wooden horns, for had +it been slipped into rings I could not have succeeded. As it was a +Chinaman jabbed at my hand with a knife: but I surprised him with a +smashing blow over the eyes, and seized the bar before he came at me +again. Instantly I had it out of the sockets, the door (which Don had +unlatched) fell open, and I burst through like a whirlwind, with him +behind me, carrying the lamp I'd yelled to him to bring. + +Half a dozen Chinamen stood lined up to beat us back. Two with +pistols, two armed with axes, and the one I had tackled brandishing his +carving-knife. I went for the pair with the pistols. My iron bar +cracked a shaved head like an egg-shell, and broke the hand of his +mate. One dropped his weapon without a groan, the other let his fall +with a yelp: and Don, unexpectedly darting forward, snatched up both +the pistols. Thrusting one into my free hand he kept the other. We +were thus doubly armed, and together made a rush for the stairs, I +keeping my eyes open for a surprise attack from my late guide. + +At the foot of the steps, I let Don lead with my revolver and the big +pistol, while I backed up stair by stair, keeping off the four Chinamen +who were still intact. It seemed too good to be true that we were to +get away so easily. Perhaps, I thought, the tug-of-war would come on +the floor above: but it was the enemy's game to finish us before we +gained a higher level. Here, the sound of shots could not reach the +street; and the witnesses of the fight were so besotted with their +drug, so lost to decency, that even if they woke to see strange doings, +all would be woven with their dreams. Above, there was more to fear; +some of the clients were still alive to human feeling: they might take +our part. An alarm might reach the police. Why then, if Rameses were +the hidden enemy, did he let his best chance go by? Almost +subconsciously I asked myself these questions, and half way up the +stairs, my answer came. Men shielded with mattresses flung themselves +upon us from above. They in turn were pushed forward by others and Don +and I fell back. I tried to use the iron bar like a battering ram, but +the weight I struggled against was too great. I stumbled, with Don on +top of me; there was a sound of shouting, and suddenly the lights went +out. I struggled in darkness with unseen enemies, as in a nightmare. + + * * * * * + +Two storeys above, in the restaurant, Irene Allendale sat pretending to +eat, and glancing at her watch until she lost patience. It occurred to +her that she had been a fool--that the woman she waited for might have +arrived before her, might already be in the little private room, dining +with John Hasle. She sprang up and on a furious impulse flung open the +door which she had so long watched in vain. To her astonishment the +room was empty. + +This seemed a miracle; for she knew that John Hasle had gone in and +hadn't come out. As she stood staring at the empty room which seemed +to have no second exit, the Chinese proprietor came to her with a +threatening air. "You do what we no 'low this place," he said +bullyingly. "That plivate loom. You no pay plivate loom. You no +light look in. You give me five dolahs you' dinnah, and you go 'way. +We no like spies. You go, if you no want I call p'lice." + +Already hysterical, Irene lost her head. "How dare you talk of +police!" she cried. "_I_ will call the police! You've very likely +murdered a friend of mine here and hidden his body." + +The man had threatened her in a low voice. She threatened him at the +top of her lungs. The diners at little tables jumped to their feet. +The Chinaman tried to catch her by the veil as she darted to the door, +but only pulled off her motor bonnet and loosened her hair, which +tumbled over her shoulders. In an instant the place was in an uproar. +An American in defence of a beautiful woman knocked the Chinaman down. +A policeman passing the restaurant window blew his whistle, and had +hardly dashed in before he had a couple of comrades at his heels. + +Nobody knew quite what had happened, but Lady Allendale gasped the word +"Murder!" and pointed to the open door of the private room. In jumped +two of the policemen, while the third tried to restore order in the +restaurant. A glance under the table in the little dining-room showed +that no corpse lay hidden there, but the lovely lady's persistence put +the idea of a secret entrance into their heads. One of them thumped +with his fist on the picture of the Chinese hunter. The hollow sound +suggested a space behind. An experienced hand passed over the bamboo +frame found a spring, and the panel slid back. Somehow the cry of +"Murder!" started by Irene flew from mouth to mouth. More policemen +appeared, and Europeans who had been peacefully dining in the +restaurant reinforced the courageous pair who had sprung through the +opening behind the picture. So the rescue-party reached us in the nick +of time, policemen's lanterns lighting up the darkness, revealing +stealthy flitting forms that would escape at any price, and a mass of +men struggling under and above a pile of mattresses. + +My first thought (after I had seen that Don was safe) rushed to +Rameses. But the tall Chinaman with the long dark eyes was not among +the prisoners. That night (the police gleefully informed me later) +Doctor Rameses was engaged in giving a lecture at his own house, and +could not possibly have been in Chinatown. As usual, he had known how +to save himself; and it was only long after that I learned the +remarkable way in which he invariably established an alibi. + + +My hope for the reconciliation of Don and Irene was fulfilled even +before the overwhelming proof of his truth was obtained by finding the +tobacco-pouch intact, still hidden inside the seat of the ancient taxi +whose number Don had never forgotten. The man who had driven it the +night of the attack had been discharged, and could not be found. +Hanson, too, contrived to elude the vigilance of the police, and +Pauline passionately denied all knowledge of him. She was watched when +Lady Allendale sent her away, but returned quietly to Europe, while +Irene remained in New York to help nurse Donald back to health. With +Hanson and his accomplice of the taxi missing, and the Master Mind past +pursuit, it was impossible to clear up the mystery of the corpse found +floating in the East River. But after all, that mattered only to the +police, now that Captain Sir Donald Allendale was alive and safe, and +happier than he had been for years. + +The day that Irene and he made up their differences, she sent for me. +"You won't tell Don that I said I hated him and threw his picture on +the floor, will you?" she asked me piteously. + +"Of course not!" I assured her. + +"Ah, if I could atone!" she sighed. + +"You have atoned. You saved our lives, and----" + +"Oh, but you don't know all. If you did, you'd loathe me." + +"I can think of nothing which would make me loath you, Lady Allendale." + +"I--made Miss Odell believe--that--that--I can't tell you _what_! +But--never mind. I've written to her now. I've confessed that it was +a lie. If you wouldn't press me with questions, but just wait to hear +from her, you'd be an _angel_, Lord John." + +How long I could have remained an angel at that price I'm not sure. +But a letter came to me from Maida next day to say that she had decided +_not_ to become a life member of the Grey Sisterhood. + + + + +EPISODE VI + +THE CLUE IN THE AIR + +If I had been fighting my own battle, not Maida's, against Doctor +Rameses, I might have sometimes admired his cleverness. There seemed +to be no way of catching him. + +The police theory was that some person, not Rameses, took advantage of +the "philanthropist's" conspicuous appearance to commit crimes in a +disguise resembling his peculiarities. This, they thought, might be +done not only as a means of escaping detection, but with the object of +blackmail. My theory was different. I believed that Rameses had a +confederate enough like him in looks to deceive an audience assembled +for one of his lectures, or patients undergoing his treatment. + +I did not hesitate to assert this opinion, hoping to provoke the man to +open attack. + +After the affair of the opium den, he lay low. Nothing happened in +which, by any stretching of probabilities, he could have had a hand. +Perhaps, thought I, he had learned that I was a hard nut to crack! +Two-thirds of the time for which Maida had promised herself to the Grey +Sisterhood passed. Her doubts of me had been swept away, and I hoped +to find at the end of the year that I hadn't waited in vain. Now and +then I saw, or believed that I saw, light on the mystery of Maida's +antecedents. Altogether I was happier than I had been and I was +serving my country's interests while I served my own. + +I had been ordered to buy desirable new types of aeroplanes, and +luckily got hold of some good ones. The "story" of my mission suddenly +appeared in the newspapers, and interest in my old exploits as a flying +man were revived embarrassingly. I was "paragraphed" for a few days +when war tidings happened to be dull; and to my surprise received an +invitation to demonstrate my "stunt" of looping a double loop at a new +aviation park, opened on Long Island. The exhibition resulted in +another compliment. I was asked to instruct a class of young aviators, +and was officially advised by the British Ambassador to accept. I did +accept: and was given a "plane" and a hangar of my own; but I kept on +my suite in the hotel near Sisterhood House, starting at an early hour +most mornings to motor to the aviation ground. + +After a few weeks of this, a big aviation meeting took place, and when +my part in it was over I found myself holding quite a reception in my +hangar. Friends and strangers had kind things to say: and while I +explained new features of my 'plane to some pretty women, I saw a +prettier woman gazing wistfully at me between hats. + +Her face was familiar. I remembered that tremulous, wistful smile of +eyes and lips, which (the thought flashed through my head) would be +fine stock-in-trade for an actress. Still, for the life of me, I +couldn't recall the girl's name or whether we had ever really met, +until her chance came to dash into the breach made by disappearing +plumes and feathers. She seized the opportunity with a promptness that +argued well for her bump of decision: but she was helped to success by +the tallest, thinnest, brightest-eyed young man I had ever seen. + +"You've forgotten me, Lord John!" the girl reproached me. "I'm Helen +Hartland. Does that name bring back anything?" + +"Of course!" I answered, remembering where and how I had met Helen +Hartland. She had made her debut on the stage several years ago in a +curtain-raiser of mine, my first and last attempt at playwriting "on my +own." Her part had been a small one, but she had played it well and +looked lovely in it. I had congratulated her. When the run ended, she +had asked for introductions to people I knew in the theatrical world, +and I had given them. She had written me a few letters, telling of +engagements she had got (nothing good unfortunately) and wanting me to +see her act. I had never been able to do so; but I had sent her +flowers once on a first night. + +Not trusting to my recollection, she reminded me of these things, and +introduced the tall, thin, bright-eyed young man. + +"You must have heard of Charlie Bridges, the California Birdman, as +everybody calls him!" she said. And then went on to explain, as if she +didn't want their relations misunderstood: "We met on the ship coming +over, and Mr. Bridges was _so_ kind! Our steamer chairs were together, +and he lent me a copy of _Sketch_ with a picture of him in it! Wasn't +it funny, there was a picture of _you_, too, and I mentioned knowing +you? Next, it came out that he was bringing a letter of introduction +to you from a friend of yours at home. We landed only two days ago. I +was so happy, for I've had hard luck for months, and I thought I was +falling into a ripping engagement. But it was a fraud--the _queerest_ +fraud! I can't understand it a bit. I want to tell you all about it +and get your advice. Mr. Bridges brought me to the meeting here. It +_was_ nice of him. But now I've paid him back, haven't I, putting him +in touch with you?" + +Charlie Bridges listened to the monologue with varying emotions, as I +could see in his face which was ingeniously expression-ful. Evidently +he had fallen in love with Helen Hartland, and was not pleased to stand +still listening to protestations of gratitude for small past favours +from me. She realised his state of feeling as well as I did, perhaps +better, being a woman: and what her motive in exciting him to jealousy +was, I couldn't be sure. Maybe she wished to bring him to the point +(though he looked eager to impale himself upon it!), maybe she simply +didn't care how he felt, and wanted him to understand this once for +all: or possibly it amused her to play us off against each other. + +In any case, I put myself out to be pleasant to Bridges, who seemed a +nice fellow, and was, I knew, a smart aviator. He had been in France +at the time of my accident, and had not returned to America since then. +He had news from London and Paris to give me, and even if Helen +Hartland had not insisted, we should have struck up a friendship. + +I invited them to have food with me at the brand new Aviation Park +Hotel (as it called itself), saying that we'd "feed" in the roof-garden +restaurant, of which the proprietors were proud. Bridges hesitated, +possibly disliking to accept hospitality from the hated rival: but as +Helen said "yes," rather than leave her to my tender mercies, the poor +chap followed suit. + +The hotel had been run up in next to no time, to catch aviation "fans," +and the roof-garden was a smart idea, as patrons could sit there eating +and drinking, and see the flying at the same time. It was small, but +nicely arranged, partly glassed in, partly open, with a "lift" to rush +dishes up from the kitchen (this was practically concealed with +trellis-work covered with creepers trying to grow in pots), and a low +wall or parapet with flowers planted in a shallow strip of earth. The +weather was fine, so we chose a table in the open, for our late +luncheon. My place--with Helen at my right, and Bridges opposite us +both--was close to the parapet, so close that I could peer over a row +of pink geraniums, to the newly-sodded lawn and gravelled paths below. +As it happened I did peer while we waited for our oysters, +sub-consciously attracted perhaps by the interest an elderly waiter was +taking in someone or somebody down there. I was just in time to see a +face look up, not to me but to the waiter. Instantly the head ducked, +presenting to my eyes only the top of a wide-brimmed soft hat of black +felt--an old-fashioned hat. + +"By Jove!" I said to myself, and had to beg Helen's pardon for losing a +remark of hers: for that quick, snap-shot glance had shown me features +like those of the priceless Rameses. + +"Now, what can _he_ be doing here--if it is he?" I wondered. It was +absurd to fancy that he might bribe a waiter to poison my food, and so +rid himself of me once for all. No: poisoning--anyhow at second +hand--wasn't in Rameses' line. Besides, his waiter wasn't my waiter, +which would complicate the plot for a neat murder. As the man walked +away (I still watching) his back was not like that of Rameses, if I had +ever seen the real Rameses. The police thought I had not. I thought I +had: but the picture in my mind was of a person erect and +distinguished: this figure was slouching and common. + +I was not, however, to be caught napping. I called to the waiter who +now, instead of looking down to the lawn, was picking dead leaves off +the pink geraniums. "That was Doctor Rameses of New York, wasn't it?" +I fired at him, staring into his anemic Austrian face. It did not +change, unless to drop such little expression as it had worn. Utter +blankness must mean complete innocence or extreme subtlety. I could +hardly credit the fellow with the latter. "Doctor Ra--mps?" he echoed. +"Who--where, sir?" + +"Down below: the man you were looking at," I explained, still fixing +him with a basilisk eye. + +He shook his head. "I wasn't lookin' at no man, sir," he protested. +"I was lookin' at nothin' at all." + +Meanwhile the slouch hat and slouching figure had disappeared into the +crowd which still ringed the aviation ground. I abandoned the inquest, +and turned my attention to Helen and Bridges. + +As we lunched, I learned the history of Helen's trip to America, and +the "fraud" she had spoken of as "queer." It seemed that, a few days +after the suburban theatre she was acting in had closed, she received a +long cable message from New York. A man signing himself "William +Morgan, Manager Excelsis Motion Picture Corporation" offered her the +"lead" in a forthcoming production. He explained expensively that he +had seen her act and thought her ideal for the part. She was to have +six months' certain engagement with a salary of a hundred dollars a +week, and her dresses and travelling expenses were to be paid by the +management. She was to reply by wire, and if she accepted, five +hundred dollars would be advanced to her by cable. + +The address given, "29, Vandusen Street, New York," did not sound +"swell" to an English actress who vaguely thought of Broadway and Fifth +Avenue as being the only streets "over there." Still, the promise of +an advance gave an air of bona-fides, and Helen had answered "Yes. +Start on receipt of money." + +By return, the money came, and the girl took the first ship available, +telegraphing again to Mr. Morgan. She expected him to meet her at the +docks, but he "never materialised," and "if it hadn't been for Mr. +Bridges she didn't know what she would have done!" Bridges it was who +took her in a taxi to 29, Vandusen Street, which address proved to be +that of a tobacconist in a small way of business. There she was told +that a man named William Morgan had paid for the privilege of receiving +"mail," but only a couple of telegrams had come. He had called for +them, but had not been seen since. The proprietor of the shop vowed +that he knew nothing of Morgan. The man had walked in one day, bought +a box of expensive cigars, and made the arrangement mentioned. Bridges +inquired "what he was like," but the tobacconist shook his head dully. +Morgan looked like everybody else, neither old nor young, fair nor +dark, fat nor lean. If you met him once, you couldn't be sure you +would know him again. + +"I've three hundred and fifty dollars left," Helen said at last, "all I +have in the world, for I was stoney-broke when the cable came. Of +course I can't live on that money long. But as I'm here, I shall stop +and try to get something to do. I'm puzzled to death, though, why +'Morgan'--whoever he is--picked _me_ out, or why it was worth his while +to send a hundred pounds and then never turn up at the ship." + +"It does seem odd," I agreed. "He may have been scared off from +meeting you--or arrested. However, you'd better be careful what +acquaintances you make." + +"I _want_ to be careful," the girl said. "But I _must_ find work. And +I can't do that without making some acquaintances, can I?--whether +they're dangerous or not! Unless--oh, Lord John, if you could _only_ +put me in the way of an engagement, no matter how small. I've heard +your play was a great success. You must know a lot of managers over +here and-- + +"I don't," I answered her. "My activities lately haven't been in +theatres! I'm afraid----" I was going on, but stopped suddenly. She +had said "an engagement no matter how small." I would take her at her +word! + +"You've thought of something for me!" she exclaimed, while Bridges +sulked because he numbered no theatrical potentates among his friends. + +"I'm almost ashamed to suggest it," I said, "but I could get you a +'job' of a sort here. The proprietor of this hotel and his wife (good +creatures and ambitious to cut a dash in the fashionable world) want a +pretty girl--a 'real actress'--to sing and recite in the roof-garden +these fine summer evenings. I don't suppose you----" + +"Oh, yes I _would_! I'd love to be here. It would be _fun_!" Helen +broke in. "I adore flying; and I should see _you_ often--and Mr. +Bridges too, perhaps. Anyhow, it would do to go on with till I got +something else, if they'd pay me a 'living wage.'" + +"I'll be your agent, sing your praises and screw up your price," I +imprudently volunteered. Imprudently, because having arranged matters +between the hotel people and Miss Hartland, I found her gratitude +oppressive. She said it was gratitude; yet she seemed to think that I +had got her placed at the Aviation Park Hotel in order to enjoy her +society. This was not the case. Helen Hartland was pretty, with +charming ways for those who liked them: but I was in the state of mind +which sees superlative beauty and charm in one woman only. Because I +was separated from Maida Odell by force of circumstances while she +remained with the Grey Sisterhood, it was irritating to see other girls +flitting about free to do as they pleased. It bored me when I had to +lunch or dine at the hotel to find Helen always on hand with "something +to tell," or my "advice to ask." + +Whether the girl had taken a fancy to me, or whether she was amusing +herself by exciting Bridges' jealousy, I didn't know: I knew only that +I was bothered, and that Bridges was miserable. + +Helen lived in the hotel from the first, partly through kindness on the +part of her employers, partly perhaps because they thought her presence +an attraction. They gave her a decent salary--more than she had ever +earned in the small parts she'd played at home: she dressed well, and +made a "hit" with her sweet soprano voice, her really glorious +yellow-brown hair, and that wistful smile of hers. Next door to the +best and biggest bedroom in the house was a small room which connected +with the larger one, and could be used as a dressing-room. Nobody ever +engaged it for that purpose, however, and Mrs. Edson, the landlady, +suggested that Miss Hartland should occupy the little room until it was +wanted. The girl described it to me as delightful. There were double +doors between it and the large room adjoining, so that one wasn't +disturbed by voices on the other side. There was also a door opening +close to the service stairway which went up to the roof-garden. This +was convenient for Helen, before and after her songs and recitations. +She bought little knick-knacks to make her quarters pretty and, with a +patent folding-bed and a screen or two was able to ask her friends in, +as if she were the proud possessor of a private sitting-room. + +I made excuses instead of calls; but one day I was lured in to see +Charlie Bridges (who by then had a hangar on the grounds) do his +wonderful "stunt," considered by the Edsons a fine advertisement for +their hotel. It was not, however, for purposes of advertisement that +the California Birdman performed the "stunt" in question, but rather +for love of Helen Hartland. In the small, smart "one seater" which he +was using, he would dive from a height, swoop past Helen's open window +and throw in a bunch of roses. It was said that his aim was invariably +true, a more difficult feat than might be supposed: anyhow the day that +I was there to witness the exhibition it was a brilliant success. +Whether by accident or design the flowers hit me on the head, and if +Charlie were really jealous he accomplished a neat revenge. + +"I could see you as plain as a pikestaff sitting there," he said +afterwards. "Oh, I don't mean the 'plain' or the 'pikestaff' in a +nasty way, Lord John. I only mean I recognised you as I flew by." + +"And Mrs. Edson too, who was with us, I suppose," I hurried to say: for +I didn't wish the boy to think that he had anything to fear from me. I +saw from his manner, however, when we happened to meet, that he was +worried, and to give him the chance which I didn't want for myself, I +began to avoid Helen. + +This course wasn't easy to steer, I found, while duty kept me often at +the aviation grounds. She sent me notes. I had to answer them. She +asked me to lend her books. I couldn't refuse. At last she wrote a +letter, confessing that she had got into trouble about money. Her +salary "wasn't bad, considering"; but she hadn't understood American +prices. She'd been stupid enough to run into debt. Would I, as her +countryman, help her out of just _one_ scrape, and she wouldn't get +into another? Of course, Mr. Bridges would be glad to do it, but she +didn't want to take a favour from him. I was "different." + +I sent her a hundred dollars, the sum she specified, but in writing her +thanks, she "chaffed" me for not making out a cheque. "I believe you +think me capable of trying to get a hold on you," she wrote. Naturally +I didn't bother to reply to that taunt, but kept out of Helen's way +more persistently than before, until one afternoon Mrs. Edson +buttonholed me. I happened to have seen Helen on her way to New York, +so I was venturing to lunch at the hotel. + +"I'm worried about Miss Hartland, Lord John," she began. "A sweet +girl, but I'm afraid she's being silly! Do you know what she goes to +New York for so often?" + +"I didn't know she did go often," I said. + +"Well, she does. She's taking lessons in hypnotism or something and I +believe she's paying a lot of money. A circular came to her about a +course of lectures, claiming that the _will_ could be strengthened, and +any object in life accomplished. That caught poor Helen. She simply +ate up the lectures, and became a pupil of the man who gave them. +That's why her salary's gone as soon as she gets it--and sooner! Poor +child, I'm sorry. The thing she _ought_ to want, she won't take. The +thing she does want she can't have, if she spends every cent trying to +gain 'hypnotic power.'" + +"What does she so violently want, if it's permitted to ask?" I inquired. + +Mrs. Edson looked at me in a queer, sidewise way. "You'd only be cross +if I told you," she said. So instead of repeating the question, I +asked another. "Who is the professor of hypnotism who gives Miss +Hartland lessons?" + +"I can't remember," the landlady replied. "I saw the circular, but +that was some time ago, and I've forgotten. Now, the child won't talk +about him." + +The thought of Rameses sprang into my mind. I recalled the mystery of +Helen's summons to America. Could it be possible that Doctor Rameses +had wanted a "cat's-paw" for some new chestnuts to be pulled out of the +fire? What would Helen Hartland's poor little paw avail him for that +work? I went on wondering. But the ways of the Egyptian were past +finding out--or had been, up to date. It was within the bounds of +possibility that thinking to compromise me, he had sought in England a +girl--preferably an actress--whom I had known; within the same bounds +that he might have induced her to cross the sea, in the hope that, once +on this side, we might play his game. So far-fetched an idea would +never have come into my head, had not Mrs. Edson mentioned the +circular, and the professor of hypnotism. But once in, I couldn't get +it out. I determined to take the next chance to catechise Helen. + +It arrived by accident, or I thought so, believing myself a free agent; +instead of which I was a fly blundering into a spider's web. + +From Maida Odell and from the elderly waiter who had looked over the +parapet at a man in a broad-brimmed hat, I have since obtained threads +which show how the web was woven: but some disastrous days were to pass +first. + +During this time I heard nothing from Maida, but I had memories to +comfort me, and it was good to feel how few miles were between us. +Strange that, few as they were, no telepathic thrill was able to warn +me of what was happening behind the high garden walls of the Sisterhood +House! + +Maida has told me since, how the Head Sister called her one day for a +talk. "I want to make a little journey and try to do a little good," +the grey-veiled lady said in the deep voice which Maida had once +thought sweet as the tones of a 'cello. "I should like you to go with +me, but--there is a reason why perhaps you would rather I took someone +else. Still, I feel bound to give you the choice, as you are my +dearly-loved and trusted friend through _everything_." + +"Why should I want you to take someone else, Sister?" Maida asked. + +"Because--a man who would steal you away from us if he could, is often +at the place where we must go. He visits the young English girl I am +asked to help; and I fear that his interest in her is not for her good. +Now, dear child, don't be angry with me for saying this! I don't ask +you to believe. I tell you only what I hear from my philanthropic +friend in New York who enables us to do some of our best work. I wish +he would let his name be mentioned, but even his right hand is never +allowed to know what the left hand doeth! In any case the girl is in +difficulties, as this doer of noble works hears from one of his +assistants. She is an actress who sings in a gay, rowdy sort of hotel +frequented by sportsmen and their friends. I am requested to offer her +a home here, if she chooses to come, and eventually to send her back to +England at the expense of the Sisterhood funds. Now you see why I +spoke. You shall go or stay, as you wish." + +Once Maida had thought all the Head Sister's precepts and acts beyond +criticism. But things had passed in Sisterhood House which had +slightly--almost imperceptibly--broken the crystal surface of perfect +trust. She found herself wondering: "Why does Sister advise me not to +think of Lord John? Why does she hint horrid things of him, yet take +me where we may meet?" + +There was no answer to this question in Maida's mind, but she said that +she would go with the Head Sister on the "mission": and in her heart +she hoped that we might meet. She had been tried and tested before, +and again she was loyal in thought. + +The conversation between those two at Sisterhood House took place the +day after my talk with Mrs. Edson. And while Maida and the Head Sister +discussed the short journey they planned to make, I was probably +dashing off a hasty letter to Helen Hartland. "I want to see you," I +wrote, "about something rather important. Please send a line in +answer, and tell me at what time I may call to-morrow afternoon." + +In answer to this, Helen replied that she would see me at five o'clock. +"I'm very unhappy," she added. "I know you want me to go back to +England, and I believe you're _afraid_ of me. I think you are cruel, +but I'm thankful you're coming to see me of your own free will." + +I should have been dumbfounded at this morbid nonsense, if the thought +of Rameses hadn't been haunting my mind. If he were the power behind +the throne in this business, he might have stuffed the girl with false +ideas about me, or else actually have hypnotised her to write in this +unbalanced fashion. + +I had been in my hangar, or flying, most of the day, and came to the +hotel half an hour before the appointment, to make myself tidy for a +call. Looking out from the window I saw a grey automobile flash by and +slow down as if to stop at the door. Whether it did stop or no, I +couldn't be sure, as I could not see so far; nor should I have been +interested had the thought not flashed through my head that it looked +like the car which belonged to Sisterhood House. + +Nothing seemed less likely than that it should come to the Aviation +Park Hotel: and there were many autos of that make and colour on Long +Island. I thought no more about it, little dreaming of the surprise +Doctor Rameses' genius had prepared for Maida and for me. Now I ask +myself where was my prophetic soul wandering at that moment? Perhaps +it was searching for Maida: but it would only have to look close at +hand to see her walking in to the hotel in the adorably becoming +costume of the Grey Sisterhood. The inevitable Head Sister was with +her, of course: but not in command, according to custom. Even before +starting, she had complained of a headache, and Maida had suggested +putting off the expedition: but the sufferer refused such +self-indulgence. During the drive to the hotel, she was speechless +with pain, and Maida, who had never seen the strong, vital directress +in such a condition, was anxious. "I'm afraid we must take a room in +the hotel for a while, where I may lie down until I'm able to see Miss +Hartland," the Head Sister said as the grey car drew up at the door. +Maida was thankful for this concession, but surprised that she should +be told, in a faint voice, to engage the best room in the house. The +Head Sister was usually spartan in her ways, setting an example of +self-sacrifice to all those under her care. + +Maida obeyed without comment, however, and the big room adjoining Helen +Hartland's, with the double doors between, was given to the two ladies +of the Grey Sisterhood. + +These happenings--and certain developments which followed quickly--I +learned long afterwards from Maida's own lips, when we were putting +"two and two together." From the elderly Austrian who acted as a +waiter in the roof-garden I forced another part of the same story, +hearing from him that he had been one of Rameses' many servants. This +I succeeded in doing too late to pull myself out of the pit which was +waiting (at this very moment) for me to tumble into it. Nevertheless +there was satisfaction later in knowing that my researches had never +strayed from the right track. + +It had been raining that day, I remember--an unlucky thing for the +aviation "fans," come from far and near to see a new way of looping the +loop demonstrated by two American pupils of mine, and myself: a lucky +thing for the most daring experiment ever attempted by Doctor Rameses. +People were walking about between nights, with umbrellas held low over +their heads to protect them the better from a straight, steady +downpour. Thus, roofed with wet silk domes they could see little +except their own feet and each other. It was only when something +happened aloft that it was worth while to unroof themselves: and at +such moments all attention was concentrated on the sky. The air-show +was a good one. Soaked enthusiasts rushed to the hotel for a "quick +lunch" and drinks and rushed away again, or congregated on the roof +with sandwiches in their hands. Waiters in the roof-restaurant walked +with chins up: and there was a moment when one of their number--old +Anton, the Austrian--was able to lure even the kitchen staff, cooks and +all, out of doors for a few minutes. By a weird decree of fate, it was +a flight of mine that they were invited to desert duty in order to +witness! + +While the kitchen was empty and the door open, with men's backs turned +to it, Anton had given a signal. A mackintoshed figure slipped in, and +finding the coast clear, made for the food elevator, which was ready to +mount. Inside there was room for a man to crouch. Anton, darting into +the kitchen, sent the lift up: then darted out again to tell the cook +and cook's assistant a spicy anecdote about me! + +There was no stop for the elevator between kitchen and roof. It was a +slow traveller, and as the open front rose above the restaurant floor, +the crouching man within could see at a glance what hope he had of +running the gauntlet. The moment could not have been better chosen. I +was in the act of doubling my loop, and everyone on the roof--guests +and waiters--had crowded to the flower-fringed parapet. The lift was +artistically concealed by an arbour of white painted trellis-work, as I +have explained; but sharp eyes could peer between the squares overhung +with climbing plants, and see all that went on upon the other side. +The crouching figure crept out, rose, and precipitated itself down the +service stairway whose railed-in wall was also masked by the trellis +arbour. + +It could not have been long after this that I finished my work for the +day, and came to the hotel, as I have said, to keep my appointment with +Helen Hartland; but meanwhile there had been time for the man in the +high-collared mackintosh coat to finish _his_ work also. He had not, +of course, ventured to try returning by the way he came, but had run +down the service stairs and walked out of the house by a side entrance. +Thanks to the rain and the umbrellas, and the call of the sky, he +escaped, as he entered, without being seen. If Anton had not been +compelled to betray him later, the mystery of the Aviation Park Hotel +would never have been solved. + +Before I went (as requested in Helen's last letter) to knock at her +door, a new cause of excitement had arisen. Charlie Bridges had +crashed to earth in his machine, close to the hotel, and crowds had +collected round the fallen aeroplane. Those who saw the fall, were +able to explain why the 'plane was scarcely injured. Bridges had been +swooping at the time, so close to earth that the drop amounted to +nothing: but for some curious reason he had lost control of the +machine. He was far more seriously hurt than he ought to have been, +for not having been strapped in, he had slid from his seat somehow, and +been caught under the machine. Unconscious and suffering from +concussion the "California Birdman" was carried into a ground floor +room of the hotel, while a "hurry call" was sent over the telephone for +the nearest doctor. + +All this happened unknown to me, for the room in which I was dressing +was on the opposite side of the house. Any shouts I heard, or running +men I saw through the window, were only part of the ordinary show for +me. At precisely five o'clock I went my way through various corridors +and knocked at Helen's door, in ignorance of Charlie Bridges' +misfortune. + +The door stood slightly ajar, as if Helen had left it so purposely for +me: but no answer followed my knock. I tapped again more loudly, and +the door fell open at my touch. No one was in the room; but close to +the window, on the floor, I saw a bunch of crimson roses, wet with rain. + +"Bridges!" I said to myself, with a smile. + +For a moment I hesitated outside the door: yet rather than go away and +miss the girl when she arrived (I imagined that she had run up to the +roof), or lurk in the corridor to be stared at by passing servants, I +decided to walk into the room and wait. Probably, I thought, this was +what Helen had meant, in leaving the door ajar. + +If the door of the next room had opened at that instant, and Maida had +looked out, the history of the wretched weeks which followed might have +been different for us both. But the door remained closed, and no +instinct told me who was behind it. No one saw me walk into Helen +Hartland's room; and therefore no one could tell at what hour I had +entered. + +I did not look out of the window, or I should have seen the fallen +aeroplane which must still have been on the ground. I left the +flowers--red as their giver's blood--lying on the floor for Helen to +find when she came: but minutes passed and Helen did not come. + +I sat down in a chair drawn up by the table and glanced at a couple of +books. Both had been lent by me at Helen's request, and had my name on +the flyleaf. I laid them down again impatiently on the gaudy cotton +tablecloth; and took out my watch. Ten minutes after five! ... Soon it +was the quarter past. I was resolving impatiently to scrawl a line on +a visiting-card, and go, when I heard a slight noise, as if someone in +the adjoining room were unlocking a door. I knew from Helen's +description that there were two doors, with a distance of at least +twelve inches between. + +"Can she be using that other room, too?" I wondered: when suddenly +there rang out a scream of horror, in a woman's voice. It seemed to me +that it was like Maida's, though that must be a mere obsession! but I +sprang to my feet, dragging off the tablecloth and bringing down on the +floor books, papers, and a vase of flowers. My chair fell over also: +and all this confusion in the room was afterwards used against me. + +I rushed to the door leading out to the corridor--which I had closed on +entering--and found a swarm of people, guests and waiters, already +pouring down the service stairs from the roof-garden just above. +Everyone saw me come out of Helen Hartland's room: but even if they had +not seen, there was my hat with my initials in it, on the floor with +the rest of the fallen things, to testify to my late presence. + +As we crowded the narrow corridor, the door of the "best room" whence +the scream had come, was flung wide open, and to my amazement, Maida +Odell--in her grey costume of the Sisterhood--rushed out pale as a dead +girl. + +"Murder! A woman murdered!" she whispered rather than cried, as one +strives voicelessly to shriek in a dream. Just then she saw me, and +held out both hands as if for help. I pushed past everyone else and +got to her: but others surged forward and she and I gave way before the +crowd. A dozen men at least must have jostled into the room after us; +but at the instant I hardly knew that they were there. I saw a big +woman in grey drawing a veil closely round her face as she rose from a +cushioned lounge: and I saw lying on the floor the body of Helen +Hartland with a thin stiletto sticking in her breast--a stiletto I had +lent her to use as a paper knife. I recognised it instantly in +redoubled horror, though not thinking then of consequences for myself. + +By this time a policeman--one of those always present on the aviation +grounds--forced his way through the crowd massed in the corridor. He +got rid in summary fashion of everyone, except the two ladies, +occupants of the room, myself (because I seemed to know and have some +business with them) and the landlord. Another policeman who followed +close on his heels, guarded the doors of the adjoining rooms, and +doubtless a third busied himself in sending off frantic telephone calls. + +Helen Hartland lay on her back on the pale grey carpet stained with her +blood; and Maida told tremulously how the tragedy had been discovered. +The Head Sister, feeling ill, had lain down on a sofa not far from the +door of communication between this room and the next. She had fancied +a noise on the other side, and asked Maida to try if the door were +fastened. Strangely, it was not (though Edson cut in to protest that +it, and all other communicating doors were invariably locked). The +door had opened as the handle turned, and to the girl's horror the +figure of a dead woman--standing squeezed in between the two doors--had +fallen into the room. + +Hardly had the faltering explanation reached this point when a doctor +arrived--the man who had been in the hotel, attending Charlie Bridges. +He examined the body, pronounced that life had not been extinct for +half an hour, and thought from the position of the weapon, that death +had been caused by another hand than Helen's own. + +There was, of course, no difficulty in identifying the girl, for the +landlord and I were both on the spot retained to give evidence. It +soon came out that Helen Hartland had told Mrs. Edson she expected a +visit from Lord John Hasle, and I without hesitation admitted making +it. The Head Sister chimed in, saying that she and her friend had come +for the express purpose of seeing Miss Hartland and persuading her to +leave "her unsuitable position." The adjoining room was entered, for +it was found that the second of the double doors was unlocked. The +confusion was remarked, and silence was maintained when I told how in +jumping up at the sound of the scream I had thrown down a chair and +pulled off a tablecloth. + +The books with my name written in them were handled by the policeman +who had taken charge, and by his superior who soon arrived on the +scene. Letters of mine--albeit innocent ones--were unearthed. A few +drops of blood were discovered on the strawberry-coloured carpet +between the table and the door, as well as between the double doors, in +the narrow space into which the body had been thrust. Worse than all, +my monogram was seen to adorn the stiletto paper-knife; and later (when +I had been rather reluctantly arrested on suspicion) the last letter +Helen had written turned up in my pocket. I had slipped it in and +forgotten about it; but with so many damaging pieces of evidence that +capped the climax. The girl accused me in so many words of wishing to +get her out of the way, to send her back to England. + +It seemed like a nightmare, and a stupid nightmare: one of those +nightmares when you know you are awake yet cannot rouse yourself: I, +John Hasle, brother and heir to the Marquis of Haslemere, lay under +strong suspicion of having murdered a pretty little third-rate actress +who had become troublesome to my "lordship"--Helen Hartland. + +Everything was against me, nothing apparently for me: yet I was almost +insolently sure that my innocence would prove itself, until the lawyer +my friends engaged in my defence showed me how seriously he took the +matter. + +"You're in a bad fix," he said, "unless we can find someone to prove +that you weren't in that room long enough to have killed the girl and +hidden her between the doors. You see, that would have been a smart +dodge on the murderer's part, putting her there. If the next room +hadn't happened to be occupied (it seldom is, the landlady says) the +man who did the trick would have had plenty of time to get away before +the crime was found out. It was an accident that there were ladies on +the other side to open the door of their room and see what was behind +it. Your letters, your books, your stiletto----" + +"It seems to me the stiletto is a proof of my innocence, not of my +guilt," I ventured. "If I'd wanted to kill the girl, I wouldn't have +done it in a way to incriminate myself, would I?" + +"Hobson's choice," said the famous James Jeckelman, shrugging his +shoulders. "You might have been in a rage and a hurry and had to take +what there was at hand. You couldn't have shot her, because of the +noise. It was a stab or nothing. No. If we're to save you, we must +get hold of someone who _saw_." + +That was easy to say, but not to do. Not a soul came forward to state +that I had opened Helen Hartland's door at precisely five o'clock, to +find the room empty; and that at a quarter past five the girl's body +had fallen into the room next door. Even if there had been such +evidence in my favour, it could not have freed me from suspicion. +There might have been time to murder the girl, and hide her between the +doors in less than fifteen minutes. But it was strange that she had +not screamed. + +Circumstantial evidence piled up: and the most hateful part for me was +that Maida, as well as the directress of the Grey Sisterhood, should be +called as a witness. I writhed at the thought that Maida was involved +in the case, a case concerning the murder of a woman supposed to have +loved me "not wisely but too well." + +At first I thought only of this distressing phase of the business: but +it wasn't long before I began to realise that Jeckelman had not +exaggerated. My "position" was not to be allowed to tell in my favour, +and socialists were hot in anger against the British "lord" who thought +he could break any commandment he chose in America. + +If only I had been sure how Maida felt, there might have been a rift in +the dark sky. Could it be that her loyalty had stood this greatest +test, or had the evidence and the Head Sister's hatred done their work? +I could not tell, and day after day I saw more clearly that I might go +to my death without knowing. + +The coroner's inquest had found against me: and the trial was coming on +when one day Charlie Bridges suddenly woke to consciousness. For weeks +he had lain between life and death. The concussion from which he +suffered was so severe that for a time he had been a mere log. His +soul seemed to have gone out of him. Delirium followed this state. +Then he fell into a long, sound sleep, and waking, his first words +were: "What's happened since I fell? Have they got the man who made +Helen Hartland kill herself?" + +The nurse who heard these questions thought that delirium had seized +her patient again: but the doctor, coming in at that moment, understood +that Bridges was in a normal state of mind. He realised that every +word the sick man said might mean life or death for me. Cautiously he +answered the question by another, speaking quietly, not to startle his +patient. "Did Helen Hartland kill herself? Weeks have passed since +you've been laid up, and the case was supposed to be murder." + +"It was the same as murder," Bridges answered wearily. "Nearly +everyone who knew us, knew I used to fly past her window and fling in a +bunch of flowers. It was one of my stunts. I could always see what +Helen was doing if she was in: and there was generally time for a +smile. A smile's a thing quickly done. And that was the reward I got. +This last time I saw a man standing over her in a strange way with his +hand on her forehead, for all the world as if he was hypnotising her: a +big tall man I'd never seen before. I was so surprised that I turned +and flew back. The fellow must have seen my flowers fall into the room +with my first go; but the second time I swooped past, Helen was +_stabbing herself_ with a kind of stiletto. That was all I saw. I +went queer and sick, and felt that I'd lost control. My one thought +was to get out and save her. I believe I must have tried to jump. +That's the last thing I remember." + +When he had finished, he fell back exhausted, and had to be revived. +But there wasn't much time to waste. Knowing the immense importance of +the statement, Doctor Graves got Bridges to repeat it as soon as he was +able. As the words left his lips they were taken down, and then signed +by him. Later he swore that the man he had seen with Helen was not +Lord John Hasle. + +"If it had been, I'd have let him go to the chair, even if he didn't +kill her with his own hands. I'd not have opened my mouth to help +him," Bridges said. "I hated the fellow because Helen liked him better +than me. But I must say he didn't seem to encourage her much. Anyhow +I can't keep still and let an innocent man die." + +When asked if he could identify the hypnotist. Bridges was not sure. +All he could say "for certain," he persisted, was that "John Hasle was +younger and slighter and altogether a different type: there was no +chance of a mistake." + +I was saved--saved by my rival, poor Charlie Bridges, the last man on +earth to whom I should have looked for help. But then, his help didn't +precisely come from the earth: it came from the air. + +I had been a fool, and I felt unworthy of the traditions I had made for +myself, not to have suspected in what manner the crime had been +committed. Of course I had thought of Doctor Rameses. I thought +always of Doctor Rameses! But I had not seen any way of connecting him +with the murder of Helen Hartland, even if he were the man to whom she +had gone for lessons in "will power." Now, I saw the way, and I +believed that at last the police would see also. Indeed, they were +ready to see. When Rameses' name as one of the leading "crank doctors" +of New York was earnestly brought forward by me, it was arranged that +Bridges was to be given a sight of him. Unfortunately, however, on the +day when the California Birdman first woke from his long trance, and it +was prematurely announced in the papers that his delirium might be +followed by a return of normal consciousness, Doctor Rameses left town +for a holiday. His servants said that he had been suffering from +nervous strain through hard work, and had been preparing for some time +to take a rest. His favourite summer country resort was, it appeared, +the White Mountains. He was sought there, but not found. And I +believed that he never would be found--unless by me. + +My only happy souvenir of these miserable weeks was a letter from +Maida, which I shall keep as long as I live. + +"I knew from the first that you were innocent," she wrote, "and if I +had been called I intended to say so in the witness-box." + + + + +EPISODE VII + +THE WATCHING EYE + +"What shall I do?" I asked myself as I read a letter from Maida. + +She begged a small and simple service, yet--I hesitated. + +Roger Odell had begged me to look after her as well as I could in the +circumstances, during his long absence. Those circumstances were +difficult ones: for I was not allowed to visit her at the Sisterhood +House, and she never went out unchaperoned by her "friend" the +directress. Her wish was that I should give her the key of her +"sanctum" at Roger Odell's shut-up house in New York. A caretaker +named Winter, one of the old servants, was in charge of the place; but +I had been appointed special guardian of the "shrine," as Maida called +this sacred room. + +"Shrine" was indeed rather an appropriate name; since it contained +treasures which formed the sole link between the girl and her lost +past. She had been brought, a child of four, by her dying mother to +the father of Roger Odell, and her sole possessions had been a couple +of miniatures, a curious Egyptian fetish, and an Egyptian mummy in a +fine, painted mummy-case. The miniatures had been enlarged into +life-size portraits of Maida's mother and a man in the uniform of a +British officer, whom she believed to be her father. Both portraits +hung on the wall of the "shrine," together with one of Roger Odell, +Senior. These, with the mummy-case, were the sole contents of the room. + +Roger and I had cause to think that enemies of Maida's unknown father +had followed the child and her mother to America: and that the vendetta +would not end until Maida--the last of the family--had paid with her +happiness or even with her life for the sin of some ancestor. We had +cause to think also, that the mummy in its painted case was of +importance to them, and that they had tried in various ways to get hold +of it. For its protection, Roger had had a clever electrical +contrivance fitted up, by means of which anyone not in the secret and +trying to touch the mummy-case would receive a violent shock. Before +going away he had given me the plan of this mechanism, with directions +for applying the current and turning it off. At the same time he had +handed me the key of the shrine which Maida had left with him on +departing for Long Island. + +Now, she wanted this key. + +"I went yesterday to my dear old home," she wrote, "to visit my +treasures. But the shrine was locked; and Winter told me that Roger +had given you the key. He said also that there was some kind of patent +burglar alarm which had frightened a couple of thieves away, since I +came to stay at Sisterhood House. Is that true? And is there danger +in opening the door? I know I can depend upon you, when you send the +key, to make it safe for me to go in. I'll post the key to you +afterwards, if you like--and if Roger wants you still to be troubled +with it. Please arrange for me to pay my visit to-morrow." + +It seemed that there was only one way to answer this letter: by saying +that I would arrange for the safety of the visit; and enclosing the key +in my note. Nevertheless I hesitated. I was afraid to send Maida the +key. + +It was useless to explain to her the reasons for my seeming +boorishness. She trusted the Head Sister. Nothing that had happened +since she entered the Grey Sisterhood had opened the girl's eyes to the +cruel falseness of the woman, as I saw it. Nothing, not even the +affair of Helen Hartland, had made her believe that the friend she +respected was one of the agents working for her destruction and my +elimination. So I knew that if I refused the key I would seem a stupid +blunderer to Maida. + +"If only she'd waited a few days!" I thought. For after many +unsuccessful attempts, we (I and Paul Teano) had contrived to get an +employee--I may as well use the word "spy"--into Sisterhood House. She +was a young but singularly intelligent girl whom Teano's wife, once +known as "Three Fingered Jenny," had lately rescued from a set of +pickpockets and "sneak thieves." We hoped great things from "Nippy +Nance," as a protegee of the Head Sister, who did not suspect the +girl's change of heart and profession. If she could get evidence that +the directress of the Grey Sisterhood was the leader of a criminal +gang, posing as a charitable reformer, I could not only say "I told you +so!" to the incredulous police, but I could convince Maida of her own +peril. + +A few days more grace, and Nance might have been able to give us a +satisfactory report! But I dared not delay. I had to decide, for +Maida's letter must be answered. My desire to please her prevailed +over prudence. I persuaded myself that I had no right to refuse such a +request: that I must consent: that my vague fears were foolish. I had +only to watch, and see that no harm came to Maida or to the mummy in +its painted case. + +I wrote that, in loyalty to the promise I had made Roger (made for her +sake!) I couldn't leave the shrine without its "patent burglar +protection" (as she called it) over night: but I would go to the house +early in the morning and do everything necessary to ensure her safety +if she wished to touch or open the mummy-case. + +"I know if you had been willing to see me there, you would have +suggested my meeting you at the house," I went on. "As you haven't, I +daren't ask to be present: but I'll be in New York and at the Belmont +Hotel all day, expecting a word. Will you call me up, or if not, will +you send a line by messenger to say at what hour I shall go round again +to make the "shrine" burglar proof? I enclose the key: and perhaps you +will leave it for me with the caretaker." + +Maida's letter had come to the Long Island hotel. I sent my answer +from there by hand to Sisterhood House, where it would be taken in by a +lay sister at the gate. The boy was ordered to wait for a reply, if +reply there were, but I thought it unlikely Maida would answer so soon. +I fancied she would consult the Head Sister, and that a response would +be delayed till the last minute. I was mistaken, however. My +messenger presently came back with a letter. + +It was sweet, and full of gratitude for the "trouble" I was taking. "I +am 'willing' to see you," she quoted. "I'm more than willing! I shall +be glad to see you. I have _permission_ to do so. Will you call at +Roger's house about two o'clock? I don't know what time I shall +arrive; perhaps much earlier; but I promise not to leave until I've had +a talk with you. I'll tell Winter to show you into Roger's study to +wait. I shall have a companion. But it's just possible I may be +granted a few minutes alone with my brother's best friend!" + +This made me happier than I had been since the night when I fell in +love with Maida. Nevertheless, I didn't forget the need to watch +Roger's house, from the moment that the "shrine" and the mummy-case +were released from their patent protection. Not that I distrusted +Maida. I believed in her as I believed in Heaven. But she might be +deceived: and it was my business to guard her interests. + +I went to the house, as I had agreed to do, early in the morning, and +not only switched off the electric current which protected the shrine +and its contents day and night, but removed the small visible parts of +the apparatus in case someone had the intention of studying the +mechanism. I informed Winter that he might expect Miss Odell with one +of the ladies from the Grey Sisterhood, and that I would return at two +o'clock. I then went back to the hotel where I stayed when in New +York, for I could not bear to do the necessary spying myself. A man +from Teano's agency was engaged to watch the house, and 'phone +instantly if anyone other than the ladies in grey uniform entered; also +if one or both of these ladies went away. + +No message came: and a little before two o'clock I arrived at the door. +My man, disguised as a member of the "white wings" brigade, was visible +in the distance. I gave the signal agreed upon to mean "You can go!" +and went, as arranged, into Roger's study at the back of the house, +Winter having told me that "the ladies were upstairs." + +I waited for half an hour; for three quarters: and then, growing +anxious, sought the caretaker, who had pottered down into the basement. +He was surprised at my question. "Why, I thought the ladies was both +in the library with you!" he stammered. "I was in the hall, where you +told me to wait. They came down and said they were going to talk to +you. Miss Maida's friend, the lady with the thick veil, had a telegram +to send. She asked me to take it, and gave me something for myself. I +supposed it was all right when I got back just now, to stop in my +quarters for a bit, as the lady said they'd be staying some time." + +What a fool I had been to think, because I had arrived on the scene, +that it was safe to send the watcher away! It was my trust of Maida +that had undone me. I had believed so blindly in her promise not to go +without seeing me, that I had thought all danger of a trick was over. +I hadn't reflected that the enemy was clever enough to trick her at the +last minute, as well as me! + +I dashed upstairs to the "shrine" found the door open and the +mummy-case gone! This was the worst blow that could fall, because, +once the mummy-case was actually in the hands of those who had schemed +to get it, every hope of Maida's safety seemed to vanish. In the +street, I could find no one who had seen the great painted box carried +from the house or taken away in any vehicle. Next, I inquired at the +houses adjoining, and opposite, with no better luck: but in the shame +and confusion which obscured my mind, it appeared probable that the +Sisterhood car had taken ladies and mummy-case as swiftly as possible +to the Sisterhood House. + +My own car was under repair, and I had been spinning round New York in +a taxi. Now, I returned for a moment to my hotel, in the desperate +hope of a message from Maida. There was nothing: but as I was hurrying +out, I met Teano. + +"Hurrah, my lord!" he exclaimed. "What luck to catch you like this! I +thought perhaps you'd have got back from Mr. Odell's house by this +time, but if you hadn't I was going round to find you. Is the young +lady all right?" + +"Why do you ask?" I caught him up. + +"Because Nance is at our flat. She had leave for the afternoon--the +first time she's got off: a sign they trust her. She's got a report, +my lord. It's a blood-curdler!" + +"Take me to your place and let me hear it," I said, reflecting that it +would be stupid to flash off to Long Island, when Nance's news might +save a wild goose chase. At worst, I should lose but a few minutes. +And taxying to Teano's, I told him in a few words what a mess I'd made +of things. + +"They won't have gone back to Long Island," he said excitedly. "You'll +understand when you hear Nance and perhaps you'll have some theory." + +Nance--a sharp-faced midget who would make as good a thief-catcher as +she had been a thief--was proud of her achievement. She was on the way +to get proof of the Sisterhood's secret. A girl had half confided in +her, and had stopped in fright; but Nance expected to prove soon that +the Grey Sisterhood was a "regular gang," associated with "high up +ones" in New York. "There's a big boss over the whole shebang," she +said, "but he's made a bolt. I don't know where--but I'll find out. I +guess he's jumped the country; and I guess m'lady o' the mask (that's +what we calls the Head Sister behind her back: we all know she wears +somethin' under her veil to hide a beauty spot) will be joinin' him. +She's been sort o' gatherin' things together as if for a flit, these +last two days, but I couldn't make a break to get word to you." + +Nance had more to tell, but nothing which directly concerned Maida. We +could only draw our own deductions that the Head Sister wouldn't "flit" +unless she could take the girl. Because Doctor Rameses had found +America too hot for him after his last plot against me, no doubt the +directress of the Grey Sisterhood had been waiting her chance to play +Ruth to his Boaz. + +She had now accomplished her great coup, in securing the mummy-case +which interested Rameses; and if she'd been able to force or wheedle +Maida into breaking faith with me, she could force or wheedle her to +the ends of the world. + +"Egypt!" I said aloud, as if the word had been spoken in my ear, and I +echoed it. "These devils want to get the girl to Egypt and finish the +vendetta that began there. What ships sail to-day?" + +We learned that one was leaving for Bordeaux, and another for Naples. +Both had been due to sail in the morning, but had been delayed, owing +to the strict inspection of cargo. Some lively telephoning followed, +but we could get no information from the agents concerning such +passengers as we described. Nance was ordered back post-haste to +Sisterhood House in case, contrary to our theory, the pair had +returned. Teano sent a man to the ship sailing for France; and I +myself started for the one Naples-bound, the night luggage I'd brought +from Long Island on my taxi. I had a mission from my Government, which +I served during my convalescence, and I had no right to leave without +permission. But I was ready to sacrifice my whole career, rather than +see Maida sail for Egypt with a cruel and unscrupulous enemy. + +I arrived at the dock just in time to see the ship moving out. In +desperation I tried to hire a tug, at no matter what price, to follow +and board her when she shed her pilot. The thing was impossible. It +was small consolation to be assured that no such ladies as I described +were on board. I felt almost certain they were there, in ordinary +dress, having changed from the uniform of the Grey Sisterhood. When +every effort had failed in this direction, however, there remained half +a hope that they might have been found by Teano's man on the ship +starting for Bordeaux. There was a chance of reaching her before she +steamed out, and that chance I took; but fate was against me again. +She had been gone twenty minutes when my taxi rushed me to the wharf. +"You've missed nothing. They weren't aboard," said the detective, who +awaited my arrival. But how could I be sure that he was right? + +The next thing was to cable the police at Naples and Bordeaux: yet so +far we had no definite proof against the Head Sister, who had the luck +as well as the ingenuity of her supposed partner, Doctor Rameses. She +could merely be watched on her arrival at a foreign port, not held: and +I dared not even take it firmly for granted that she and Maida had left +America, till Teano's frantic energies should bring further particulars +of their movements. I blamed myself for the embroglio: still, I would +not say, even in the privacy of my own head, "If I hadn't trusted the +girl so blindly!" + +I spent that night in New York, hoping for news from one direction or +other: and though it was not till the morning that Teano picked up +anything authentic, I had better fortune. A sudden inspiration came as +I walked up and down my room, smoking more cigarettes than were good +for me, and racking my brain for a solution of the puzzle. + +"What if Maida left a note for you in the shrine, hoping you'd have the +sense to look?" a voice seemed to whisper in my ear. + +Instantly I became certain that she had done so. It was past ten +o'clock, but I jumped into a taxi and flashed back to Roger's house. +After pressing the electric bell a dozen times at least, Winter +appeared in deshabille, inclined to grumble. I went straight to the +violated shrine, and switched on the electric light in its curious +globes of golden glass. The portrait of Maida's beautiful mother faced +the door and gazed into my eyes. Never had I quite realised its +likeness to the girl. It was as if Maida looked at me. + +"If there's anything, it will be behind that portrait," I thought. +Going straight to it, I lifted the heavy gold frame, and a folded piece +of paper fell to the floor. No writing was visible, but I knew I had +found what I sought. + +Opening the note, I had a shock of surprise. The paper had the name +and crest of my New York hotel upon it; and the few lines scrawled in +pencil were signed "John Hasle." So well was the writing imitated, +that my best friend would have sworn it was mine. + +The letter began abruptly (perhaps the forger didn't know how I was +accustomed to address Maida): "Something has happened. I am sending a +closed automobile to take you away and your friend also. Get her to +consent. It is necessary for the safety of your future. The chauffeur +and an assistant will carry down the mummy-case if you ask them. They +have my instructions already, and will bring a packing-box in which it +can be placed in the hall downstairs, in order not to be conspicuous. +The mummy will no longer be safe where it is. I'll explain when we +meet. I am called away from America at once, on official business, and +the man with the chauffeur knows the ship on which I sail this +afternoon. I beg you will do what he asks, as you may depend on him as +my mouthpiece, and I have time now for no more. Yours ever and in +haste, John Hasle." + +Underneath, Maida had scribbled, also in pencil, "Your letter has been +handed me just outside the door of this house. I don't understand it. +Though I suppose it's genuine, so many strange things have happened, I +am a little afraid. If there's any trick, and you come to look for me, +I earnestly pray you may find this in time. I shall leave a tiny end +of paper showing behind my mother's portrait, where I'll hide it." + +Rameses I believed to be far away, out of reach: but the assistant he +had left behind was worthy of him. She had reason to know the New York +hotel I frequented: the note-paper was easy to get: only the forgery +business needed an expert. And what a clever idea that the summons +should come from me! The Head Sister had known how hard, perhaps +impossible, it would have been to make the girl break her promise. Now +I saw why consent had been given to my calling on Maida at her +brother's house. Unconsciously I had been but a catspaw: and had not +my darling girl felt vaguely suspicious, I might never have guessed how +she had been enticed away. + +The message told little: but at least it confirmed my theory that the +two had gone on board ship. How Maida had been induced actually to +sail, was another question, but even that might be answered some day. + +In the morning, Teano was surprised, instead of receiving word from +Nance, to see her in person. She had been sent on an errand from +Sisterhood House to the nearest village, and rather than return had +simply--as she expressed it--"taken French leave." The Head Sister had +gone, leaving everything in charge of a woman next in authority. The +inmates, sisters, lay sisters, and protegees (women and children) were +told that the directress had news of a near relative's illness; she was +obliged to be absent for a few days, perhaps longer. Unless later +instructions arrived, all was to go on as if she were at home. Nance +knew that the grey automobile used by the Sisters had come back from +New York with a bundle in it; a bundle composed of two grey uniform +cloaks and bonnets with veils. Somehow the two ladies had changed +their outer garments, probably in that "closed motor" mentioned in the +forged letter: and the bundle had been transferred from one car to the +other, by the man with the chauffeur, doubtless a servant of the Head +Sister. + +Nance, prying for other details, had found and pieced together a few +torn scraps of paper--the remains of a letter--stuck between the +braided wicker-work and ribbon of a waste-paper basket in the +directress's study. There were three of these bits, the largest no +larger than a child's thumb nail, the smallest not half that size; but +patching them together Teano was able to show me the mutilated words +"meet--possible--Cair----" + +This strengthened my conviction that the Head Sister, with Maida and +Maida's mysterious mummy-case, was on the way to Egypt, where she would +meet Rameses in Cairo. The two must have been on board the ship +sailing for Naples, in some disguise not easy to penetrate. I +determined to act on this supposition, explain the circumstances as +best I could to our Ambassador, trying with his aid and, that of the +cable, to get leave for Europe. If leave were refused, rather than +abandon Maida to the mercy of her enemies, I would "chuck" the army. +Eventually I could volunteer again, when strong enough to serve. But +leave was not refused. My affairs were settled with lightning speed, +and I sailed a few days later. + +At Naples I got no definite news; but it appeared that, on board the +suspected ship, there had been a number of nurses wearing a navy-blue +uniform, with long veils attached to their small bonnets. Most of the +nurses wore their veils thrown back, but a few covered their faces on +leaving the ship. This gave me a clue--and a hope. The costume of a +nurse afforded the necessary concealment. I guessed that the Head +Sister had adopted it for herself and Maida, and that, through Rameses' +influence, she had obtained passports. + +No nurses in uniform had, so far as I could learn, lately left Naples +for Egypt; but with the aid of the police I learned that three days +before my arrival a tall, elderly woman, heavily cloaked and veiled, +accompanied by a beautiful blonde girl, had sailed for Alexandria. +Their papers described them as the wife and daughter of a French doctor +in Cairo, and though permission for women to enter Egypt was difficult +to obtain from British authorities at that time, they had it. + +Whether or no this "Madame and Mademoiselle Rameau" were the Head +Sister and Maida Odell, I could not be sure: but in any case my +destination must be Cairo. On arriving there I could hear of no such +person as Doctor Rameau: but I found army friends: help from "high up" +was forthcoming. I learned what non-military persons had travelled +during the last week, and what direction they had taken. Among the few +women on the list there were only two who might be those for whom I +searched; and _they were Egyptian ladies_. The sister and aunt of an +official in Government employ had left Cairo by rail for Asiut, whence +they were to do some days' desert travel, to reach the country house +belonging to their relative. + +I determined to follow; and at Asiut I engaged a small caravan. The +little oasis-town near which I had been told to find the house was two +days' journey from "The City of Sacred Cats"; and when we reached the +place, the servants of Ahmed Ali Bey were surprised by the questions of +my interpreter. Their master was in Cairo with his family, and they +had not been warned of the arrival of visitors. They were discreet and +guarded in their answers, after the first moment of blank astonishment: +but I realised instantly that the women I had followed from Cairo were +not bound for this place. I had come up against a blank wall, and had +only my own deductions to go upon. Were the supposed aunt and sister +of Ahmed Ali Bey, Maida and her companion, or had I taken a false +trail? Something within myself said that I was right as to their +identity, but that the two (protected by the name of some friend of +Doctor Rameses) had never intended to come to his house. Where, then, +should I look for them? + +They must, I thought, have come as far as Asiut, otherwise their passes +would not have availed them in these days of military supervision. But +beyond Asiut the desert stretched wide and mysterious. My only hope +lay in the fact that caravans could be tracked, and that there were +only certain directions in which stopping-places could be found. My +camel-leader, who spoke a little English, described to me the three or +four routes, one of which all travellers must choose in order to reach +a desert inn or "borg" on the way to distant oasis villages or towns. +But which should I choose? + +In any case, we were obliged to retrace our steps for ten or twelve +miles, as far as a certain well, and there I should have to decide +definitely. It was late in the afternoon when we reached the spot +again, and a wind which threatened simoom had covered the heart-shaped +footmarks made by our own and other camels, as with a tidal wave. The +sky was overcast, and of a faint copper colour, clouded with greyish +veils of blowing sand. The desert was empty, or so I thought at first; +but as I turned my field-glasses north, south, east and west, I saw +something very far off which moved uncertainly towards us. Presently I +made out that this something was a camel, alone, and without pack or +rider: yet he must, it seemed, have broken loose from a caravan. + +As he came nearer--perhaps sighting us from afar off and wishing for +our company--we saw that he was white, or a very pale grey. He was not +an ordinary pack-camel, but was of the aristocratic type, a _mehari_, +well bred, with graceful swaying movements and long slender legs. My +first year in the army I had spent in Egypt, where I'd picked up some +Arabic and Turkish, and had been enough impressed with the strangeness +of native life to remember many customs and superstitions. As the +white _mehari_ approached, a timid air of wildness mingling with its +longing for society, I realised that it had been a pampered beast, dear +to the heart of its vanished owner. Round its neck was an elaborate +collar of beads and shells, with dangling fetishes of all sorts: brass +and silver "Hands of Fatma," metal tubes for texts from the Koran, +horns of coral and lumps of amber. + +It seemed to me that there was something strange about the beast. It +held its head in a singular way, shaking it from time to time, and my +camel man thought as I thought. "This animal has been looked on by the +Evil Eye," he said. "It brings misfortune where it goes. Perhaps it +has had a fit of madness, and how comes to us in a quiet interval, only +to deceive and then attack us. I have seen such things in the desert. +A camel goes mad, kills its master, and seeks other victims for the +demon that has entered into it. I will drive it off." + +"No," I said, as the Arab would have threatened the camel with his +stick. "Keep out of the creature's way if you like. I'm going to see +if it will let me touch it." + +Very cautiously, in order not to frighten the wild-looking beast, I +urged my own mount a few steps forward, and held out a handful of +dates. The camel eagerly fixed its eyes on the food and moved towards +me as if magnetised. It stretched its neck so that the queer, +purse-like nostrils and loose lips quivered above the dates: it +hesitated: in another instant it would have snatched a mouthful had I +not exclaimed aloud at a thing I saw. + +Among the tubes and horns and Hands of Fatma hung a gold bangle with +the name "Maida" in emeralds, Madeline Odell's birthstone. I +recognised the ornament at a glance. She wore it always, even with the +uniform of the Grey Sisterhood. I knew she had ridden this camel and +that this was her call for help. She had hoped desperately that I +might follow, and feeble as was the chance that I should ever see the +bangle, she had snatched it because there was no other. + +"Good God!" I cried sharply--and foolishly, for the camel took fright, +and went loping away into the cloud of sand. "Come along!" I yelled to +my man, and rode after it. "We must keep up with the beast. We must +see where it goes." + +I explained no more. Doubtless the Arab thought me as mad as the white +camel, but I didn't care. The _mehari_ had come to me as a messenger +from Maida, and to lose sight of it would be, I felt, to lose her. + +Fortunately, after the first sprint, the creature slackened speed, even +turning its long neck now and then to see if we followed. So we went +on, behind the shadowy form in the sand-cloud, until we came to the +high adobe wall of a desert inn, a borg which my camel-man knew well. +Outside the closed gate our quarry paused: as we drew closer it bounded +away, stopped and hovered as if watching to see whether the gate would +be opened to let us in. It was opened; and we were greeted by the +landlord, a dull-faced fellow, half Arab, half French, who looked as if +his favourite tipple were absinthe. In the act of letting us into the +big, bare courtyard he spied the white camel in the distance. "Oh, +it's you again, is it?" he muttered, and would have shut the gate +quickly as my camel leader and I with the three animals of our tiny +caravan entered. + +"Is that white _mehari_ yours?" I inquired. + +The landlord shook his head. "But no!" he protested. "It is mad. It +is a beast of evil omen." + +"What did I tell the honoured gentleman?" said my man, delighted. But +I was obstinate. "Don't shut the beast out," I directed. "It doesn't +seem dangerous. I will pay you well to let it in, and for its food--or +any damage it may do." + +The landlord shrugged his shoulders; and when we had passed into the +courtyard, he left the gate standing open. A moment later the white +camel walked in, and instead of joining my animals, or another which +was squatting on the ground to munch a pile of green alfalfa, it moved +with a queer air of purposeful certainty to a window of the inn. The +shutters of this window were closed, but the camel pressed its face +against them as if it were trying to peer in. + +"Ah, that is what the brute always does!" exclaimed the landlord in his +_patois_ of Arabic and the worst _Marseillais_ French. "One would say +his master was there. But the room is empty." + +"Tell me about this animal and what is the matter with it?" I said, +when I had got off my mount and it had been led away with the others by +my Arab. + +"All I know I will tell willingly," replied the man. "This white camel +was one of a caravan that stopped here perhaps ten days ago. There was +no other _mehari_. The rest were of the ordinary sort. I noticed this +one and wondered, for such fine animals are rare among my clients. But +soon I saw it was not right in its head. It was not mad in the +dangerous way, which kills; but it was restless and strange. As we +say, it had been looked on by the Evil Eye. Perhaps the leader of the +caravan had got the brute cheap for that reason. Unless he wished some +misfortune to fall upon the person who rode the white camel." + +"What sort of person rode it?" I asked. + +The man shrugged his shoulders. "I cannot remember which one rode it, +coming here. There were several men and several ladies, the family of +the leader. They stopped here for the night--a night of simoom." + +"One of the ladies may have ridden the _mehari_?" I suggested. + +"May have: yes, monsieur." + +"And did one of the ladies occupy that room with the closed shutters?" +I persisted. + +"I do not know," said the landlord. "It was one of the rooms taken by +the party. We do not pry into the arrangements of a family when they +are clients for a night." + +I divined from his manner, despite an assumed carelessness, that on the +night in question something had happened to set that night apart from +other nights: so I carried on my catechism. I learned that the +travelling company had consisted of two Egyptian women, one possibly a +maid, under the protection of an elderly, bearded man who was in +bearing and speech a gentleman though his costume was that of a +well-to-do Bedouin; a long cloak and hood such as Arab camel-leaders +wear. His face had hardly been visible. Food had been sent to his +room, also to the women, one of whom seemed to be weak and ill. They +were both veiled and cloaked. She who was ill had not spoken. She had +been helped into the house by her companion. There had been a scream, +and some commotion in the night caused no doubt by the illness of this +lady. The landlord had been out attending to a sick camel in the +_fondouk_, and returning he saw the shutters of a window thrown back. +The window itself was open, and this mad _mehari_ was staring in. Then +the window had been suddenly closed, in the camel's face. The creature +had seemed frightened, and had galloped wildly about the courtyard, +refusing to rest in the _fondouk_ with its fellows, even when food was +offered as an inducement. It had returned again and again to the same +window, as if determined to look through the shutters. Early in the +morning, the travellers had made ready to start. The sick lady had +been worse. The old gentleman and his servants, of whom there were +several, all negroes, had to make a kind of couch for her on the +_mehari's_ back, but the brute kept jumping up and refusing to be +touched. At last the old gentleman grew angry and struck the animal on +the head and face. It "went for" him furiously, and had to be caught +and chastised by the negroes. No further attempt was made to use it +after that. The leader of the caravan bought a good, steady pack-camel +from the landlord, and left the white aristocrat at the borg. At first +the proprietor thought that he was in luck to come into possession of +such a fine creature, but it soon proved worse than useless. It +refused food: it would not sit down. It was constantly at the window +into which it had previously stared, or else at the gate trying to +escape. After a day or two the Arabs employed about the _fondouk_ said +it was accursed, and asked the _patron_ to get rid of the brute, lest +misfortune fall upon the place. Accordingly the once valuable _mehari_ +was driven out into the desert, disappearing in the distance. But +apparently it had not gone far. Since then it had returned several +times with caravans, entering the courtyard with them, and walking at +once to the window in which it was so strangely interested. "That is +why," explained the landlord, "I now keep the shutters closed. I fear +this accursed animal may break the glass before we have time to drive +it away. There is not much travel at this time of year, and we have +plenty of other rooms." + +"All the same I should like to be put into that room to-night," I said. +"And as you tell me the white _mehari_ is not wicked, there can be no +danger in your letting it stay in the courtyard till morning. I'm +curious about the creature, and should like to see what it will do." + +The man tried to persuade me that there was nothing in the seeming +mystery. He had rooms more comfortable than the one with the closed +shutters. That had not been properly cleaned since the last +occupation. As for the white camel, it would probably roar and make a +disturbance in the night. I silenced these objections, however, in the +one effectual and classic way: and I refused to wait for the room to be +swept and dusted. I wished to go in immediately, I said, and later the +bed could be got ready while I dined. Reluctantly the landlord gave +his consent to this arrangement, and himself escorted me to the room in +question, bringing my bag and a lighted lamp. I watched him as we +entered, and noticed that he glanced about anxiously as if he feared I +might see something which it would be better for me not to see. But, +either he found nothing conspicuously wrong, or else he decided that it +was a case of "kismet." + +When he had gone, I didn't open the shutters at once. I wanted to have +a look round, unobserved. Indeed, I took the precaution of stuffing +paper into the keyholes of the two doors: one which opened into the +corridor; another which communicated with the next room. + +I knew it would be useless to ask the fellow whether the room had been +occupied since the departure of the caravan which first brought the +white camel. He would lie if it suited him to lie: and if there were +anything to find out, I must find it out for myself. Never in my life, +however, had I felt so strong an impression as I felt now that Maida's +wish, Maida's prayers, had brought me to this place. I was certain +that she had at last suspected treachery in the woman she had +worshipped: that she had prayed I might follow and search for her: that +she had made friends with the white camel in order to add a souvenir of +herself to his neck-adornment: that she had some reason to hope he +might be left behind at this desert borg when she continued her +journey: that she had been in this room (where I seemed distinctly to +feel her presence) and that something had happened there which the +landlord either knew or suspected. Anyhow, the white camel knew, and I +said to myself that I would give all I had in the world if the animal's +half-crazyed intelligence could communicate its knowledge to me. + +This borg, like most crude desert halting-places for men and beasts, +was a one storey building which enclosed a large courtyard on three +sides. The fourth side of the yard was composed of an ordinary wall +nearly as high as the roof of the house. One wing of the latter +contained a row of bedrooms for travellers, each room having a window +that looked on the court. The middle part, or main building, consisted +of dining-room and kitchens: the remaining wing was the dwelling-place +of the landlord's family, and at the end had a large open shed for +camels and horses. My room, therefore, was on the ground floor. It +was roughly paved with broken tiles, and had in front of the bed a +strip of torn Spanish matting with a pattern of flowers splashed on it +in black and red. There was very little furniture: a tin wash-hand +stand: a deal table: an iron bedstead: and two chairs; but what there +was had been left in a state of disorder since the flitting of the last +occupant. Both chairs had fallen: the table, which had evidently stood +in the middle of the room, was pushed askew, its cotton covering on the +floor, its legs twisted up in a torn woollen rug: and--significant sign +of a struggle--a curtain of pink mosquito netting had been wrenched +from its fastenings and hung, a limp rag, at the side of the window. + +The wretched paraffin lamp served only to make darkness visible; but +taking it in my hand I walked round, examining everything: and my heart +missed a beat as I saw that, among the scarlet flowers on the matting, +were spots of brownish red--that tell-tale red which cannot be +mistaken. They were few and small, and therefore had passed unnoticed, +perhaps, by the landlord: yet to me they cried aloud. I tried to tell +myself that the stains might be old: that I had no reason to connect +them with danger for Maida: that as she had been brought so far, +doubtless there was a further destination to which it was intended to +take her. But as I finished my examination of the disordered room, +turned out the light, and threw open the shutters my soul was sick. + +"What happened here?" I asked myself for the twentieth time; and as if +in answer to my question the white camel came glimmering towards me +through the dusk. It stopped at my window, and thrusting its neck +through the opening, stared into the room. The faint light gleamed in +its yellow eyes, and gave the illusion that they moved as if following +with emotion _something they saw_. The creature paid no attention to +me, though it could have seen me standing near the window. Even when I +spoke, coaxingly, it did not turn its head; and when I walked back and +forth, it remained indifferent. Its gaze concentrated on that part of +the room nearest the door leading to the corridor; and a shiver ran +through my nerves to see the white head float from right to left on its +long neck, as though eagerly watching a scene to me invisible. I felt +the impulse to chase the beast away, but I checked myself. I had a +queer conviction that what it could see I ought to see also: that if it +remained it might _make_ me see. + +I turned up the wick of the lamp, and walked slowly towards the door, +glancing back to see what the camel would do. Its head was poked far +into the room. It looked like a queer white ghost, with glinting eyes. +For the first time they seemed to meet mine, and I felt that the animal +had become conscious of my presence in the picture its memory +constructed. Close to the door, in a crack between red tiles, I saw +something round and white which I took for a button; but picking it up, +it proved to be an American ten cent piece. Not far off lay an +Egyptian piastre, but it was the "dime" which thrilled me. The tiny +silver coin proved that an occupant of this room had lately come from +the United States. A little farther away I discovered broken bits of a +small bottle, with a torn label. Matching scraps of paper together I +made out part of a word which told its own sinister story. "Morph": +the missing syllable was not needed. And the label had the name--or +part of the name--of a New York druggist: + +"C. Sarge----" + "Broadw----" + + +Already I began to visualise what the scene near the door might have +been. I went out hastily and questioned the landlord again as to the +destination of the white camel's caravan. I offered him so big a bribe +for information that, if he had known anything definite, he could +hardly have resisted the temptation to tell. But he had only vague +suggestions to make. Perhaps the party might have been bound for +Hathor Set, a small oasis-town with one or two country houses of rich +men on its outskirts. It was twenty miles distant, and he could think +of no other place within a day's march where persons of importance +lived. Farther away, however, there were oases where merchants and +officials owned houses which they occupied now and then, and where +their families sometimes stayed for months. + +If it had been possible I would have travelled on that night, but to do +so would have been madness. I must wait till dawn: and though I did +not expect to sleep I went back to my room when I had eaten some vile +food, and arranged for the start at five o'clock. + +"Weather permitting," added the landlord, with an ear for the moan of +the sickly south wind. + +"Weather must permit," I answered. + +My side of the house was somewhat sheltered from the blowing sand; +still, on such a night most desert dwellers would have shut their +windows. I kept my window open, however; and lying on the bed, the +lamp burning dimly, I faced it. The head of the white camel, on its +long, swaying neck, was always framed in the aperture. I had brought +from the dining-room a plateful of dates to tempt the animal, but it +refused to touch them; and the landlord had told me that, so far as he +knew, the _mehari_ had eaten no food for ten days, since it first +appeared at the borg. This accounted in a normal way for its thinness +and the wild look of its eyes; but according to the man and his +servants the "mysterious curse" upon the beast was destroying it. "A +camel accursed can live twice as long as others with nothing to eat, +and even with no water," the landlord had announced gravely, as if +stating a well-known fact. "Then, suddenly, when the evil spirit is +ready to leave its body, the creature will fall dead." + +I was anxious that the _mehari_ should not fall dead until I had +finished making use of it: therefore I was glad to see it staring +bleakly through the window, hour after hour. I hoped that, in the +morning, it might lead me along the way its lost caravan had gone, and +whereever it went I intended to follow. It was making me superstitious. + +Now and then I dozed for a few minutes, to wake with a start and look +for the watching face at the window, but at last I fell heavily asleep; +and I dreamed. + +I dreamed of the camel: and it seemed as if I dreamed _into_ it. My +intense wish to see what it had seen, no doubt accounted for this +impression, but it could not account entirely for what followed. It +was as though the light of the lamp burned down, and blazed suddenly up +in the brain of the animal. I saw through its eyes, as by two +searchlights illuminating the sordid room. + +Maida Odell was led in by a taller woman. Both wore Arab costumes, +with cloaks and veils, as if they had been travelling. Maida moved +languidly. She let her companion take off her wraps. Her face was +white, her eyes dazed. I knew, in the dream, that she had been +drugged, and I hated the woman who touched her. The girl walked +unsteadily to the window and threw it open, drawing in long breaths; +and then the white camel came. I felt that it had been waiting for +this moment: that it loved and was grateful to the girl for kindness, +as no camel save a _mehari_ ever can be. She took lumps of sugar from +her pocket and fed it. The animal accepted them daintily. The woman +ordered it away, closed the shutters, and drew the ragged mosquito +curtain across the window. Darkness fell between me and the two +figures. I saw no more; but after an interval of blankness I was +conscious that Maida, left alone in the room, had opened the shutters, +leaving only the mosquito-netting between her and the night. The +camel, which had refused to rest with its fellows in the _fondouk_, +came sliding towards the girl and let her caress it. Apparently they +were the best of friends. She slipped a bangle from her arm, and tied +it to the _mehari's_ collar. She patted the white head, and whispered +in the flat ear. The animal was in an ecstasy. At last Maida pushed +it away gently, and leaning out of the window searched the courtyard. +I had the impression, in my dream, that she thought of climbing out and +attempting to escape on the _mehari_ whose confidence she had gained +for that very purpose. But at this moment a tall, bent figure in a +hooded cloak walked slowly past, and turning his head, looked at Maida. +His face was so deeply shadowed by the hood that I could not see the +features. There was a glimpse of venerable whitish beard tucked into +the cloak; but I knew, in my dream, that the man was Rameses posing as +the leader of the caravan. I tried to speak, to call Maida's name, to +ask her how it was that she had trusted these people: but I was +powerless to make the girl feel my presence. "I must wait," I said to +myself. "Some day she will explain why she consented to sail for +Naples, and why she went on to Egypt." + +"Some day!" the words echoed in my brain. Would the day come in this +world, or must I solve the greatest secret of all before I solved +Maida's? + +The dream went on, but I saw nothing when the girl closed the shutters. +Soon, however, she flung them wide again; and though she had put out +the light, the moon was shining in. I could see her moving about. She +listened at the door, as if she heard something in the corridor. She +had fastened the bolt, but now she discovered that it was broken. The +door could be opened from the outside. She placed a chair against it, +with the back caught under the handle. Then she went and sat down +close to the window. The camel was there, and she spoke to it, as if +she were comforted by its nearness. For a time she was very still. +Her head drooped; but it was impossible to sleep for long in the high, +uncomfortable chair. Now and then the girl started awake, always +turning to glance at the door: but at last she fell into a deeper doze. +Slowly the door opened, almost without noise. Maida remained +motionless: but the watching _mehari_ uttered a snarl. The girl sprang +to her feet, not knowing what to do. A cloaked figure which had +slipped in attempted to hide behind the open door, but was too late. +Maida saw the gliding shadow, shrieked, and would have run into the +corridor, but the man in the Arab cloak caught her on the threshold, +and muffled her head in his mantle. She struggled in his grasp, and +almost escaped. Chairs were overturned: the rug under the table was +twisted round the man's feet: I thought that he would trip and fall, +but he saved himself. Holding Maida with one hand, with the other he +drew a bottle from some pocket, and pulled out the cork with his teeth. +The girl freed an arm, but before she could push the bottle away the +man emptied a quantity of the liquid over the cloth that covered her +face. A sickly scent of chloroform filled the air. Still she fought +bravely, her freed hand seized the bottle, and dashed it on the floor, +where it broke with a crash. At this instant a woman in Arab dress +came swiftly into the room. She was very tall, as tall as the man, and +I noticed a likeness between their figures, a remarkable breadth of +shoulder, something peculiar in their bearing. The woman's face was +unveiled, but in the darkness I could not make out its features. + +She shut the door hastily. The two spoke to each other in a language I +could not understand. Maida struggled no more. The chloroform had +taken effect. In my dream I felt that the two did not wish her to die: +the time had not come. There was a climax towards which they were +working, had been working for a long time. Now it was close at hand. +The woman held a much smaller bottle than the one which lay broken. +She had also a glass with a little water, and a spoon. These she +placed on the wash-hand stand, and went swiftly to the window. Driving +away the camel with a threatening gesture, she closed the shutters. It +seemed as if they slammed in my face. I waked with a great start, and +found myself sitting up in bed, my face damp with sweat. + +The shutters, which I'd kept wide open, had banged together in the +rising wind. I bounded off the bed to the window, and flung them apart +again. Sand stung my face and eyelids. The white camel had +disappeared, but there was a wild snarling in the _fondouk_. + +"My wish has been granted," I said to myself, "I have seen what the +watching eye saw in this room. But what did it see after that? Which +way did the caravan go?" + +I must have slept soundly, and longer than I thought, for behind the +cloud of sand dawn was grey in the sky. Half an hour later I was out +of the room, in the courtyard, where the Arab servants had begun to +stir. From his own part of the building the landlord appeared. I told +him that I had sent to have my man roused, and that I would start in +spite of the storm. + +"What has become of the white _mehari_?" I asked. "Is he in the +_fondouk_ after all?" + +The man called one of his Arabs, asked a question, got an answer, and +turned to me. "The beast snarled so wickedly it waked my fellows," he +explained, "and they, not knowing of my promise to you, drove it into +the desert. That must have been two hours ago." + +I was furious, but scolding was vain. I had hoped superstitiously for +the guidance of the watcher, till the end; but this was not to be. I +must trust to my own instinct. + +Despite the arguments of the landlord and my own man that it was +dangerous to set out in the face of a simoom, we started, taking the +route towards Hathor Set. + +The blown sand had obliterated the tracks of men and camels. The +desert, so far as we could see, was a vast ocean of rippling waves. I +had brought no compass, trusting to the sun: but the sun was hidden +behind the copper veil of sand. "We shall be lost, sir," said my man. +"Shall we not be wise while there is time, and go back before our own +tracks are blotted out? See, there ahead is a lesson for us: a camel +that has fallen and been choked to death by the sand. Before night we +and our animals may lie as it lies now, with the shroud that the desert +gives, wrapped round our heads." + +"A camel that has fallen!" I echoed. And striking my beast I rode +forward till I reached the low mound to which the brown hand pointed. + +The white _mehari_ lay on its side, the head and half the body buried, +the bead collar faintly blue under a coating of yellow sand. The +watching eye was closed for ever: but I had the needed clue. + +"We're not lost," I said. "This is the right way. We'll push on to +Hathor Set." + + + + +EPISODE VIII + +THE HOUSE OF REVENGE + +This chapter of my life, which stands last but one in my journal, is +Maida Odell's chapter rather than mine: and to make my part in it +clear, her part should come first. Then the two should join, like a +double ring of platinum and gold bound together with a knot. + +One day Maida waked, after confused dreams of pain and terror. The +dreams were blurred, as she began remembering. It was as if she were +in a dim room trying to see reflections in a dust-covered mirror; then, +as if she brushed off the dust, and the pictures suddenly sharpened in +outline. + +She saw herself reading a letter signed John Hasle. It seemed to be a +true letter, and if it were true she must obey the instructions it +gave; yet--she doubted. She saw herself scribbling a few words on the +back of the letter, and hiding it behind the portrait of her mother, in +the room she always called her "shrine," leaving just an end of white +paper visible in the hope that John Hasle's eyes might light on it +there. This picture was clear, and that of the mummy-case being taken +out of the shrine by two men in a hurry. Why were they taking it? Why +did she let it go? Oh, she remembered! The Head Sister had promised +long ago to try and discover the secret of the past. She knew people +all over the world, who were grateful, and glad to repay her goodness +to them. Because of the mummy-case and the eye of Horus, those two +mysterious treasures, the Head Sister believed that the enemy who +strove unceasingly to ruin the girl's life must be an Egyptian, working +to avenge some wrong, or fancied wrong. She suggested photographing +the mummy, and the pictures of Maida's father and mother, in order to +send snapshots to a man she knew well in Egypt--a doctor. He would +take up the affair, out of friendship for her, and with those clues to +go upon might learn details of inestimable value. Maida remembered +writing to John Hasle at the Head Sister's suggestion, asking him to +send the key of the shrine. He had answered, agreeing reluctantly; and +to prove her good faith, the Head Sister had offered permission for a +meeting at Roger's house. Then had come the letter from John Hasle, +with its warning that the mummy was no longer safe in the shrine. +Maida had done what he told her to do, and let the mummy-case be taken +away, although the Head Sister had objected, and had even seemed hurt. +But the Head Sister had not objected to go to the ship on which John +Hasle said he would sail. She wished to question him before he went, +and was as anxious as Maida was to know what danger threatened the +mummy. + +The girl recalled how, according to John Hasle's advice (brought by his +messenger), she and the Head Sister had exchanged their grey costumes +for blue ones, with veils hanging from neat bonnets. They had done +this in the closed motor according to instructions, and they had gone +on board the ship to bid John Hasle good-bye. There instead of finding +him they had found a second letter, written as before on his hotel +paper. It said that the plot against Maida was even more serious than +he had supposed. At the last moment he had been obliged to stop in New +York, and appeal to the police to help him thwart it. Her life was in +danger if she returned to Long Island, or even to the city, before the +enemy had been caught. There was every prospect that he would be +caught in a few days, after which John Hasle would sail for Egypt as he +had meant to do, and there unravel the whole mystery. The vendetta +which had cursed Maida's life, and her mother's before her, would be +ended. She might come into a fortune in her own right, instead of +depending upon money given by the Odells. He implored her to be brave +and take passage on the ship for Naples, though no doubt the Head +Sister would oppose the idea. The Head Sister had not opposed it. She +had read John Hasle's letter, and had offered to be the girl's +companion to Naples, to take her on to Egypt if necessary. Once, she +had not liked John Hasle; but she was obliged to agree with his +opinion. She believed that he was right about Maida's danger: things +she had found out in her researches convinced her that it existed. The +ship would not sail for an hour or more. The chauffeur was bidden to +take a letter from Maida to John Hasle at the Hotel Belmont, to bring +one if he were there, and also clothing necessary for the journey, of +which the Head Sister made a hurried list. + +A letter had come back--a hasty scrawl in John Hasle's handwriting--to +express joy in Maida's decision, and to tell her that the mummy in its +case would go with her on the ship, addressed to his name. + +Maida remembered how ungrateful she had thought herself in doubting the +Head Sister's intentions. She had tried not to doubt, for so far in +her experience she had received only kindness and sympathy from that +wonderful friend. Wonderful indeed! Everything the Head Sister did +was magnetic and wonderful, like her whole personality. This sudden +decision to go abroad for Maida's sake was no more extraordinary, +perhaps, than things she had done to help others. She said that she +would wire the woman who stood second in authority over the Grey +Sisterhood, and explain that, for excellent reasons, she had determined +to visit the lately established branch in Cairo (Maida had heard of it +and had subscribed, for its object was an excellent one: the rescue of +European girls stranded in Egypt); she would add that she might not +return for many weeks. + +Maida felt that she ought never to have doubted. As for the letters +from John Hasle, the handwriting seemed unmistakable; they could not be +forgeries: the idea was ridiculous. She remembered how she had argued +this in her mind, and how she had tried not to think of herself as +helpless. She was doing what she wished to do! And yet, when she had +asked "What else could I do, if I didn't wish to do this?" the answer +was disquieting. Short of making a scene on shipboard and appealing to +the captain, it was difficult to see how she could go against the Head +Sister's urgent advice. She did not try to go against it; and after +sailing, two or three wireless messages signed John Hasle brought her +comfort. It was a coincidence that there should be a band of nurses on +board the ship, with costumes almost precisely like hers and the Head +Sister's, chosen apparently at random by John Hasle: but then, after +all, there was a strong resemblance in the dresses of all nurses, +provided the colours happened to be the same. + +Even more clearly than the days on shipboard, Maida remembered arriving +at Naples, and being met by an Englishman who introduced himself as an +agent of John Hasle. He had a long comprehensive telegram to show, +purporting to come from his employer in New York. This announced that +John Hasle had not been able to obtain leave as soon as he expected, +but that he had learned the "whole secret of the past." Miss Odell was +to put herself in the hands of his agent who would conduct her and her +companion to Egypt and there to a house where all mysteries would be +cleared up. She would find herself in charge of important persons, old +acquaintances of her parents, who would watch over her interests and +explain everything connected with her family. All trouble and danger +would be over for ever. Her brother Roger with his wife, Grace, having +just returned to New York from the Argentine, would sail with John +Hasle a few days after the sending of the telegram, to join Miss Odell +and bring her home by way of France and England. + +Maida recalled with a dull aching of heart and head her disappointment, +her uneasiness; how she had insisted upon sending telegrams to her +adopted brother, and to John Hasle, in New York, waiting for answers +before she would consent to go on. The answers came, apparently +genuine, and she had gone on. There had been two days in Cairo, at the +house of a rich, elderly man who called himself French, but looked like +a Turk or Egyptian. He stated that he was a friend of Maida's +grandfather who was, he said, a general in Ismail's service. He had +done a great wrong to a noble family of ancient Egyptian aristocracy, +who had sworn revenge, and had taken it for several generations. But +now all its members were dead except one aged woman who wished to see +and atone to Maida for the cruel punishment inflicted on her people. +The mummy which had been stolen many years ago was to be given back; +and in return Maida would not only learn a great secret, but receive a +great fortune. The house was in the country, and could be reached by a +short desert journey after travelling to Asiut by rail. In order to +escape the surveillance of the British authorities, so strict in war +time, she and her faithful friend the Head of the Grey Sisterhood, were +advised to travel in the costumes of Egyptian women. + +All this seemed hundreds of years ago to Maida, as she relived incident +after incident. Everything was far in the background of a night in the +desert inn when she had seen--or thought she had seen--a face which had +been the terror of her life. Since her earliest childhood she had seen +it in dreams, and sometimes--she believed--in reality. It was as like +the face of the mummy in the painted mummy-case as a living face could +be, except that the expression of the mummy was noble and even benign, +whereas that of the dream-face--the living face--was malevolent. The +hood of the caravan leader had been blown aside by the fierce desert +wind in a sand-storm, and a pair of terrible eyes had looked at her for +an instant before the hood was drawn close again; and, after that--but +Maida could remember nothing after that, except a struggle and a sudden +blotting out of consciousness. + +She was afraid to wake fully lest she should find herself again in the +desert inn where it seemed that something hideous had happened. But +the room there had been shabby. This room in which she opened her eyes +was beautiful, far more beautiful than any in the house at Cairo. It +was soothingly simple, too, in its decorations, as the best Eastern +rooms are. The walls were white, ornamented with a frieze of +arabesques. There were one or two large plaques of lovely old tiles +let into this pure whiteness, and a wonderful Persian rug in much the +same faded rainbow hues hung between two uncurtained windows with +carved, cedarwood blinds. The ceiling also was of carved cedar, +painted with ancient designs in rich colours. There was very little +furniture in the room, except the large divan-like bed on which Maida +was lying; but on a fat embroidered cushion squatted a girl wearing the +indoors dress of an Egyptian woman--a girl of the lower classes. She +sat between Maida and the windows, so that her figure was silhouetted +against the light: and outside the windows was a glimpse of garden: a +tall cypress and a palm with a rose bush climbing up the trunk: dully, +Maida thought that it must be an inner patio, such as her room had +looked out upon in the house at Cairo. + +"Where is the white camel?" she heard herself say, aloud: and it seemed +that her voice was tired and weak, as if she had been ill. + +The girl who was embroidering looked up. Her face was very brown, and +the eyes were painted. She wore a dark blue dress, which was a lovely +bit of colour against the white wall. Smiling at the invalid as at a +child, she went to the door, and called out something in a language +Maida could not understand. Then she effaced herself respectfully, +stepping into the background, and the Head Sister came in--the Head +Sister, just as she used to be at the Sisterhood House far away on Long +Island. She wore a grey uniform and the short veil with which her face +had always been covered in the house. + +"My dear child!" she exclaimed, in her deep, pleasant voice, with its +slight accent of foreignness which could never quite be defined. "How +thankful I am to see you conscious! We have been waiting a long time. +You've been ill, and delirious; but I can see from the look in your +eyes that it's over now--those dreams of horror I could never persuade +you were not real." + +Maida looked earnestly at the Head Sister whom she had once so utterly +loved and trusted. Did she love and trust her now? The girl felt that +she did not. Yet she felt, too, that the sad change might be but the +dregs in her cup of dreams. Never had the wonderful woman's voice been +more kind. "If I tell you a piece of good news, will it make you +better, or will it give you a temperature?" the Head Sister went on. + +"It will make me better," Maida said, a faint thrill of hope at her +heart. There was only one piece of news, she thought, which would be +good. + +"Very well, then. It is this: we are expecting your brother and Lord +John Hasle in a few days. Are you pleased?" + +"Yes," Maida answered. She composed her voice, and spoke quietly; but +new life filled her veins. The dullness was gone from her brain, the +lassitude from her limbs. She felt as if she had drunk a sparkling +tonic. + +"You look another girl already," said the Head Sister. "If this +improvement keeps up, you'll be able to walk about your room a little +to-day, and to-morrow you may be strong enough to be helped out into +the balcony that runs along over the patio, and leads to the room of +your hostess. She is impatient for you to be well enough to come +there; and it will be a test of your strength. Besides--I know you are +anxious to hear what you have travelled so far to find out." + +Maida could not have explained then, or afterwards, why the Head +Sister's suppressed eagerness brought back the fear she had known in +her dreams. She would have liked to answer that she preferred to wait +and see the unknown "hostess" after Roger and John had arrived. But +something told her she had better not say that. Instead, she smiled, +and answered that she would try to walk that afternoon, and test her +strength. + +The Head Sister seemed satisfied, seemed to take it for granted that +the plan she was making would be carried out; and then she made an +excuse to leave the room. The girl Hateb would watch over Maida, as +she had watched faithfully since the day when the unconscious patient +had been put into her care. Hateb, the Head Sister added, had learned +in Cairo to speak a little English and French. Maida could ask for +anything she wished. But for a long time Maida did not wish to ask for +anything at all. She lay still and thought--and wondered: and Hateb +went on embroidering. She finished a thing like a charming little +table cover on which she had worked a design in dull blues and reds, a +design like the patterns of old tiles from Tunis. Then, pausing to +roll up the square of creamy tissue, she began to make the first purple +flower of a new design on another square. + +At last, as if fascinated, Maida did ask a question. She asked what +Hateb did with these things when they were finished. Were they for her +mistress? + +The girl shook her head, and managed to make Maida understand that all +the women of the household who could embroider sent their work by the +negroes into the oasis town of Hathor Set where there was a shop which +sold such things to tourists. Very few tourists came now, but +sometimes there were officers and soldiers. They always bought +souvenirs for their families at home. Harem ladies sold their work for +charity among the poor, but their servants--well, it was pleasant to +earn something extra. This house was often shut up for months. The +master and mistress lived away, and seldom came, so there was much +time--too much time--and it hung heavy on their hands unless they were +kept busy. + +"I know how to embroider, too," said Maida, "not as you do, but after +the fashion of my country. I make my own designs. I should love to +embroider an end of a scarf or something like that, to show you how +fast I can work. Then you may sell what I do, and keep the money. If +any English or American people come to that shop in the town you speak +of they will be surprised to see such a thing if it is displayed well, +and they will be glad to offer a good price, because they will be +reminded of home. But you must let no one in this house see my work, +or they may be angry with you for allowing me to exert myself. It will +do me good, but they will not believe that." + +The girl was delighted with the idea. Her curiosity was aroused to see +the work of a foreigner, which would sell for much money, and she was +pleased with the prospect of having that money for herself. She gave +Maida materials, and the invalid sat up in bed to begin her task. With +a pencil she traced a queer little border which might have represented +breaking hearts or flashes of lightning. Inside this border she formed +the word "Help" with her name "Maida" underneath, in elaborate old +English letters impossible for Hateb to read with her scant knowledge +of English. Despite her weakness, Maida worked with feverish haste, +and finished the whole piece of embroidery, in blue and gold and +reddish purple, before evening. She pronounced herself too ill to +rise, but promised to make an effort next day. It was in her mind to +delay the visit to her unknown "hostess," and meanwhile to send out a +message, like a carrier pigeon. But there was the strong will of the +Head Sister to reckon with. The latter gently, yet firmly insisted +that, now dear Maida's delirium had passed, it would do her good to +take up life again where she had left it off. The Egyptian woman they +had made this long journey to meet was impatient. She was unable to +come to Maida. Maida must go to her. Besides, it would be +discouraging to Roger Odell and John Hasle to arrive and find their +dear one pale and ill. She must make the effort for their sakes if not +for her own. + +This solicitude for Roger and John was new on the part of the Head +Sister, who had deliberately taken Maida away from one, and separated +her from the other: but she frankly confessed that her point of view +had changed. She saw that the girl had no real vocation for the Grey +Sisterhood. If the mystery of her past could be solved, and happiness +could come out of sorrow, Maida would have a place in the world, and +John Hasle--the Head Sister admitted--deserved a reward for patience +and loyalty. + +These arguments did not ring true in the ears of Maida, but she had +reached a place where it was impossible to turn back. She was in the +woman's power, whether the woman were enemy or friend; and if she +refused to follow the Head Sister's counsel, she believed that she +would be forced to follow it. Maida was too proud to risk being +coerced; and when the first day after the sending out of the embroidery +passed without result, she obeyed the directress and let herself be +dressed. + +The girl suffered a great deal, but she had not lost physical or mental +courage. She believed that she had sprung from a family of soldiers, +and she wanted to be worthy of them, even if no one save herself ever +knew how she faced a great danger. Something in the Head Sister's air +of fiercely controlled excitement told her that she was about to face +danger when, with the elder woman's supporting arm round her waist, she +walked from her own room to the door of a room at the end of a long +balcony--the balcony overlooking the patio garden. + +As she went, the scent of magnolias and orange blossoms pressed heavily +on her senses like the fragrance of flowers in a room of death. It was +evening, just the hour of sunset, and as the girl looked up at the +sapphire square of sky above the white walls and greenish-brown roofs, +the pulsating light died down suddenly, as if an immense lamp had been +extinguished. + +Maida shivered. "What is the matter? Are you afraid?" the Head Sister +asked. + +"No, I am not afraid," Maida answered firmly. "It is only--as if +someone walked on my grave." + +"Your grave!" the woman echoed, with a slight laugh. "That is very far +away to the west, let us hope." + +Yet Maida's words must have brought to her mind the picture of a +highballed garden of orange trees, no further to the west than the +western end of that house. She must have seen the negroes digging +there, under the trees, digging very fast, to be ready in time. She +must even have known the depth and width and length of the long, narrow +hole they dug, for it had been measured to fit the painted mummy-case +brought to Egypt from Maida's "shrine" in New York. That mummy-case, +long wanted, long sought, was useful no longer. Its occupant for +thousands of years had been rifled of his secret. The jewels which had +lain among the spices at his heart had been removed. They were safe in +custody of those who claimed a right over them, and the revenge of +generations might now be completed. + +The Head Sister tapped at the door of the room, and then, after a +slight pause, when no answer came, opened it. Gently she pushed Maida +in ahead of her, and followed on the girl's heels, shutting the door +behind them both. + +The room was very large and very beautiful. Already the carved +cedar-wood blinds inside the windows shut out the light of day. Not a +sound in the room--if there should be a sound--could be heard even in +the patio or the orange gardens. Two huge Egyptian oil lamps of old, +hand-worked brass hung from the painted wooden ceiling. They lit with +a flittering, golden light the white arabesquesed walls, the dado of +lovely tiling, the marble floor and the fountain pool in the centre +where goldfish flashed. There was little furniture: a divan covered +with a Persian rug; a low, inlaid table or two; some purple silk +cushions piled near the fountain; and Maida's eyes searched vainly for +the "hostess" who waited eagerly to tell her the secret. The only +conspicuous object in the room was a familiar one--the painted +mummy-case, standing upright as it had stood in the shrine, far away in +Roger Odell's house in New York. It stood so that Maida, on entering +the room, saw it in profile. She was not surprised to see it there, +for she knew that it had travelled with them--by John Hasle's wish, she +had been told--and certainly with his name on the packing-box in which +it was contained. It was easy enough to believe that the mummy had a +connection with the "secret" she was to hear, for always it had been +for her a mystery as well as a treasure. It was easy, also, to +understand why the "hostess" should have had the thing brought into her +room and unpacked. But she--the hostess--was not there. + +"Patience for a few minutes, my child," said the Head Sister, no doubt +reading Maida's thought. "I have been asked to tell you a story. It +is a long story, but you must hear it to understand what follows. Sit +down with me, and listen quietly. Your questions may come at the end." + +Maida would have taken a few steps further, to look into the +mummy-case, and see if its occupant were intact after the journey by +sea and land: but the elder woman stopped her. With a hand on the +girl's arm, she made her sit down on a divan where the mummy-case was +visible still only in profile. + +"This room was once made ready in honour of a bride," the Head Sister +said. "All its beauties were for her: the pool, the rare old tiles, +the Persian embroideries and rugs. The bridegroom was an Egyptian of a +line which had been royal in the past. I speak of the long ago past, +thousands of years ago. He had records which proved his descent +without doubt. When I say he was an Egyptian, I don't mean a Turk. I +mean a lineage far more ancient than the Turkish invasion in Egypt. +The family, however, had intermarried with Turks and had become +practically Turkish, except by tradition. This mummy-case and its +contents was the dearest treasure of Essain Bey, the man who decorated +the room you see for the woman he adored. Immemorable generations ago +it had been taken from the Tombs of the Kings--not stolen, mind you, +but taken secretly by a descendant who had proofs that the mummied man +had been a famous, far-away ancestor of his own. Even so, though this +forbear of Essain's had a right to the mummy, he would have let it lie +in peace, hidden for ever in the rock-caverns of the tombs if illegal +excavations had not been planned. He saved the mummy-case from +violation, although he could not save the tomb; and though there was a +legend that the body was filled with precious things he vowed that it +should not be rifled--vowed for himself and his son and his son's son. + +"The legend ran that the last Egyptian king hid the royal treasure +inside the mummy of his father, before setting out to fight the +invader, and that after his death in battle, the secret descended from +one representative of the family to another: but the whereabouts of the +tomb was lost, and only found again a century ago through the +translation of a papyrus. As I said, the mummy in its case was +sacredly preserved, and was considered to keep good fortune in the +family so long as it remained intact. When Essain married his +beautiful Greek bride he would have given her his soul if she had asked +for it. Instead, she asked for the mummy of Hathor Set. It should be +hers, he promised, the day she gave him his first boy, and he kept his +word. But with the boy came a girl also. The Greek woman, Irene +Xanthios, was the mother of twins. The mummy in its case--the luck of +the family--was called hers. It was kept in this room, where she felt +a pleasure in seeing it under her eyes. She delighted her husband by +telling him she loved the dark face because of the likeness to his. He +was happy, and believed that she was happy too. Perhaps she would +always have remained faithful, had it not been for an Englishman, an +officer in the service of Ismail. + +"Now, when I speak of Ismail being in power, you will understand that +all this happened many years ago; to be precise it was fifty-four years +ago to-day that the twin boy and girl were born and the mummy given to +their mother, Irene. How she met the Englishman I do not know. I +suppose the monotony of harem life bored her, though she had adopted +the religion and customs of Essain Bey. She was beautiful, and maybe +she let her veil blow aside one day when she looked out of her carriage +window at the handsome officer who passed. How long they knew each +other in secret I cannot tell either; but the twins were four years old +when their mother ran away with the Englishman. She left them behind, +as if without regret, but--she took the luck of the family with +her--the mummy of King Hathor Set in his painted case. So, you can +guess who was the man: your grandfather. His name was Sir Percival +Annesley. He was no boy at the time. Already he had been made a +Lieutenant in Ismail's army: but he fled from Egypt with the woman he +stole--and the booty--and after that they lived quietly in England. +They hid from the world: but they could not hide from Essain's revenge. + +"In this room--coming back from a council at the Khedivial Palace in +Cairo--Essain learned how his wife had profited by his absence of a +week. In this room he vowed vengeance, not only upon her and the man +who took her from him, but upon that man's descendants, male or female, +until the last one had paid the penalty of death. In this room he made +his two children swear that, when they grew old enough, they would help +exterminate the children of Percival Annesley, and if unfortunately +these survived long enough to have children, exterminate them also. In +this room he branded the flesh of his young son and daughter with the +Eye of Horus, to remind them that their mission was to watch--ever to +watch. + +"Essain turned his back upon this house when it had become a house of +disgrace, but he did not sell or dispose of it. He had made up his +mind that, from a house of disgrace it must become a house of revenge. +His will was that the place should be kept up; that servants should be +ready to do anything they were bidden to do. With his own hands he +killed your grandfather, in sight of Irene and her baby boy, your +father. Later, Irene died of grief, but your father lived. He too +came to Egypt, and served in the army, by that time in the hands of the +British. Essain was dead, but Essain's son lived, and had one great +aim in his life; to kill Perceval Annesley's son, and retrieve the +mummy. Perceval Annesley's son was named Perceval too. He met your +mother when she was travelling in Egypt as a girl, and followed her to +America. The younger Essain would not have allowed him to leave Egypt, +if the mummy had been there, but he had left it at home in England. So +far as young Essain had been able to find out, the mummy had never been +desecrated: this was the one virtue of the Annesleys: they had left it +intact. + +"In New York, your father persuaded your mother to run away with him, +when she was on the eve of marrying Roger Odell--old Roger who became +your guardian. They went together to England, and lived in the +Annesley house, which is in Devonshire. Soon, young Essain's chance +came. He shot your father dead, in your mother's presence; but in +escaping he lost sight of her. She knew the curse which had fallen on +the Annesleys. She feared for you, if not for herself. She took you, +and the mummy-case, and an Eye of Horus which had been a gift from the +elder Essain to Irene, and she contrived to vanish from the knowledge +of Essain the younger. + +"It was only for a time, however, that he and his twin sister--able to +help him now--searched in vain. He traced the travellers eventually by +means of the mummy-case. Your mother was dead: but his vow to his +father was not fulfilled while you were alive, and the mummy of Hathor +Set under the roof of the Odells. You were too well protected to be +easily reached, but there are many ways of accomplishing an end. You +were never a strong girl. Plots against your peace of mind were +planned and carried out. Once or twice you came near death, but always +luck stood between you and what Essain and his sister Zorah believed to +be justice. The drama of your life has been a strange one. Your death +alone without the restoration of the mummy would not have sufficed, +though, had you died, Essain would have moved heaven and earth to gain +possession of the body of Hathor Set. At last he has obtained it. The +oath of his father's ancestor not to open the mummy was but for the son +and the son's son. That has run out many years ago, and Essain felt +that the time had come to learn and profit by the secret. He has done +so, and holds a wonderful treasure in his hands. The like of it has +never been seen in the new world, except in museums of the East. Now +the whole duty of Essain's son and daughter has been accomplished, +except in one last detail. What that is, you, Madeleine Annesley can +guess. I have finished my explanation. But if you would understand +more, go now, and look at the mummy-case." + +As if fascinated, Maida obeyed. Her brain was working fast. Was her +instinct right? Had she been brought here to the House of Revenge to +die, or would this soft, sweet voice, telling so calmly the terrible +story of two families, add that the last sacrifice would not be +permitted? Was the command to rise and look at the mummy-case a test +of her physical courage after what she had heard? + +To her own surprise, she was no longer conscious of fear. A strange, +marble coldness held her in its grip, as if she were becoming a statue. +She moved across the room and stopped in front of the mummy-case. +Living eyes looked out at her. She saw the dark face so like in +feature to the withered face of the mummy. This was the face of her +dreams. + +The girl recoiled from it and turned to the woman who had been her +friend. For the first time the Head Sister had lifted her veil and +taken off the mask always worn at the Sisterhood House. Her face +seemed identical with that in the mummy-case. It also was the face of +Maida's dreams, the haunting horror of her life. Without a word the +mystery of the mask and veil became clear to her. The Head Sister's +one reason for wearing them was to hide her startling likeness to +Essain, her twin brother. + +"The end has come," a voice said Maida did not know whether the man or +woman spoke. As the mummy-case opened and the figure within stepped +out, the world broke for the girl into a cataract of stars which +overwhelmed her. + + * * * * * + +I have told already how I was guided in the direction of Hathor Set. I +hoped and believed that I was right, but even so I was far from the end +of my quest. Hathor Set is a small town, important only because of its +situation and the fact that several rich Arabs have their country +houses on the outskirts of the oasis. Each hour, each moment counted: +yet how was I to learn which of the houses was Maida's prison? Judging +by the precautions taken for the first stages of the journey, it was in +no optimistic mood that I rode with my little caravan into the +principal street--if street it could be called--of Hathor Set. Our +camels trod sand, but to our left was the market, and beyond, a few +shops. In the background the secretive white walls of houses +clustered, the plumed heads of palms rose out of hidden gardens, and +the green dome of a mosque glittered like a peacock's breast against +the hot blue sky. + +It was not market day, and the open square with its booths and +enclosures was deserted: but men stood in the doors of two small shops +hopefully designed to attract tourists. One exhibited coarse native +pottery, and the other, more ambitious, showed alleged antiques, silk +gandourahs, embroideries and hammered brasswork. Above the open door +was the name "Said ben Hassan," and underneath was printed amateurishly +in English: "Egyptian Curios: Fine Embroideries: French, English and +American Speaken." + +I had halted, meaning to descend and buy something as an excuse to ask +questions, when a dirty, crouching figure which squatted near the floor +scrambled up and flung itself before me whining for backsheesh. "Get +away!" roared my camel-man, who was in a bad temper because of a forced +march. He struck at the beggar with his goad, while the shopkeeper +rushed forward to prove his zeal in ridding a customer of the nuisance. + +"Wretch!" he exclaimed. "How often have I told thee to depart from my +door and not annoy the honoured ones who come to buy? This time it is +too much. Thou shalt spend thy next days in prison." + +Between the two hustling the lame man, he fell, crying; and humbug +though he might be, my gorge rose. For an instant I forgot that I had +meant to ingratiate myself with the shopkeeper, and abused him in my +most expressive Arabic. I scolded my own man, and, without waiting for +my camel to bend its knees and let me down, I slid off to the rescue. + +"The fellow is worthless," pleaded the shopkeeper, anxious to justify +his violence. "It was for Effendi's sake that I pushed him. He is +rich. He is the king of all the beggars--the scandal of Hathor Set." + +"Whatever he may be, he's old and weak, and I won't have him struck," I +said. "Here, let this dry your tears," I went on: and enjoying the +suppressed rage of Abdullah my camel-man, I raised the weeping beggar +from the ground and gave him a handful of piastres. With suspicious +suddenness his sobs ceased and turned to blessings. He wished me a +hundred years of life and twenty sons: and then, exulting in the rout +of Said ben Hassan and Abdullah, defiantly returned to the rag of +sacking he had spread like a mat on the sand. The keeper of the shop +glared a menace: but his wish to sell his goods overcame the desire for +revenge; and contenting himself with a look which said "Only wait!" he +turned with a servile smile to me. Would the honoured master enter his +mean shop, give himself the pain to examine the wonderful stock +superior to any even in Cairo, and sip sherbet or Turkish coffee? + +I paused, reflecting that it might be better to inquire somewhere else. +Humble as the man's tone was, his eyes glittered with malice; and once +he had my money he would delight in sending me on a wild-goose chase. +As I thought what to answer, my eyes wandered over his show window, and +suddenly concentrated on a piece of embroidery. Some small +table-covers and scarfs of thin Eastern silk were draped on a brass +jardiniere. On the smallest of all I read, in old English lettering, +the words "Help. Maida." + +I kept my self-control with an effort. For a few seconds I could not +speak. Then I inquired the price of that piece of embroidery, pointing +it out. The shopkeeper's fat brown face became a study. He was asking +himself in an anguish of greed how high he might dare to go. "Five +hundred piastres," he replied, leaving generous room for the beating +down process. But I did not beat him down. + +"That's a large price," I said, "but I will pay if you tell me where +the embroidery came from. It's an old English design. That's why I'm +curious to know how you got it." + +Said ben Hassan seemed distressed. "Honoured Sir, I would tell you if +I could, but I cannot. It would be as much as my life is worth. +Ladies of the harem make these embroideries, or their women. I sell +them, and they use the money for their charities. It is a sacred +custom. I can say no more." + +"I will give you a thousand piastres," I said. + +The man looked ready to cry, but persisted. "It is a great pain to +refuse," he mourned. "But I would have to make the same answer if +Effendi offered two thousand." + +"I offer three," I went on. + +But the man was not to be tempted. He groaned that it was a question +of his life. Poor as it was, he valued it. He groaned, he apologised, +he explained, he pressed upon me the true history of all the +antiquities in his shop, and the five hundred piastres I was ready to +pay for the bit of embroidery had shrunk in his eyes to a sum scarcely +worth taking. At last, when I turned away, deaf to his eloquence, he +caught me by the coat. "If Effendi must know, I will risk all and give +him his will!" he wailed. "The embroidery came from Asiut. I will +write down the name of the powerful pasha who is master of the house: +that is, I will do so if Effendi is still ready to pay three thousand +piastres." + +I knew that the man was lying, yet my best hope lay in his +knowledge--practically my one hope. How to get the truth out of him, +was the question. + +"I must think it over," I said. As I spoke I became conscious that the +lame beggar who had crawled off his mat to the door of the shop was +whining again. + +To my astonishment he hurriedly jumbled in English words as if he +wished to hide them. Under his appeal, in Arabic that I should buy a +fetish he held up in a knotted old hand, he was mumbling in English, +that he would tell me for gratitude, what Ben Hassan dared not tell me +for money. "Do not give him one piastre: he is lying," muttered the +beggar. "Buy this fetish. Inside you will find explanations." + +The fetish was a tiny silver box of native make, one of those +receptacles intended to contain a text from the Koran, and to hang from +a string on the breast of the Faithful. I threw the man a look and I +threw him money. Squatting there, he seemed to pick up both before he +crawled away. I burned to call him back as I saw him wrap the sacking +over head and shoulders, and start--without a backward glance--to +hobble off. But I dared not make a sound. Hassan, if he suspected, +might ruin the beggar's plan. I slipped the fetish into my pocket, and +told the shopkeeper that I would content myself for the present with +buying the piece of embroidery. I must reflect before paying the price +he wanted for information. I should, I said, spend the night at the +inn, for I was tired. There would be time to think. + +The inn at Hathor Set is hardly worth the name, being little better +than the desert borg which, in my mind, I called the Borg of the +Watching Eye; but its goodness or badness did not matter. As for +Abdullah, he was glad of the rest. I had made him start before dawn in +the midst of a sand-storm which had blown itself out only late in the +baking heat of afternoon when we neared the oasis of Hathor Set. When +I shut myself into an ill-smelling room of the inn, to open the silver +fetish, it was still baking hot, but close upon sunset. If I had not +felt some strange impulse of confidence in the lame beggar who hid his +English under vulgar Arabic slang, I should have resented the coming of +night. As it was, I was glad of the falling dusk. I could work to +find Maida only under the cover of darkness, I knew: for there was no +British consul here, no Justice to whom I could appeal. There were +only my own hands and my own brain: and such help as the beggar might +give because he hated Said ben Hassan. + +A torn scrap of paper was rolled inside the tiny silver box: but it was +not a text from the Koran. + +"Dine at eight to-night with the beggar Haroun and his friends and hear +something to your advantage. Anyone can show you the house," I read, +written in English with pencil. If I had had time to think of him much +I should have been consumed with curiosity as to the brown-faced old +man who begged by day, and in faultlessly spelled English invited +strangers to dine with him by night. But I had time to think only of +what I might hear "to my advantage." The mystery of the "beggar king +of Hathor Set" was lost for me in the mystery of Maida Odell, as a +bubble is lost in the sea. + +The Eastern darkness fell like a purple curtain over a lighted lamp. I +went out long before eight, and showed a coin as I asked the first +cloaked figure I met for the house of Haroun the beggar. It was +strange that a beggar should have a house, but everything about this +beggar was strange! + +The house was in the heart of the crowded town, a town of brown adobe +turning to gold under a rising moon. All the buildings were huddled +together like a family of lion cubs, but my guide led me to a square of +blank wall on the lower edge of a hill. The door was placed at the +foot of this hill; and when a negro opened it at my knock I found +myself in a squalid cellar. At the far end was a flight of dilapidated +stone steps: at the top of this another door, and beyond the door--a +surprise. I came out into a small but charming garden court with +orange trees and a fountain. A white embroidered cloth was spread on +the tiled pavement, and surrounded with gay silk cushions for more than +a dozen guests. Coloured lanterns hung from the trees and lit with +fairy-like effect dishes of crystallised fruit and wonderful pink cakes. + +Figures of men in gandourahs came forward respectfully, and the King of +the Beggars bade me welcome. He offered a brass bowl of rose-water in +which to dip my fingers, and as he himself dried them with a +lace-trimmed napkin he spoke in English. + +"I am grateful," he said, "for your trust. You shall not regret it." +Then he went on, without giving me time to answer, "I am a beggar by +day, and the beggars' king at night, as you see. This is my existence. +It has its adventures, its pleasures; this meeting is one of the +highest. It reminds me that I have English blood in my veins. +Besides, if I help you I shall help myself to revenge. My father was +English, but turned Mohammedan for the love of my mother. English was +the first language I learned to speak. In the days of Ismail I was in +his army--an officer. I was proud of my English blood and I promised +my aid to an Englishman--an officer, too, named Annesley--aid against +one of my own religion. I helped him to run away with a beautiful +woman. He escaped with her. I was caught, wounded, and cruelly +punished. My career was at an end--my money gone. Lame and penniless, +I had no power to take revenge. Many years have passed. I was young +then. Now, I am old. The man who broke me is dead, but his children +live--twins, a son and a daughter. They have come home from some +country far away, to their father's house. I saw them come--I, the +lame beggar lying in the street, a Thing that does not count! Two +women were with Essain, his sister and another who was ill--perhaps +unconscious--lying upon a litter on camel back. The embroidery you +saw, with the English words which I, too, could read--came from his +house. It was brought by a negro, to-day, to the shop of Said ben +Hassan, and put in his window an hour before you rode into Hathor Set. +But Ben Hassan is afraid of Essain Pasha, the man I speak of, and he +would never have told you anything about his house: he would only have +lied and sent you off on a false track in repayment for your money. As +for me, I can tell all you wish to know: and when you have honoured me +by eating my food, I can show you the house. It is not more than a +mile distant from the town. If you wish to injure Essain, so much the +better. Because of what his father did to me, and because of your +kindness, I should like to help you do it." + +"For God's sake, come with me now," I broke in at last. "You asked me +here to dine, but a girl's life may be hanging in the balance. Her +name is Madeleine Annesley. She must be the granddaughter of the man +who was your friend, and the woman you helped him take. You speak of +revenge! It is for revenge she has been brought here by the man you +call Essain and his sister who is as wicked as himself. I never knew +till I heard your story what that woman was to him, or why they worked +together. But now I understand all--or nearly all. I love Madeleine +Annesley, and I know she's in danger of her life." + +"I thought," said Haroun, "there might be some such matter afoot, and +that is why I asked my friends to be here. They are ready to obey my +orders, for they count me as their king; and I have chosen them from +among others for their strength and courage. I am the only one who is +old and lame, but I am strong enough for this work. When it is done, +we can feast, and we will not break our fast till then. Essain has no +fear of an attack in force. His house, though it is the great one of +the place, is guarded but by a few negroes, the servants who have kept +it in his absence. There are orange gardens which surround the house. +Without noise we will break open a little gate I remember, and once +inside, with fifteen strong men at our service, the surprise will be +complete--the house and all in it, male and female, at our mercy." + +Not a man of the fifteen but had a weapon of some sort, an +old-fashioned pistol or a long knife, and some had both. + +We started in the blue, moony dusk, walking in groups that we might not +be noticed as a band: and it was astonishing how fast the lame beggar +could go. We led--he and I--and such was the greedy haste with which +his limping legs covered the distance that he kept pace with me at my +best. + +Soon we were out of the huddled town, walking beside the rocky bed of +the _oued_ or river; and never leaving the oasis we came at last to a +high white wall. + +"This is Essain's garden," Haroun whispered. "And here is the little +gate I spoke of. Listen! I thought I heard voices. But no. It may +have been the wind rustling among the leaves." + +"It wasn't the wind," I said. "There are people talking in the garden. +Don't try to break the gate. You may make a noise. I'll get over the +wall and open the gate from inside." + +"The wall is high," said Haroun, measuring it with his eyes. + +"And I am tall," I answered. "One of your men will give me a leg up." + +In another moment I was letting myself cautiously down on a dark, dewy +garden fragrant with the scent of orange blossoms. There was broken +glass on the top of the wall, and my hands were cut: but that was a +detail. + +Noiselessly I slid back the big bolt which fastened the gate. The men +filed in like a troop of ghosts, and followed me as I tiptoed along, +crouching under trees as I walked. + +The voices, speaking together in low, hushed tones, became more +audible, though, even when we came near, we could catch no words. A +singularly broad-shouldered man in European dress, with a fez on his +rather small head, stood with his back to us, giving orders to four +negroes. They were out in the open, where the moon touched their +faces, and we in the shadow could see them distinctly. They had a +long, narrow box somewhat resembling a coffin, which, by their master's +directions, they were about to lower by means of ropes into a +grave-like hole they had dug in the soft earth. + +My heart gave a bound, and then missed a beat, as if my life had come +to an end. I sprang on the man from behind, and the beggar king with +his band followed my lead. Just what happened next I could hardly +tell: I was too busy fighting. Down on the ground we two went +together. Essain--whom I knew as Rameses--fought like a lion. +Surprised as he was, he flashed out a knife somehow, and I felt its +point bite between my ribs, before I got a chance to shoot. Even then, +I shot at random, and it was only the sudden start and collapse of the +body writhing under mine which told me that my bullet had found its +billet. The man lay still. I jumped up, released from his hold. His +face I could not see, but when I shook him he was limp as a marionette. +"Dead!" I said to myself. "Well, it's all to the good!" and wasted no +more time on him. + +The four negroes were down: they had shown no fight; and already Haroun +had begun with a great knife to prise open the coffin-shaped box. It +lay on the ground in the moonlight and I saw that it was the mummy-case +I had seen last in Maida's shrine in New York. There was no doubt--no +hope, then! I had come too late! + +Like a madman I snatched the knife from Haroun, and finished the work +he had begun. There she lay--my darling--where the mummy had lain so +long. But I was not too late after all. As the air touched her she +gasped and opened her eyes. + +There, you would say, with the girl I loved coming to life in my arms, +the story of my fight against her enemies might end. But it was not to +be so. There was still the one supreme struggle to come. For Essain, +alias Rameses, was not dead. He had feigned death to save himself, and +while we forgot him he crept away. + + + + +EPISODE IX + +THE BELL BUOY + +A white yacht steamed slowly through calm water silvered by the moon. +Maida and I were the only passengers. We had been married that day, +and the yacht _Lily Maid_ was ours for the honeymoon, lent by Maida's +newly found cousins, Sir Robert and Lady Annesley. + +"Look," I said, as passing through the Downs I caught sight of two dark +towers showing above a cloud of trees on the Kentish coast. "Those +towers are my brother's house. To-morrow I shall be there making him +eat humble pie--and my sister-in-law too." + +"I don't want you to make them eat humble pie!" laughed Maida. + +"Well, they shall eat whatever you like. But would you care to anchor +now? It's nearly midnight." + +"Let's go on a little further," she decided. "It's so heavenly." + +It was. I felt that I had come almost as near heaven as I could hope +to get. Maida was my wife at last, and she was happy. I believed that +she was safe. + +We went on, and the throb of the yacht's heart was like the throbbing +of my own. Close together we stood, she and I, my arm clasping her. +So we kept silence for a few moments, and my thoughts trailed back as +the moonlit water trailed behind us. I remembered many things: but +above all I remembered that other night of moonlight far away in Egypt, +in a secret orange garden where men had dug a grave. + +Why, yes, of course Maida was safe! One of her two enemies had died +that night--the woman. Exactly how she died we did not know, but I and +the "king of the beggars" had found her lying, face downward, in the +marble basin of a great fountain, dead in water not a foot deep. The +fountain was in a room whence, from one latticed window, the orange +garden and the fight there could have been seen. That window was open. +Doubtless Essain's sister had believed her twin brother captured or +dead. She had thought that, for herself, the end of all things had +come with his downfall: punishment, failure and humiliation worse than +death. So she had chosen death. But the man had escaped and +disappeared. The treasure hidden for thousands of years in the +mummy--treasure which the Head Sister boasted to Maida had been found +by Doctor Rameses--had disappeared with him. + +The girl Hateb who had cared for Maida through her illness cared for +her again that night, while Haroun and I guarded the shut door of their +room. The next day Maida was able to start for Cairo, and Hateb (both +veiled, and in Egyptian dress) acted as her maid. Had it not been for +Haroun's testimony and the respect felt by the authorities for the rich +beggar, the happenings of that night and the woman's death might have +detained me at Hathor Set; but thanks to Haroun I was able to get Maida +away. Thanks again partly to him and what he could tell (with what +Maida had been told by the Head Sister) the girl's past was no longer a +mystery. We knew the name of her people: and luckily it was a name to +conjure with just then in Cairo. Colonel Sir Robert Annesley was +stationed there. He was popular and important; and I blessed all my +stars because I had met him in England. + +I wanted Maida to marry me in Cairo, with her cousin Sir Robert to give +her away: but the blow my brother had struck long ago had hurt her +sensitive soul to the quick. She said that she could not be my wife +until Lord Haslemere and Lady Haslemere were willing to welcome her. +She wanted no revenge, but she did want satisfaction. + +I had to yield, since a man can't marry a girl by force nowadays, even +when she admits that she's in love. Sir Robert found her a chaperon, +going to England, and I was allowed to sail on the same ship. Maida +was invited to stay with Lady Annesley until the wedding could be +arranged on the bride's own "terms"; but Fate was more eloquent than I: +she induced Maida to change her mind. + +Lady Annesley was as brave (for herself and her husband) as a soldier's +wife must be; but she had three children. For them, she was a coward. +Maida had not been two days at the Annesley's Devonshire place, and I +hadn't yet been able to tackle Haslemere, when an anonymous letter +arrived for the girl's hostess. It said that, if Lady Annesley wished +her three little boys to see their father come home, she would turn out +of her house the enemy of a noble family whose vendetta was not +complete. At first, the recipient of the letter was at a loss what to +make of it. Frightened and puzzled, she handed the document to Maida +(this was at breakfast) and Maida was only too well able to explain. + +The letter had a London postmark: and the girl knew then, with a shock +of fear, that "Dr. Rameses" was in England--had perhaps reached there +before her. An hour later I knew also--having motored from the hotel +where I was stopping in Exeter. The question was, why did the enemy +want to get the girl out of her cousin's house?--for that desire alone +could have inspired the anonymous warning. Without it, he might have +attempted a surprise stroke: but of his own accord, he had for some +reason eliminated the element of surprise. + +As for me, I was thankful. Not because Essain, alias Rameses, had come +to England, but because he was throwing Maida into my arms. This +result might be intended by him; but naturally I felt confident that +she would be safe under my protection. I argued that she couldn't +expose Lady Annesley and the children to danger; the Annesleys had +suffered enough for a sin of generations ago: and if she gave up the +shelter of her cousin's house she must come to me. What mattered it, +in such circumstances, whether the family welcome came before or after +the wedding? I guaranteed that it would come. And so--owing to the +anonymous letter, and its visible effect upon Lady Annesley, Maida +abandoned the dream she had cherished. We were married by special +licence: and now, on the Annesley's yacht--too small to be needed for +war-service by the Admiralty--we stood on our wedding night. + +"Nothing can ever separate us again, my darling!" I broke out suddenly, +speaking my thought aloud. + +"No, not even death," Maida said, softly, almost in a whisper. + +"Don't think of death, my dearest!" I cut her short. + +"I'll try not," she said. "But it seems so wonderful to dare be +happy--after all. And the memory of that man--the thought of him--I +won't call it fear, or let it be fear--is like a black spot in the +brightness. It's like that big floating black shape, moving just +enough to show it is there, in the silver water. Do you see?" and she +pointed. "Does that sound we hear, come from it--like a bell--a +funeral bell tolling?" + +"That's a bell buoy," I explained. "I remember it well. You know, +when I was a boy I spent holidays with my brother at Hasletowers; and I +loved this old buoy. I've imagined a hundred stories about it; and--by +Jove--I wonder what that chap can be up to!" + +The "chap" whose manoeuvres had caused me to break off and forget my +next sentence, was too far away to be made out distinctly. But he was +in a boat which I took to be a motor-boat, as it had skimmed along the +bright water like a bird. He had stopped close to the bell buoy, and +was fitting a large round object over his head. Apparently it was a +diver's helmet. In the boat I could see another figure, slimmer and +smaller, which might be that of a boy; and this companion gave +assistance when the helmeted one descended into the water over the side +of the boat. For an instant I saw--or fancied that I saw--that he had +something queer in his hand--something resembling a big bird-cage. +Then he plunged under the surface, and was gone. + +We were steaming slowly enough, however, for me to observe in +retrospect, that the huge round head bobbed up a minute later, and that +the black figure climbed back into the boat. But the cage-like object +was no longer visible. + +"Some repairs to the buoy, perhaps," I said, as the yacht took us on. +But it seemed odd, I couldn't put the episode out of my mind. By and +by I asked the yacht's captain to turn, and let us anchor not too far +from the landing at Hasletowers, for me to go ashore comfortably when I +wished to do so next day. The boat with the two figures had vanished. +The bell buoy swayed back and forth, sending out its tolling notes; and +the _Lily Maid_ was the only other thing to be seen on the water's +silver. + + * * * * * + +At three o'clock the following afternoon I rowed myself ashore, and +from the private landing walked up to my brother's house. I hadn't +seen him or my sister-in-law since the day when I ran--or rather +limped--away from Violet's London nursing home with its crowding +flowers and sentimental ladies. But I had written. I had told them +that I intended to marry Miss Madeleine Odell, the girl whom they had +driven from England, shamed and humiliated. I had told them who she +really was, and something of her romantic history. I had added that +they should learn more when they were ready to apologise and welcome +her. Later, I had wired that we were being married unexpectedly soon, +and that we should be pleased to have them at the wedding if they +wished. Haslemere had wired back that they would be prevented by +business of importance from leaving home, but their absence was not to +be misunderstood. He invited me to call at Hasletowers and talk +matters over. On this, I telegraphed, making an appointment for the +day after my marriage; because to "talk things over" was what I wanted +to do--though perhaps not in precisely the way meant by Haslemere. + +If I'd expected my arrival to be considered an event of importance, I +should have been disappointed. Haslemere and Violet had the air of +forgetting that months had passed since we met, that I'd been through +adventures, and that this was the day after my wedding. If we had +parted half an hour before, they could hardly have been more casual! + +I was shown into the library, where Haslemere (a big, gaunt fellow of +thirty-eight, looking ten years older, and with the red hair of our +Scottish ancestors) and Violet (of no particular age and much conscious +charm) were passionately occupied in reading a telegram. I thought it +might have been mine (delayed), but in this I was soon undeceived. + +"Hello, Jack!" said Haslemere. "How are you, dear boy?" said Violet: +and then both began to pour out what was in their hearts. It had not +the remotest connection with Maida or me. It concerned themselves and +the great charity sale of historic jewels which, it seemed, Violet was +organising. What? I hadn't heard of it? They were astounded. +England was talking of nothing else. Well, there was the war, of +course! But this subject and the war were practically one. The sale +was for the benefit of mutilated officers. Nobody else had ever +thought of doing anything practical for _them_, only for the soldiers. +Violet had started by giving the Douglas-heart ring which had come down +to her from an ancestress made even more famous than she would have +been otherwise, by Sir Walter Scott. This splendid example of +generosity had set the ball rolling. Violet had only to ask and to +have. All her friends had answered her call, and lots of outsiders who +hoped thereby to become her friends. Any number of _nouveaux riches_ +creatures had actually _bought_ gorgeous antique jewels in order to lay +them at Violet's shrine--and, incidentally, that of the Mutilated +Officers. + +"Nearly a hundred thousand pounds' worth of jewels is here, in this +room, at this moment," my sister-in-law went on impressively, "but it +won't be here many moments longer, I'm thankful to say! The +responsibility has been too great for us both, this last week, while +the collection grew, and we had to look after it. Now the whole lot is +being sent to Christie's this afternoon, and the sale by auction will +begin to-morrow. It's the event of the season, bar nothing! We hope +to clear a quarter of a million if the bidding goes as we think. You +_must_ bring your bride, and make her buy something. If she's one of +the _right_ Annesleys, she must be aw'fly rich!" + +"She is one of the right Annesleys," I managed to break in. "But, as I +wrote you and Haslemere, she has always been known as Madeleine Odell. +You and he----" + +"Oh, never mind that!" Haslemere cut me short. "You have married her +without consulting us. If you'd asked my advice, I should +certainly--but we won't stir up the past! Let sleeping dogs lie, and +bygones be bygones, and so on." + +"Yes, we'll try and do our best for your wife," Violet added hastily, +with an absent-minded eye. "When the sale is over, and we have time to +breathe, you must bring her here, and----" + +"You both seem to misunderstand the situation, although I thought I'd +made things clear in my letter," I said. "You cruelly misjudged Maida. +You believed lies about her, and put a public shame upon the innocent +child. Do you think I'd ever bring her into my brother's house until +he and his wife had begged her forgiveness, and atoned as far as in +their power?" + +"Good heavens, Jack, you must be mad!" Haslemere exclaimed. "I'd +forgotten the affair until you revived it in my mind by announcing that +you intended to marry a girl whose presentation I'd caused to be +cancelled. Then I remembered. I acted at the time only as it was my +duty to act, according to information received. An American +acquaintance of Violet's--a widow of good birth whose word could not be +doubted, told us a tragic story in which Miss Odell had played--well, +to put it mildly, in consideration for you--had played an unfortunate +part." + +"The name of this American widow was Granville," I cut in, "and the +tragedy was that of her son." + +"It was. I see you know." + +"I know the true version of the story. And I expect you and Violet to +listen to it." + +"We can't listen to anything further now, dear boy. We've more +important--I beg your pardon--we've more _pressing_ things to attend +to," said Violet. "You've a right to your point of view, and we don't +want to hurt your feelings. But I don't think you ought to want _us_ +to go against our convictions, unless to be civil, for your sake, and +avoid scandal. We'll do our best, I told you; you must be satisfied +with that. And really, we _can't_ talk about this any longer, because +just before you came we'd a telegram from Drivenny to say he and Combes +and Blackburn will be here an hour earlier than the appointment. That +will land them on us at any instant; and I don't care to be agitated, +please!" + +"Drivenny is the great jewel expert," Haslemere condescended to +enlighten my amateurish intelligence. "Combes is the Scotland Yard +man, as you know: and Blackburn is the famous detective from New York +who's in London now. We don't understand why they come before their +time, but no doubt they've an excellent reason and we shall hear it +soon. You shall see them, if you like. You're interested in +detectives." + +"It sounds like a plot," I remarked, so angry with my brother and his +wife that I found a mean pleasure in trying to upset them. "You'd +better make jolly well sure that the right men come. As you are +responsible for the jewels----" + +Haslemere laughed. "You talk as if you were a detective in a boy's +story paper! Not likely I should be such a fool as to hand the boodle +over to men I didn't know by sight! They have been here before, in a +bunch, Drivenny judging the jewels, the detectives----" + +"My lord, the three gentlemen from London have arrived in a motor-car," +announced a footman. "They wished to send their cards to your +lordship." He presented a silver tray with three crude but +business-like cards lying on it. + +"Show them in at once," said Haslemere. He stood in front of a +bookcase containing the works of George Eliot, Charles Dickens and Sir +Walter Scott. I knew that bookcase well, and the secret which it so +respectably hid. Behind, was the safe in which our family had for +several generations placed such valuables as happened to be in the +house. Haslemere slid back with a touch a little bronze ornament +decorating a hinge on the glass door. In a tiny recess underneath was +the head of a spring, which he pressed. The whole bookcase slipped +along the wall and revealed the safe. Haslemere opened this, and took +out a despatch box. While Violet received the box from his hands and +laid it on a table near by, my brother closed the safe, and replaced +the bookcase. A moment later, the three important visitors were +ushered into the room, their names pronounced with respect by the +servant: "Mr. Drivenny: Mr. Blackburn: Mr. Combes." + +Haslemere met his guests with civility and honoured them consciously by +presenting the trio to Violet. "This is my brother, back from a +military mission to America," he indicated me casually, without +troubling to mention my name. + +The three men looked at me, and I at them. It struck me that they +would not have been sorry to dispense with my presence. There was just +a flash of something like chagrin which passed across the faces: the +thin, aquiline face of Drivenny, spectacled, beetle-browed, +clean-shaven: the square, puffy-cheeked face of Combes: the red, round +face of the American, Blackburn. The flash vanished as quickly as it +came, leaving the three middle-aged countenances impassive; but it made +me wonder. Why should the jewel-expert and the two detectives object +to the presence of another beside Lord and Lady Haslemere, when that +other was a near relative of the family? Surely it was a trifling +detail that I should witness the ceremony of their taking over the +contents of the tin box? + +Whatever their true feelings might have been, by tacit consent I was +made to realise that I counted for no more in the scene than a fly on +the wall, to Haslemere and Violet. No notice was taken of me while +Haslemere unlocked the despatch box, and Violet--as the organiser of +the scheme--took out the closely piled jewel-boxes it contained. This +done, she proceeded to arrange them on the long oak table, cleared for +the purpose. I stood in the background, as one by one the neatly +numbered velvet, satin or Russia-leather cases were opened, and the +description of the jewels within read aloud by Haslemere from a list. +Each of the three new-comers had a duplicate list, and there was +considerable talk before the cases were closed, and returned to the +despatch box. Most of this talk came from Violet and Haslemere, both +of whom were excited. As for Drivenny, Blackburn and Combes, it seemed +to me that, in their hearts, they would gladly have hastened +proceedings. They were polite but intensely business-like, and as soon +as they could manage it the box was stuffed into a commonplace brown +kitbag which the footman had brought in with the visitors. The three +had motored from London to Hasletowers; and they smiled drily when +Violet asked if they "thought there was danger of an attack on the way +back." + +"None whatever," replied the square-faced Combes. "We've made sure of +that. There's too much at stake to run risks." + +"Don't you remember I told you, Violet, what Mr. Combes said before?" +Haslemere reminded his wife: "that the road between here and Christie's +would swarm with plain clothes men in motors and on bicycles. If every +gang of jewel-thieves in England or Europe were on this job, they'd +have their trouble for their pains." + +"I remember," Violet admitted, "but there's been such a lot about this +affair in the papers! Thieves are so clever----" + +"Not so clever as our friends," Haslemere admonished her, with one of +his slightly patronising smiles for the jewel-expert and the +detectives. "That's why they've got the upper hand; that's why we've +asked their co-operation." + +"Oh, of course!" exclaimed Violet. They all spent the next sixty +seconds in compliments: and at the end of that time Mr. Combes +announced that he and his companions had better be off. It would be +well to complete the business. Mr. Drivenny asked Haslemere if he +would care to go to Christie's in the car with them, as a matter of +form, and Haslemere replied that he considered it unnecessary. The +valuables, in such hands, were safe as in the Bank of England. The +three men were invited to have drinks, but refused: and Haslemere +himself accompanied them to their car. Violet and I stared at it from +the window. It was an ordinary-looking grey car, with an +ordinary-looking grey chauffeur. + +When Haslemere came back to the library, I took up the subject which +the arrival of the men had made me drop. + +What did my brother and sister-in-law intend to do, to atone to my +wife? Apparently they intended to do nothing: could not see why they +should do anything: resented my assertion that they had done wrong in +the past, and were not accustomed to being accused or called to account. + +My heart had been set on obtaining poetic justice for Maida; but I knew +she wouldn't wish me to plead. That would be for us both a new +humiliation added to the old; an Ossa piled upon Pelion. Losing hope, +I indulged myself by losing also my temper. + +"Very well," I said. "Maida will be a success without help from you. +As for me----" + +"Mr. Drivenny, Mr. Blackburn and Mr. Combes," announced a footman--not +the same who had made the announcement before. + +"What--they've come _back_!" Violet and Haslemere exclaimed together. +"Show them in." + +Evidently something had gone wrong! Even I, in the midst of my rage, +was pricked to curiosity. + +The three men came in: thin, aquiline Drivenny, square, puffy-faced +Combes, and red, round Blackburn. It was not more than half an hour +since they had gone, yet already they had changed their clothes. They +were all dressed differently, not excepting boots and hats: and Combes +had a black kitbag in place of the brown one. Even in their faces, +figures and bearings there was some subtle change. + +"Good gracious! What's happened?" Violet gasped. + +The men seemed surprised. + +"We're a little before our time, my lady," said Combes, "but----" + +Haslemere snatched the words from his mouth. "But you telegraphed. +You came here----" + +"We didn't telegraph, my lord," the detective respectfully contradicted +him. + +Violet gave a cry, and put her hands up to her head, staring at the +trio so subtly altered. As before, I was a back-ground figure. I said +nothing, but I thought a good deal. The trick jokingly suggested by me +had actually been played. + +At first neither Violet nor Haslemere would believe the dreadful thing. +It was too bad to be true. These, not the other three, were the +impostors! Violet staggered towards the bell to call the servants, but +Combes showed his police badge: and between the trio it was soon made +clear that the Marquis and Marchioness of Haslemere had let themselves +be utterly bamboozled. They had of their own free will handed over to +a pack of thieves nearly one hundred thousand pounds worth of famous +jewels: not even their own, but other people's jewels entrusted to them +for charity! + +There was, however, not a moment to waste in repinings. The local +police were warned by telephone; the escaping car and chauffeur were +described, and the genuine detectives, with the jewel-expert, dashed +off in pursuit of their fraudulent understudies. Meantime, while the +others talked, I reflected; and an astonishing idea began to +crystallise in my brain. When Violet was left crying on Haslemere's +shoulder (sobbing that she was ruined, that she would kill herself +rather than face the blame of her friends) I made my voice heard. + +"I know you and Haslemere always hated my detective talents--if any. +But they might come in useful now, if I could get an inspiration," I +remarked. + +Violet caught me up. + +"_Have_ you an inspiration?" + +"Perhaps." + +"For heaven's sake what is it?" + +"If I have one, it's my own," I drily replied. "I don't see why I +should give it away. This is _your_ business--yours and Haslemere's. +Why should I be interested? Neither of you are interested in mine." + +"You mean, your ideas are for sale?" Haslemere exclaimed, in virtuous +disgust, seizing my point. + +"My _help_ is for sale--at a price." + +"The price of our receiving your wife, I suppose!" he accused me +bitterly. + +"Oh, it's higher than that! I may have guessed something. I may be +able to do something with that guess; but I'm hanged if I'll dedicate a +thought or act to your service unless you, Haslemere, personally ask +Maida's forgiveness for the cruel injustice you once did without +stopping to make sure whether you were right or wrong: unless you, +Violet, ask my wife--_ask_ her, mind you!--to let you present her to +the King and Queen at the first Court after the war." + +"We'll do anything--anything!" wailed Violet. "I'll crawl on my knees +for a mile to your Maida, if only you can really get the jewels back +before people find out how we've been fooled." + +"I don't want you to crawl," said I. "You can walk, or even motor to +Maida--or come out in a boat to the yacht where she's waiting for me +and my news. But if I can do any useful work, it will be to-night." + +"Do you think you can--oh, do you _think_ you can?" Violet implored. + +"That's just what I must do. I must think," I said. "Perhaps +meanwhile the police will make a lucky stroke If so, you'll owe me +nothing. If they don't----" + +"They won't--I feel they won't!" my sister-in-law sobbed. + +Suddenly I had become the sole person of importance in her world. She +pinned her one forlorn hope to me, like a flag nailed to a mast in a +storm. And I--saw a picture before my mind's eye of a dark figure in a +boat, putting on a thing that looked like a diver's helmet. Queer, +that--very queer! + + * * * * * + +So utterly absorbed was I in my new-born theory and in trying to work +it out, that for the first time since I met and loved her I ceased +consciously to think of Maida. Of course she was the incentive. If I +put myself into Haslemere's service, I was working for _her_: to earn +their gratitude, and lay their payment at her feet. Far away in the +dimmest background of my brain was the impression that I was a clever +fellow: that I was being marvellously intelligent: and at that moment I +was more of a fool than I had ever been in my life. I thought I saw +Rameses' hand moving in the shadows, using my brother and his wife as +pawns in his game of chess. Yet it didn't occur to my mind that he was +using me also: that he had pushed me far along the board, for his +convenience, while I believed myself acting in my own interests and +Maida's. I had flattered myself that my white queen was safe on the +square where I had placed her, guarded by knight, bishop and castle. +Yet while I went on with the game at a far end of the board, Rameses +said "Check!" Another move, and it would be checkmate. + +I was gone longer than Maida had expected, but she was not anxious. +The yacht at anchor, lay in sight of the towers Which I had pointed out +the night before, rising above a dusky cloud of trees. From Maida's +deck-chair she could see them against the sky; and she could have seen +the landing-place where I had gone ashore, had it not been hidden +behind a miniature promontory. She tried to read, but it was hard to +concentrate her mind on any book, while her future was being decided. +In spite of herself, she would find her eyes wandering from the page +and focussing on the little green promontory that screened the landing. +At any moment I might appear from behind those rocks and bushes. + +Suddenly, just as she had contrived to lose herself in a poem of Rupert +Brooke's, the throb of a motor-boat caught her ear. She glanced +eagerly up, to see a small automobile craft rounding the promontory. +Apparently it had come from the private landing-place of Hasletowers, +but the girl could not be certain of this until she had made sure it +was headed for the yacht. Presently it had stopped alongside, and +Maida saw that it had on board a man and a boy. The man, in a yachting +cap and thick coat of the "pea-jacket" variety, absorbed himself deeply +in the engine. What he was doing Maida neither knew nor cared; but it +took his whole attention. He humped his back over his work and had not +even the human curiosity to look up. It was the boy who hailed the +_Lily Maid_, and announced that he had a message for Lady John Hasle +from her sister-in-law, Lady Haslemere. It was a verbal message, which +he had been ordered to deliver himself; and three minutes later he was +on deck carrying out his duty. + +"If you please, m'lady, the Marquis and Marchioness of Haslemere send +their best compliments, and would you favour them by going in this boat +to meet her ladyship on board the yacht of a friend? You will be +joined a little later by the Marquis, and Lord John Hasle, who are at +the house, kept by important business." + +"I don't understand," Maida hesitated. "My hus--Lord John went on +shore some time ago. I thought--was Lady Haslemere not at home after +all?" + +"That's it, m'lady," briskly explained the lad. "She was away on board +this yacht I'm speaking of. Her ladyship hasn't been well--a bit of an +invalid, or she'd come to you. But Lord John Hasle thought you might +not mind----" + +"Of course I don't mind," Maida answered him, believing that she began +to see light upon the complicated situation. "I'll be ready to start +in five minutes." + +And she was. Her maid gave her a veiled hat and long cloak; and she +was helped on board the motorboat. Still the elder member of its crew +did not turn, but went on feverishly rubbing something with an oily +rag. The dainty white-clad passenger was made comfortable, the boy +tucking a rug over her knees. As he did this, he glanced up from under +his cap, as if involuntarily, straight into Maida's chiffon-covered +face. She had been too busy thinking of other things to notice the lad +with particularity: but with his face so close to hers for an instant, +it struck her for the first time that it was like another face +remembered with distaste. There rose before Maida a fleeting picture +of a young lay sister at the house of the Grey Sisterhood far away on +Long Island. The girl had been of the monkey type, lithe and thin, +brown and freckled, her age anything between seventeen and twenty-two; +and she had seemed to regard Miss Odell, the Head Sister's favourite, +with jealous dislike. + +"The same type," thought Maida. "They might be brother and sister. +But the boy is better looking than the girl. Funny they should look +alike: she so American, he with his strong Cockney accent!" + +A minute more, and the motor-boat had left the side of the _Lily Maid_ +and was shooting away past the private landing-place of Hasletowers. +She took the direction whence the yacht had come the previous night, +before the dark shapes above the trees had been pointed out by me. +Still, there was no other yacht in sight: the waters were empty save +for a little black speck far away which might be, Maida thought, the +bell buoy of which we had talked. Indeed, as the boat glided on--at +visibly reduced speed now--she fancied that she caught the doleful +notes of the tolling bell. + +"The yacht where Lady Haslemere expects us, must be a long way from +shore;" Maida said. + +"Don't be impatient," the man's voice answered. "You will come to your +destination soon enough." + +A thrill of horror ran through her veins with an electric shock. She +knew the voice. She had heard it last in a house in Egypt. The man +turned deliberately as he spoke, and looked at her. The face was the +face of her past dream, the still more dread reality of her present---- + +And so, after all, this was to be the end of her love story! + +"You do not speak," Essain said. + +"I have nothing to say," Maida heard herself answer; and she wondered +at the calmness of her own voice. It was low, but it scarcely +trembled. So sure she was that there was no hope, no help, she was not +even frightened. Simply, she gave herself up for lost: and the sick +stab of pain in her heart was for me. She was afraid--but only afraid +that I might reproach myself for leaving her alone. + +"You've no doubt now as to what your destination is?" the voice went +on, quivering with exultation as Maida's did not quiver with dread. + +"I have no doubt," she echoed. + +"No appeal to my pity?" + +"I made none before. It would have been worse than useless then--and +it would now." + +"You are right!" the man said. "It would be useless. I have lived for +this. My one regret is that my sister sacrificed her life in vain. +But she and I will meet--soon it may be--and I shall tell her that we +did not fail." + +"If you tell her the truth, you will have to say you couldn't make me +die a coward," Maida answered, "and so your triumph isn't worth much." + +"It is the end of the vendetta, and our promise to our father will have +been kept," said Essain. "That is enough. I do not expect a woman of +your ancestry to be a coward." + +"She doesn't know yet what you're going to do with her," cut in his +companion. The Cockney accent was gone. Maida started slightly in +surprise, and stared at the brown, monkey face with its ears which +stuck out on the close-cropped head. The voice was only too easy to +recognise now. + +"Be silent, you cat!" Essain commanded savagely. "Your business is to +obey. Leave the rest to me." + +He turned again to Maida. "You see," he said, "my sister and I never +lacked for servants. I have many on this side of the water--as +everywhere when I want them. But this one is rather over-zealous +because she happened not to be among the admirers of Miss Odell at the +Sisterhood House. She wants you to realise that she is enough in my +confidence to know what is due to happen next. I intend to tell +you--not to please her, but to please myself. I have earned the +satisfaction! First, however, I have a few other explanations to make. +I think they may interest you, Lady John Hasle! .... My organisations +are as powerful in Europe as in the States. Through some of my best +men your new family is going to be disgraced. There will be a +first-class scandal, and they will have to pay, to the tune of one +hundred thousand pounds, to crush it. They're far from rich. I'm not +sure they can do the trick--unless your clever husband stumps up with +the fortune he'll inherit from you, on your death. I shall be +interested, as an outsider, to see the developments. Meanwhile I've +put into my pocket, and my friends' pockets, the exact sum which must +come out of theirs--or rather I shall in a few moments from now do so, +as you yourself will see." + +By this time they had come close to the bell buoy; and Maida remembered +how, with me, she had leaned on the deck-rail idly watching the +silhouettes of a man and a boy in a motor-boat. + +"It was you we saw last night!" she exclaimed. "You put on a diver's +helmet. You had a thing like an empty cage in your hand. You went +down under the water----" + +"Ah, you saw that from the yacht, did you?" broke in Essain. "I was +afraid, when I caught sight of the passing yacht, that it might have +been so! But it doesn't matter. Lord John fancies himself a +detective--but it's luck, more than skill, which has favoured him so +far: and his luck won't bring him to the bell buoy until I want him to +come--which I shall do, later. The cage you saw isn't empty to-day, if +any of Lord John's luck is on my friends' side, and I'm sure it is. I +placed the receptacle ready last night. Now, I think it will be filled +with jewelled fish, which I have come to catch. In their place I shall +give it a feed of stones, heavy enough to hold it down. And deep under +the still water you shall be its guardian, till I'm out of England and +can let Lord John have a hint where to look for his lost wife." + +Maida remembered what I had told her last night: how, when I was a boy +I had loved the old bell buoy and "imagined a thousand stories about +it." Surely I could never have invented one so strange as this--this +end of our love story for which the bell tolled! + +"When he finds me gone, he will never think of the bell buoy," Maida +told herself. + +But I had thought of it even without knowing that she was gone. I had +put myself into Rameses' skin, and let my mind follow the workings of +his since the sending of the anonymous letter to Lady Annesley, just up +to the moment when those two dark silhouettes had passed near the +moonlit bell buoy. I had cursed myself for not seeing how it might +have suited Rameses' book to have Maida isolated on board the _Lily +Maid_--certain to be offered to her if she left Annesley's house to be +married in a hurry. I had called myself every kind of madman and fool +for leaving her alone at the mercy of the enemy, and--having done all +this I went straight to Southampton in my brother's highest-powered +car, to hire a motorboat of my own. + +That is how I got to the bell buoy just as Essain and his companion had +emptied the iron cage of its treasures and were filling it with stones +while Maida lay bound hand and foot in the bottom of the boat. + +Rameses had ready a tiny bottle of Prussic acid which he crushed +between his teeth at sight of me and the two policemen from +Southampton. But the disguised girl lived, and through her we found +the false Combes, Blackburn and Drivenny, members all of the old New +York gang who had played me so many tricks. Nobody outside has ever +yet heard the story of the imposture and the theft; nor will they know +till they see this story in print. By then the jewel auction will have +been forgotten by the world. Only we shall not forget. But we are too +happy, Maida and I, to remember with bitterness. + + + + +PRINTED BY + +WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD. + +PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord John in New York, by +C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD JOHN IN NEW YORK *** + +***** This file should be named 38470.txt or 38470.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/4/7/38470/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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