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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lone Wolf, by Louis Joseph Vance
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Lone Wolf
+       A Melodrama
+
+Author: Louis Joseph Vance
+
+Posting Date: August 25, 2012 [EBook #9378]
+Release Date: November 25, 2005
+First Posted: September 26, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LONE WOLF ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Jayam Subramanian and PG
+Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+   THE LONE WOLF
+
+        By
+  LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE
+
+       1914
+
+
+
+      CONTENTS
+
+ I.     TROYON'S
+
+ II.    RETURN
+
+ III.   A POINT OF INTERROGATION
+
+ IV.    A STRATAGEM
+
+ V.     ANTICLIMAX
+
+ VI.    THE PACK GIVES TONGUE
+
+ VII.   L'ABBAYE
+
+ VIII.  THE HIGH HAND
+
+ IX.    DISASTER
+
+ X.     TURN ABOUT
+
+ XI.    FLIGHT
+
+ XII.   AWAKENING
+
+ XIII.  CONFESSIONAL
+
+ XIV.   RIVE DROIT
+
+ XV.    SHEER IMPUDENCE
+
+ XVI.   RESTITUTION
+
+ XVII.  THE FORLORN HOPE
+
+ XVIII. ENIGMA
+
+ XIX.   UNMASKED
+
+ XX.    WAR
+
+ XXI.   APOSTATE
+
+ XXII.  TRAPPED
+
+ XXIII. MADAME OMBER
+
+ XXIV.  RENDEZVOUS
+
+ XXV.   WINGS OF THE MORNING
+
+ XXVI.  THE FLYING DEATH
+
+ XXVII. DAYBREAK
+
+
+
+THE LONE WOLF
+
+
+
+I
+
+TROYON'S
+
+It must have been Bourke who first said that even if you knew your way
+about Paris you had to lose it in order to find it to Troyon's. But
+then Bourke was proud to be Irish.
+
+Troyon's occupied a corner in a jungle of side-streets, well withdrawn
+from the bustle of the adjacent boulevards of St. Germain and St.
+Michel, and in its day was a restaurant famous with a fame jealously
+guarded by a select circle of patrons. Its cooking was the best in
+Paris, its cellar second to none, its rates ridiculously reasonable;
+yet Baedeker knew it not. And in the wisdom of the cognoscenti this was
+well: it had been a pity to loose upon so excellent an establishment
+the swarms of tourists that profaned every temple of gastronomy on the
+Rive Droit.
+
+The building was of three storeys, painted a dingy drab and trimmed
+with dull green shutters. The restaurant occupied almost all of the
+street front of the ground floor, a blank, non-committal double doorway
+at one extreme of its plate-glass windows was seldom open and even more
+seldom noticed.
+
+This doorway was squat and broad and closed the mouth of a wide,
+stone-walled passageway. In one of its two substantial wings of oak a
+smaller door had been cut for the convenience of Troyon's guests, who
+by this route gained the courtyard, a semi-roofed and shadowy place,
+cool on the hottest day. From the court a staircase, with an air of
+leading nowhere in particular, climbed lazily to the second storey and
+thereby justified its modest pretensions; for the two upper floors of
+Troyon's might have been plotted by a nightmare-ridden architect after
+witnessing one of the first of the Palais Royal farces.
+
+Above stairs, a mediaeval maze of corridors long and short, complicated
+by many unexpected steps and staircases and turns and enigmatic doors,
+ran every-which-way and as a rule landed one in the wrong room, linking
+together, in all, some two-score bed-chambers. There were no salons or
+reception-rooms, there was never a bath-room, there wasn't even running
+water aside from two hallway taps, one to each storey. The honoured
+guest and the exacting went to bed by lamplight: others put up with
+candlesticks: gas burned only in the corridors and the
+restaurant--asthmatic jets that, spluttering blue within globes obese,
+semi-opaque, and yellowish, went well with furnishings and decorations
+of the Second Empire to which years had lent a mellow and somehow
+rakish dinginess; since nothing was ever refurbished.
+
+With such accommodations the guests of Troyon's were well content. They
+were not many, to begin with, and they were almost all middle-aged
+bourgeois, a caste that resents innovations. They took Troyon's as they
+found it: the rooms suited them admirably, and the tariff was modest.
+Why do anything to disturb the perennial peace of so discreet and
+confidential an establishment? One did much as one pleased there,
+providing one's bill was paid with tolerable regularity and the hand
+kept supple that operated the cordon in the small hours of the night.
+Papa Troyon came from a tribe of inn-keepers and was liberal-minded;
+while as for Madame his wife, she cared for nothing but pieces of
+gold....
+
+To Troyon's on a wet winter night in the year 1893 came the child who
+as a man was to call himself Michael Lanyard.
+
+He must have been four or five years old at that time: an age at which
+consciousness is just beginning to recognize its individuality and
+memory registers with capricious irregularity. He arrived at the hotel
+in a state of excitement involving an almost abnormal sensitiveness to
+impressions; but that was soon drowned deep in dreamless slumbers of
+healthy exhaustion; and when he came to look back through a haze of
+days, of which each had made its separate and imperative demand upon
+his budding emotions, he found his store of memories strangely dulled
+and disarticulate.
+
+The earliest definite picture was that of himself, a small but vastly
+important figure, nursing a heavy heart in a dark corner of a fiacre.
+Beside him sat a man who swore fretfully into his moustache whenever
+the whimpering of the boy threatened to develop into honest bawls: a
+strange creature, with pockets full of candy and a way with little boys
+in public surly and domineering, in private timid and propitiatory. It
+was raining monotonously, with that melancholy persistence which is the
+genius of Parisian winters; and the paving of the interminable strange
+streets was as black glass shot with coloured lights. Some of the
+streets roared like famished beasts, others again were silent, if with
+a silence no less sinister. The rain made incessant crepitation on the
+roof of the fiacre, and the windows wept without respite. Within the
+cab a smell of mustiness contended feebly with the sickening reek of a
+cigar which the man was forever relighting and which as often turned
+cold between his teeth. Outside, unwearying hoofs were beating their
+deadly rhythm, _cloppetty-clop_....
+
+Back of all this lurked something formlessly alluring, something sad
+and sweet and momentous, which belonged very personally to the child
+but which he could never realize. Memory crept blindly toward it over a
+sword-wide bridge that had no end. There had been (or the boy had
+dreamed it) a long, weariful journey by railroad, the sequel to one by
+boat more brief but wholly loathsome. Beyond this point memory failed
+though sick with yearning. And the child gave over his instinctive but
+rather inconsecutive efforts to retrace his history: his daily life at
+Troyon's furnished compelling and obliterating interests.
+
+Madame saw to that.
+
+It was Madame who took charge of him when the strange man dragged him
+crying from the cab, through a cold, damp place gloomy with shadows,
+and up stairs to a warm bright bedroom: a formidable body, this Madame,
+with cold eyes and many hairy moles, who made odd noises in her throat
+while she undressed the little boy with the man standing by, noises
+meant to sound compassionate and maternal but, to the child at least,
+hopelessly otherwise.
+
+Then drowsiness stealing upon one over a pillow wet with tears ...
+oblivion....
+
+And Madame it was who ruled with iron hand the strange new world to
+which the boy awakened.
+
+The man was gone by morning, and the child never saw him again; but
+inasmuch as those about him understood no English and he no French, it
+was some time before he could grasp the false assurances of Madame that
+his father had gone on a journey but would presently return. The child
+knew positively that the man was not his father, but when he was able
+to make this correction the matter had faded into insignificance: life
+had become too painful to leave time or inclination for the adjustment
+of such minor and incidental questions as one's parentage.
+
+The little boy soon learned to know himself as Marcel, which wasn't his
+name, and before long was unaware he had ever had another. As he grew
+older he passed as Marcel Troyon; but by then he had forgotten how to
+speak English.
+
+A few days after his arrival the warm, bright bed-chamber was exchanged
+for a cold dark closet opening off Madame's boudoir, a cupboard
+furnished with a rickety cot and a broken chair, lacking any provision
+for heat or light, and ventilated solely by a transom over the door;
+and inasmuch as Madame shared the French horror of draughts and so kept
+her boudoir hermetically sealed nine months of the year, the transom
+didn't mend matters much. But that closet formed the boy's sole refuge,
+if a precarious one, through several years; there alone was he ever
+safe from kicks and cuffs and scoldings for faults beyond his
+comprehension; but he was never permitted a candle, and the darkness
+and loneliness made the place one of haunted terror to the sensitive
+and imaginative nature of a growing child.
+
+He was, however, never insufficiently fed; and the luxury of forgetting
+misery in sleep could not well be denied him.
+
+By day, until of age to go to school, he played apprehensively in the
+hallways with makeshift toys, a miserable, dejected little body with
+his heart in his mouth at every sudden footfall, very much in the way
+of femmes-de-chambre who had nothing in common with the warm-hearted,
+impulsive, pitiful serving women of fiction. They complained of him to
+Madame, and Madame came promptly to cuff him. He soon learned an almost
+uncanny cunning in the art of effacing himself, when she was imminent,
+to be as still as death and to move with the silence of a wraith. Not
+infrequently his huddled immobility in a shadowy corner escaped her
+notice as she passed. But it always exasperated her beyond measure to
+look up, when she fancied herself alone, and become aware of the
+wide-eyed, terrified stare of the transfixed boy....
+
+That he was privileged to attend school at all was wholly due to a
+great fear that obsessed Madame of doing anything to invite the
+interest of the authorities. She was an honest woman, according to her
+lights, an honest wife, and kept an honest house; but she feared the
+gendarmerie more than the Wrath of God. And by ukase of Government a
+certain amount of education was compulsory. So Marcel learned among
+other things to read, and thereby took his first blind step toward
+salvation.
+
+Reading being the one pastime which could be practiced without making a
+noise of any sort to attract undesirable attentions, the boy took to it
+in self-defence. But before long it had become his passion. He read, by
+stealth, everything that fell into his hands, a weird melange of
+newspapers, illustrated Parisian weeklies, magazines, novels: cullings
+from the debris of guest-chambers.
+
+Before Marcel was eleven he had read "Les Miserables" with intense
+appreciation.
+
+His reading, however, was not long confined to works in the French
+language. Now and again some departing guest would leave an English
+novel in his room, and these Marcel treasured beyond all other books;
+they seemed to him, in a way, part of his birthright. Secretly he
+called himself English in those days, because he knew he wasn't French:
+that much, at least, he remembered. And he spent long hours poring over
+the strange words until; at length, they came to seem less strange in
+his eyes. And then some accident threw his way a small English-French
+dictionary.
+
+He was able to read English before he could speak it.
+
+Out of school hours a drudge and scullion, the associate of scullions
+and their immediate betters, drawn from that caste of loose tongues and
+looser morals which breeds servants for small hotels, Marcel at eleven
+(as nearly as his age can be computed) possessed a comprehension of
+life at once exact, exhaustive and appalling.
+
+Perhaps it was fortunate that he lived without friendship. His concept
+of womanhood was incarnate in Madame Troyon; so he gave all the hotel
+women a wide berth.
+
+The men-servants he suffered in silence when they would permit it; but
+his nature was so thoroughly disassociated from anything within their
+experience that they resented him: a circumstance which exposed him to
+a certain amount of baiting not unlike that which the village idiot
+receives at the hands of rustic boors--until Marcel learned to defend
+himself with a tongue which could distil vitriol from the vernacular,
+and with fists and feet as well. Thereafter he was left severely to
+himself and glad of it, since it furnished him with just so much more
+time for reading and dreaming over what he read.
+
+By fifteen he had developed into a long, lank, loutish youth, with a
+face of extraordinary pallor, a sullen mouth, hot black eyes, and dark
+hair like a mane, so seldom was it trimmed. He looked considerably
+older than he was and the slightness of his body was deceptive,
+disguising a power of sinewy strength. More than this, he could care
+very handily for himself in a scrimmage: la savate had no secrets from
+him, and he had picked up tricks from the Apaches quite as effectual as
+any in the manual of jiu-jitsu. Paris he knew as you and I know the
+palms of our hands, and he could converse with the precision of the
+native-born in any one of the city's several odd argots.
+
+To these accomplishments he added that of a thoroughly practised petty
+thief.
+
+His duties were by day those of valet-de-chambre on the third floor; by
+night he acted as omnibus in the restaurant. For these services he
+received no pay and less consideration from his employers (who would
+have been horrified by the suggestion that they countenanced slavery)
+only his board and a bed in a room scarcely larger, if somewhat better
+ventilated, than the boudoir-closet from which he had long since been
+ousted. This room was on the ground floor, at the back of the house,
+and boasted a small window overlooking a narrow alley.
+
+He was routed out before daylight, and his working day ended as a rule
+at ten in the evening--though when there were performances on at the
+Odeon, the restaurant remained open until an indeterminate hour for the
+accommodation of the supper trade.
+
+Once back in his kennel, its door closed and bolted, Marcel was free to
+squirm out of the window and roam and range Paris at will. And it was
+thus that he came by most of his knowledge of the city.
+
+But for the most part Marcel preferred to lie abed and read himself
+half-blind by the light of purloined candle-ends. Books he borrowed as
+of old from the rooms of guests or else pilfered from quai-side stalls
+and later sold to dealers in more distant quarters of the city. Now and
+again, when he needed some work not to be acquired save through
+outright purchase, the guests would pay further if unconscious tribute
+through the sly abstraction of small coins. Your true Parisian,
+however, keeps track of his money to the ultimate sou, an idiosyncrasy
+which obliged the boy to practise most of his peculations on the
+fugitive guest of foreign extraction.
+
+In the number of these, perhaps the one best known to Troyon's was
+Bourke.
+
+He was a quick, compact, dangerous little Irishman who had fallen into
+the habit of "resting" at Troyon's whenever a vacation from London
+seemed a prescription apt to prove wholesome for a gentleman of his
+kidney; which was rather frequently, arguing that Bourke's professional
+activities were fairly onerous.
+
+Having received most of his education in Dublin University, Bourke
+spoke the purest English known, or could when so minded, while his
+facile Irish tongue had caught the trick of an accent which passed
+unchallenged on the Boulevardes. He had an alert eye for pretty women,
+a heart as big as all out-doors, no scruples worth mentioning, a secret
+sorrow, and a pet superstition.
+
+The colour of his hair, a clamorous red, was the spring of his secret
+sorrow. By that token he was a marked man. At irregular intervals he
+made frantic attempts to disguise it; but the only dye that would serve
+at all was a jet-black and looked like the devil in contrast with his
+high colouring. Moreover, before a week passed, the red would crop up
+again wherever the hair grew thin, lending him the appearance of a
+badly-singed pup.
+
+His pet superstition was that, as long as he refrained from practising
+his profession in Paris, Paris would remain his impregnable Tower of
+Refuge. The world owed Bourke a living, or he so considered; and it
+must be allowed that he made collections on account with tolerable
+regularity and success; but Paris was tax-exempt as long as Paris
+offered him immunity from molestation.
+
+Not only did Paris suit his tastes excellently, but there was no place,
+in Bourke's esteem, comparable with Troyon's for peace and quiet.
+Hence, the continuity of his patronage was never broken by trials of
+rival hostelries; and Troyon's was always expecting Bourke for the
+simple reason that he invariably arrived unexpectedly, with neither
+warning nor ostentation, to stop as long as he liked, whether a day or
+a week or a month, and depart in the same manner.
+
+His daily routine, as Troyon's came to know it, varied but slightly: he
+breakfasted abed, about half after ten, lounged in his room or the cafe
+all day if the weather were bad, or strolled peacefully in the gardens
+of the Luxembourg if it were good, dined early and well but always
+alone, and shortly afterward departed by cab for some well-known bar on
+the Rive Droit; whence, it is to be presumed, he moved on to other
+resorts, for he never was home when the house was officially closed for
+the night, the hours of his return remaining a secret between himself
+and the concierge.
+
+On retiring, Bourke would empty his pockets upon the dressing-table,
+where the boy Marcel, bringing up Bourke's petit dejeuner the next
+morning, would see displayed a tempting confusion of gold and silver
+and copper, with a wad of bank-notes, and the customary assortment of
+personal hardware.
+
+Now inasmuch as Bourke was never wide-awake at that hour, and always
+after acknowledging Marcel's "bon jour" rolled over and snored for
+Glory and the Saints, it was against human nature to resist the allure
+of that dressing-table. Marcel seldom departed without a coin or two.
+
+He had yet to learn that Bourke's habits were those of an Englishman,
+who never goes to bed without leaving all his pocket-money in plain
+sight and--carefully catalogued in his memory....
+
+One morning in the spring of 1904 Marcel served Bourke his last
+breakfast at Troyon's.
+
+The Irishman had been on the prowl the previous night, and his rasping
+snore was audible even through the closed door when Marcel knocked and,
+receiving no answer, used the pass-key and entered.
+
+At this the snore was briefly interrupted; Bourke, visible at first
+only as a flaming shock of hair protruding from the bedclothes,
+squirmed an eye above his artificial horizon, opened it, mumbled
+inarticulate acknowledgment of Marcel's salutation, and passed
+blatantly into further slumbers.
+
+Marcel deposited his tray on a table beside the bed, moved quietly to
+the windows, closed them, and drew the lace curtains together. The
+dressing-table between the windows displayed, amid the silver and
+copper, more gold coins than it commonly did--some eighteen or twenty
+louis altogether. Adroitly abstracting en passant a piece of ten
+francs, Marcel went on his way rejoicing, touched a match to the fire
+all ready-laid in the grate, and was nearing the door when, casting one
+casual parting glance at the bed, he became aware of a notable
+phenomenon: the snoring was going on lustily, but Bourke was watching
+him with both eyes wide and filled with interest.
+
+Startled and, to tell the truth, a bit indignant, the boy stopped as
+though at word of command. But after the first flash of astonishment
+his young face hardened to immobility. Only his eyes remained constant
+to Bourke's.
+
+The Irishman, sitting up in bed, demanded and received the piece of ten
+francs, and went on to indict the boy for the embezzlement of several
+sums running into a number of louis.
+
+Marcel, reflecting that Bourke's reckoning was still some louis shy,
+made no bones about pleading guilty. Interrogated, the culprit deposed
+that he had taken the money because he needed it to buy books. No, he
+wasn't sorry. Yes, it was probable that, granted further opportunity,
+he would do it again. Advised that he was apparently a case-hardened
+young criminal, he replied that youth was not his fault; with years and
+experience he would certainly improve.
+
+Puzzled by the boy's attitude, Bourke agitated his hair and wondered
+aloud how Marcel would like it if his employers were informed of his
+peculations.
+
+Marcel looked pained and pointed out that such a course on the part of
+Bourke would be obviously unfair; the only real difference between
+them, he explained, was that where he filched a louis Bourke filched
+thousands; and if Bourke insisted on turning him over to the mercy of
+Madame and Papa Troyon, who would certainly summon a sergent de ville,
+he, Marcel, would be quite justified in retaliating by telling the
+Prefecture de Police all he knew about Bourke.
+
+This was no chance shot, and took the Irishman between wind and water;
+and when, dismayed, he blustered, demanding to know what the boy meant
+by his damned impudence, Marcel quietly advised him that one knew what
+one knew: if one read the English newspaper in the cafe, as Marcel did,
+one could hardly fail to remark that monsieur always came to Paris
+after some notable burglary had been committed in London; and if one
+troubled to follow monsieur by night, as Marcel had, it became evident
+that monsieur's first calls in Paris were invariably made at the
+establishment of a famous fence in the rue des Trois Freres; and,
+finally, one drew one's own conclusions when strangers dining in the
+restaurant--as on the night before, by way of illustration--strangers
+who wore all the hall-marks of police detectives from
+England--catechised one about a person whose description was the
+portrait of Bourke, and promised a hundred-franc note for information
+concerning the habits and whereabouts of that person, if seen.
+
+Marcel added, while Bourke gasped for breath, that the gentleman in
+question had spoken to him alone, in the absence of other waiters, and
+had been fobbed off with a lie.
+
+But why--Bourke wanted to know--had Marcel lied to save him, when the
+truth would have earned him a hundred francs?
+
+"Because," Marcel explained coolly, "I, too, am a thief. Monsieur will
+perceive it was a matter of professional honour."
+
+Now the Irish have their faults, but ingratitude is not of their number.
+
+Bourke, packing hastily to leave Paris, France and Europe by the
+fastest feasible route, still found time to question Marcel briefly;
+and what he learned from the boy about his antecedents so worked with
+gratitude upon the sentimental nature of the Celt, that when on the
+third day following the Cunarder Carpathia left Naples for New York,
+she carried not only a gentleman whose brilliant black hair and glowing
+pink complexion rendered him a bit too conspicuous among her
+first-cabin passengers for his own comfort, but also in the second
+cabin his valet--a boy of sixteen who looked eighteen.
+
+The gentleman's name on the passenger-list didn't, of course, in the
+least resemble Bourke. His valet's was given as Michael Lanyard.
+
+The origin of this name is obscure; Michael being easily corrupted into
+good Irish Mickey may safely be attributed to Bourke; Lanyard has a
+tang of the sea which suggests a reminiscence of some sea-tale prized
+by the pseudo Marcel Troyon.
+
+In New York began the second stage in the education of a professional
+criminal. The boy must have searched far for a preceptor of more sound
+attainments than Bourke. It is, however, only fair to say that Bourke
+must have looked as far for an apter pupil. Under his tutelage, Michael
+Lanyard learned many things; he became a mathematician of considerable
+promise, an expert mechanician, a connoisseur of armour-plate and
+explosives in their more pacific applications, and he learned to grade
+precious stones with a glance. Also, because Bourke was born of
+gentlefolk, he learned to speak English, what clothes to wear and when
+to wear them, and the civilized practice with knife and fork at table.
+And because Bourke was a diplomatist of sorts, Marcel acquired the
+knack of being at ease in every grade of society: he came to know that
+a self-made millionaire, taken the right way, is as approachable as one
+whose millions date back even unto the third generation; he could order
+a dinner at Sherry's as readily as drinks at Sharkey's. Most valuable
+accomplishment of all, he learned to laugh. In the way of by-products
+he picked up a working acquaintance with American, English and German
+slang--French slang he already knew as a mother-tongue--considerable
+geographical knowledge of the capitals of Europe, America and Illinois,
+a taste that discriminated between tobacco and the stuff sold as such
+in France, and a genuine passion for good paintings.
+
+Finally Bourke drilled into his apprentice the three cardinal
+principles of successful cracksmanship: to know his ground thoroughly
+before venturing upon it; to strike and retreat with the swift
+precision of a hawk; to be friendless.
+
+And the last of these was the greatest.
+
+"You're a promising lad," he said--so often that Lanyard would almost
+wince from that formula of introduction--"a promising lad, though it's
+sad I should be to say it, instead of proud as I am. For I've made you:
+but for me you'd long since have matriculated at La Tour Pointue and
+graduated with the canaille of the Sante. And in time you may become a
+first-chop operator, which I'm not and never will be; but if you do,
+'twill be through fighting shy of two things. The first of them's
+Woman, and the second is Man. To make a friend of a man you must lower
+your guard. Ordinarily 'tis fatal. As for Woman, remember this, m'lad:
+to let love into your life you must open a door no mortal hand can
+close. And God only knows what'll follow in. If ever you find you've
+fallen in love and can't fall out, cut the game on the instant, or
+you'll end wearing stripes or broad arrows--the same as myself would,
+if this cursed cough wasn't going to be the death of me.... No, m'lad:
+take a fool's advice (you'll never get better) and when you're shut of
+me, which will be soon, I'm thinking, take the Lonesome Road and stick
+to the middle of it. 'He travels the fastest that travels alone' is a
+true saying, but 'tis only half the truth: he travels the farthest into
+the bargain.... Yet the Lonesome Road has its drawbacks, lad--it's
+_damned_ lonely!"
+
+Bourke died in Switzerland, of consumption, in the winter of
+1910--Lanyard at his side till the end.
+
+Then the boy set his face against the world: alone, lonely, and
+remembering.
+
+
+
+II
+
+RETURN
+
+His return to Troyon's, whereas an enterprise which Lanyard had been
+contemplating for several years--in fact, ever since the death of
+Bourke--came to pass at length almost purely as an affair of impulse.
+
+He had come through from London by the afternoon service--via
+Boulogne--travelling light, with nothing but a brace of handbags and
+his life in his hands. Two coups to his credit since the previous
+midnight had made the shift advisable, though only one of them, the
+later, rendered it urgent.
+
+Scotland Yard would, he reckoned, require at least twenty-four hours to
+unlimber for action on the Omber affair; but the other, the theft of
+the Huysman plans, though not consummated before noon, must have set
+the Chancelleries of at least three Powers by the ears before Lanyard
+was fairly entrained at Charing Cross.
+
+Now his opinion of Scotland Yard was low; its emissaries must operate
+gingerly to keep within the laws they serve. But the agents of the
+various Continental secret services have a way of making their own laws
+as they go along: and for these Lanyard entertained a respect little
+short of profound.
+
+He would not have been surprised had he ran foul of trouble on the pier
+at Folkestone. Boulogne, as well, figured in his imagination as a
+crucial point: its harbour lights, heaving up over the grim grey waste,
+peered through the deepening violet dusk to find him on the packet's
+deck, responding to their curious stare with one no less insistently
+inquiring.... But it wasn't until in the gauntlet of the Gare du Nord
+itself that he found anything to shy at.
+
+Dropping from train to platform, he surrendered his luggage to a ready
+facteur, and followed the man through the crush, elbowed and
+shouldered, offended by the pervasive reek of chilled steam and
+coal-gas, and dazzled by the brilliant glare of the overhanging
+electric arcs.
+
+Almost the first face he saw turned his way was that of Roddy.
+
+The man from Scotland Yard was stationed at one side of the platform
+gates. Opposite him stood another known by sight to Lanyard--a highly
+decorative official from the Prefecture de Police. Both were scanning
+narrowly every face in the tide that churned between them.
+
+Wondering if through some fatal freak of fortuity these were acting
+under late telegraphic advice from London, Lanyard held himself well in
+hand: the first sign of intent to hinder him would prove the signal for
+a spectacular demonstration of the ungentle art of not getting caught
+with the goods on. And for twenty seconds, while the crowd milled
+slowly through the narrow exit, he was as near to betraying himself as
+he had ever been--nearer, for he had marked down the point on Roddy's
+jaw where his first blow would fall, and just where to plant a
+coup-de-savate most surely to incapacitate the minion of the
+Prefecture; and all the while was looking the two over with a manner of
+the most calm and impersonal curiosity.
+
+But beyond an almost imperceptible narrowing of Roddy's eyes when they
+met his own, as if the Englishman were struggling with a faulty memory,
+neither police agent betrayed the least recognition.
+
+And then Lanyard was outside the station, his facteur introducing him
+to a ramshackle taxicab.
+
+No need to speculate whether or not Roddy were gazing after him; in the
+ragged animal who held the door while Lanyard fumbled for his facteur's
+tip, he recognized a runner for the Prefecture; and beyond question
+there were many such about. If any lingering doubt should trouble
+Roddy's mind he need only ask, "Such-and-such an one took what cab and
+for what destination?" to be instantly and accurately informed.
+
+In such case to go directly to his apartment, that handy little
+rez-de-chaussee near the Trocadero, was obviously inadvisable. Without
+apparent hesitation Lanyard directed the driver to the Hotel Lutetia,
+tossed the ragged spy a sou, and was off to the tune of a slammed door
+and a motor that sorely needed overhauling....
+
+The rain, which had welcomed the train a few miles from Paris, was in
+the city torrential. Few wayfarers braved the swimming sidewalks, and
+the little clusters of chairs and tables beneath permanent cafe awnings
+were one and all neglected. But in the roadways an amazing concourse of
+vehicles, mostly motor-driven, skimmed, skidded, and shot over
+burnished asphalting all, of course, at top-speed--else this were not
+Paris. Lanyard thought of insects on the surface of some dark forest
+pool....
+
+The roof of the cab rang like a drumhead; the driver blinked through
+the back-splatter from his rubber apron; now and again the tyres lost
+grip on the treacherous going and provided instants of lively suspense.
+Lanyard lowered a window to release the musty odour peculiar to French
+taxis, got well peppered with moisture, and promptly put it up again.
+Then insensibly he relaxed, in the toils of memories roused by the
+reflection that this night fairly duplicated that which had welcomed
+him to Paris, twenty years ago.
+
+It was then that, for the first time in several months, he thought
+definitely of Troyon's.
+
+And it was then that Chance ordained that his taxicab should skid. On
+the point of leaving the Ile de la Cite by way of the Pont St. Michel,
+it suddenly (one might pardonably have believed) went mad, darting
+crabwise from the middle of the road to the right-hand footway with
+evident design to climb the rail and make an end to everything in the
+Seine. The driver regained control barely in time to avert a tragedy,
+and had no more than accomplished this much when a bit of broken glass
+gutted one of the rear tyres, which promptly gave up the ghost with a
+roar like that of a lusty young cannon.
+
+At this the driver (apparently a person of religious bias) said
+something heartfelt about the sacred name of his pipe and, crawling
+from under the apron, turned aft to assess damages.
+
+On his own part Lanyard swore in sound Saxon, opened the door, and
+delivered himself to the pelting shower.
+
+"Well?" he enquired after watching the driver muzzle the eviscerated
+tyre for some eloquent moments.
+
+Turning up a distorted face, the other gesticulated with profane
+abandon, by way of good measure interpolating a few disconnected words
+and phrases. Lanyard gathered that this was the second accident of the
+same nature since noon that the cab consequently lacked a spare tyre,
+and that short of a trip to the garage the accident was irremediable.
+So he said (intelligently) it couldn't be helped, paid the man and over
+tipped precisely as though their journey had been successfully
+consummated, and standing over his luggage watched the maimed vehicle
+limp miserably off through the teeming mists.
+
+Now in normal course his plight should have been relieved within two
+minutes. But it wasn't. For some time all such taxis as did pass
+displayed scornfully inverted flags. Also, their drivers jeered in
+their pleasing Parisian way at the lonely outlander occupying a
+position of such uncommon distinction in the heart of the storm and the
+precise middle of the Pont St. Michel.
+
+Over to the left, on the Quai de Marche Neuf, the facade of the
+Prefecture frowned portentously--"La Tour Pointue," as the Parisian
+loves to term it. Lanyard forgot his annoyance long enough to salute
+that grim pile with a mocking bow, thinking of the men therein who
+would give half their possessions to lay hands on him who was only a
+few hundred yards distant, marooned in the rain!...
+
+In its own good time a night-prowling fiacre ambled up and veered over
+to his hail. He viewed this stroke of good-fortune with intense
+disgust: the shambling, weather-beaten animal between the shafts
+promised a long, damp crawl to the Lutetia.
+
+And on this reflection he yielded to impulse.
+
+Heaving in his luggage--"Troyon's!" he told the cocher....
+
+The fiacre lumbered off into that dark maze of streets, narrow and
+tortuous, which backs up from the Seine to the Luxembourg, while its
+fare reflected that Fate had not served him so hardly after all: if
+Roddy had really been watching for him at the Gare du Nord, with a mind
+to follow and wait for his prey to make some incriminating move, this
+chance-contrived change of vehicles and destination would throw the
+detective off the scent and gain the adventurer, at worst, several
+hours' leeway.
+
+When at length his conveyance drew up at the historic corner, Lanyard
+alighting could have rubbed his eyes to see the windows of Troyon's all
+bright with electric light.
+
+Somehow, and most unreasonably, he had always believed the place would
+go to the hands of the house-wrecker unchanged.
+
+A smart portier ducked out, seized his luggage, and offered an
+umbrella. Lanyard composed his features to immobility as he entered the
+hotel, of no mind to let the least flicker of recognition be detected
+in his eyes when they should re-encounter familiar faces.
+
+And this was quite as well: for--again--the first he saw was Roddy.
+
+
+
+III
+
+A POINT OF INTERROGATION
+
+The man from Scotland Yard had just surrendered hat, coat, and umbrella
+to the vestiaire and was turning through swinging doors to the
+dining-room. Again, embracing Lanyard, his glance seemed devoid of any
+sort of intelligible expression; and if its object needed all his
+self-possession in that moment, it was to dissemble relief rather than
+dismay. An accent of the fortuitous distinguished this second encounter
+too persuasively to excuse further misgivings. What the adventurer
+himself hadn't known till within the last ten minutes, that he was
+coming to Troyon's, Roddy couldn't possibly have anticipated; ergo,
+whatever the detective's business, it had nothing to do with Lanyard.
+
+Furthermore, before quitting the lobby, Roddy paused long enough to
+instruct the vestiaire to have a fire laid in his room.
+
+So he was stopping at Troyon's--and didn't care who knew it!
+
+His doubts altogether dissipated by this incident, Lanyard followed his
+natural enemy into the dining-room with an air as devil-may-care as one
+could wish and so impressive that the maitre-d'hotel abandoned the
+detective to the mercies of one of his captains and himself hastened to
+seat Lanyard and take his order.
+
+This last disposed of; Lanyard surrendered himself to new
+impressions--of which the first proved a bit disheartening.
+
+However impulsively, he hadn't resought Troyon's without definite
+intent, to wit, to gain some clue, however slender, to the mystery of
+that wretched child, Marcel. But now it appeared he had procrastinated
+fatally: Time and Change had left little other than the shell of the
+Troyon's he remembered. Papa Troyon was gone; Madame no longer occupied
+the desk of the caisse; enquiries, so discreetly worded as to be
+uncompromising, elicited from the maitre-d'hotel the information that
+the house had been under new management these eighteen months; the old
+proprietor was dead, and his widow had sold out lock, stock and barrel,
+and retired to the country--it was not known exactly where. And with
+the new administration had come fresh decorations and furnishings as
+well as a complete change of personnel: not even one of the old waiters
+remained.
+
+"'All, all are gone, the old familiar faces,'" Lanyard quoted in
+vindictive melancholy--"damn 'em!"
+
+Happily, it was soon demonstrated that the cuisine was being maintained
+on its erstwhile plane of excellence: one still had that comfort....
+
+Other impressions, less ultimate, proved puzzling, disconcerting, and
+paradoxically reassuring.
+
+Lanyard commanded a fair view of Roddy across the waist of the room.
+The detective had ordered a meal that matched his aspect well--both of
+true British simplicity. He was a square-set man with a square jaw,
+cold blue eyes, a fat nose, a thin-lipped trap of a mouth, a face as
+red as rare beefsteak. His dinner comprised a cut from the joint,
+boiled potatoes, brussels sprouts, a bit of cheese, a bottle of Bass.
+He ate slowly, chewing with the doggedness of a strong character
+hampered by a weak digestion, and all the while kept eyes fixed to an
+issue of the Paris edition of the London Daily Mail, with an effect of
+concentration quite too convincing.
+
+Now one doesn't read the Paris edition of the London Daily Mail with
+tense excitement. Humanly speaking, it can't be done.
+
+Where, then, was the object of this so sedulously dissembled interest?
+
+Lanyard wasn't slow to read this riddle to his satisfaction--in as far,
+that is, as it was satisfactory to feel still more certain that Roddy's
+quarry was another than himself.
+
+Despite the lateness of the hour, which had by now turned ten o'clock,
+the restaurant had a dozen tables or so in the service of guests
+pleasantly engaged in lengthening out an agreeable evening with
+dessert, coffee, liqueurs and cigarettes. The majority of these were in
+couples, but at a table one removed from Roddy's sat a party of three;
+and Lanyard noticed, or fancied, that the man from Scotland Yard turned
+his newspaper only during lulls in the conversation in this quarter.
+
+Of the three, one might pass for an American of position and wealth: a
+man of something more than sixty years, with an execrable accent, a
+racking cough, and a thin, patrician cast of features clouded darkly by
+the expression of a soul in torment, furrowed, seamed, twisted--a mask
+of mortal anguish. And once, when this one looked up and casually
+encountered Lanyard's gaze, the adventurer was shocked to find himself
+staring into eyes like those of a dead man: eyes of a grey so light
+that at a little distance the colour of the irises blended
+indistinguishably with their whites, leaving visible only the round
+black points of pupils abnormally distended and staring, blank, fixed,
+passionless, beneath lashless lids.
+
+For the instant they seemed to explore Lanyard's very soul with a look
+of remote and impersonal curiosity; then they fell away; and when next
+the adventurer looked, the man had turned to attend to some observation
+of one of his companions.
+
+On his right sat a girl who might be his daughter; for not only was
+she, too, hall-marked American, but she was far too young to be the
+other's wife. A demure, old-fashioned type; well-poised but unassuming;
+fetchingly gowned and with sufficient individuality of taste but not
+conspicuously; a girl with soft brown hair and soft brown eyes; pretty,
+not extravagantly so when her face was in repose, but with a slow smile
+that rendered her little less than beautiful: in all (Lanyard thought)
+the kind of woman that is predestined to comfort mankind, whose
+strongest instinct is the maternal.
+
+She took little part in the conversation, seldom interrupting what was
+practically a duologue between her putative father and the third of
+their party.
+
+This last was one, whom Lanyard was sure he knew, though he could see
+no more than the back of Monsieur le Comte Remy de Morbihan.
+
+And he wondered with a thrill of amusement if it were possible that
+Roddy was on the trail of that tremendous buck. If so, it would be a
+chase worth following--a diversion rendered the more exquisite to
+Lanyard by the spice of novelty, since for once he would figure as a
+dispassionate bystander.
+
+The name of Comte Remy de Morbihan, although unrecorded in the Almanach
+de Gotha, was one to conjure with in the Paris of his day and
+generation. He claimed the distinction of being at once the homeliest,
+one of the wealthiest, and the most-liked man in France.
+
+As to his looks, good or bad, they were said to prove infallibly fatal
+with women, while not a few men, perhaps for that reason, did their
+possessor the honour to imitate them. The revues burlesqued him; Sem
+caricatured him; Forain counterfeited him extensively in that
+inimitable series of Monday morning cartoons for Le Figaro: one said
+"De Morbihan" instinctively at sight of that stocky figure, short and
+broad, topped by a chubby, moon-like mask with waxed moustaches,
+womanish eyes, and never-failing grin.
+
+A creature of proverbial good-nature and exhaustless vitality, his
+extraordinary popularity was due to the equally extraordinary
+extravagance with which he supported that latest Gallic fad, "le
+Sport." The Parisian Rugby team was his pampered protege, he was an
+active member of the Tennis Club, maintained not only a flock of
+automobiles but a famous racing stable, rode to hounds, was a good
+field gun, patronized aviation and motor-boat racing, risked as many
+maximums during the Monte Carlo season as the Grand Duke Michael
+himself, and was always ready to whet rapiers or burn a little harmless
+powder of an early morning in the Parc aux Princes.
+
+But there were ugly whispers current with respect to the sources of his
+fabulous wealth. Lanyard, for one, wouldn't have thought him the
+properest company or the best Parisian cicerone for an ailing American
+gentleman blessed with independent means and an attractive daughter.
+
+Paris, on the other hand--Paris who forgives everything to him who
+contributes to her amusement--adored Comte Remy de Morbihan ...
+
+But perhaps Lanyard was prejudiced by his partiality for Americans, a
+sentiment the outgrowth of the years spent in New York with Bourke. He
+even fancied that between his spirit and theirs existed some subtle
+bond of sympathy. For all he knew he might himself be American...
+
+For some time Lanyard strained to catch something of the conversation
+that seemed to hold so much of interest for Roddy, but without success
+because of the hum of voices that filled the room. In time, however,
+the gathering began to thin out, until at length there remained only
+this party of three, Lanyard enjoying a most delectable salad, and
+Roddy puffing a cigar (with such a show of enjoyment that Lanyard
+suspected him of the sin of smuggling) and slowly gulping down a second
+bottle of Bass.
+
+Under these conditions the talk between De Morbihan and the Americans
+became public property.
+
+The first remark overheard by Lanyard came from the elderly American,
+following a pause and a consultation of his watch.
+
+"Quarter to eleven," he announced.
+
+"Plenty of time," said De Morbihan cheerfully. "That is," he amended,
+"if mademoiselle isn't bored ..."
+
+The girl's reply, accompanied by a pretty inclination of her head
+toward the Frenchman, was lost in the accents of the first speaker--a
+strong and sonorous voice, in strange contrast with his ravaged
+appearance and distressing cough.
+
+"Don't let that worry you," he advised cheerfully. "Lucia's accustomed
+to keeping late hours with me; and who ever heard of a young and pretty
+woman being bored on the third day of her first visit to Paris?"
+
+He pronounced the name with the hard C of the Italian tongue, as though
+it were spelled Luchia.
+
+"To be sure," laughed the Frenchman; "one suspects it will be long
+before mademoiselle loses interest in the rue de la Paix."
+
+"You may well, when such beautiful things come from it," said the girl.
+"See what we found there to-day."
+
+She slipped a ring from her hand and passed it to De Morbihan.
+
+There followed silence for an instant, then an exclamation from the
+Frenchman:
+
+"But it is superb! Accept, mademoiselle, my compliments. It is worthy
+even of you."
+
+She flushed prettily as she nodded smiling acknowledgement.
+
+"Ah, you Americans!" De Morbihan sighed. "You fill us with envy: you
+have the souls of poets and the wealth of princes!"
+
+"But we must come to Paris to find beautiful things for our women-folk!"
+
+"Take care, though, lest you go too far, Monsieur Bannon."
+
+"How so--too far?"
+
+"You might attract the attention of the Lone Wolf. They say he's on the
+prowl once more."
+
+The American laughed a trace contemptuously. Lanyard's fingers
+tightened on his knife and fork; otherwise he made no sign. A sidelong
+glance into a mirror at his elbow showed Roddy still absorbed in the
+Daily Mail.
+
+The girl bent forward with a look of eager interest.
+
+"The Lone Wolf? Who is that?"
+
+"You don't know him in America, mademoiselle?"
+
+"No...."
+
+"The Lone Wolf, my dear Lucia," the valetudinarian explained in a dryly
+humourous tone, "is the sobriquet fastened by some imaginative French
+reporter upon a celebrated criminal who seems to have made himself
+something of a pest over here, these last few years. Nobody knows
+anything definite about him, apparently, but he operates in a most
+individual way and keeps the police busy trying to guess where he'll
+strike next."
+
+The girl breathed an incredulous exclamation.
+
+"But I assure you!" De Morbihan protested. "The rogue has had a
+wonderfully successful career, thanks to his dispensing with
+confederates and confining his depredations to jewels and similar
+valuables, portable and easy to convert into cash. Yet," he added,
+nodding sagely, "one isn't afraid to predict his race is almost run."
+"You don't tell me!" the older man exclaimed. "Have they picked up the
+scent--at last?"
+
+"The man is known," De Morbihan affirmed.
+
+By now the conversation had caught the interest of several loitering
+waiters, who were listening open-mouthed. Even Roddy seemed a bit
+startled, and for once forgot to make business with his newspaper; but
+his wondering stare was exclusively for De Morbihan.
+
+Lanyard put down knife and fork, swallowed a final mouthful of Haut
+Brion, and lighted a cigarette with the hand of a man who knew not the
+meaning of nerves.
+
+"Garcon!" he called quietly; and ordered coffee and cigars, with a
+liqueur to follow....
+
+"Known!" the American exclaimed. "They've caught him, eh?"
+
+"I didn't say that," De Morbihan laughed; "but the mystery is no
+more--in certain quarters."
+
+"Who is he, then?"
+
+"That--monsieur will pardon me--I'm not yet free to state. Indeed, I
+may be indiscreet in saying as much as I do. Yet, among friends..."
+
+His shrug implied that, as far as _he_ was concerned, waiters were
+unhuman and the other guests of the establishment non-existent.
+
+"But," the American persisted, "perhaps you can tell us how they got on
+his track?"
+
+"It wasn't difficult," said De Morbihan: "indeed, quite simple. This
+tone of depreciation is becoming, for it was my part to suggest the
+solution to my friend, the Chief of the Surete. He had been annoyed and
+distressed, had even spoken of handing in his resignation because of
+his inability to cope with this gentleman, the Lone Wolf. And since he
+is my friend, I too was distressed on his behalf, and badgered my poor
+wits until they chanced upon an idea which led us to the light."
+
+"You won't tell us?" the girl protested, with a little moue of
+disappointment, as the Frenchman paused provokingly.
+
+"Perhaps I shouldn't. And yet--why not? As I say, it was elementary
+reasoning--a mere matter of logical deduction and elimination. One made
+up one's mind the Lone Wolf must be a certain sort of man; the rest was
+simply sifting France for the man to fit the theory, and then watching
+him until he gave himself away."
+
+"You don't imagine we're going to let you stop there?" The American
+demanded in an aggrieved tone.
+
+"No? I must continue? Very well: I confess to some little pride. It was
+a feat. He is cunning, that one!"
+
+De Morbihan paused and shifted sideways in his chair, grinning like a
+mischievous child.
+
+By this manoeuvre, thanks to the arrangement of mirrors lining the
+walls, he commanded an indirect view of Lanyard; a fact of which the
+latter was not unaware, though his expression remained unchanged as he
+sat--with a corner of his eye reserved for Roddy--speculating whether
+De Morbihan were telling the truth or only boasting for his own
+glorification.
+
+"Do go on--please!" the girl begged prettily.
+
+"I can deny you nothing, mademoiselle.... Well, then! From what little
+was known of this mysterious creature, one readily inferred he must be
+a bachelor, with no close friends. That is clear, I trust?"
+
+"Too deep for me, my friend," the elderly man confessed.
+
+"Impenetrable reticence," the Count expounded, sententious--and
+enjoying himself hugely--"isn't possible in the human relations. Sooner
+or later one is doomed to share one's secrets, however reluctantly,
+even unconsciously, with a wife, a mistress, a child, or with some
+trusted friend. And a secret between two is--a prolific breeder of
+platitudes! Granted this line of reasoning, the Lone Wolf is of
+necessity not only unmarried but practically friendless. Other
+attributes of his will obviously comprise youth, courage, imagination,
+a rather high order of intelligence, and a social position--let us say,
+rather, an ostensible business--enabling him to travel at will hither
+and yon without exciting comment. So far, good! My friend the Chief of
+the Surete forthwith commissioned his agents to seek such an one, and
+by this means several fine fish were enmeshed in the net of suspicion,
+carefully scrutinized, and one by one let go--all except one, the
+veritable man. Him they sedulously watched, shadowing him across Europe
+and back again. He was in Berlin at the time of the famous Rheinart
+robbery, though he compassed that coup without detection; he was in
+Vienna when the British embassy there was looted, but escaped by a
+clever ruse and managed to dispose of his plunder before the agents of
+the Surete could lay hands on him; recently he has been in London, and
+there he made love to, and ran away with, the diamonds of a certain
+lady of some eminence. You have heard of Madame Omber, eh?" Now by
+Roddy's expression it was plain that, if Madame Omber's name wasn't
+strange in his hearing, at least he found this news about her most
+surprising. He was frankly staring, with a slackened jaw and with
+stupefaction in his blank blue eyes.
+
+Lanyard gently pinched the small end of a cigar, dipped it into his
+coffee, and lighted it with not so much as a suspicion of tremor. His
+brain, however, was working rapidly in effort to determine whether De
+Morbihan meant this for warning, or was simply narrating an amusing
+yarn founded on advance information and amplified by an ingenious
+imagination. For by now the news of the Omber affair must have thrilled
+many a Continental telegraph-wire....
+
+"Madame Omber--of course!" the American agreed thoughtfully. "Everyone
+has heard of her wonderful jewels. The real marvel is that the Lone
+Wolf neglected so shining a mark as long as he did."
+
+"But truly so, monsieur!"
+
+"And they caught him at it, eh?"
+
+"Not precisely: but he left a clue--and London, to boot--with such
+haste as would seem to indicate he knew his cunning hand had, for once,
+slipped."
+
+"Then they'll nab him soon?"
+
+"Ah, monsieur, one must say no more!" De Morbihan protested. "Rest
+assured the Chief of the Surete has laid his plans: his web is spun,
+and so artfully that I think our unsociable outlaw will soon be making
+friends in the Prison of the Sante.... But now we must adjourn. One is
+sorry. It has been so very pleasant...."
+
+A waiter conjured the bill from some recess of his waistcoat and served
+it on a clean plate to the American. Another ran bawling for the
+vestiaire. Roddy glued his gaze afresh to the Daily Mail. The party
+rose.
+
+Lanyard noticed that the American signed instead of settling the bill
+with cash, indicating that he resided at Troyon's as well as dined
+there. And the adventurer found time to reflect that it was odd for
+such as he to seek that particular establishment in preference to the
+palatial modern hostelries of the Rive Droit--before De Morbihan,
+ostensibly for the first time espying Lanyard, plunged across the room
+with both hands outstretched and a cry of joyous surprise not really
+justified by their rather slight acquaintanceship.
+
+"Ah! Ah!" he clamoured vivaciously. "It is Monsieur Lanyard, who knows
+all about paintings! But this is delightful, my friend--one grand
+pleasure! You must know my friends.... But come!"
+
+And seizing Lanyard's hands, when that one somewhat reluctantly rose in
+response to this surprisingly over-exuberant greeting, he dragged him
+willy-nilly from behind his table.
+
+"And you are American, too. Certainly you must know one another.
+Mademoiselle Bannon--with your permission--my friend, Monsieur Lanyard.
+And Monsieur Bannon--an old, dear friend, with whom you will share a
+passion for the beauties of art."
+
+The hand of the American, when Lanyard clasped it, was cold, as cold as
+ice; and as their eyes met that abominable cough laid hold of the man,
+as it were by the nape of his neck, and shook him viciously. Before it
+had finished with him, his sensitively coloured face was purple, and he
+was gasping, breathless--and infuriated.
+
+"Monsieur Bannon," De Morbihan explained disconnectedly--"it is most
+distressing--I tell him he should not stop in Paris at this season--"
+
+"It is nothing!" the American interposed brusquely between paroxysms.
+
+"But our winter climate, monsieur--it is not fit for those in the prime
+of health--"
+
+"It is I who am unfit!" Bannon snapped, pressing a handkerchief to his
+lips--"unfit to live!" he amended venomously.
+
+Lanyard murmured some conventional expression of sympathy. Through it
+all he was conscious of the regard of the girl. Her soft brown eyes met
+his candidly, with a look cool in its composure, straightforward in its
+enquiry, neither bold nor mock-demure. And if they were the first to
+fall, it was with an effect of curiosity sated, without hint of
+discomfiture.... And somehow the adventurer felt himself measured,
+classified, filed away.
+
+Between amusement and pique he continued to stare while the elderly
+American recovered his breath and De Morbihan jabbered on with
+unfailing vivacity; and he thought that this closer scrutiny discovered
+in her face contours suggesting maturity of thought beyond her apparent
+years--which were somewhat less than the sum of Lanyard's--and with
+this the suggestion of an elusive, provoking quality of wistful
+languor, a hint of patient melancholy....
+
+"We are off for a glimpse of Montmartre," De Morbihan was
+explaining--"Monsieur Bannon and I. He has not seen Paris in twenty
+years, he tells me. Well, it will be amusing to show him what changes
+have taken place in all that time. One regrets mademoiselle is too
+fatigued to accompany us. But you, my friend--now if you would consent
+to make our third, it would be most amiable of you."
+
+"I'm sorry," Lanyard excused himself; "but as you see, I am only just
+in from the railroad, a long and tiresome journey. You are very good,
+but I--"
+
+"Good!" De Morbihan exclaimed with violence. "I? On the contrary, I am
+a very selfish man; I seek but to afford myself the pleasure of your
+company. You lead such a busy life, my friend, romping about Europe,
+here one day, God-knows-where the next, that one must make one's best
+of your spare moments. You will join us, surely?"
+
+"Really I cannot to-night. Another time perhaps, if you'll excuse me."
+
+"But it is always this way!" De Morbihan explained to his friends with
+a vast show of mock indignation. "'Another time, perhaps'--his
+invariable excuse! I tell you, not two men in all Paris have any real
+acquaintance with this gentleman whom all Paris knows! His reserve is
+proverbial--'as distant as Lanyard,' we say on the boulevards!" And
+turning again to the adventurer, meeting his cold stare with the De
+Morbihan grin of quenchless effrontery--"As you will, my friend!" he
+granted. "But should you change your mind--well, you'll have no trouble
+finding us. Ask any place along the regular route. We see far too
+little of one another, monsieur--and I am most anxious to have a little
+chat with you."
+
+"It will be an honour," Lanyard returned formally....
+
+In his heart he was pondering several most excruciating methods of
+murdering the man. What did he mean? How much did he know? If he knew
+anything, he must mean ill, for assuredly he could not be ignorant of
+Roddy's business, or that every other word he uttered was rivetting
+suspicion on Lanyard of identity with the Lone Wolf, or that Roddy was
+listening with all his ears and staring into the bargain!
+
+Decidedly something must be done to silence this animal, should it turn
+out he really did know anything!
+
+It was only after profound reflection over his liqueur (while Roddy
+devoured his Daily Mail and washed it down with a third bottle of Bass)
+that Lanyard summoned the maitre-d'hotel and asked for a room.
+
+It would never do to fix the doubts of the detective by going elsewhere
+that night. But, fortunately, Lanyard knew that warren which was
+Troyon's as no one else knew it; Roddy would find it hard to detain
+him, should events seem to advise an early departure.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+A STRATAGEM
+
+When the maitre-d'hotel had shown him all over the establishment
+(innocently enough, en route, furnishing him with a complete list of
+his other guests and their rooms: memoranda readily registered by a
+retentive memory) Lanyard chose the bed-chamber next that occupied by
+Roddy, in the second storey.
+
+The consideration influencing this selection was--of course--that, so
+situated, he would be in position not only to keep an eye on the man
+from Scotland Yard but also to determine whether or no Roddy were
+disposed to keep an eye on him.
+
+In those days Lanyard's faith in himself was a beautiful thing. He
+could not have enjoyed the immunity ascribed to the Lone Wolf as long
+as he had without gaining a power of sturdy self-confidence in addition
+to a certain amount of temperate contempt for spies of the law and all
+their ways.
+
+Against the peril inherent in this last, however, he was self-warned,
+esteeming it the most fatal chink in the armour of the lawbreaker, this
+disposition to underestimate the acumen of the police: far too many
+promising young adventurers like himself were annually laid by the
+heels in that snare of their own infatuate weaving. The mouse has every
+right, if he likes, to despise the cat for a heavy-handed and
+bloodthirsty beast, lacking wit and imagination, a creature of simple
+force-majeure; but that mouse will not advisedly swagger in cat-haunted
+territory; a blow of the paw is, when all's said and done, a blow of
+the paw--something to numb the wits of the wiliest mouse.
+
+Considering Roddy, he believed it to be impossible to gauge the
+limitations of that essentially British intelligence--something as
+self-contained as a London flat. One thing only was certain: Roddy
+didn't always think in terms of beef and Bass; he was nobody's facile
+fool; he could make a shrewd inference as well as strike a shrewd blow.
+
+Reviewing the scene in the restaurant, Lanyard felt measurably
+warranted in assuming not only that Roddy was interested in De
+Morbihan, but that the Frenchman was well aware of that interest. And
+he resented sincerely his inability to feel as confident that the
+Count, with his gossip about the Lone Wolf, had been merely seeking to
+divert Roddy's interest to putatively larger game. It was just possible
+that De Morbihan's identification of Lanyard with that mysterious
+personage, at least by innuendo, had been unintentional. But somehow
+Lanyard didn't believe it had.
+
+The two questions troubled him sorely: Did De Morbihan _know_, did he
+merely suspect, or had he only loosed an aimless shot which chance had
+sped to the right goal? Had the mind of Roddy proved fallow to that
+suggestion, or had it, with its simple national tenacity, been
+impatient of such side issues, or incredulous, and persisted in
+focusing its processes upon the personality and activities of Monsieur
+le Comte Remy de Morbihan? However, one would surely learn something
+illuminating before very long. The business of a sleuth is to sleuth,
+and sooner or later Roddy must surely make some move to indicate the
+quarter wherein his real interest lay.
+
+Just at present, reasoning from noises audible through the bolted door
+that communicated with the adjoining bed-chamber, the business of a
+sleuth seemed to comprise going to bed. Lanyard, shaving and dressing,
+could distinctly hear a tuneless voice contentedly humming "Sally in
+our Alley," a rendition punctuated by one heavy thump and then another
+and then by a heartfelt sigh of relief--as Roddy kicked off his
+boots--and followed by the tapping of a pipe against grate-bars, the
+squeal of a window lowered for ventilation, the click of an
+electric-light, and the creaking of bed-springs.
+
+
+Finally, and before Lanyard had finished dressing, the man from
+Scotland Yard began placidly to snore.
+
+Of course, he might well be bluffing; for Lanyard had taken pains to
+let Roddy know that they were neighbours, by announcing his selection
+in loud tones close to the communicating door.
+
+But this was a question which the adventurer meant to have answered
+before he went out....
+
+It was hard upon twelve o'clock when the mirror on the dressing-table
+assured him that he was at length point-device in the habit and apparel
+of a gentleman of elegant nocturnal leisure. But if he approved the
+figure he cut, it was mainly because clothes interested him and he
+reckoned his own impeccable. Of their tenant he was feeling just then a
+bit less sure than he had half-an-hour since; his regard was louring
+and mistrustful. He was, in short, suffering reaction from the high
+spirits engendered by his cross-Channel exploits, his successful
+get-away, and the unusual circumstances attendant upon his return to
+this memory-haunted mausoleum of an unhappy childhood. He even shivered
+a trifle, as if under premonition of misfortune, and asked himself
+heavily: Why not?
+
+For, logically considered, a break in the run of his luck was due. Thus
+far he had played, with a success almost too uniform, his dual role, by
+day the amiable amateur of art, by night the nameless mystery that
+prowled unseen and preyed unhindered. Could such success be reasonably
+expected to attend him always? Should he count De Morbihan's yarn a
+warning? Black must turn up every so often in a run of red: every
+gambler knows as much. And what was Michael Lanyard but a common
+gambler, who persistently staked life and liberty against the blindly
+impartial casts of Chance?
+
+With one last look round to make certain there was nothing in the
+calculated disorder of his room to incriminate him were it to be
+searched in his absence, Lanyard enveloped himself in a long
+full-skirted coat, clapped on an opera hat, and went out, noisily
+locking the door. He might as well have left it wide, but it would do
+no harm to pretend he didn't know the bed-chamber keys at Troyon's were
+interchangeable--identically the same keys, in fact, that had been in
+service in the days of Marcel the wretched.
+
+A single half-power electric bulb now modified the gloom of the
+corridor; its fellow made a light blot on the darkness of the
+courtyard. Even the windows of the conciergerie were black.
+
+None the less, Lanyard tapped them smartly.
+
+"_Cordon_!" he demanded in a strident voice. "_Cordon, s'il vous plait!
+_"
+
+"_Eh? _" A startled grunt from within the lodge was barely audible.
+Then the latch clicked loudly at the end of the passageway.
+
+Groping his way in the direction of this last sound, Lanyard found the
+small side door ajar. He opened it, and hesitated a moment, looking out
+as though questioning the weather; simultaneously his deft fingers
+wedged the latch back with a thin slip of steel.
+
+No rain, in fact, had fallen within the hour; but still the sky was
+dense with a sullen rack, and still the sidewalks were inky wet.
+
+The street was lonely and indifferently lighted, but a swift searching
+reconnaissance discovered nothing that suggested a spy skulking in the
+shelter of any of the nearer shadows.
+
+Stepping out, he slammed the door and strode briskly round the corner,
+as if making for the cab-rank that lines up along the Luxembourg
+Gardens side of the rue de Medicis; his boot-heels made a cheerful
+racket in that quiet hour; he was quite audibly going away from
+Troyon's.
+
+But instead of holding on to the cab-rank, he turned the next corner,
+and then the next, rounding the block; and presently, reapproaching the
+entrance to Troyon's, paused in the recess of a dark doorway and,
+lifting one foot after another, slipped rubber caps over his heels.
+Thereafter his progress was practically noiseless.
+
+The smaller door yielded to his touch without a murmur. Inside, he
+closed it gently, and stood a moment listening with all his senses--not
+with his ears alone but with every nerve and fibre of his being--with
+his imagination, to boot. But there was never a sound or movement in
+all the house that he could detect.
+
+And no shadow could have made less noise than he, slipping cat-footed
+across the courtyard and up the stairs, avoiding with super-developed
+sensitiveness every lift that might complain beneath his tread. In a
+trice he was again in the corridor leading to his bed-chamber.
+
+It was quite as gloomy and empty as it had been five minutes ago, yet
+with a difference, a something in its atmosphere that made him nod
+briefly in confirmation of that suspicion which had brought him back so
+stealthily.
+
+For one thing, Roddy had stopped snoring. And Lanyard smiled over the
+thought that the man from Scotland Yard might profitably have copied
+that trick of poor Bourke's, of snoring like the Seven Sleepers when
+most completely awake....
+
+It was naturally no surprise to find his bed-chamber door unlocked and
+slightly ajar. Lanyard made sure of the readiness of his automatic,
+strode into the room, and shut the door quietly but by no means
+soundlessly.
+
+He had left the shades down and the hangings drawn at both windows; and
+since these had not been disturbed, something nearly approaching
+complete darkness reigned in the room. But though promptly on entering
+his fingers closed upon the wall-switch near the door, he refrained
+from turning up the lights immediately, with a fancy of impish
+inspiration that it would be amusing to learn what move Roddy would
+make when the tension became too much even for his trained nerves.
+
+Several seconds passed without the least sound disturbing the stillness.
+
+Lanyard himself grew a little impatient, finding that his sight failed
+to grow accustomed to the darkness because that last was too absolute,
+pressing against his staring eyeballs like a black fluid impenetrably
+opaque, as unbroken as the hush.
+
+Still, he waited: surely Roddy wouldn't be able much longer to endure
+such suspense....
+
+And, surely enough, the silence was abruptly broken by a strange and
+moving sound, a hushed cry of alarm that was half a moan and half a sob.
+
+Lanyard himself was startled: for that was never Roddy's voice!
+
+There was a noise of muffled and confused footsteps, as though someone
+had started in panic for the door, then stopped in terror.
+
+Words followed, the strangest he could have imagined, words spoken in a
+gentle and tremulous voice:
+
+"In pity's name! who are you and what do you want?"
+
+Thunderstruck, Lanyard switched on the lights.
+
+At a distance of some six paces he saw, not Roddy, but a woman, and not
+a woman merely, but the girl he had met in the restaurant.
+
+
+
+V
+
+ANTICLIMAX
+
+The surprise was complete; none, indeed, was ever more so; but it's a
+question which party thereto was the more affected.
+
+Lanyard stared with the eyes of stupefaction. To his fancy, this thing
+passed the compass of simple incredulity: it wasn't merely improbable,
+it was preposterous; it was anticlimax exaggerated to the proportions
+of the grotesque.
+
+He had come prepared to surprise and bully rag the most astute police
+detective of whom he had any knowledge; he found himself surprised and
+discountenanced by _this_...!
+
+Confusion no less intense informed the girl's expression; her eyes were
+fixed to his with a look of blank enquiry; her face, whose colouring
+had won his admiration two hours since, was colourless; her lips were
+just ajar; the fingers of one hand touched her cheek, indenting it.
+
+The other hand caught up before her the long skirts of a pretty
+robe-de-chambre, beneath whose edge a hand's-breadth of white silk
+shimmered and the toe of a silken mule was visible. Thus she stood,
+poised for flight, attired only in a dressing-gown over what, one
+couldn't help suspecting, was her night-dress: for her hair was down,
+and she was unquestionably all ready for her bed....But Bourke's
+patient training had been wasted if this man proved one to remain long
+at loss. Rallying his wits quickly from their momentary rout, he
+reasserted command over them, and if he didn't in the least understand,
+made a brave show of accepting this amazing accident as a commonplace.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Bannon--" he began with a formal bow.
+
+She interrupted with a gasp of wondering recognition: "Mr. Lanyard!"
+
+He inclined his head a second time: "Sorry to disturb you--"
+
+"But I don't understand--"
+
+"Unfortunately," he proceeded smoothly, "I forgot something when I went
+out, and had to come back for it."
+
+"But--but--"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+Suddenly her eyes, for the first time detached from his, swept the room
+with a glance of wild dismay.
+
+"This room," she breathed--"I don't know it--"
+
+"It is mine."
+
+"Yours! But--"
+
+"That is how I happened to--interrupt you."
+
+The girl shrank back a pace--two paces--uttering a low-toned
+monosyllable of understanding, an "_O!_" abruptly gasped.
+Simultaneously her face and throat flamed scarlet.
+
+"_Your_ room, Mr. Lanyard!"
+
+Her tone so convincingly voiced shame and horror that his heart misgave
+him. Not that alone, but the girl was very good to look upon. "I'm
+sure," he began soothingly; "it doesn't matter. You mistook a door--"
+
+"But you don't understand!" She shuddered.... "This dreadful habit! And
+I was hoping I had outgrown it! How can I ever explain--?"
+
+"Believe me, Miss Bannon, you need explain nothing."
+
+"But I must...I wish to...I can't bear to let you think...But surely
+you can make allowances for sleepwalking!"
+
+To this appeal he could at first return nothing more intelligent than a
+dazed repetition of the phrase.
+
+So that was how...Why hadn't he thought of it before? Ever since he had
+turned on the lights, he had been subjectively busy trying to invest
+her presence there with some plausible excuse. But somnambulism had
+never once entered his mind. And in his stupidity, at pains though he
+had been to render his words inoffensive, he had been guilty of
+constructive incivility.
+
+In his turn, Lanyard coloured warmly.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he muttered.
+
+The girl paid no attention; she seemed self-absorbed, thinking only of
+herself and the anomalous position into which her infirmity had tricked
+her. When she did speak, her words came swiftly:
+
+"You see...I was so frightened! I found myself suddenly standing up in
+darkness, just as if I had jumped out of bed at some alarm; and then I
+heard somebody enter the room and shut the door stealthily...Oh, please
+understand me!"
+
+"But I do, Miss Bannon--quite."
+
+"I am so ashamed--"
+
+"Please don't consider it that way."
+
+"But now that you know--you don't think--"
+
+"My dear Miss Bannon!"
+
+"But it must be so hard to credit! Even I... Why, it's more than a year
+since this last happened. Of course, as a child, it was almost a habit;
+they had to watch me all the time. Once... But that doesn't matter. I
+_am_ so sorry."
+
+"You really mustn't worry," Lanyard insisted. "It's all quite
+natural--such things do happen--are happening all the time--"
+
+"But I don't want you--"
+
+"I am nobody, Miss Bannon. Besides I shan't mention the matter to a
+soul. And if ever I am fortunate enough to meet you again, I shall have
+forgotten it completely--believe me."
+
+There was convincing sincerity in his tone. The girl looked down, as
+though abashed.
+
+"You are very good," she murmured, moving toward the door.
+
+"I am very fortunate."
+
+Her glance of surprise was question enough.
+
+"To be able to treasure this much of your confidence," he explained
+with a tentative smile.
+
+She was near the door; he opened it for her, but cautioned her with a
+gesture and a whispered word: "Wait. I'll make sure nobody's about."
+
+He stepped noiselessly into the hall and paused an instant, looking
+right and left, listening.
+
+The girl advanced to the threshold and there checked, hesitant, eyeing
+him anxiously.
+
+He nodded reassurance: "All right--coast's clear!"
+
+But she delayed one moment more.
+
+"It's you who are mistaken," she whispered, colouring again beneath his
+regard, in which admiration could not well be lacking, "It is I who am
+fortunate--to have met a--gentleman."
+
+Her diffident smile, together with the candour of her eyes, embarrassed
+him to such extent that for the moment he was unable to frame a reply.
+
+"Good night," she whispered--"and thank you, thank you!"
+
+Her room was at the far end of the corridor. She gained its threshold
+in one swift dash, noiseless save for the silken whisper of her
+garments, turned, flashed him a final look that left him with the
+thought that novelists did not always exaggerate, that eyes could shine
+like stars....
+
+Her door closed softly.
+
+Lanyard shook his head as if to dissipate a swarm of annoying thoughts,
+and went back into his own bed-chamber.
+
+He was quite content with the explanation the girl had given, but being
+the slave of a methodical and pertinacious habit of mind, spent five
+busy minutes examining his room and all that it contained with a
+perseverance that would have done credit to a Frenchman searching for a
+mislaid sou.
+
+If pressed, he would have been put to it to name what he sought or
+thought to find. What he did find was that nothing had been tampered
+with and nothing more--not even so much as a dainty, lace-trimmed wisp
+of sheer linen bearing the lady's monogram and exhaling a faint but
+individual perfume.
+
+Which, when he came to consider it, seemed hardly playing the game by
+the book.
+
+As for Roddy, Lanyard wasted several minutes, off and on, listening
+attentively at the communicating door; but if the detective had stopped
+snoring, his respiration was loud enough in that quiet hour, a sound of
+harsh monotony.
+
+True, that proved nothing; but Lanyard, after the fiasco of his first
+attempt to catch his enemy awake, was no more disposed to be
+hypercritical; he had his fill of being ingenious and profound. And
+when presently he again left Troyon's (this time without troubling the
+repose of the concierge) it was with the reflection that, if Roddy were
+really playing 'possum, he was welcome to whatever he could find of
+interest in the quarters of Michael Lanyard.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE PACK GIVES TONGUE
+
+Lanyard's first destination was that convenient little rez-de-chaussee
+apartment near the Trocadero, at the junction of the rue Roget and the
+avenue de l'Alma; but his way thither was so roundabout that the best
+part of an hour was required for what might have been less than a
+twenty-minute taxicab course direct from Troyon's. It was past one when
+he arrived, afoot, at the corner.
+
+Not that he grudged the time; for in Lanyard's esteem Bourke's epigram
+had come to have the weight and force of an axiom: "The more trouble
+you make for yourself, the less the good public will make for you."
+
+Paradoxically, he hadn't the least intention of attempting to deceive
+anybody as to his permanent address in Paris, where Michael Lanyard,
+connoisseur of fine paintings, was a figure too conspicuous to permit
+his making a secret of his residence. De Morbihan, moreover, through
+recognizing him at Troyon's, had rendered it impossible for Lanyard to
+adopt a nom-de-guerre there, even had he thought that ruse advisable.
+
+But he had certain businesses to attend to before dawn, affairs
+demanding privacy; and while by no means sure he was followed, one can
+seldom be sure of anything, especially in Paris, where nothing is
+impossible; and it were as well to lose a spy first as last. And his
+mind could not be at ease with respect to Roddy, thanks to De
+Morbihan's gasconade in the presence of the detective and also to that
+hint which the Count had dropped concerning some fatal blunder in the
+course of Lanyard's British campaign.
+
+The adventurer could recall leaving no step uncovered. Indeed, he had
+prided himself on conducting his operations with a degree of
+circumspection unusually thorough-going, even for him. Yet he was
+unable to rid himself of those misgivings roused by De Morbihan's
+declaration that the theft of the Omber jewels had been accomplished
+only at cost of a clue to the thief's identity.
+
+Now the Count's positive information concerning the robbery proved that
+the news thereof had anticipated the arrival of its perpetrator in
+Paris; yet Roddy unquestionably had known nothing of it prior to its
+mention in his presence, after dinner. Or else the detective was a
+finer actor than Lanyard credited.
+
+But how could De Morbihan have come by his news?
+
+Lanyard was really and deeply perturbed....
+
+Pestered to distraction by such thoughts, he fitted key to latch and
+quietly let himself into his flat by a private street-entrance which,
+in addition to the usual door opening on the court and under the eye of
+the concierge, distinguished this from the ordinary Parisian apartment
+and rendered it doubly suited to the adventurer's uses.
+
+Then he turned on the lights and moved quickly from room to room of the
+three comprising his quarters, with comprehensive glances reviewing
+their condition.
+
+But, indeed, he hadn't left the reception-hall for the salon without
+recognizing that things were in no respect as they ought to be: a hat
+he had left on the hall rack had been moved to another peg; a chair had
+been shifted six inches from its ordained position; and the door of a
+clothes-press, which he had locked on leaving, now stood ajar.
+
+Furthermore, the state of the salon, which he had furnished as a lounge
+and study, and of the tiny dining-room and the bed-chamber adjoining,
+bore out these testimonies to the fact that alien hands had thoroughly
+ransacked the apartment, leaving no square inch unscrutinized.
+
+Yet the proprietor missed nothing. His rooms were a private gallery of
+valuable paintings and antique furniture to poison with envy the mind
+of any collector, and housed into the bargain a small museum of rare
+books, manuscripts, and articles of exquisite workmanship whose
+individuality, aside from intrinsic worth, rendered them priceless. A
+burglar of discrimination might have carried off in one coat-pocket
+loot enough to foot the bill for a twelve-month of profligate
+existence. But nothing had been removed, nothing at least that was
+apparent in the first tour of inspection; which, if sweeping, was by no
+means superficial.
+
+Before checking off more elaborately his mental inventory, Lanyard
+turned attention to the protective device, a simple but exhaustive
+system of burglar-alarm wiring so contrived that any attempt to enter
+the apartment save by means of a key which fitted both doors and of
+which no duplicate existed would alarm both the concierge and the
+burglar protective society. Though it seemed to have been in no way
+tampered with, to test the apparatus he opened a window on the court.
+
+The lodge of the concierge was within earshot. If the alarm had been in
+good order, Lanyard could have heard the bell from his window. He heard
+nothing.
+
+With a shrug, he shut the window. He knew well--none better--how such
+protection could be rendered valueless by a thoughtful and fore-handed
+housebreaker.
+
+Returning to the salon, where the main body of his collection was
+assembled, he moved slowly from object to object, ticking off items and
+noting their condition; with the sole result of justifying his first
+conclusion, that whereas nothing had escaped handling, nothing had been
+removed.
+
+By way of a final test, he opened his desk (of which the lock had been
+deftly picked) and went through its pigeon-holes.
+
+His scanty correspondence, composed chiefly of letters exchanged with
+art dealers, had been scrutinized and replaced carelessly, in disorder:
+and here again he missed nothing; but in the end, removing a small
+drawer and inserting a hand in its socket, he dislodged a rack of
+pigeon-holes and exposed the secret cabinet that is almost inevitably
+an attribute of such pieces of period furniture.
+
+A shallow box, this secret space contained one thing only, but that one
+of considerable value, being the leather bill-fold in which the
+adventurer kept a store of ready money against emergencies.
+
+It was mostly for this, indeed, that he had come to his apartment; his
+London campaign having demanded an expenditure far beyond his
+calculations, so that he had landed in Paris with less than one hundred
+francs in pocket. And Lanyard, for all his pride of spirit,
+acknowledged one haunting fear that of finding himself strapped in the
+face of emergency.
+
+The fold yielded up its hoard to a sou: Lanyard counted out five notes
+of one thousand francs and ten of twenty pounds: their sum, upwards of
+two thousand dollars.
+
+But if nothing had been abstracted, something had been added: the back
+of one of the Bank of England notes had been used as a blank for
+memorandum.
+
+Lanyard spread it out and studied it attentively.
+
+The handwriting had been traced with no discernible attempt at
+disguise, but was quite strange to him. The pen employed had been one
+of those needle-pointed nibs so popular in France; the hand was that of
+an educated Frenchman. The import of the memorandum translated
+substantially as follows:
+
+_"To the Lone Wolf--
+ "The Pack sends Greetings
+ "and extends its invitation
+ "to participate in the benefits
+ "of its Fraternity.
+ "One awaits him always at
+ "L'Abbaye Theleme."_
+
+A date was added, the date of that very day...
+
+Deliberately, having conned this communication, Lanyard produced his
+cigarette-case, selected a cigarette, found his briquet, struck a
+light, twisted the note of twenty pounds into a rude spill, set it
+afire, lighted his cigarette there from and, rising, conveyed the
+burning paper to a cold and empty fire-place wherein he permitted it to
+burn to a crisp black ash.
+
+When this was done, his smile broke through his clouding scowl.
+
+"Well, my friend!" he apostrophized the author of that document which
+now could never prove incriminating--"at all events, I have you to
+thank for a new sensation. It has long been my ambition to feel
+warranted in lighting a cigarette with a twenty-pound note, if the whim
+should ever seize me!"
+
+His smile faded slowly; the frown replaced it: something far more
+valuable to him than a hundred dollars had just gone up in smoke ...
+
+
+
+VII
+
+L'ABBAYE
+
+His secret uncovered, that essential incognito of his punctured, his
+vanity touched to the quick--all that laboriously constructed edifice
+of art and chicane which yesterday had seemed so substantial, so
+impregnable a wall between the Lone Wolf and the World, to-day rent,
+torn asunder, and cast down in ruins about his feet--Lanyard wasted
+time neither in profitless lamentation or any other sort of repining.
+
+He had much to do before morning: to determine, as definitely as might
+in discretion be possible, who had fathomed his secret and how; to
+calculate what chance he still had of pursuing his career without
+exposure and disaster; and to arrange, if investigation verified his
+expectations, which were of the gloomiest, to withdraw in good order,
+with all honours of war, from that dangerous field.
+
+Delaying only long enough to revise plans disarranged by the
+discoveries of this last bad quarter of an hour, he put out the lights
+and went out by the courtyard door; for it was just possible that those
+whose sardonic whim it had been to name themselves "the Pack" might
+have stationed agents in the street to follow their dissocial brother
+in crime. And now more than ever Lanyard was firmly bent on going his
+own way unwatched. His own way first led him stealthily past the door
+of the conciergerie and through the court to the public hall in the
+main body of the building. Happily, there were no lights to betray him
+had anyone been awake to notice. For thanks to Parisian notions of
+economy even the best apartment houses dispense with elevator-boys and
+with lights that burn up real money every hour of the night. By
+pressing a button beside the door on entering, however, Lanyard could
+have obtained light in the hallways for five minutes, or long enough to
+enable any tenant to find his front-door and the key-hole therein; at
+the end of which period the lamps would automatically have extinguished
+themselves. Or by entering a narrow-chested box of about the dimensions
+of a generous coffin, and pressing a button bearing the number of the
+floor at which he wished to alight, he could have been comfortably
+wafted aloft without sign of more human agency. But he prudently
+availed himself of neither of these conveniences. Afoot and in complete
+darkness he made the ascent of five flights of winding stairs to the
+door of an apartment on the sixth floor. Here a flash from a pocket
+lamp located the key-hole; the key turned without sound; the door swung
+on silent hinges.
+
+Once inside, the adventurer moved more freely, with less precaution
+against noise. He was on known ground, and alone; the apartment, though
+furnished, was untenanted, and would so remain as long as Lanyard
+continued to pay the rent from London under an assumed name.
+
+It was the convenience of this refuge and avenue of retreat, indeed
+which had dictated his choice of the rez-de-chaussee; for the
+sixth-floor flat possessed one invaluable advantage--a window on a
+level with the roof of the adjoining building.
+
+Two minutes' examination sufficed to prove that here at least the Pack
+had not trespassed....
+
+Five minutes later Lanyard picked the common lock of a door opening
+from the roof of an apartment house on the farthest corner of the
+block, found his way downstairs, tapped the door of the conciergerie,
+chanted that venerable Open Sesame of Paris, "_Cordon, s'il vous
+plait!_" and was made free of the street by a worthy guardian too
+sleepy to challenge the identity of this late-departing guest.
+
+He walked three blocks, picked up a taxicab, and in ten minutes more
+was set down at the Gare des Invalides.
+
+Passing through the station without pause, he took to the streets
+afoot, following the boulevard St. Germain to the rue du Bac; a brief
+walk up this time-worn thoroughfare brought him to the ample, open and
+unguarded porte-cochere of a court walled with beetling ancient
+tenements.
+
+When he had made sure that the courtyard was deserted, Lanyard
+addressed himself to a door on the right; which to his knock swung
+promptly ajar with a clicking latch. At the same time the adventurer
+whipped from beneath his cloak a small black velvet visor and adjusted
+it to mask the upper half of his face. Then entering a narrow and
+odorous corridor, whose obscurity was emphasized by a lonely guttering
+candle, he turned the knob of the first door and walked into a small,
+ill-furnished room.
+
+A spare-bodied young man, who had been reading at a desk by the light
+of an oil-lamp with a heavy green shade, rose and bowed courteously.
+
+"Good morning, monsieur," he said with the cordiality of one who greets
+an acquaintance of old standing. "Be seated," he added, indicating an
+arm-chair beside the desk. "It seems long since one has had the honour
+of a call from monsieur."
+
+"That is so," Lanyard admitted, sitting down.
+
+The young man followed suit. The lamplight, striking across his face
+beneath the greenish penumbra of the shade, discovered a countenance of
+Hebraic cast.
+
+"Monsieur has something to show me, eh?"
+
+"But naturally."
+
+Lanyard's reply just escaped a suspicion of curtness: as who should
+say, what did you expect? He was puzzled by something strange and new
+in the attitude of this young man, a trace of reserve and constraint....
+
+They had been meeting from time to time for several years, conducting
+their secret and lawless business according to a formula invented by
+Bourke and religiously observed by Lanyard. A note or telegram of
+innocent superficial intent, addressed to a certain member of a leading
+firm of jewellers in Amsterdam, was the invariable signal for
+conferences such as this; which were invariably held in the same place,
+at an hour indeterminate between midnight and dawn, between on the one
+hand this intelligent, cultivated and well-mannered young Jew, and on
+the other hand the thief in his mask.
+
+In such wise did the Lone Wolf dispose of his loot, at all events of
+the bulk thereof; other channels were, of course, open to him, but none
+so safe; and with no other receiver of stolen goods could he hope to
+make such fair and profitable deals.
+
+Now inevitably in the course of this long association, though each
+remained in ignorance of his confederate's identity, these two had come
+to feel that they knew each other fairly well. Not infrequently, when
+their business had been transacted, Lanyard would linger an hour with
+the agent, chatting over cigarettes: both, perhaps, a little thrilled
+by the piquancy of the situation; for the young Jew was the only man
+who had ever wittingly met the Lone Wolf face to face....
+
+Why then this sudden awkwardness and embarrassment on the part of the
+agent?
+
+Lanyard's eyes narrowed with suspicion.
+
+In silence he produced a jewel-case of morocco leather and handed it
+over to the Jew, then settled back in his chair, his attitude one of
+lounging, but his mind as quick with distrust as the fingers that,
+under cover of his cloak, rested close to a pocket containing his
+automatic.
+
+Accepting the box with a little bow, the Jew pressed the catch and
+discovered its contents. But the richness of the treasure thus
+disclosed did not seem to surprise him; and, indeed, he had more than
+once been introduced with no more formality to plunder of far greater
+value. Fitting a jeweller's glass to his eye, he took up one after
+another of the pieces and examined them under the lamplight. Presently
+he replaced the last, shut down the cover of the box, turned a
+thoughtful countenance to Lanyard, and made as if to speak, but
+hesitated.
+
+"Well?" the adventurer demanded impatiently.
+
+"This, I take it," said the Jew absently, tapping the box, "is the
+jewellery of Madame Omber."
+
+"_I_ took it," Lanyard retorted good-naturedly--"not to put too fine a
+point upon it!"
+
+"I am sorry," the other said slowly.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"It is most unfortunate..."
+
+"May one enquire what is most unfortunate?"
+
+The Jew shrugged and with the tips of his fingers gently pushed the box
+toward his customer. "This makes me very unhappy," he admitted: "but I
+have no choice in the matter, monsieur. As the agent of my principals I
+am instructed to refuse you an offer for these valuables."
+
+"Why?"
+
+Again the shrug, accompanied by a deprecatory grimace: "That is
+difficult to say. No explanation was made me. My instructions were
+simply to keep this appointment as usual, but to advise you it will be
+impossible for my principals to continue their relations with you as
+long as your affairs remain in their present status."
+
+"Their present status?" Lanyard repeated. "What does that mean, if you
+please?"
+
+"I cannot say monsieur. I can only repeat that which was said to me."
+
+After a moment Lanyard rose, took the box, and replaced it in his
+pocket. "Very well," he said quietly. "Your principals, of course,
+understand that this action on their part definitely ends our
+relations, rather than merely interrupts them at their whim?"
+
+"I am desolated, monsieur, but ... one must assume that they have
+considered everything. You understand, it is a matter in which I am
+wholly without discretion, I trust?"
+
+"O quite!" Lanyard assented carelessly. He held out his hand.
+"Good-bye, my friend."
+
+The Jew shook hands warmly.
+
+"Good night, monsieur--and the best of luck!"
+
+There was significance in his last words that Lanyard did not trouble
+to analyze. Beyond doubt, the man knew more than he dared admit. And
+the adventurer told himself he could shrewdly surmise most of that
+which the other had felt constrained to leave unspoken.
+
+Pressure from some quarter had been brought to bear upon that eminently
+respectable firm of jewel dealers in Amsterdam to induce them to
+discontinue their clandestine relations with the Lone Wolf, profitable
+though these must have been.
+
+Lanyard believed he could name the quarter whence this pressure was
+being exerted, but before going further or coming to any momentous
+decision, he was determined to know to a certainty who were arrayed
+against him and how much importance he need attach to their antagonism.
+If he failed in this, it would be the fault of the other side, not his
+for want of readiness to accept its invitation.
+
+In brief, he didn't for an instant contemplate abandoning either his
+rigid rule of solitude or his chosen career without a fight; but he
+preferred not to fight in the dark.
+
+Anger burned in him no less hotly than chagrin. It could hardly be
+otherwise with one who, so long suffered to go his way without let or
+hindrance, now suddenly, in the course of a few brief hours, found
+himself brought up with a round turn--hemmed in and menaced on every
+side by secret opposition and hostility.
+
+He no longer feared to be watched; and the very fact that, as far as he
+could see, he wasn't watched, only added fuel to his resentment,
+demonstrating as it did so patently the cynical assurance of the Pack
+that they had him cornered, without alternative other than to supple
+himself to their will.
+
+To the driver of the first taxicab he met, Lanyard said "L'Abbaye,"
+then shutting himself within the conveyance, surrendered to the most
+morose reflections.
+
+Nothing of this mood was, however, apparent in his manner on alighting.
+He bore a countenance of amiable insouciance through the portals of
+this festal institution whose proudest boast and--incidentally--sole
+claim to uniquity is that it never opens its doors before midnight nor
+closes them before dawn.
+
+He had moved about with such celerity since entering his flat on the
+rue Roget that it was even now only two o'clock; an hour at which
+revelry might be expected to have reached its apogee in this, the
+soi-disant "smartest" place in Paris.
+
+A less sophisticated adventurer might have been flattered by the
+cordiality of his reception at the hands of that arbiter elegantiarum
+the maitre-d'hotel.
+
+"Ah-h, Monsieur Lanya_rrr_! But it is long since we have been so
+favoured. However, I have kept your table for you."
+
+"Have you, though?"
+
+"Could it be otherwise, after receipt of your honoured order?"
+
+"No," said Lanyard coolly, "I presume not, if you value your peace of
+mind."
+
+"Monsieur is alone?" This with an accent of disappointment.
+
+"Temporarily, it would seem so."
+
+"But this way, if you please...."
+
+In the wake of the functionary, Lanyard traversed that frowsy anteroom
+where doubtful wasters are herded on suspicion in company with the
+corps of automatic Bacchanalians and figurantes, to the main
+restaurant, the inner sanctum toward which the naive soul of the
+travel-bitten Anglo-Saxon aspires so ardently.
+
+It was not a large room; irregularly octagonal in shape, lined with
+wall-seats behind a close-set rank of tables; better lighted than most
+Parisian restaurants, that is to say, less glaringly; abominably
+ventilated; the open space in the middle of the floor reserved for a
+handful of haggard young professional dancers, their stunted bodies
+more or less costumed in brilliant colours, footing it with all the
+vivacity to be expected of five-francs per night per head; the tables
+occupied by parties Anglo-Saxon and French in the proportion of five to
+one, attended by a company of bored and apathetic waiters; a string
+orchestra ragging incessantly; a vicious buck-nigger on a dais shining
+with self-complacence while he vamped and shouted "_Waitin' foh th'
+Robuht E. Lee_"...
+
+Lanyard permitted himself to be penned in a corner behind a table,
+ordered champagne not because he wanted it but because it was
+etiquette, suppressed a yawn, lighted a cigarette, and reviewed the
+assemblage with a languid but shrewd glance.
+
+He saw only the company of every night; for even in the off-season
+there are always enough English-speaking people in Paris to make it
+possible for L'Abbaye Theleme to keep open with profit: the inevitable
+assortment of respectable married couples with friends, the men chafing
+and wondering if possibly all this might seem less unattractive were
+they foot-loose and fancy-free, the women contriving to appear at ease
+with varying degrees of success, but one and all flushed with dubiety;
+the sprinkling of demi-mondaines not in the least concerned about
+_their_ social status; the handful of people who, having brought their
+fun with them, were having the good time they would have had anywhere;
+the scattering of plain drunks in evening dress.... Nowhere a face that
+Lanyard recognized definitely: no Mr. Bannon, no Comte Remy de
+Morbihan....
+
+He regarded this circumstance, however, with more vexation than
+surprise: De Morbihan would surely show up in time; meanwhile, it was
+annoying to be obliged to wait, to endure this martyrdom of ennui.
+
+He sipped his wine sparingly, without relish, considering the single
+subsidiary fact which did impress him with some wonder--that he was
+being left severely to himself; something which doesn't often fall to
+the lot of the unattached male at L'Abbaye. Evidently an order had been
+issued with respect to him. Ordinarily he would have been grateful:
+to-night he was merely irritated: such neglect rendered him
+conspicuous....
+
+The fixed round of delirious divertissement unfolded as per schedule.
+The lights were lowered to provide a melodramatic atmosphere for that
+startling novelty, the Apache Dance. The coon shouted stridently. The
+dancers danced bravely on their poor, tired feet. An odious dwarf
+creature in a miniature outfit of evening clothes toddled from table to
+table, offensively soliciting stray francs--but shied from the gleam in
+Lanyard's eyes. Lackeys made the rounds, presenting each guest with a
+handful of coloured, feather-weight celluloid balls, with which to
+bombard strangers across the room. The inevitable shamefaced Englishman
+departed in tow of an overdressed Frenchwoman with pride of conquest in
+her smirk. The equally inevitable alcoholic was dug out from under his
+table and thrown into a cab. An American girl insisted on climbing upon
+a table to dance, but swayed and had to be helped down, giggling
+foolishly. A Spanish dancing girl was afforded a clear floor for her
+specialty, which consisted in singing several verses understood by
+nobody, the choruses emphasized by frantic assaults on the hair of
+several variously surprised, indignant, and flattered male
+guests--among them Lanyard, who submitted with resignation....
+
+ And then, just when he was on the point of consigning the Pack to the
+devil for inflicting upon him such cruel and inhuman punishment, the
+Spanish girl picked her way through the mob of dancers who invaded the
+floor promptly on her withdrawal, and paused beside his table.
+
+"You're not angry, mon coco?" she pleaded with a provocative smile.
+
+Lanyard returned a smiling negative.
+
+"Then I may sit down with you and drink a glass of your wine?"
+
+"Can't you see I've been saving the bottle for you?"
+
+The woman plumped herself promptly into the chair opposite the
+adventurer. He filled her glass.
+
+"But you are not happy to-night?" she demanded, staring over the brim
+as she sipped.
+
+"I am thoughtful," he said.
+
+"And what does that mean?"
+
+"I am saddened to contemplate the infirmities of my countrymen, these
+Americans who can't rest in Paris until they find some place as deadly
+as any Broadway boasts, these English who adore beautiful Paris solely
+because here they may continue to get drunk publicly after half-past
+twelve!"
+
+"Ah, then it's la barbe, is it not?" said the girl, gingerly stroking
+her faded, painted cheek.
+
+"It is true: I am bored."
+
+"Then why not go where you're wanted?" She drained her glass at a gulp
+and jumped up, swirling her skirts. "Your cab is waiting, monsieur--and
+perhaps you will find it more amusing with that Pack!"
+
+Flinging herself into the arms of another girl, she swung away,
+grinning impishly at Lanyard over her partner's shoulder.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE HIGH HAND
+
+Evidently his first move toward departure was signalled; for as he
+passed out through L'Abbaye's doors the carriage-porter darted forward
+and saluted.
+
+"Monsieur Lanyarr'?"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Monsieur's car is waiting."
+
+"Indeed?" Lanyard surveyed briefly a handsome black limousine that, at
+pause beside the curb, was champing its bits in the most spirited
+fashion. Then he smiled appreciatively. "All the same, I thank you for
+the compliment," he said, and forthwith tipped the porter.
+
+But before entrusting himself to this gratuitous conveyance, he put
+himself to the trouble of inspecting the chauffeur--a capable-looking
+mechanic togged out in a rich black livery which, though relieved by a
+vast amount of silk braiding, was like the car guiltless of any sort of
+insignia.
+
+"I presume you know where I wish to go, my man?"
+
+The chauffeur touched his cap: "But naturally, monsieur."
+
+"Then take me there, the quickest way you know."
+
+Nodding acknowledgement of the porter's salute, Lanyard sank gratefully
+back upon uncommonly luxurious upholstery. The fatigue of the last
+thirty-six hours was beginning to tell on him a bit, though his youth
+was still so vital, so instinct with strength and vigour, that he could
+go as long again without sleep if need be.
+
+None the less he was glad of this opportunity to snatch a few minutes'
+rest by way of preparation against the occult culmination of this
+adventure. No telling what might ensue of this violation of all those
+principles which had hitherto conserved his welfare! And he entertained
+a gloomy suspicion that he would be inclined to name another ass, who
+proposed as he did to beard this Pack in its den with nothing more than
+his wits and an automatic pistol to protect ten thousand-francs, the
+jewels of Madame Omber, the Huysman plans, and (possibly) his life.
+
+However, he stood committed to his folly, if folly it were: he would
+play the game as it lay.
+
+As for curiosity concerning his immediate destination, there was little
+enough of that in his temper; a single glance round on leaving the car
+would fix his whereabouts beyond dispute, so thorough was his knowledge
+of Paris.
+
+He contemplated briefly, with admiration, the simplicity with which
+that affair at L'Abbaye had been managed, finding no just cause to
+suspect anyone there of criminal complicity in the plans of the Pack: a
+forged order for a table to the maitre-d'hotel, ten francs to the
+carriage-porter and twenty more to the dancing woman to play parts in a
+putative practical joke--and the thing had been arranged without
+implicating a soul!...
+
+Of a sudden, ending a ride much shorter than Lanyard would have liked,
+the limousine swung in toward a curb.
+
+Bending forward, he unlatched the door and, glancing through the
+window, uttered a grunt of profound disgust.
+
+If this were the best that Pack could do...!
+
+He had hoped for something a trifle more original from men with wit and
+imagination enough to plot the earlier phases of this intrigue.
+
+The car had pulled up in front of an institution which he knew
+well--far too well, indeed, for his own good.
+
+None the less, he consented to get out.
+
+"Sure you've come to the right place?" he asked the chauffeur.
+
+Two fingers touching the visor of his cap: "But certainly, monsieur!"
+
+"Oh, all right!" Lanyard grumbled resignedly; and tossing the man a
+five-franc piece, applied his knuckles to the door of an outwardly
+commonplace hotel particulier in the rue Chaptal between the impasse of
+the Grand Guignol and the rue Pigalle.
+
+Now the neophyte needs the introduction of a trusted sponsor before he
+can win admission to the club-house of the exclusive Circle of Friends
+of Humanity; but Lanyard's knock secured him prompt and unquestioned
+right of way. The unfortunate fact is, he was a member in the best of
+standing; for this society of pseudo-altruistic aims was nothing more
+nor less than one of those several private gambling clubs of Paris
+which the French Government tolerates more or less openly, despite
+adequate restrictive legislation; and gambling was Lanyard's ruling
+passion--a legacy from Bourke no less than the rest of his professional
+equipment.
+
+To every man his vice (the argument is Bourke's, in defence of his
+failing). And perhaps the least mischievous vice a professional
+cracksman can indulge is that of gambling, since it can hardly drive
+him to lengths more desperate than those whereby he gains a livelihood.
+
+In the esteem of Paris, Count Remy de Morbihan himself was scarcely a
+more light-hearted plunger than Monsieur Lanyard.
+
+Naturally, with this reputation, he was always free of the handsome
+salons wherein the Friends of Humanity devoted themselves to roulette,
+auction bridge, baccarat and chemin-de-fer: and of this freedom he now
+proceeded to avail himself, with his hat just a shade aslant on his
+head, his hands in his pockets, a suspicion of a smile on his lips and
+a glint of the devil in his eyes--in all an expression accurately
+reflecting the latest phase of his humour, which was become largely one
+of contemptuous toleration, thanks to what he chose to consider an
+exhibition of insipid stupidity on the part of the Pack.
+
+Nor was this humour in any way modified when, in due course, he
+confirmed anticipation by discovering Monsieur le Comte Remy de
+Morbihan lounging beside one of the roulette tables, watching the play,
+and now and again risking a maximum on his own account.
+
+A flash of animation crossed the unlovely mask of the Count when he saw
+Lanyard approaching, and he greeted the adventurer with a gay little
+flirt of his pudgy dark hand.
+
+"Ah, my friend!" he cried. "It is you, then, who have changed your
+mind! But this is delightful!"
+
+"And what has become of your American friend?" Asked the adventurer.
+
+"He tired quickly, that one, and packed himself off to Troyon's. Be
+sure I didn't press him to continue the grand tour!"
+
+"Then you really did wish to see me to-night?" Lanyard enquired
+innocently.
+
+"Always--always, my dear Lanyard!" the Count declared, jumping up. "But
+come," he insisted: "I've a word for your private ear, if these
+gentlemen will excuse us."
+
+"Do!" Lanyard addressed in a confidential manner those he knew at the
+table, before turning away to the tug of the Count's hand on his
+arm--"I think he means to pay up twenty pounds he owes me!"
+
+Some derisive laughter greeted this sally.
+
+"I mean that, however," Lanyard informed the other cheerfully as they
+moved away to a corner where conversation without an audience was
+possible--"you ruined that Bank of England note, you know."
+
+"Cheap at the price!" the Count protested, producing his bill-fold.
+"Five hundred francs for an introduction to Monsieur the Lone Wolf!"
+
+"Are you joking?" Lanyard asked blankly--and with a magnificent gesture
+abolished the proffered banknote.
+
+"Joking? I! But surely you don't mean to deny--"
+
+"My friend," Lanyard interrupted, "before we assert or deny anything,
+let us gather the rest of the players round the table and deal from a
+sealed deck. Meantime, let us rest on the understanding that I have
+found, at one end, a message scrawled on a bank-note hidden in a secret
+place, at the other end, yourself, Monsieur le Comte. Between and
+beyond these points exists a mystery, of which one anticipates
+elucidation."
+
+"You shall have it," De Morbihan promised. "But first, we must go to
+those others who await us."
+
+"Not so fast!" Lanyard interposed. "What am I to understand? That you
+wish me to accompany you to the--ah--den of the Pack?"
+
+"Where else?" De Morbihan grinned.
+
+"But where is that?"
+
+"I am not permitted to say--"
+
+"Still, one has one's eyes. Why not satisfy me here?"
+
+"Your eyes, by your leave, monsieur, will be blindfolded."
+
+"Impossible."
+
+"Pardon--it is an essential--"
+
+"Come, come, my friend: we are not in the Middle Ages!"
+
+"I have no discretion, monsieur. My confreres--"
+
+"I insist: there will be trust on both sides or no negotiations."
+
+"But I assure you, my dear friend--"
+
+"My dear Count, it is useless: I am determined. Blindfold? I should say
+not! This is not--need I remind you again?--the Paris of Balzac and
+that wonderful Dumas of yours!"
+
+"What do you propose, then?" De Morbihan enquired, worrying his
+moustache.
+
+"What better place for the proposed conference than here?"
+
+"But not here!"
+
+"Why not? Everybody comes here: it will cause no gossip. I am here--I
+have come half-way; your friends must do as much on their part."
+
+"It is not possible...."
+
+"Then, I beg you, tender them my regrets."
+
+"Would you give us away?"
+
+"Never that: one makes gifts to one's friends only. But my interest in
+yours is depreciating so rapidly that, should you delay much longer, it
+will be on sale for the sum of two sous."
+
+"O--damn!" the Count complained peevishly.
+
+"With all the pleasure in life.... But now," Lanyard went on, rising to
+end the interview, "you must forgive me for reminding you that the
+morning wanes apace. I shall be going home in another hour."
+
+De Morbihan shrugged. "Out of my great affection for you," he purred
+venomously, "I will do my possible. But I promise nothing."
+
+"I have every confidence in your powers of moral suasion, monsieur,"
+Lanyard assured him cheerfully. "Au revoir!"
+
+And with this, not at all ill-pleased with himself, he strutted off to
+a table at which a high-strung session of chemin-de-fer was in process,
+possessed himself of a vacant chair, and in two minutes was so
+engrossed in the game that the Pack was quite forgotten.
+
+In fifteen minutes he had won thrice as many thousands of francs.
+Twenty minutes or half an hour later, a hand on his shoulder broke the
+grip of his besetting passion.
+
+"Our table is made up, my friend," De Morbihan announced with his
+inextinguishable grin. "We're waiting for you."
+
+"Quite at your service."
+
+Settling his score and finding himself considerably better off than he
+had imagined, he resigned his place gracefully, and suffered the Count
+to link arms and drag him away up the main staircase to the second
+storey, where smaller rooms were reserved for parties who preferred to
+gamble privately.
+
+"So it appears you succeeded!" he chaffed his conductor good-humouredly.
+
+"I have brought you the mountain," De Morbihan assented.
+
+"One is grateful for small miracles...."
+
+But De Morbihan wouldn't laugh at his own expense; for a moment,
+indeed, he seemed inclined to take umbrage at Lanyard's levity. But the
+sudden squaring of his broad shoulders and the hardening of his
+features was quickly modified by an uneasy sidelong glance at his
+companion. And then they were at the door of the cabinet particulier.
+
+De Morbihan rapped, turned the knob, and stood aside, bowing politely.
+
+With a nod acknowledging the courtesy, Lanyard consented to precede
+him, and entered a room of intimate proportions, furnished chiefly with
+a green-covered card-table and five easy-chairs, of which three were
+occupied--two by men in evening dress, the third by one in a
+well-tailored lounge suit of dark grey.
+
+Now all three men wore visors of black velvet.
+
+Lanyard looked from one to the other and chuckled quietly.
+
+With an aggrieved air De Morbihan launched into introductions:
+
+"Messieurs, I have the honour to present to you our confrere, Monsieur
+Lanyard, best known as 'The Lone Wolf.' Monsieur Lanyard--the Council
+of our Association, known to you as 'The Pack.'"
+
+The three rose and bowed ceremoniously, Lanyard returned a cool,
+good-natured nod. Then he laughed again and more openly:
+
+"A pack of knaves!"
+
+"Monsieur doubtless feels at ease?" one retorted acidly.
+
+"In your company, Popinot? But hardly!" Lanyard returned in light
+contempt.
+
+The fellow thus indicated, a burly rogue of a Frenchman in rusty and
+baggy evening clothes, started and flushed scarlet beneath his mask;
+but the man next him dropped a restraining hand upon his arm, and
+Popinot, with a shrug, sank back into his chair.
+
+"Upon my word!" Lanyard declared gracelessly, "it's as good as a play!
+Are you sure, Monsieur le Comte, there's no mistake--that these gay
+masqueraders haven't lost their way to the stage of the Grand Guignol?"
+
+"Damn!" muttered the Count. "Take care, my friend! You go too far!"
+
+"You really think so? But you amaze me! You can't in reason expect me
+to take you seriously, gentlemen!"
+
+"If you don't, it will prove serious business for you!" growled the one
+he had called Popinot.
+
+"You mean that? But you are magnificent, all of you! We lack only the
+solitary illumination of a candle-end--a grinning skull--a cup of blood
+upon the table--to make the farce complete! But as it is.... Messieurs,
+you must be rarely uncomfortable, and feeling as foolish as you look,
+into the bargain! Moreover, I'm no child. ... Popinot, why not
+disembarrass your amiable features? And you, Mr. Wertheimer, I'm sure,
+will feel more at ease with an open countenance--as the saying runs,"
+he said, nodding to the man beside Popinot. "As for this gentleman," he
+concluded, eyeing the third, "I haven't the pleasure of his
+acquaintance."
+
+With a short laugh, Wertheimer unmasked and exposed a face of decidedly
+English type, fair and well-modelled, betraying only the faintest
+traces of Semitic cast to account for his surname. And with this
+example, Popinot snatched off his own black visor--and glared at
+Lanyard: in his shabby dress, the incarnate essence of bourgeoisie
+outraged. But the third, he of the grey lounge suit, remained
+motionless; only his eyes clashed coldly with the adventurer's.
+
+He seemed a man little if at all Lanyard's senior, and built upon much
+the same lines. A close-clipped black moustache ornamented his upper
+lip. His chin was square and strong with character. The cut of his
+clothing was conspicuously neither English nor Continental.
+
+"I don't know you, sir," Lanyard continued slowly, puzzled to account
+for a feeling of familiarity with this person, whom he could have sworn
+he had never met before.
+
+"But you won't let your friends here outdo you in civility, I trust?"
+
+"If you mean you want me to unmask, I won't," the other returned
+brusquely, in fair French but with a decided transatlantic intonation.
+
+"American, eh?"
+
+"Native-born, if it interests you."
+
+"Have I ever met you before?"
+
+"You have not."
+
+"My dear Count," Lanyard said, turning to De Morbihan, "do me the
+favour to introduce this gentleman."
+
+"Your dear Count will do nothing like that, Mr. Lanyard. If you need a
+name to call me by, Smith's good enough."
+
+The incisive force of his enunciation assorted consistently with the
+general habit of the man. Lanyard recognized a nature no more pliable
+than his own. Idle to waste time bickering with this one....
+
+"It doesn't matter," he said shortly; and drawing back a chair, sat
+down. "If it did, I should insist--or else decline the honour of
+receiving the addresses of this cosmopolitan committee. Truly,
+messieurs, you flatter me. Here we have Mr. Wertheimer, representing
+the swell-mobsmen across Channel; Monsieur le Comte standing for the
+gratin of Paris; Popinot, spokesman for our friends the Apaches; and
+the well-known Mr. Goodenough Smith, ambassador of the gun-men of New
+York--no doubt. I presume one is to understand you wait upon me as
+representing the fine flower of the European underworld?"
+
+"You're to understand that I, for one, don't relish your impudence,"
+the stout Popinot snapped.
+
+"Sorry.... But I have already indicated my inability to take you
+seriously."
+
+"Why not?" the American demanded ominously. "You'd be sore enough if we
+took you as a joke, wouldn't you?"
+
+"You misapprehend, Mr.--ah--Smith: it is my first aim and wish that you
+do not take me in any manner, shape or form. It is you, remember, who
+requested this interview and--er--dressed your parts so strikingly!"
+
+"What are we to understand by that?" De Morbihan interposed.
+
+"This, messieurs--if you must know." Lanyard dropped for the moment his
+tone of raillery and bent forward, emphasizing his points by tapping
+the table with a forefinger. "Through some oversight of mine or
+cleverness of yours--I can't say which--perhaps both--you have
+succeeded in penetrating my secret. What then? You become envious of my
+success. In short, I stand in your light: I'm always getting away with
+something you might have lifted if you'd only had wit enough to think
+of it first. As your American accomplice, Mr. Mysterious Smith, would
+say, I 'cramp your style.'"
+
+"You learned that on Broadway," the American commented shrewdly.
+
+"Possibly.... To continue: so you get together, and bite your nails
+until you concoct a plan to frighten me into my profits. I've no doubt
+you're prepared to allow me to retain one-half the proceeds of my
+operations, should I elect to ally myself with you?"
+
+"That's the suggestion we are empowered to make," De Morbihan admitted.
+
+"In other words, you need me. You say to yourselves: 'We'll pretend to
+be the head of a criminal syndicate, such as the silly novelists are
+forever writing about, and we'll threaten to put him out of business
+unless he comes to our terms.' But you overlook one important fact:
+that you are not mentally equipped to get away with this amusing
+impersonation! What! Do you expect me to accept you as leading spirits
+of a gigantic criminal system--you, Popinot, who live by standing
+between the police and your murderous rats of Belleville, or you,
+Wertheimer, sneak-thief and black-mailer of timid women, or you, De
+Morbihan, because you eke out your income by showing a handful of
+second-storey men where to seek plunder in the homes of your friends!"
+
+He made a gesture of impatience, and lounged back to wait the answer to
+this indictment. His gaze, ranging the four faces, encountered but one
+that was not darkly flushed with resentment; and this was the
+American's.
+
+"Aren't you overlooking me?" this last suggested gently.
+
+"On the contrary: I refuse to recognize you as long as you lack courage
+to show your face."
+
+"As you will, my friend," the American chuckled. "Make your profit out
+of that any way you like."
+
+Lanyard sat up again: "Well, I've stated your case, messieurs. It
+amounts to simple, clumsy blackmail. I'm to split my earnings with you,
+or you'll denounce me to the police. That's about it, isn't it?"
+
+"Not of necessity," De Morbihan softly purred, twisting his moustache.
+
+"For my part," Popinot declared hotly, "I engage that Monsieur of the
+High Hand, here, will either work with us or conduct no more operations
+in Paris."
+
+"Or in New York," the American amended.
+
+"England is yet to be heard from," Lanyard suggested mockingly.
+
+To this Wertheimer replied, almost with diffidence: "If you ask me, I
+don't think you'd find it so jolly pleasant over there, if you mean to
+cut up nasty at this end."
+
+"Then what am I to infer? If you're afraid to lay an information
+against me--and it wouldn't be wise, I admit--you'll merely cause me to
+be assassinated, eh?"
+
+"Not of necessity," the Count murmured in the same thoughtful tone and
+manner--as one holding a hidden trump.
+
+"There are so many ways of arranging these matters," Wertheimer
+ventured.
+
+"None the less, if I refuse, you declare war?"
+
+"Something like that," the American admitted.
+
+"In that case--I am now able to state my position definitely." Lanyard
+got up and grinned provokingly down at the group. "You can--all four of
+you--go plumb to hell!"
+
+"My dear friend!" the Count cried, shocked--"you forget--"
+
+"I forget nothing!" Lanyard cut in coldly--"and my decision is final.
+Consider yourselves at liberty to go ahead and do your damnedest! But
+don't forget that it is you who are the aggressors. Already you've had
+the insolence to interfere with my arrangements: you began offensive
+operations before you declared war. So now if you're hit beneath the
+belt, you mustn't complain: you've asked for it!"
+
+"Now just what _do_ you mean by that?" the American drawled ironically.
+
+"I leave you to figure it out for yourselves. But I will say this: I
+confidently expect you to decide to live and let live, and shall be
+sorry, as you'll certainly be sorry, if you force my hand."
+
+He opened the door, turned, and saluted them with sarcastic punctilio.
+
+"I have the honour to bid adieu to Messieurs the Council of--'The
+Pack'!"
+
+
+
+IX
+
+DISASTER
+
+Having fulfilled his purpose of making himself acquainted with the
+personnel of the opposition, Lanyard slammed the door in its face,
+thrust his hands in his pockets, and sauntered down stairs, chuckling,
+his nose in the air, on the best of terms with himself.
+
+True, the fat was in the fire and well a-blaze: he had to look to
+himself now, and go warily in the shadow of their enmity. But it was
+something to have faced down those four, and he wasn't seriously
+impressed by any one of them.
+
+Popinot, perhaps, was the most dangerous in Lanyard's esteem; a
+vindictive animal, that Popinot; and the creatures he controlled, a
+murderous lot, drug-ridden, drink bedevilled, vicious little rats of
+Belleville, who'd knife a man for the price of an absinthe. But Popinot
+wouldn't move without leave from De Morbihan, and unless Lanyard's
+calculations were seriously miscast, De Morbihan would restrain both
+himself and his associates until thoroughly convinced Lanyard was
+impregnable against every form of persuasion. Murder was something a
+bit out of De Morbihan's line--something, at least, which he might be
+counted on to hold in reserve. And by the time he was ready to employ
+it, Lanyard would be well beyond his reach. Wertheimer, too, would
+deprecate violence until all else failed; his half-caste type was as
+cowardly as it was blackguard; and cowards kill only impulsively,
+before they've had time to weigh consequences. There remained "Smith,"
+enigma; a man apparently gifted with both intelligence and
+character.... But if so, what the deuce was _he_ doing in such company?
+
+Still, there he was: and the association damned him beyond
+consideration. His sorts were all of a piece, beneath the consideration
+of men of spirit....
+
+At this point, the self-complacence bred of his contempt for Messrs. de
+Morbihan et Cie. bred in its turn a thought that brought the adventurer
+up standing.
+
+The devil! Who was he, Michael Lanyard, that held himself above such
+vermin, yet lived in such a way as practically to invite their
+advances? What right was his to resent their opening the door to
+confraternity, as long as he trod paths so closely parallel to theirs
+that only a sophist might discriminate them? What comforting
+distinction was to be drawn between on the one hand a blackmailer like
+Wertheimer, a chevalier-d'industrie like De Morbihan, or a patron of
+Apaches like Popinot, and on the other himself whose bread was eaten in
+the sweat of thievery?
+
+He drew a long face; whistled softly; shook his head; and smiled a wry
+smile.
+
+"Glad I didn't think of that two minutes ago, or I'd never have had the
+cheek..."
+
+Without warning, incongruously and, in his understanding, inexplicably,
+he found himself beset by recurrent memory of the girl, Lucia Bannon.
+
+For an instant he saw her again, quite vividly, as last he had seen
+her: turning at the door of her bed-chamber to look back at him, a
+vision of perturbing charm in her rose-silk dressing-gown, with rich
+hair loosened, cheeks softly glowing, eyes brilliant with an emotion
+illegible to her one beholder....
+
+What had been the message of those eyes, flashed down the dimly lighted
+length of that corridor at Troyon's, ere she vanished?
+
+Adieu? Or au revoir? ...
+
+She had termed him, naively enough, and a gentleman.
+
+But if she knew--suspected--even dreamed--that he was what he was?...
+
+He shook his head again, but now impatiently, with a scowl and a
+grumble:
+
+"What's the matter with me anyway? Mooning over a girl I never saw
+before to-night! As if it matters a whoop in Hepsidam what she
+thinks!... Or is it possible I'm beginning to develop a rudimentary
+conscience, at this late day? Me!..."
+
+If there were anything in this hypothesis, the growing-pains of that
+late-blooming conscience were soon enough numbed by the hypnotic spell
+of clattering chips, an ivory ball singing in an ebony race, and
+croaking croupiers.
+
+For Lanyard's chair at the table of chemin-de-fer had been filled by
+another and, too impatient to wait a vacancy, he wandered on to the
+salon dedicated to roulette, tested his luck by staking a note of five
+hundred francs on the black, won, and incontinently subsided into a
+chair and an oblivion that endured for the space of three-quarters of
+an hour.
+
+At the end of that period he found himself minus his heavy winnings at
+chemin-de-fer and ten thousand francs of his reserve fund to boot.
+
+By way of lining for his pockets there remained precisely the sum which
+he had brought into Paris that same evening, less subsequent general
+disbursements.
+
+The experience was nothing novel in his history. He rose less resentful
+than regretful that his ill-luck obliged him to quit just when play was
+most interesting, and resignedly sought the cloak-room for his coat and
+hat.
+
+And there he found De Morbihan--again!--standing all garmented for the
+street, mouthing a huge cigar and wearing a look of impatient
+discontent.
+
+"At last!" he cried in an aggrieved tone as Lanyard appeared in the
+offing. "You do take your time, my friend!"
+
+Lanyard smothered with a smile whatever emotion was his of the moment.
+
+"I didn't imagine you really meant to wait for me," he parried with
+double meaning, both to humour De Morbihan and hoodwink the attendant.
+
+"What do you think?" retorted the Count with asperity--"that I'm
+willing to stand by and let you moon round Paris at this hour of the
+morning, hunting for a taxicab that isn't to be found and running
+God-knows-what risk of being stuck up by some misbegotten Apache? But I
+should say not! I mean to take you home in my car, though it cost me a
+half-hour of beauty sleep not lightly to be forfeited at my age!"
+
+The significance that underlay the semi-humourous petulance of the
+little man was not wasted.
+
+"You're most amiable, Monsieur le Comte!" Lanyard observed
+thoughtfully, while the attendant produced his hat and coat. "So now,
+if you're ready, I won't delay you longer."
+
+In another moment they were outside the club-house, its doors shut
+behind them, while before them, at the curb, waited that same handsome
+black limousine which had brought the adventurer from L'Abbaye.
+
+Two swift glances, right and left, showed him an empty street, bare of
+hint of danger.
+
+"One moment, monsieur!" he said, detaining the Count with a touch on
+his sleeve. "It's only right that I should advise you ... I'm armed."
+
+"Then you're less foolhardy than one feared. If such things interest
+you, I don't mind admitting I carry a life-preserver of my own. But
+what of that? Is one eager to go shooting at this time of night, for
+the sheer fun of explaining to sergents de ville that one has been
+attacked by Apaches? ... Providing always one lives to explain!"
+
+"It's as bad as that, eh?"
+
+"Enough to make me loath to linger at your side in a lighted doorway!"
+
+Lanyard laughed in his own discomfiture. "Monsieur le Comte," said he,
+"there's a dash in you of what your American pal, Mysterious Smith,
+would call sporting blood, that commands my unstinted admiration. I
+thank you for your offered courtesy, and beg leave to accept."
+
+De Morbihan replied with a grunt of none too civil intonation,
+instructed the chauffeur "To Troyon's," and followed Lanyard into the
+car.
+
+"Courtesy!" he repeated, settling himself with a shake. "That makes
+nothing. If I regarded my own inclinations, I'd let you go to the devil
+as quick as Popinot's assassins could send you there!"
+
+"This is delightful!" Lanyard protested. "First you must see me home to
+save my life, and then you tell me your inclinations consign me to a
+premature grave. Is there an explanation, possibly?"
+
+"On your person," said the Count, sententious.
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"You carry your reason with you, my friend--in the shape of the Omber
+loot."
+
+"Assuming you are right--"
+
+"You never went to the rue du Bac, monsieur, without those jewels: and
+I have had you under observation ever since."
+
+"What conceivable interest," Lanyard pursued evenly, "do you fancy
+you've got in the said loot?"
+
+ "Enough, at least, to render me unwilling to kiss it adieu by leaving
+you to the mercies of Popinot. You don't imagine I'd ever hear of it
+again, when his Apaches had finished with you?"
+
+ "Ah!... So, after all, your so-called organization isn't founded on
+that reciprocal trust so essential to the prosperity of
+such--enterprises!"
+
+"Amuse yourself as you will with your inferences, my friend," the Count
+returned, unruffled; "but don't forget my advice: pull wide of Popinot!"
+
+"A vindictive soul, eh?"
+
+"One may say that."
+
+"You can't hold him?"
+
+"That one? No fear! You were anything but wise to bait him as you did."
+
+"Perhaps. It's purely a matter of taste in associates."
+
+"If I were the fool you think me," mused the Count "I'd resent that
+innuendo. As it happens, I'm not. At least, I can wait before calling
+you to account."
+
+"And meantime profit by your patience?"
+
+"But naturally. Haven't I said as much?"
+
+"Still, I'm perplexed. I can't imagine how you reckon to declare
+yourself in on the Omber loot."
+
+"All in good time: if you were wise, you'd hand the stuff over to me
+here and now, and accept what I chose to give you in return. But
+inasmuch as you're the least wise of men, you must have your lesson."
+
+"Meaning--?"
+
+"The night brings counsel: you'll have time to think things over. By
+to-morrow you'll be coming to offer me those jewels in exchange for
+what influence I have in certain quarters."
+
+"With your famous friend, the Chief of the Surete, eh?"
+
+"Possibly. I am known also at La Tour Pointue."
+
+"I confess I don't follow you, unless you mean to turn informer."
+
+"Never that."
+
+"It's a riddle, then?"
+
+"For the moment only.... But I will say this: it will be futile, your
+attempting to escape Paris; Popinot has already picketted every outlet.
+Your one hope resides in me; and I shall be at home to you until
+midnight to-morrow--to-day, rather."
+
+Impressed in spite of himself, Lanyard stared. But the Count maintained
+an imperturbable manner, looking straight ahead. Such calm assurance
+would hardly be sheer bluff.
+
+"I must think this over," Lanyard mused aloud.
+
+"Pray don't let me hinder you," the Count begged with mild sarcasm. "I
+have my own futile thoughts...."
+
+Lanyard laughed quietly and subsided into a reverie which, undisturbed
+by De Morbihan, endured throughout the brief remainder of their drive;
+for, thanks to the smallness of the hour, the streets were practically
+deserted and offered no obstacle to speed; while the chauffeur was
+doubtless eager for his bed.
+
+As they drew near Troyon's, however, Lanyard sat up and jealously
+reconnoitered both sides of the way.
+
+"Surely you don't expect to be kept out?" the Count asked dryly. "But
+that just shows how little you appreciate our good Popinot. He'll never
+object to your locking yourself up where he knows he can find you--but
+only to your leaving without permission!"
+
+"Something in that, perhaps. Still, I make it a rule to give myself the
+benefit of every doubt."
+
+There was, indeed, no sign of ambush that he could detect in any
+quarter, nor any indication that Popinot's Apaches were posted
+thereabouts. Nevertheless, Lanyard produced his automatic and freed the
+safety-catch before opening the door.
+
+"A thousand thanks, my dear Count!"
+
+"For what? Doing myself a service? But you make me feel ashamed!"
+
+"I know," agreed Lanyard, depreciatory; "but that's the way I am--a
+little devil--you really can't trust me! Adieu, Monsieur le Comte."
+
+"Au revoir, monsieur!"
+
+Lanyard saw the car round the corner before turning to the entrance of
+Troyon's, keeping his weather-eye alert the while. But when the car was
+gone, the street seemed quite deserted and as soundless as though it
+had been the thoroughfare of some remote village rather than an artery
+of the pulsing old heart of Paris.
+
+Yet he wasn't satisfied. He was as little susceptible to psychic
+admonition as any sane and normal human organism, but he was just then
+strongly oppressed by intuitive perception that there was something
+radically amiss in his neighbourhood. Whether or not the result of the
+Count's open intimations and veiled hints working upon a nature
+sensitized by excitement and fatigue, he felt as though he had stepped
+from the cab into an atmosphere impregnated to saturation with nameless
+menace. And he even shivered a bit, perhaps because of the chill in
+that air of early morning, perhaps because a shadow of premonition had
+fallen athwart his soul....
+
+Whatever its cause, he could find no reason for this; and shaking
+himself impatiently, pressed a button that rang a bell by the ear of
+the concierge, heard the latch click, thrust the door wide, and
+re-entered Troyon's.
+
+Here reigned a silence even more marked than that of the street, a
+silence as heavy and profound as the grave's, so that sheer instinct
+prompted Lanyard to tread lightly as he made his way down the passage
+and across the courtyard toward the stairway; and in that hush the
+creak of a greaseless hinge, when the concierge opened the door of his
+quarters to identify this belated guest, seemed little less than a
+profanity.
+
+Lanyard paused and delved into his pockets, nodding genially to the
+blowsy, sleepy old face beneath the guardian's nightcap.
+
+"Sorry to disturb monsieur," he said politely, further impoverishing
+himself in the sum of five francs in witness to the sincerity of his
+regret.
+
+"I thank monsieur; but what need to consider me? It's my duty. And what
+is one interruption more or less? All night they come and go...."
+
+"Good night, monsieur," Lanyard cut short the old man's garrulity; and
+went on up the stairs, now a little wearily, of a sudden newly
+conscious of his vast and enervating fatigue.
+
+He thought longingly of bed, yawned involuntarily and, reaching his
+door, fumbled the key in a most unprofessional way; there were weights
+upon his eyelids, a heaviness in his brain....
+
+But the key met with no resistance from the wards; and in a trice,
+appreciating this fact, Lanyard was wide-awake again.
+
+No question but that he had locked the door securely, on leaving after
+his adventure with the charming somnambulist....
+
+Had she, then, taken a whim to his room?
+
+Or was this but proof of what he had anticipated in the beginning--a
+bit of sleuthing on the part of Roddy?
+
+He entertained little doubt as to the correctness of this latter
+surmise, as he threw the door open and stepped into the room, his first
+action being to grasp the electric switch and twist it smartly.
+
+But no light answered.
+
+"Hello!" he exclaimed softly, remembering that the lights could readily
+have been turned off at the bulbs. "What's the good of that?"
+
+In the same breath he started violently, and swung about.
+
+The door had closed behind him, swiftly but gently, eclipsing the faint
+light from the hall, leaving what amounted to stark darkness.
+
+His first impression was that the intruder--Roddy or whoever--had
+darted past him and out, pulling the door to in that act.
+
+Before he could consciously revise this misconception he was fighting
+for his life.
+
+So unexpected, so swift and sudden fell the assault, that he was caught
+completely off guard: between the shutting of the door and an onslaught
+whose violence sent him reeling to the wall, the elapsed time could
+have been measured by the fluttering of an eyelash.
+
+And then two powerful arms were round him, pinioning his hands to his
+sides, his feet were tripped up, and he was thrown with a force that
+fairly jarred his teeth, half-stunning him.
+
+For a breath he lay dazed, struggling feebly; not long, but long enough
+to enable his antagonist to shift his hold and climb on top of his
+body, where he squatted, bearing down heavily with a knee on either of
+Lanyard's forearms, hands encircling his neck, murderous thumbs digging
+into his windpipe.
+
+He revived momentarily, pulled himself together, and heaved mightily in
+futile effort to unseat the other.
+
+The sole outcome of this was a tightening pressure on his throat.
+
+The pain grew agonizing; Lanyard's breath was almost completely shut
+off; he gasped vainly, with a rattling noise in his gullet; his
+eyeballs started; a myriad coruscant lights danced and interlaced
+blindingly before them; in his ears there rang a roaring like the voice
+of heavy surf breaking upon a rock-bound coast.
+
+And of a sudden he ceased to struggle and lay slack, passive in the
+other's hands.
+
+Only an instant longer was the clutch on his throat maintained. Both
+hands left it quickly, one shifting to his head to turn and press it
+roughly cheek to floor. Simultaneously he was aware of the other hand
+fumbling about his neck, and then of a touch of metal and the sting of
+a needle driven into the flesh beneath his ear.
+
+That galvanized him; he came to life again in a twinkling, animate with
+threefold strength and cunning. The man on his chest was thrown off as
+by a young earthquake; and Lanyard's right arm was no sooner free than
+it shot out with blind but deadly accuracy to the point of his
+assailant's jaw. A click of teeth was followed by a sickish grunt as
+the man lurched over....
+
+Lanyard found himself scrambling to his feet, a bit giddy perhaps, but
+still sufficiently master of his wits to get his pistol out before
+making another move.
+
+
+
+X
+
+TURN ABOUT
+
+The thought of Lanyard's pocket flash-lamp offering itself, immediately
+its wide circle of light enveloped his late antagonist.
+
+That one was resting on a shoulder, legs uncouthly a-sprawl, quite
+without movement of any perceptible sort; his face more than
+half-turned to the floor, and masked into the bargain.
+
+Incredulously Lanyard stirred the body with a foot, holding his weapon
+poised as though half-expecting it to quicken with instant and violent
+action; but it responded in no way.
+
+With a nod of satisfaction, he shifted the light until it marked down
+the nearest electric bulb, which proved, in line with his inference, to
+have been extinguished by the socket key, while the heat of its bulb
+indicated that the current had been shut off only an instant before his
+entrance.
+
+The light full up, he went back to the thug, knelt and, lifting the
+body, turned it upon its back.
+
+Recognition immediately rewarded this manoeuvre: the masked face
+upturned to the glare was that of the American who had made a fourth in
+the concert of the Pack--"Mr. Smith," Quickly unlatching the mask,
+Lanyard removed it; but the countenance thus exposed told little more
+than he knew; he could have sworn he had never seen it before. None the
+less, something in its evil cast persistently troubled his memory, with
+the same provoking and baffling effect that had attended their first
+encounter.
+
+Already the American was struggling toward consciousness. His lips and
+eyelids twitched spasmodically, he shuddered, and his flexed muscles
+began to relax. In this process something fell from between the fingers
+of his right hand--something small and silver-bright that caught
+Lanyard's eye.
+
+Picking it up, he examined with interest a small hypodermic syringe
+loaded to the full capacity of its glass cylinder, plunger drawn
+back--all ready for instant service.
+
+It was the needle of this instrument that had pricked the skin of
+Lanyard's neck; beyond reasonable doubt it contained a soporific, if
+not exactly a killing dose of some narcotic drug--cocaine, at a venture.
+
+So it appeared that this agent of the Pack had been commissioned to put
+the Lone Wolf to sleep for an hour or two or more--_perhaps_ not
+permanently!--that he might be out of the way long enough for their
+occult purposes.
+
+He smiled grimly, fingering the hypodermic and eyeing the prostrate man.
+
+"Turn about," he reflected, "is said to be fair play.... Well, why not?"
+
+He bent forward, dug the needle into the wrist of the American and shot
+the plunger home, all in a single movement so swift and deft that the
+drug was delivered before the pain could startle the victim from his
+coma.
+
+As for that, the man came to quickly enough; but only to have his
+clearing senses met and dashed by the muzzle of a pistol stamping a
+cold ring upon his temple.
+
+"Lie perfectly quiet, my dear Mr. Smith," Lanyard advised; "don't speak
+above a whisper! Give the good dope a chance: it'll only need a moment,
+or I'm no judge and you're a careless highbinder! I'd like to know,
+however--if it's all the same to you--"
+
+But already the injection was taking effect; the look of panic, which
+had drawn the features of the American and flickered from his eyes with
+dawning appreciation of his plight, was clouding, fading, blending into
+one of daze and stupour. The eyelids flickered and lay still; the lips
+moved as if with urgent desire to speak, but were dumb; a long
+convulsive sigh shook the American's body; and he rested with the
+immobility of the dead, save for the slow but steady rise and fall of
+his bosom.
+
+Lanyard thoughtfully reviewed these phenomena.
+
+"Must kick like a mule, that dope!" he reflected. "Lucky it didn't get
+me before I guessed what was up! If I'd even suspected its strength,
+however, I'd have been less hasty: I could do with a little information
+from Mr. Mysterious Stranger here!"
+
+Suddenly conscious of a dry and burning throat, he rose and going to
+the washstand drank deep and thirstily from a water-bottle; then set
+himself resolutely to repair the disarray of his wits and consider what
+was best to be done.
+
+In his abstraction he wandered to a chair over whose back hung a light
+dressing-gown of wine-coloured silk, which, because it would pack in
+small compass, was in the habit of carrying with him on his travels.
+Lanyard had left this thrown across his bed; and he was wondering
+subconsciously what use the man had thought to make of it, that he
+should have taken the trouble to shift it to the chair.
+
+But even as he laid hold of it, Lanyard dropped the garment in sheer
+surprise to find it damp and heavy in his grasp, sodden with viscid
+moisture. And when, in a swift flash of intuition, he examined his
+fingers, he discovered them discoloured with a faint reddish stain.
+
+Had the dye run? And how had the American come to dabble the garment in
+water--to what end?
+
+Then the shape of an object on the floor near his feet arrested
+Lanyard's questing vision. He stared, incredulous, moved forward, bent
+over and picked it up, clipping it gingerly between finger-tips.
+
+It was one of his razors--a heavy hollow-ground blade--and it was foul
+with blood.
+
+With a low cry, smitten with awful understanding, Lanyard wheeled and
+stared fearfully at the door communicating with Roddy's room.
+
+It stood ajar an inch or two, its splintered lock accounted for by a
+small but extremely efficient jointed steel jimmy which lay near the
+threshold.
+
+Beyond the door ... darkness ... silence...
+
+Mustering up all his courage, the adventurer strode determinedly into
+the adjoining room.
+
+The first flash of his hand-lamp discovered to him sickening
+verification of his most dreadful apprehensions.
+
+Now he saw why his dressing-gown had been requisitioned--to protect a
+butcher's clothing.
+
+After a moment he returned, shut the door, and set his back against it,
+as if to bar out that reeking shambles.
+
+He was very pale, his face drawn with horror; and he was powerfully
+shaken with nausea.
+
+The plot was damnably patent: Roddy proving a menace to the Pack and
+requiring elimination, his murder had been decreed as well as that the
+blame for it should be laid at Lanyard's door. Hence the attempt to
+drug him, that he might not escape before police could be sent to find
+him there.
+
+He could no longer doubt that De Morbihan had been left behind at the
+Circle of Friends of Harmony solely to detain him, if need be, and
+afford Smith time to finish his hideous job and set the trap for the
+second victim.
+
+And the plot had succeeded despite its partial failure, despite the
+swift reverse chance and Lanyard's cunning had meted out to the Pack's
+agent. It was _his_ dressing-gown that was saturate with Roddy's blood,
+just as they were his gloves, pilfered from his luggage, which had
+measurably protected the killer's hands, and which Lanyard had found in
+the next room, stripped hastily off and thrown to the floor--twin
+crumpled wads of blood-stained chamois-skin.
+
+He had now little choice; he must either flee Paris and trust to his
+wits to save him, or else seek De Morbihan and solicit his protection,
+his boasted influence in high quarters.
+
+But to give himself into the hands, to become an associate, of one who
+could be party to so cowardly a Crime as this ... Lanyard told himself
+he would sooner pay the guillotine the penalty....
+
+Consulting his watch, he found the hour to be no later than half-past
+four: so swiftly (truly treading upon one another's heels) events had
+moved since the incident of the somnambulist.
+
+This left at his disposal a fair two hours more of darkness: November
+nights are long and black in Paris; it would hardly be even moderately
+light before seven o'clock. But that were a respite none too long for
+Lanyard's necessity; he must think swiftly in contemplation of instant
+action were he to extricate himself without the Pack's knowledge and
+consent.
+
+Granted, then, he must fly this stricken field of Paris. But how? De
+Morbihan had promised that Popinot's creatures would guard every
+outlet; and Lanyard didn't doubt him. An attempt to escape the city by
+any ordinary channel would be to invite either denunciation to the
+police on the charge of murder, or one of those fatally expeditious
+forms of assassination of which the Apaches are past-masters.
+
+He must and would find another way; but his decision was frightfully
+hampered by lack of ready money; the few odd francs in his pocket were
+no store for the war-chest demanded by this emergency.
+
+True, he had the Omber jewels; but they were not negotiable--not at
+least in Paris.
+
+And the Huysman plans?
+
+He pondered briefly the possibilities of the Huysman plans.
+
+In his fretting, pacing softly to and fro, at each turn he passed his
+dressing-table, and chancing once to observe himself in its mirror, he
+stopped short, thunderstruck by something he thought to detect in the
+counterfeit presentment of his countenance, heavy with fatigue as it
+was, and haggard with contemplation of this appalling contretemps.
+
+And instantly he was back beside the American, studying narrowly the
+contours of that livid mask. Here, then, was that resemblance which had
+baffled him; and now that he saw it, he could not deny that it was
+unflatteringly close: feature for feature the face of the murderer
+reproduced his face, coarsened perhaps but recognizably a replica of
+that Michael Lanyard who confronted him every morning in his
+shaving-glass, almost the only difference residing in the scrubby black
+moustache that shadowed the American's upper lip.
+
+After all, there was nothing wonderful in this; Lanyard's type was not
+uncommon; he would never have thought himself a distinguished figure.
+
+Before rising he turned out the pockets of his counterfeit. But this
+profited him little: the assassin had dressed for action with
+forethought to evade recognition in event of accident. Lanyard
+collected only a cheap American watch in a rolled-gold case of a sort
+manufactured by wholesale, a briquet, a common key that might fit any
+hotel door, a broken paper of Regie cigarettes, an automatic pistol, a
+few francs in silver--nothing whatever that would serve as a mark of
+identification; for though the grey clothing was tailor-made, the
+maker's labels had been ripped out of its pockets, while the man's
+linen and underwear alike lacked even a laundry's hieroglyphic.
+
+With this harvest of nothing for his pains, Lanyard turned again to the
+wash-stand and his shaving kit, mixed a stiff lather, stropped another
+razor to the finest edge he could manage, fetched a pair of keen
+scissors from his dressing-case, and went back to the murderer.
+
+He worked rapidly, at a high pitch of excitement--as much through sheer
+desperation as through any appeal inherent in the scheme either to his
+common-sense or to his romantic bent.
+
+In two minutes he had stripped the moustache clean away from that
+stupid, flaccid mask.
+
+Unquestionably the resemblance was now most striking; the American
+would readily pass for Michael Lanyard.
+
+This much accomplished, he pursued his preparations in feverish haste.
+In spite of this, he overlooked no detail. In less than twenty minutes
+he had exchanged clothing with the American in detail, even down to
+shirts, collars and neckties; had packed in his own pockets the several
+articles taken from the other, together with the jointed jimmy and a
+few of his personal effects, and was ready to bid adieu to himself, to
+that Michael Lanyard whom Paris knew.
+
+The insentient masquerader on the floor had called himself "good-enough
+Smith"; he must serve now as good-enough Lanyard, at least for the Lone
+Wolf's purposes; the police at all events would accept him as such. And
+if the memory of Michael Lanyard must needs wear the stigma of brutal
+murder, he need not repine in his oblivion, since through this
+perfunctory decease the Lone Wolf would gain a freedom even greater
+than before.
+
+The Pack had contrived only to eliminate Michael Lanyard, the amateur
+of fine paintings; remained the Lone Wolf with not one faculty
+impaired, but rather with a deadlier purpose to shape his occult
+courses....
+
+Under the influence of his methodical preparations, his emotions had
+cooled appreciably, taking on a cast of cold malignant vengefulness.
+
+He who never in all his criminal record had so much as pulled trigger
+in self-defence, was ready now to shoot to kill with the most
+cold-blooded intent--given one of three targets; while Popinot's
+creatures, if they worried him, he meant to exterminate with as little
+compunction as though they were rats in fact as well as in spirit....
+
+Extinguishing the lights, he stepped quickly to a window and from one
+edge of its shade looked down into the street.
+
+He was in time to see a stunted human silhouette detach itself from the
+shadow of a doorway on the opposite walk, move to the curb, and wave an
+arm--evidently signaling another sentinel on a corner out of Lanyard's
+range of vision.
+
+Herein was additional proof, if any lacked, that De Morbihan had not
+exaggerated the disposition of Popinot. This animal in the street,
+momentarily revealed by the corner light as he darted across to take
+position by the door, this animal with sickly face and pointed chin,
+with dirty muffler round its chicken-neck, shoddy coat clothing its
+sloping shoulders, baggy corduroy trousers flapping round its bony
+shanks--this was Popinot's, and but one of a thousand differing in no
+essential save degree of viciousness.
+
+It wasn't possible to guess how thoroughly Popinot had picketed the
+house, in co-operation with Roddy's murderer, by way of provision
+against mischance; but the adventurer was satisfied that, in his proper
+guise as himself, he needed only to open that postern door at the
+street end of the passage, to feel a knife slip in between his
+ribs--most probably in his back, beneath the shoulder-blade....
+
+He nodded grimly, moved back from the window, and used the flash-lamp
+to light him to the door.
+
+
+
+XI
+
+FLIGHT
+
+Now when Lanyard had locked the door, he told himself that the gruesome
+peace of those two bed-chambers was ensured, barring mischance, for as
+long as the drug continued to hold dominion over the American; and he
+felt justified in reckoning that period apt to be tolerably protracted;
+while not before noon at earliest would any hotelier who knew his
+business permit the rest of an Anglo-Saxon guest to be
+disturbed--lacking, that is, definite instructions to the contrary.
+
+For a full minute after withdrawing the key the adventurer stood at
+alert attention; but the heavy silence of that sinister old rookery
+sang in his ears untroubled by any untoward sound....
+
+That wistful shadow of his memories, that cowering Marcel of the
+so-dead yesterday in acute terror of the hand of Madame Troyon, had
+never stolen down that corridor more quietly: yet Lanyard had taken not
+five paces from his door when that other opened, at the far end, and
+Lucia Bannon stepped out.
+
+He checked then, and shut his teeth upon an involuntary oath: truly it
+seemed as though this run of the devil's own luck would never end!
+
+Astonishment measurably modified his exasperation.
+
+What had roused the girl out of bed and dressed her for the street at
+that unholy hour? And why her terror at sight of him?
+
+For that the surprise was no more welcome to her than to him was as
+patent as the fact that she was prepared to leave the hotel forthwith,
+enveloped in a business-like Burberry rainproof from her throat to the
+hem of a tweed walking-skirt, and wearing boots both stout and brown.
+And at sight of him she paused and instinctively stepped back, groping
+blindly for the knob of her bed-chamber door; while her eyes, holding
+to his with an effect of frightened fascination, seemed momentarily to
+grow more large and dark in her face of abnormal pallor.
+
+But these were illegible evidences, and Lanyard was intent solely on
+securing her silence before she could betray him and ruin incontinently
+that grim alibi which he had prepared at such elaborate pains. He moved
+toward her swiftly, with long and silent strides, a lifted hand
+enjoining rather than begging her attention, aware as he drew nearer
+that a curious change was colouring the complexion of her temper: she
+passed quickly from dread to something oddly like relief, from
+repulsion to something strangely like welcome; and dropping the hand
+that had sought the door-knob, in her turn moved quietly to meet him.
+
+He was grateful for this consideration, this tacit indulgence of the
+wish he had as yet to voice; drew a little hope and comfort from it in
+an emergency which had surprised him without resource other than to
+throw himself upon her generosity. And as soon as he could make himself
+heard in the clear yet concentrated whisper that was a trick of his
+trade, a whisper inaudible to ears a yard distant from those to which
+it was pitched, he addressed her in a manner at once peremptory and
+apologetic.
+
+"If you please, Miss Bannon--not a word, not a whisper!"
+
+She paused and nodded compliance, questioning eyes steadfast to his.
+
+Doubtfully, wondering that she betrayed so little surprise, he pursued
+as one committed to a forlorn hope:
+
+"It's vitally essential that I leave this hotel without it becoming
+known. If I may count on you to say nothing--"
+
+She gave him reassurance with a small gesture. "But how?" she breathed
+in the least of whispers. "The concierge--!"
+
+"Leave that to me--I know another way. I only need a chance--"
+
+"Then won't you take me with you?"
+
+"Eh?" he stammered, dashed.
+
+Her hands moved toward him in a flutter of entreaty: "I too must leave
+unseen--I _must_! Take me with you--out of this place--and I promise
+you no one shall ever know--"
+
+He lacked time to weigh the disadvantages inherent in her proposition;
+though she offered him a heavy handicap, he had no choice but to accept
+it without protest.
+
+"Come, then," he told her--"and not a sound--"
+
+She signified assent with another nod; and on this he turned to an
+adjacent door, opened it gently, whipped out his flash-lamp, and passed
+through. Without sign of hesitancy, she followed; and like two shadows
+they dogged the dancing spot-light of the flash-lamp, through a
+linen-closet and service-room, down a shallow well threaded by a spiral
+of iron steps and, by way of the long corridor linking the
+kitchen-offices, to a stout door secured only by huge, old-style bolts
+of iron.
+
+Thus, in less than two minutes from the instant of their encounter,
+they stood outside Troyon's back door, facing a cramped, malodorous
+alley-way--a dark and noisome souvenir of that wild mediaeval Paris
+whose effacement is an enduring monument to the fame of the good Baron
+Haussmann.
+
+Now again it was raining, a thick drizzle that settled slowly, lacking
+little of a fog's opacity; and the faint glimmer from the street lamps
+of that poorly lighted quarter, reflected by the low-swung clouds, lent
+Lanyard and the girl little aid as they picked their way cautiously,
+and always in complete silence, over the rude and slimy cobbles of the
+foul back way. For the adventurer had pocketed his lamp, lest its beams
+bring down upon them some prowling creature of Popinot's; though he
+felt passably sure that the alley had been left unguarded in the
+confidence that he would never dream of its existence, did he survive
+to seek escape from Troyon's.
+
+For all its might and its omniscience, Lanyard doubted if the Pack had
+as yet identified Michael Lanyard with that ill-starred Marcel who once
+had been as intimate with this forgotten way as any skulking tom of the
+quarter.
+
+But with the Lone Wolf confidence was never akin to foolhardiness; and
+if on leaving Troyon's he took the girl's hand without asking
+permission and quite as a matter-of-course, and drew it through his
+arm--it was his left arm that he so dedicated to gallantry; his right
+hand remained unhampered, and never far from the grip of his automatic.
+
+Nor was he altogether confident of his companion. The weight of her
+hand upon his arm, the fugitive contacts of her shoulder, seemed to
+him, just then, the most vivid and interesting things in life; the
+consciousness of her personality at his side was like a shaft of golden
+light penetrating the darkness of his dilemma. But as minutes passed
+and their flight was unchallenged, his mood grew dark with doubts and
+quick with distrust. Reviewing it all, he thought to detect something
+too damnably adventitious in the way she had nailed him, back there in
+the corridor of Troyon's. It was a bit too coincidental--"a bit
+thick!"--like that specious yarn of somnambulism she had told to excuse
+her presence in his room. Come to examine it, that excuse had been far
+too clumsy to hoodwink any but a man bewitched by beauty in distress.
+
+Who was she, anyway? And what her interest in him? What had she been
+after in his room?--this American girl making a first visit to Paris in
+company with her venerable ruin of a parent? Who, for that matter, was
+Bannon? If her story of sleep-walking were untrue, then Bannon must
+have been at the bottom of her essay in espionage--Bannon, the intimate
+of De Morbihan, and an American even as the murderer of poor Roddy was
+an American!
+
+Was this singularly casual encounter, then, but a cloak for further
+surveillance? Had he in his haste and desperation simply played into
+her hands, when he burdened himself with the care of her?
+
+But it seemed absurd; to think that she... a girl like her, whose every
+word and gesture was eloquent of gentle birth and training...!
+
+Yet--what _had_ she wanted in his room? Somnambulists are sincere
+indeed in the indulgence of their failing when they time their
+expeditions so opportunely--and arm themselves with keys to fit strange
+doors. Come to think of it, he had been rather willfully blind to that
+flaw in her excuse.... Again, why should she be up and dressed and so
+madly bent on leaving Troyon's at half-past four in the morning? Why
+couldn't she wait for daylight at least? What errand, reasonable duty
+or design could have roused her out into the night and the storm at
+that weird hour? He wondered!
+
+And momentarily he grew more jealously heedful of her, critical of
+every nuance in her bearing. The least trace of added pressure on his
+arm, the most subtle suggestion that she wasn't entirely indifferent to
+him or regarded him in any way other than as the chance-found comrade
+of an hour of trouble, would have served to fix his suspicions. For
+such, he told himself, would be the first thought of one bent on
+beguiling--to lead him on by some intimation, the more tenuous and
+elusive the more provocative, that she found his person not altogether
+objectionable.
+
+But he failed to detect anything of this nature in her manner.
+
+So, what was one to think? That she was mental enough to appreciate how
+ruinous to her design would be any such advances? ...
+
+In such perplexity he brought her to the end of the alley and there
+pulled up for a look round before venturing out into the narrow, dark,
+and deserted side street that then presented itself.
+
+At this the girl gently disengaged her hand and drew away a pace or
+two; and when Lanyard had satisfied himself that there were no Apaches
+in the offing, he turned to see her standing there, just within the
+mouth of the alley, in a pose of blank indecision.
+
+Conscious of his regard, she turned to his inspection a face touched
+with a fugitive, uncertain smile.
+
+"Where are we?" she asked.
+
+He named the street; and she shook her head. "That doesn't mean much to
+me," she confessed; "I'm so strange to Paris, I know only a few of the
+principal streets. Where is the boulevard St. Germain?"
+
+Lanyard indicated the direction: "Two blocks that way."
+
+"Thank you." She advanced a step or two, but paused again. "Do you
+know, possibly, just where I could find a taxicab?"
+
+"I'm afraid you won't find any hereabouts at this hour," he replied. "A
+fiacre, perhaps--with luck: I doubt if there's one disengaged nearer
+than Montmartre, where business is apt to be more brisk."
+
+"Oh!" she cried in dismay. "I hadn't thought of that.... I thought
+Paris never went to sleep!"
+
+"Only about three hours earlier than most of the world's capitals....
+But perhaps I can advise you--"
+
+"If you would be so kind! Only, I don't like to be a nuisance--"
+
+He smiled deceptively: "Don't worry about that. Where do you wish to
+go?"
+
+"To the Gare du Nord."
+
+That made him open his eyes. "The Gare du Nord!" he echoed. "But--I beg
+your pardon--"
+
+"I wish to take the first train for London," the girl informed him
+calmly.
+
+"You'll have a while to wait," Lanyard suggested. "The first train
+leaves about half-past eight, and it's now not more than five."
+
+"That can't be helped. I can wait in the station."
+
+He shrugged: that was her own look-out--if she were sincere in
+asserting that she meant to leave Paris; something which he took the
+liberty of doubting.
+
+"You can reach it by the Metro," he suggested--"the Underground, you
+know; there's a station handy--St. Germain des Pres. If you like, I'll
+show you the way."
+
+Her relief seemed so genuine, he could have almost believed in it. And
+yet--!
+
+"I shall be very grateful," she murmured.
+
+He took that for whatever worth it might assay, and quietly fell into
+place beside her; and in a mutual silence--perhaps largely due to her
+intuitive sense of his bias--they gained the boulevard St. Germain. But
+here, even as they emerged from the side street, that happened which
+again upset Lanyard's plans: a belated fiacre hove up out of the mist
+and ranged alongside, its driver loudly soliciting patronage.
+
+Beneath his breath Lanyard cursed the man liberally, nothing could have
+been more inopportune; he needed that uncouth conveyance for his own
+purposes, and if only it had waited until he had piloted the girl to
+the station of the Metropolitain, he might have had it. Now he must
+either yield the cab to the girl or--share it with her.... But why not?
+He could readily drop out at his destination, and bid the driver
+continue to the Gare du Nord; and the Metro was neither quick nor
+direct enough for his design--which included getting under cover well
+before daybreak.
+
+Somewhat sulkily, then, if without betraying his temper, he signalled
+the cocher, opened the door, and handed the girl in.
+
+"If you don't mind dropping me en route..."
+
+"I shall be very glad," she said ... "anything to repay, even in part,
+the courtesy you've shown me!"
+
+"Oh, please don't fret about that...."
+
+He gave the driver precise directions, climbed in, and settled himself
+beside the girl. The whip cracked, the horse sighed, the driver swore;
+the aged fiacre groaned, stirred with reluctance, crawled wearily off
+through the thickening drizzle.
+
+Within its body a common restraint held silence like a wall between the
+two.
+
+The girl sat with face averted, reading through the window what corner
+signs they passed: rue Bonaparte, rue Jacob, rue des Saints Peres, Quai
+Malquais, Pont du Carrousel; recognizing at least one landmark in the
+gloomy arches of the Louvre; vaguely wondering at the inept French
+taste in nomenclature which had christened that vast, louring, echoing
+quadrangle the place du Carrousel, unliveliest of public places in her
+strange Parisian experience.
+
+And in his turn, Lanyard reviewed those well-remembered ways in vast
+weariness of spirit--disgusted with himself in consciousness that the
+girl had somehow divined his distrust....
+
+"The Lone Wolf, eh?" he mused bitterly. "Rather, the Cornered Rat--if
+people only knew! Better still, the Errant--no!--the Arrant Ass!"
+
+They were skirting the Palais Royal when suddenly she turned to him in
+an impulsive attempt at self-justification.
+
+"What _must_ you be thinking of me, Mr. Lanyard?"
+
+He was startled: "I? Oh, don't consider me, please. It doesn't matter
+what I think--does it?"
+
+"But you've been so kind; I feel I owe you at least some explanation--"
+
+"Oh, as for that," he countered cheerfully, "I've got a pretty definite
+notion you're running away from your father."
+
+"Yes. I couldn't stand it any longer--"
+
+She caught herself up in full voice, as though tempted but afraid to
+say more. He waited briefly before offering encouragement.
+
+"I hope I haven't seemed impertinent...."
+
+"No, no!"
+
+Than this impatient negative his pause of invitation evoked no other
+recognition. She had subsided into her reserve, but--he fancied--not
+altogether willingly.
+
+Was it, then, possible that he had misjudged her?
+
+"You've friends in London, no doubt?" he ventured.
+
+"No--none."
+
+"But--"
+
+"I shall manage very well. I shan't be there more than a day or
+two--till the next steamer sails."
+
+"I see." There had sounded in her tone a finality which signified
+desire to drop the subject. None the less, he pursued mischievously:
+"Permit me to wish you bon voyage, Miss Bannon... and to express my
+regret that circumstances have conspired to change your plans."
+
+She was still eyeing him askance, dubiously, as if weighing the
+question of his acquaintance with her plans, when the fiacre lumbered
+from the rue Vivienne into the place de la Bourse, rounded that
+frowning pile, and drew up on its north side before the blue lights of
+the all-night telegraph bureau.
+
+"With permission," Lanyard said, unlatching the door, "I'll stop off
+here. But I'll direct the cocher very carefully to the Gare du Nord.
+Please don't even tip him--that's my affair. No--not another word of
+thanks; to have been permitted to be of service--it is a unique
+pleasure, Miss Bannon. And so, good night!"
+
+With an effect that seemed little less than timid, the girl offered her
+hand.
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Lanyard," she said in an unsteady voice. "I am sorry--"
+
+But she didn't say what it was she regretted; and Lanyard, standing
+with bared head in the driving mist, touched her fingers coolly,
+repeated his farewells, and gave the driver both money and
+instructions, and watched the cab lurch away before he approached the
+telegraph bureau....
+
+But the enigma of the girl so deeply intrigued his imagination that it
+was only with difficulty that he concocted a non-committal telegram to
+Roddy's friend in the Prefecture--that imposing personage who had
+watched with the man from Scotland Yard at the platform gates in the
+Gare du Nord.
+
+It was couched in English, when eventually composed and submitted to
+the telegraph clerk with a fervent if inaudible prayer that he might be
+ignorant of the tongue.
+
+_"Come at once to my room at Troyon's. Enter via adjoining room
+prepared for immediate action on important development. Urgent. Roddy."_
+
+Whether or not this were Greek to the man behind the wicket, it was
+accepted with complete indifference--or, rather, with an interest that
+apparently evaporated on receipt of the fees. Lanyard couldn't see that
+the clerk favoured him with as much as a curious glance before he
+turned away to lose himself, to bury his identity finally and forever
+under the incognito of the Lone Wolf.
+
+He couldn't have rested without taking that one step to compass the
+arrest of the American assassin; now with luck and prompt action on the
+part of the Prefecture, he felt sure Roddy would be avenged by Monsieur
+de Paris.... But it was very well that there should exist no clue
+whereby the author of that mysterious telegram might be traced....
+
+It was, then, not an ill-pleased Lanyard who slipped oft into the night
+and the rain; but his exasperation was elaborate when the first object
+that met his gaze was that wretched fiacre, back in place before the
+door, Lucia Bannon leaning from its lowered window, the cocher on his
+box brandishing an importunate whip at the adventurer.
+
+He barely escaped choking on suppressed profanity; and for two sous
+would have swung on his heel and ignored the girl deliberately. But he
+didn't dare: close at hand stood a sergent de ville, inquisitive eyes
+bright beneath the dripping visor of his kepi, keenly welcoming this
+diversion of a cheerless hour.
+
+With at least outward semblance of resignation, Lanyard approached the
+window.
+
+"I have been guilty of some stupidity, perhaps?" he enquired with
+lip-civility that had no echo in his heart. "But I am sorry--"
+
+"The stupidity is mine," the girl interrupted in accents tense with
+agitation. "Mr. Lanyard, I--I--"
+
+Her voice faltered and broke off in a short, dry sob, and she drew back
+with an effect of instinctive distaste for public emotion. Lanyard
+smothered an impulse to demand roughly "Well, what now?" and came
+closer to the window.
+
+"Something more I can do, Miss Bannon?"
+
+"I don't know.... I've just found it out--I came away so hurriedly I
+never thought to make sure; but I've no money--not a franc!"
+
+After a little pause he commented helpfully: "That does complicate
+matters, doesn't it?"
+
+"What am I to do? I can't go back--I won't! Anything rather. You may
+judge how desperate I am, when I prefer to throw myself on your
+generosity--and already I've strained your patience--"
+
+"Not much," he interrupted in a soothing voice. "But--half a moment--we
+must talk this over."
+
+
+Directing the cocher to drive to the place Pigalle, he reentered the
+cab, suspicion more than ever rife in his mind. But as far as he could
+see--with that confounded sergo staring!--there was nothing else for
+it. He couldn't stand there in the rain forever, gossiping with a girl
+half-hysterical--or pretending to be.
+
+"You see," she explained when the fiacre was again under way, "I
+thought I had a hundred-franc note in my pocketbook; and so I have--but
+the pocketbook's back there, in my room at Troyon's."
+
+"A hundred francs wouldn't see you far toward New York," he observed
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Oh, I hope you don't think--!"
+
+She drew back into her corner with a little shudder of humiliation.
+
+As if he hadn't noticed, Lanyard turned to the window, leaned out, and
+redirected the driver sharply: "Impasse Stanislas!"
+
+Immediately the vehicle swerved, rounded a corner, and made back toward
+the Seine with a celerity which suggested that the stables were on the
+Rive Gauche.
+
+"Where?" the girl demanded as Lanyard sat back. "Where are you taking
+me?"
+
+"I'm sorry," Lanyard said with every appearance of sudden contrition;
+"I acted impulsively--on the assumption of your complete confidence.
+Which, of course, was unpardonable. But, believe me; you have only to
+say no and it shall be as you wish."
+
+"But," she persisted impatiently--"you haven't answered me: what is
+this impasse Stanislas?"
+
+"The address of an artist I know--Solon, the painter. We're going to
+take possession of his studio in his absence. Don't worry; he won't
+mind. He is under heavy obligation to me--I've sold several canvasses
+for him; and when he's away, as now, in the States, he leaves me the
+keys. It's a sober-minded, steady-paced neighbourhood, where we can
+rest without misgivings and take our time to think things out."
+
+"But--" the girl began in an odd tone.
+
+"But permit me," he interposed hastily, "to urge the facts of the case
+upon your consideration."
+
+"Well?" she said in the same tone, as he paused.
+
+"To begin with--I don't doubt you've good reason for running away from
+your father."
+
+"A very real, a very grave reason," she affirmed quietly.
+
+"And you'd rather not go back--"
+
+"That is out of the question!"--with a restrained passion that almost
+won his credulity.
+
+"But you've no friends in Paris--?"
+
+"Not one!"
+
+"And no money. So it seems, if you're to elude your father, you must
+find some place to hide pro tem. As for myself, I've not slept in
+forty-eight hours and must rest before I'll be able to think clearly
+and plan ahead....And we won't accomplish much riding round forever in
+this ark. So I offer the only solution I'm capable of advancing, under
+the circumstances."
+
+"You are quite right," the girl agreed after a moment. "Please don't
+think me unappreciative. Indeed, it makes me very unhappy to think I
+know no way to make amends for your trouble."
+
+"There may be a way," Lanyard informed her quietly; "but we'll not
+discuss that until we've rested up a bit."
+
+"I shall be only too glad--" she began, but fell silent and, in a
+silence that seemed almost apprehensive, eyed him speculatively
+throughout the remainder of the journey.
+
+It wasn't a long one; in the course of the next ten minutes they drew
+up at the end of a shallow pocket of a street, a scant half-block in
+depth; where alighting, Lanyard helped the girl out, paid and dismissed
+the cocher, and turned to an iron gate in a high stone wall crowned
+with spikes.
+
+The grille-work of that gate afforded glimpses of a small, dark garden
+and a little house of two storeys. Blank walls of old tenements
+shouldered both house and garden on either side.
+
+Unlocking the gate, Lanyard refastened it very carefully, repeated the
+business at the front door of the house, and when they were securely
+locked and bolted within a dark reception-hall, turned on the electric
+light.
+
+But he granted the girl little more than time for a fugitive survey of
+this ante-room to an establishment of unique artistic character.
+
+"These are living-rooms, downstairs here," he explained hurriedly.
+"Solon's unmarried, and lives quite alone--his studio-devil and
+femme-de-menage come in by the day only--and so he avoids that pest a
+concierge. With your permission, I'll assign you to the studio--up
+here."
+
+And leading the way up a narrow flight of steps, he made a light in the
+huge room that was the upper storey.
+
+"I believe you'll be comfortable," he said--"that divan yonder is as
+easy a couch as one could wish--and there's this door you can lock at
+the head of the staircase; while I, of course, will be on guard
+below.... And now, Miss Bannon... unless there's something more I can
+do--?"
+
+The girl answered with a wan smile and a little broken sigh. Almost
+involuntarily, in the heaviness of her fatigue, she had surrendered to
+the hospitable arms of a huge lounge-chair.
+
+Her weary glance ranged the luxuriously appointed studio and returned
+to Lanyard's face; and while he waited he fancied something moving in
+those wistful eyes, so deeply shadowed with distress, perplexity, and
+fatigue.
+
+"I'm very tired indeed," she confessed--"more than I guessed. But I'm
+sure I shall be comfortable.... And I count myself very fortunate, Mr.
+Lanyard. You've been more kind than I deserved. Without you, I don't
+like to think what might have become of me...."
+
+"Please don't!" he pleaded and, suddenly discountenanced by
+consciousness of his duplicity, turned to the stairs. "Good night, Miss
+Bannon," he mumbled; and was half-way down before he heard his
+valediction faintly echoed.
+
+As he gained the lower floor, the door was closed at the top of the
+stairs and its bolt shot home with a soft thud.
+
+But turning to lock the lower door, he stayed his hand in transient
+indecision.
+
+"Damn it!" he growled uneasily--"there can't be any harm in that girl!
+Impossible for eyes like hers to lie!... And yet ... And yet!... Oh,
+what's the matter with me? Am I losing my grip? Why stick at ordinary
+precaution against treachery on the part of a woman who's nothing to me
+and of whom I know nothing that isn't conspicuously questionable?...
+All because of a pretty face and an appealing manner!"
+
+And so he secured that door, if very quietly; and having pocketed the
+key and made the round of doors and windows, examining their locks, he
+stumbled heavily into the bedroom of his friend the artist.
+
+Darkness overwhelmed him then: he was stricken down by sleep as an ox
+falls under the pole.
+
+
+
+XII
+
+AWAKENING
+
+It was late afternoon when Lanyard wakened from sleep so deep and
+dreamless that nothing could have induced it less potent than sheer
+systemic exhaustion, at once nervous, muscular and mental.
+
+A profound and stifling lethargy benumbed his senses. There was stupor
+in his brain, and all his limbs ached dully. He opened dazed eyes upon
+blank darkness. In his ears a vast silence pulsed.
+
+And in that strange moment of awakening he was conscious of no
+individuality: it was, for the time, as if he had passed in slumber
+from one existence to another, sloughing en passant all his three-fold
+personality as Marcel Troyon, Michael Lanyard, and the Lone Wolf. Had
+any one of these names been uttered in his hearing just then it would
+have meant nothing to him--or little more than nothing: he was for the
+time being merely _himself_, a shell of sensations enclosing dull
+embers of vitality.
+
+For several minutes he lay without moving, curiously intrigued by this
+riddle of identity: it was but slowly that his mind, like a blind hand
+groping round a dark chamber, picked up the filaments of memory.
+
+One by one the connections were renewed, the circuits closed....
+
+But, singularly enough in his understanding, his first thought was of
+the girl upstairs in the studio, unconsciously his prisoner and
+hostage--rather than of himself, who lay there, heavy with loss of
+sleep, languidly trying to realize himself.
+
+For he was no more as he had been. Wherein the difference lay he
+couldn't say, but that a difference existed he was persuaded--that he
+had changed, that some strange reaction in the chemistry of his nature
+had taken place during slumber. It was as if sleep had not only
+repaired the ravages of fatigue upon the tissues of his brain and body,
+but had mended the tissues of his soul as well. His thoughts were
+fluent in fresh channels, his interests no longer the interests of the
+Michael Lanyard he had known, no longer self-centred, the interests of
+the absolute ego. He was concerned less for himself, even now when he
+should be most gravely so, than for another, for the girl Lucia Bannon,
+who was nothing to him, whom he had yet to know for twenty-four hours,
+but of whom he could not cease to think if he would.
+
+It was her plight that perturbed him, from which he sought an
+outlet--never his own.
+
+Yet his own was desperate enough....
+
+Baffled and uneasy, he at length bethought him of his watch. But its
+testimony seemed incredible: surely the hour could not be five in the
+afternoon!--surely he could not have slept so close upon a full round
+of the clock!
+
+And if it were so, what of the girl? Had she, too, so sorely needed
+sleep that the brief November day had dawned and waned without her
+knowledge?
+
+That question was one to rouse him: in an instant he was up and groping
+his way through the gloom that enshrouded bed-chamber and dining-room
+to the staircase door in the hall. He found this fast enough, its key
+still safe in his pocket, and unlocking it quietly, shot the beam of
+his flash-lamp up that dark well to the door at the top; which was
+tight shut.
+
+For several moments he attended to a taciturn silence broken by never a
+sound to indicate that he wasn't a lonely tenant of the little
+dwelling, then irresolutely lifted a foot to the first step--and
+withdrew it. If she continued to sleep, why disturb her? He had much to
+do in the way of thinking things out; and that was a process more
+easily performed in solitude.
+
+Leaving the door ajar, then, he turned to one of the front windows,
+parted its draperies, and peered out, over the little garden and
+through the iron ribs of the gate, to the street, where a single
+gas-lamp, glimmering within a dull golden halo of mist, made visible
+the scant length of the impasse Stanislas, empty, rain-swept, desolate.
+
+The rain persisted with no hint of failing purpose....
+
+Something in the dreary emptiness of that brief vista deepened the
+shadow in his mood and knitted a careworn frown into his brows.
+
+Abstractedly he sought the kitchen and, making a light, washed up at
+the tap, then foraged for breakfast. Persistence turned up a
+spirit-stove, a half-bottle of methylated, a packet of tea, a tin or
+two of biscuit, as many more of potted meats: left-overs from the
+artist's stock, dismally scant and uninviting in array. With these he
+made the discovery that he was half-famished, and found no reason to
+believe that the girl would be in any better case. An expedition to the
+nearest charcuterie was indicated; but after he had searched for and
+found an old raincoat of Solon's, Lanyard decided against leaving the
+girl alone. Pending her appearance, he filled the spirit-stove, put the
+kettle on to boil, and lighting a cigarette, sat himself down to watch
+the pot and excogitate his several problems.
+
+In a fashion uncommonly clear-headed, even for him, he assembled all
+the facts bearing upon their predicament, his and Lucia Bannon's,
+jointly and individually, and dispassionately pondered them....
+
+But insensibly his thoughts reverted to their exotic phase of his
+awakening, drifting into such introspection as he seldom indulged, and
+led him far from the immediate riddle, by strange ways to a revelation
+altogether unpresaged and a resolve still more revolutionary.
+
+A look of wonder flickered in his brooding eyes; and clipped between
+two fingers, his cigarette grew a long ash, let it fall, and burned
+down to a stump so short that the coal almost scorched his flesh. He
+dropped it and crushed out the fire with his heel, all unwittingly.
+
+Slowly but irresistibly his world was turning over beneath his feet....
+
+The sound of a footfall recalled him as from an immeasurable remove; he
+looked up to see Lucia at pause upon the threshold, and rose slowly,
+with effort recollecting himself and marshalling his wits against the
+emergency foreshadowed by her attitude.
+
+Tense with indignation, quick with disdain, she demanded, without any
+preface whatever: "Why did you lock me in?"
+
+He stammered unhappily: "I beg your pardon--"
+
+"Why did you lock me in?"
+
+"I'm sorry--"
+
+"Why did you--"
+
+But she interrupted herself to stamp her foot emphatically; and he
+caught her up on the echo of that:
+
+"If you must know, because I wasn't trusting you."
+
+Her eyes darkened ominously: "Yet you insisted I should trust you!"
+
+"The circumstances aren't parallel: you're not a notorious malefactor,
+wanted by the police of every capital in Europe, hounded by rivals to
+boot--fighting for life, liberty and"--he laughed shortly--"the pursuit
+of happiness!"
+
+She caught her breath sharply--whether with dismay or mere surprise at
+his frankness he couldn't tell.
+
+"Are you?" she demanded quickly.
+
+"Am I what?"
+
+"What you've just said--"
+
+"A crook--and all that? Miss Bannon, you know it!"
+
+"The Lone Wolf?"
+
+"You've known it all along. De Morbihan told you--or else your father.
+Or, it may be, you were shrewd enough to guess it from De Morbihan's
+bragging in the restaurant. At all events, it's plain enough, nothing
+but desire to find proof to identify me with the Lone Wolf took you to
+my room last night--whether for your personal satisfaction or at the
+instigation of Bannon--just as nothing less than disgust with what was
+going on made you run away from such intolerable associations....
+Though, at that, I don't believe you even guessed how unspeakably
+vicious those were!"
+
+He paused and waited, anticipating furious denial or refutation; such
+would, indeed, have been the logical development of the temper in which
+she had come down to confront him.
+
+Rather than this, she seemed calmed and sobered by his charge; far from
+resenting it, disposed to concede its justice; anger deserted her
+expression, leaving it intent and grave. She came quietly into the room
+and faced him squarely across the table.
+
+"You thought all that of me--that I was capable of spying on you--yet
+were generous enough to believe I despised myself for doing it?"
+
+"Not at first.... At first, when we met back there in the corridor, I
+was sure you were bent on further spying. Only since waking up here,
+half an hour ago, did I begin to understand how impossible it would be
+for you to lend yourself to such villainy as last night's."
+
+"But if you thought that of me then, why did you--?"
+
+"It occurred to me that it would be just as well to prevent your
+reporting back to headquarters."
+
+"But now you've changed your mind about me?"
+
+He nodded: "Quite."
+
+"But why?" she demanded in a voice of amazement. "Why?"
+
+"I can't tell you," he said slowly--"I don't know why. I can only
+presume it must be because--I can't help believing in you."
+
+Her glance wavered: her colour deepened. "I don't understand..." she
+murmured.
+
+"Nor I," he confessed in a tone as low....
+
+A sudden grumble from the teakettle provided welcome distraction.
+Lanyard lifted it off the flames and slowly poured boiling water on a
+measure of tea in an earthenware pot.
+
+"A cup of this and something to eat'll do us no harm," he ventured,
+smiling uneasily--"especially if we're to pursue this psychological
+enquiry into the whereforeness of the human tendency to change one's
+mind!"
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+CONFESSIONAL
+
+And then, when the girl made no response, but remained with troubled
+gaze focused on some remote abstraction, "You will have tea, won't
+you?" he urged.
+
+She recalled her thoughts, nodded with the faintest of smiles--"Yes,
+thank you!"--and dropped into a chair.
+
+He began at once to make talk in effort to dissipate that constraint
+which stood between them like an unseen alien presence: "You must be
+very hungry?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"Sorry I've nothing better to offer you. I'd have run out for something
+more substantial, only--"
+
+"Only--?" she prompted, coolly helping herself to biscuit and potted
+ham.
+
+"I didn't think it wise to leave you alone."
+
+"Was that before or after you'd made up your mind about me--the latest
+phase, I mean?" she persisted with a trace of malice.
+
+"Before," he returned calmly--"likewise, afterwards. Either way you
+care to take it, it wouldn't have been wise to leave you here. Suppose
+you had waked up to find me gone, yourself alone in this strange
+house--"
+
+"I've been awake several hours," she interposed--"found myself locked
+in, and heard no sound to indicate that you were still here."
+
+"I'm sorry: I was overtired and slept like a log.... But assuming the
+case: you would have gone out, alone, penniless--"
+
+"Through a locked door, Mr. Lanyard?"
+
+"I shouldn't have left it locked," he explained patiently.... "You
+would have found yourself friendless and without resources in a city to
+which you are a stranger."
+
+She nodded: "True. But what of that?"
+
+"In desperation you might have been forced to go back--"
+
+"And report the outcome of my investigation!"
+
+"Pressure might have been brought to induce admissions damaging to me,"
+Lanyard submitted pleasantly. "Whether or no, you'd have been obliged
+to renew associations you're well rid of."
+
+"You feel sure of that?"
+
+"But naturally."
+
+"How can you be?" she challenged. "You've yet to know me twenty-four
+hours."
+
+"But perhaps I know the associations better. In point of fact, I do.
+Even though you may have stooped to play the spy last night, Miss
+Bannon--you couldn't keep it up. You had to fly further contamination
+from that pack of jackals."
+
+"Not--you feel sure--merely to keep you under observation?"
+
+"I do feel sure of that. I have your word for it."
+
+The girl deliberately finished her tea, and sat back, regarding him
+steadily beneath level brows. Then she said with an odd laugh: "You
+have your own way of putting one on honour!"
+
+"I don't need to--with you."
+
+She analyzed this with gathering perplexity. "What do you mean by that?"
+
+"I mean, I don't need to put you on your honour--because I'm sure of
+you. Even were I not, still I'd refrain from exacting any pledge, or
+attempting to." He paused and shrugged before continuing: "If I thought
+you were still to be distrusted, Miss Bannon, I'd say: 'There's a free
+door; go when you like, back to the Pack, turn in your report, and let
+them act as they see fit.'... Do you think I care for them? Do you
+imagine for one instant that I fear any one--or all--of that gang?"
+
+"That rings suspiciously of egoism!"
+
+"Let it," he retorted. "It's pride of caste, if you must know. I hold
+myself a grade better than such cattle; I've intelligence, at least....
+I can take care of myself!"
+
+If he might read her countenance, it expressed more than anything else
+distress and disappointment.
+
+"Why do you boast like this--to me?"
+
+"Less through self-satisfaction than in contempt for a pack of
+murderous mongrels--impatience that I have to consider such creatures
+as Popinot, Wertheimer, De Morbihan and--all their crew."
+
+"And Bannon," she corrected calmly--"you meant to say!"
+
+"Wel-l--" he stammered, discountenanced.
+
+"It doesn't matter," she assured him. "I quite understand, and strange
+as it may sound, I've very little feeling in the matter." And then she
+acknowledged his stupefied stare with a weary smile. "I know what I
+know," she added, with obscure significance....
+
+"I'd give a good deal to know how much you know," he muttered in his
+confusion.
+
+"But what do _you_ know?" she caught him up--"against Mr.
+Bannon--against my father, that is--that makes you so ready to suspect
+both him and me?"
+
+"Nothing," he confessed--"I know nothing; but I suspect everything and
+everybody.... And the more I think of it, the more closely I examine
+that brutal business of last night, the more I seem to sense his will
+behind it all--as one might glimpse a face in darkness through a
+lighted lattice.... Oh, laugh if you like! It sounds high-flown, I
+know. But that's the effect I get.... What took you to my room, if not
+his orders? Why does he train with De Morbihan, if he's not blood-kin
+to that breed? Why are you running away from him if not because you've
+found out his part in that conspiracy?"
+
+His pause and questioning look evoked no answer; the girl sat moveless
+and intent, meeting his gaze inscrutably. And something in her
+impassive attitude worked a little exasperation into his temper.
+
+"Why," he declared hotly--"if I dare trust to intuition--forgive me if
+I pain you--"
+
+She interrupted with impatience: "I've already begged you not to
+consider my feelings, Mr. Lanyard! If you dared trust to your
+intuition--what then?"
+
+"Why, then, I could believe that Mr. Bannon, your father ... I could
+believe it was his order that killed poor Roddy!"
+
+There could be no doubting her horrified and half-incredulous surprise.
+
+"Roddy?" she iterated in a whisper almost inaudible, with face fast
+blanching. "Roddy--!"
+
+"Inspector Roddy of Scotland Yard," he told her mercilessly, "was
+murdered in his sleep last night at Troyon's. The murderer broke into
+his room by way of mine--the two adjoin. He used my razor, wore my
+dressing-gown to shield his clothing, did everything he could think of
+to cast suspicion on me, and when I came in assaulted me, meaning to
+drug and leave me insensible to be found by the police. Fortunately--I
+was beforehand with him. I had just left him drugged, insensible in my
+place, when I met you in the corridor.... You didn't know?"
+
+"How can you ask?" the girl moaned.
+
+Bending forward, an elbow on the table, she worked her hands together
+until their knuckles shone white through the skin--but not as white as
+the face from which her eyes sought his with a look of dumb horror,
+dazed, pitiful, imploring.
+
+"You're not deceiving me? But no--why should you?" she faltered. "But
+how terrible, how unspeakably awful! ..."
+
+"I'm sorry," Lanyard mumbled--"I'd have held my tongue if I hadn't
+thought you knew--"
+
+"You thought I knew--and didn't lift a finger to save the man?" She
+jumped up with a blazing face. "Oh, how could you?"
+
+"No--not that--I never thought that. But, meeting you then and there,
+so opportunely--I couldn't ignore the coincidence; and when you
+admitted you were running away from your father, considering all the
+circumstances, I was surely justified in thinking it was realization,
+in part at least, of what had happened that was driving you away." She
+shook her head slowly, her indignation ebbing as quickly as it had
+risen. "I understand," she said; "you had some excuse, but you were
+mistaken. I ran away--yes--but not because of that. I never dreamed ..."
+
+She fell silent, sitting with bowed head and twisting her hands
+together in a manner he found it painful to watch.
+
+"But please," he implored, "don't take it so much to heart, Miss
+Bannon. If you knew nothing, you couldn't have prevented it."
+
+"No," she said brokenly--"I could have done nothing ... But I didn't
+know. It isn't that--it's the horror and pity of it. And that you could
+think--!"
+
+"But I didn't!" he protested--"truly I did not. And for what I did
+think, for the injustice I did do you, believe me, I'm truly sorry."
+
+"You were quite justified," she said--"not only by circumstantial
+evidence but to a degree in fact. You must know ... now I must tell you
+..."
+
+"Nothing you don't wish to!" he interrupted. "The fact that I
+practically kidnapped you under pretence of doing you a service, and
+suspected you of being in the pay of that Pack, gives me no title to
+your confidence."
+
+"Can I blame you for thinking what you did?" She went on slowly,
+without looking up--gaze steadfast to her interlaced fingers: "Now for
+my own sake I want you to know what otherwise, perhaps, I shouldn't
+have told you--not yet, at all events. I'm no more Bannon's daughter
+than you're his son. Our names sound alike--people frequently make the
+same mistake. My name is Shannon--Lucy Shannon. Mr. Bannon called me
+Lucia because he knew I didn't like it, to tease me; for the same
+reason he always kept up the pretence that I was his daughter when
+people misunderstood."
+
+"But--if that is so--then what--?"
+
+"Why--it's very simple." Still she didn't look up. "I'm a trained
+nurse. Mr. Bannon is consumptive--so far gone, it's a wonder he didn't
+die years ago: for months I've been haunted by the thought that it's
+only the evil in him keeps him alive. It wasn't long after I took the
+assignment to nurse him that I found out something about him.... He'd
+had a haemorrhage at his desk; and while he lay in coma, and I was
+waiting for the doctor, I happened to notice one of the papers he'd
+been working over when he fell. And then, just as I began to appreciate
+the sort of man I was employed by, he came to, and saw--and knew. I
+found him watching me with those dreadful eyes of his, and though he
+was unable to speak, knew my life wasn't safe if ever I breathed a word
+of what I had read. I would have left him then, but he was too cunning
+for me, and when in time I found a chance to escape--I was afraid I'd
+not live long if ever I left him. He went about it deliberately; to
+keep me frightened, and though he never mentioned the matter directly,
+let me know plainly, in a hundred ways, what his power was and what
+would happen if I whispered a word of what I knew. It's nearly a year
+now--nearly a year of endless terror and..."
+
+Her voice fell; she was trembling with the recrudescent suffering of
+that year-long servitude. And for a little Lanyard felt too profoundly
+moved to trust himself to speak; he stood aghast, staring down at this
+woman, so intrinsically and gently feminine, so strangely strong and
+courageous; and vaguely envisaging what anguish must have been hers in
+enforced association with a creature of Bannon's ruthless stamp, he was
+rent with compassion and swore to himself he'd stand by her and see her
+through and free and happy if he died for it--or ended in the Sante!
+
+"Poor child!" he heard himself murmuring--"poor child!"
+
+"Don't pity me!" she insisted, still with face averted. "I don't
+deserve it. If I had the spirit of a mouse, I'd have defied him; it
+needed only courage enough to say one word to the police--"
+
+"But who is he, then?" Lanyard demanded. "What is he, I mean?"
+
+"I hardly know how to tell you. And I hardly dare: I feel as if these
+walls would betray me if I did.... But to me he's the incarnation of
+all things evil...." She shook herself with a nervous laugh. "But why
+be silly about it? I don't really know what or who he is: I only
+suspect and believe that he is a man whose life is devoted to planning
+evil and ordering its execution through his lieutenants. When the
+papers at home speak of 'The Man Higher Up' they mean Archer Bannon,
+though they don't know it--or else I'm merely a hysterical woman
+exaggerating the impressions of a morbid imagination.... And that's all
+I know of him that matters."
+
+"But why, if you believe all this--how did you at length find
+courage--?"
+
+"Because I no longer had courage to endure; because I was more afraid
+to stay than to go--afraid that my own soul would be forfeit. And then,
+last night, he ordered me to go to your room and search it for evidence
+that you were the Lone Wolf. It was the first time he'd ever asked
+anything like that of me. I was afraid, and though I obeyed, I was glad
+when you interrupted--glad even though I had to lie the way I did....
+And all that worked on me, after I'd gone back to my room, until I felt
+I could stand it no longer; and after a long time, when the house
+seemed all still, I got up, dressed quietly and ... That is how I came
+to meet you--quite by accident."
+
+"But you seemed so frightened at first when you saw me--"
+
+"I was," she confessed simply; "I thought you were Mr. Greggs."
+
+"Greggs?"
+
+"Mr. Bannon's private secretary--his right-hand man. He's about your
+height and has a suit like the one you wear, and in that poor light--at
+the distance I didn't notice you were clean-shaven--Greggs wears a
+moustache--"
+
+"Then it was Greggs murdered Roddy and tried to drug me! ... By George,
+I'd like to know whether the police got there before Bannon, or
+somebody else, discovered the substitution. It was a telegram to the
+police, you know, I sent from the Bourse last night!"
+
+In his excitement Lanyard began to pace the floor rapidly; and now that
+he was no longer staring at her, the girl lifted her head and watched
+him closely as he moved to and fro, talking aloud--more to himself than
+to her.
+
+"I wish I knew! ... And what a lucky thing, you did meet me! For if
+you'd gone on to the Gare du Nord and waited there....Well, it isn't
+likely Bannon didn't discover your flight before eight o'clock this
+morning, is it?"
+
+"I'm afraid not...."
+
+"And they've drawn the dead-line for me round every conceivable exit
+from Paris: Popinot's Apaches are picketed everywhere. And if Bannon
+had found out about you in time, it would have needed only a word..."
+
+He paused and shuddered to think what might have ensued had that word
+been spoken and the girl been found waiting for her train in the Gare
+du Nord.
+
+"Mercifully, we've escaped that. And now, with any sort of luck, Bannon
+ought to be busy enough, trying to get his precious Mr. Greggs out of
+the Sante, to give us a chance. And a fighting chance is all I ask."
+
+"Mr. Lanyard"--the girl bent toward him across the table with a gesture
+of eager interest--"have you any idea why he--why Mr. Bannon hates you
+so?"
+
+"But does he? I don't know!"
+
+"If he doesn't, why should he plot to cast suspicion of murder on you,
+and why be so anxious to know whether you were really the Lone Wolf? I
+saw his eyes light up when De Morbihan mentioned that name, after
+dinner; and if ever I saw hatred in a man's face, it was in his as he
+watched you, when you weren't looking."
+
+"As far as I know, I never heard of him before," Lanyard said
+carelessly. "I fancy it's nothing more than the excitement of a
+man-hunt. Now that they've found me out, De Morbihan and his crew won't
+rest until they've got my scalp."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"Professional jealousy. We're all crooks, all in the same boat, only I
+won't row to their stroke. I've always played a lone hand successfully;
+now they insist on coming into the game and sharing my winnings. And
+I've told them where they could go."
+
+"And because of that, they're willing to----"
+
+"There's nothing they wouldn't do, Miss Shannon, to bring me to my
+knees or see me put out of the way, where my operations couldn't hurt
+their pocketbooks. Well ... all I ask is a fighting chance, and they
+shall have their way!"
+
+Her brows contracted. "I don't understand.... You want a fighting
+chance--to surrender--to give in to their demands?"
+
+"In a way--yes. I want a fighting chance to do what I'd never in the
+world get them to credit--give it all up and leave them a free field."
+
+And when still she searched his face with puzzled eyes, he insisted: "I
+mean it; I want to get away--clear out--chuck the game for good and
+all!"
+
+A little silence greeted this announcement. Lanyard, at pause near the
+table, resting a hand on it, bent to the girl's upturned face a grave
+but candid regard. And the deeps of her eyes that never swerved from
+his were troubled strangely in his vision. He could by no means account
+for the light he seemed to see therein, a light that kindled while he
+watched like a tiny flame, feeble, fearful, vacillant, then as the
+moments passed steadied and grew stronger but ever leaped and danced;
+so that he, lost in the wonder of it and forgetful of himself, thought
+of it as the ardent face of a happy child dancing in the depths of some
+brown autumnal woodland....
+
+"You," she breathed incredulously--"you mean, you're going to stop--?"
+
+"I _have_ stopped, Miss Shannon. The Lone Wolf has prowled for the last
+time. I didn't know it until I woke up, an hour or so ago, but I've
+turned my last job."
+
+He remarked her hands were small, in keeping with the slightness of her
+person, but somehow didn't seem so--wore a look of strength and
+capability, befitting hands trained to a nurse's duties; and saw them
+each tight-fisted but quivering as they rested on the table, as though
+their mistress struggled to suppress the manifestation of some emotion
+as powerful as unfathomable to him.
+
+"But why?" she demanded in bewilderment. "But why do you say that? What
+can have happened to make you--?"
+
+"Not fear of that Pack!" he laughed--"not that, I promise you."
+
+"Oh, I know!" she said impatiently--"I know that very well. But still I
+don't understand...."
+
+"If it won't bore you, I'll try to explain." He drew up his chair and
+sat down again, facing her across the littered table. "I don't suppose
+you've ever stopped to consider what an essentially stupid animal a
+crook must be. Most of them are stupid because they practise clumsily
+one of the most difficult professions imaginable, and inevitably fail
+at it, yet persist. They wouldn't think of undertaking a job of civil
+engineering with no sort of preparation, but they'll tackle a dangerous
+proposition in burglary without a thought, and pay for failure with
+years of imprisonment, and once out try it again. That's one kind of
+criminal--the ninety-nine per-cent class--incurably stupid! There's
+another class, men whose imagination forewarns them of dangers and
+whose mental training, technical equipment and sheer manual dexterity
+enable them to attack a formidable proposition like a modern safe--by
+way of illustration--and force its secret. They're the successful
+criminals, like myself--but they're no less stupid, no less failures,
+than the other ninety-nine in our every hundred, because they never
+stop to think. It never occurs to them that the same intelligence,
+applied to any one of the trades they must be masters of, would not
+only pay them better, but leave them their self-respect and rid them
+forever of the dread of arrest that haunts us all like the memory of
+some shameful act.... All of which is much more of a lecture than I
+meant to inflict upon you, Miss Shannon, and sums up to just this:
+_I_'ve stopped to think...."
+
+With this he stopped for breath as well, and momentarily was silent,
+his faint, twisted smile testifying to self-consciousness; but
+presently, seeing that she didn't offer to interrupt, but continued to
+give him her attention so exclusively that it had the effect of
+fascination, he stumbled on, at first less confidently. "When I woke up
+it was as if, without my will, I had been thinking all this out in my
+sleep. I saw myself for the first time clearly, as I have been ever
+since I can remember--a crook, thoughtless, vain, rapacious, ruthless,
+skulking in shadows and thinking myself an amazingly fine fellow
+because, between coups, I would play the gentleman a bit, venture into
+the light and swagger in the haunts of the gratin! In my poor,
+perverted brain I thought there was something fine and thrilling and
+romantic in the career of a great criminal and myself a wonderful
+figure--an enemy of society!"
+
+"Why do you say this to me?" she demanded abruptly, out of a phase of
+profound thoughtfulness.
+
+He lifted an apologetic shoulder. "Because, I fancy, I'm no longer
+self-sufficient. _I_ was all of that, twenty-four hours ago; but now
+I'm as lonesome as a lost child in a dark forest. I haven't a friend in
+the world. I'm like a stray pup, grovelling for sympathy. And you are
+unfortunate enough to be the only person I can declare myself to. It's
+going to be a fight--I know that too well!--and without something
+outside myself to struggle toward, I'll be heavily handicapped. But if
+..." He faltered, with a look of wistful earnestness. "If I thought
+that you, perhaps, were a little interested, that I had your faith to
+respect and cherish ... if I dared hope that you'd be glad to know I
+had won out against odds, it would mean a great deal to me, it might
+mean my salvation!"
+
+Watching her narrowly, hanging upon her decision with the anxiety of a
+man proscribed and hoping against hope for pardon, he saw her eyes
+cloud and shift from his, her lips parted but hesitant; and before she
+could speak, hastily interposed:
+
+"Please don't say anything yet. First let me demonstrate my sincerity.
+So far I've done nothing to persuade you but--talk and talk and talk!
+Give me a chance to prove I mean what I say."
+
+"How"--she enunciated only with visible effort and no longer met his
+appeal with an open countenance--"how can you do that?"
+
+"In the long run, by establishing myself in some honest way of life,
+however modest; but now, and principally, by making reparation for at
+least one crime I've committed that's not irreparable."
+
+He caught her quick glance of enquiry, and met it with a confident nod
+as he placed between them the morocco-bound jewel-case.
+
+"In London, yesterday," he said quietly, "I brought off two big coups.
+One was deliberate, the other the inspiration of a moment. The one I'd
+planned for months was the theft of the Omber jewels--here."
+
+He tapped the case and resumed in the same manner: "The other job needs
+a diagram: Not long ago a Frenchman named Huysman, living in Tours, was
+mysteriously murdered--a poor inventor, who had starved himself to
+perfect a stabilizator, an attachment to render aeroplanes practically
+fool-proof. His final trials created a sensation and he was on the eve
+of selling his invention to the Government when he was killed and his
+plans stolen. Circumstantial evidence pointed to an international spy
+named Ekstrom--Adolph Ekstrom, once Chief of the Aviation Corps of the
+German Army, cashiered for general blackguardism with a suspicion of
+treason to boot. However, Ekstrom kept out of sight; and presently the
+plans turned up in the German War Office. That was a big thing for
+Germany; already supreme with her dirigibles, the acquisition of the
+Huysman stabilizator promised her ten years' lead over the world in the
+field of aeroplanes.... Now yesterday Ekstrom came to the surface in
+London with those self-same plans to sell to England. Chance threw him
+my way, and he mistook me for the man he'd expected to meet--Downing
+Street's secret agent. Well--no matter how--I got the plans from him
+and brought them over with me, meaning to turn them over to France, to
+whom by rights they belong."
+
+"Without consideration?" the girl enquired shrewdly.
+
+"Not exactly. I had meant to make no profit of the affair--I'm a bit
+squeamish about tainted money!--but under present conditions, if France
+insists on rewarding me with safe conduct out of the country, I shan't
+refuse it.... Do you approve?"
+
+She nodded earnestly: "It would be worse than criminal to return them
+to Ekstrom...."
+
+"That's my view of the matter."
+
+"But these?" The girl rested her hand upon the jewel-case.
+
+"Those go back to Madame Omber. She has a home here in Paris that I
+know very well. In fact, the sole reason why I didn't steal them here
+was that she left for England unexpectedly, just as I was all set to
+strike. Now I purpose making use of my knowledge to restore the jewels
+without risk of falling into the hands of the police. That will be an
+easy matter.... And that brings me to a great favour I would beg of
+you."
+
+She gave him a look so unexpectedly kind that it staggered him. But he
+had himself well in hand.
+
+"You can't now leave Paris before morning--thanks to my having
+overslept," he explained. "There's no honest way I know to raise money
+before the pawn-shops open. But I'm hoping that won't be necessary; I'm
+hoping I can arrange matters without going to that extreme. Meanwhile,
+you agree that these jewels must be returned?"
+
+"Of course," she affirmed gently.
+
+"Then ... will you accompany me when I replace them? There won't be any
+danger: I promise you that. Indeed, it would be more hazardous for you
+to wait for me elsewhere while I attended to the matter alone. And I'd
+like you to be convinced of my good faith."
+
+"Don't you think you can trust me for that as well?" she asked, with a
+flash of humour.
+
+"Trust you!"
+
+"To believe ... Mr. Lanyard," she told him gently but earnestly, "I do
+believe."
+
+"You make me very happy," he said ... "but I'd like you to see for
+yourself.... And I'd be glad not to have to fret about your safety in
+my absence. As a bureau of espionage, Popinot's brigade of Apaches is
+without a peer in Europe. I am positively afraid to leave you alone...."
+
+She was silent.
+
+"Will you come with me, Miss Shannon?" "That is your sole reason for
+asking this of me?" she insisted, eyeing him steadily.
+
+"That I wish you to believe in me--yes."
+
+"Why?" she pursued, inexorable.
+
+"Because ... I've already told you."
+
+"That you want someone's good opinion to cherish.... But why, of all
+people, me--whom you hardly know, of whom what little you do know is
+hardly reassuring?"
+
+He coloured, and boggled his answer.... "I can't tell you," he
+confessed in the end.
+
+"Why can't you tell me?"
+
+He stared at her miserably.... "I've no right...."
+
+"In spite of all I've said, in spite of the faith you so generously
+promise me, in your eyes I must still figure as a thief, a liar, an
+impostor--self-confessed. Men aren't made over by mere protestations,
+nor even by their own efforts, in an hour, or a day, or a week. But
+give me a year: if I can live a year in honesty, and earn my bread, and
+so prove my strength--then, perhaps, I might find the courage, the--the
+effrontery to tell you why I want your good opinion.... Now I've said
+far more than I meant or had any right to. I hope," he ventured
+pleadingly--"you're not offended."
+
+Only an instant longer could she maintain her direct and unflinching
+look. Then, his meaning would no more be ignored. Her lashes fell; a
+tide of crimson flooded her face; and with a quick movement, pushing
+her chair a little from the table, she turned aside. But she said
+nothing.
+
+He remained as he had been, bending eagerly toward her. And in the long
+minute that elapsed before either spoke again, both became oddly
+conscious of the silence brooding in that lonely little house, of their
+isolation from the world, of their common peril and mutual dependence.
+
+"I'm afraid," Lanyard said, after a time--"I'm afraid I know what you
+must be thinking. One can't do your intelligence the injustice to
+imagine that you haven't understood me--read all that was in my mind
+and"--his voice fell--"in my heart. I own I was wrong to speak so
+transparently, to suggest my regard for you, at such a time, under such
+conditions. I am truly sorry, and beg you to consider unsaid all that I
+should not have said.... After all, what earthly difference can it make
+to you if one thief more decides suddenly to reform?"
+
+That brought her abruptly to her feet, to show him a face of glowing
+loveliness and eyes distractingly dimmed and softened.
+
+"No!" she implored him breathlessly--"please--you mustn't spoil it!
+You've paid me the finest of compliments, and one I'm glad and grateful
+for ... and would I might think I deserved! ... You say you need a year
+to prove yourself? Then--I've no right to say this--and you must please
+not ask me what I mean--then I grant you that year. A year I shall wait
+to hear from you from the day we part, here in Paris.... And to-night,
+I will go with you, too, and gladly, since you wish it!"
+
+And then as he, having risen, stood at loss, thrilled, and incredulous,
+with a brave and generous gesture she offered him her hand.
+
+"Mr. Lanyard, I promise...."
+
+To every woman, even the least lovely, her hour of beauty: it had not
+entered Lanyard's mind to think this woman beautiful until that moment.
+Of her exotic charm, of the allure of her pensive, plaintive
+prettiness, he had been well aware; even as he had been unable to deny
+to himself that he was all for her, that he loved her with all the
+strength that was his; but not till now had he understood that she was
+the one woman whose loveliness to him would darken the fairness of all
+others.
+
+And for a little, holding her tremulous hand upon his finger-tips as
+though he feared to bruise it with a ruder contact, he could not take
+his eyes from her.
+
+Then reverently he bowed his head and touched his lips to that hand ...
+and felt it snatched swiftly away, and started back, aghast, the idyll
+roughly dissipated, the castle of his dreams falling in thunders round
+his ears.
+
+In the studio-skylight overhead a pane of glass had fallen in with a
+shattering crash as ominous as the Trump of Doom.
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+RIVE DROIT
+
+Falling without presage upon the slumberous hush enveloping the little
+house marooned in that dead back-water of Paris, the shock of that
+alarm drove the girl back from the table to the nearest wall, and for a
+moment held her there, transfixed in panic.
+
+To the wide, staring eyes that questioned his so urgently, Lanyard
+promptly nodded grave reassurance. He hadn't stirred since his first,
+involuntary and almost imperceptible start, and before the last
+fragment of splintered glass had tinkled on the floor above, he was
+calming her in the most matter-of-fact manner.
+
+"Don't be alarmed," he said. "It's nothing--merely Solon's skylight
+gone smash!"
+
+"You call that nothing!" she cried gustily. "What caused it, then?"
+
+"My negligence," he admitted gloomily. "I might have known that wide
+spread of glass with the studio electrics on, full-blaze, would give
+the show away completely. The house is known to be unoccupied; and it
+wasn't to be expected that both the police and Popinot's crew would
+overlook so shining a mark.... And it's all my fault, my oversight: I
+should have thought of it before.... High time I was quitting a game
+I've no longer the wit to play by the rules!"
+
+"But the police would never...!"
+
+"Certainly not. This is Popinot's gentle method of letting us know he's
+on the job. But I'll just have a look, to make sure.... No: stop where
+you are, please. I'd rather go alone."
+
+He swung alertly through to the hall window, pausing there only long
+enough for an instantaneous glance through the draperies--a fugitive
+survey that discovered the impasse Stanislas no more abandoned to the
+wind and rain, but tenanted visibly by one at least who lounged beneath
+the lonely lamp-post, a shoulder against it: a featureless civilian
+silhouette with attention fixed to the little house.
+
+But Lanyard didn't doubt this one had a dozen fellows stationed within
+call....
+
+Springing up the stairs, he paused prudently at the top-most step, one
+quick glance showing him the huge rent gaping black in the skylight,
+the second the missile of destruction lying amid a litter of broken
+glass--a brick wrapped in newspaper, by the look of it.
+
+Swooping forward, he retrieved this, darted back from the exposed space
+beneath the shattered skylight, and had no more than cleared the
+threshold than a second something fell through the gap and buried
+itself in the parquetry. This was a bullet fired from the roof of one
+of the adjoining buildings: confirming his prior reasoning that the
+first missile must have fallen from a height, rather than have been
+thrown up from the street, to have wrought such destruction with those
+tough, thick panes of clouded glass....
+
+Swearing softly to himself, he descended to the kitchen.
+
+"As I thought," he said coolly, exhibiting his find.
+
+"They're on the roof of the next house--though they've posted a sentry
+in the street, of course."
+
+"But that second thump--?" the girl demanded.
+
+"A bullet," he said, placing the bundle on the table and cutting the
+string that bound it: "they were on the quivive and fired when I showed
+myself beneath the skylight."
+
+"But I heard no report," she objected.
+
+"A Maxim silencer on the gun, I fancy," he explained, unwrapping the
+brick and smoothing out the newspaper.... "Glad you thought to put on
+your hat before you came down," he added, with an approving glance for
+the girl; "it won't be safe to go up to the studio again--of course."
+
+His nonchalance was far less real than it seemed, but helped to steady
+one who was holding herself together with a struggle, on the verge of
+nervous collapse.
+
+"But what are we to do now?" she stammered. "If they've surrounded the
+house--!"
+
+"Don't worry: there's more than one way out," he responded, frowning at
+the newspaper; "I wouldn't have picked this place out, otherwise. Nor
+would Solon have rented it in the first instance had it lacked an
+emergency exit, in event of creditors.... Ah--thought so!"
+
+"What--?"
+
+"Troyon's is gone," he said, without looking up. "This is to-night's
+Presse.... '_Totally destroyed by a fire which started at six-thirty
+this morning and in less than half an hour had reduced the ancient
+structure to a heap of smoking ashes_'! ..." He ran his eye quickly
+down the column, selecting salient phrases: "'_Believed to have been of
+incendiary origin though the premises were uninsured_'--that's an
+intelligent guess!... '_Narrow escape of guests in their
+'_whatyemaycallems...._'Three lives believed to have been lost ... one
+body recovered charred almost beyond recognition_'--but later
+identified as Roddy--poor devil! ... '_Two guests missing, Monsieur
+Lanyard, the well-known connoisseur of art, who occupied the room
+adjoining that of the unfortunate detective, and Mademoiselle Bannon,
+daughter of the American millionaire, who himself escaped only by a
+miracle with his secretary Monsieur Greggs, the latter being overcome
+by fumes_'--what a shame!... '_Police and firemen searching the
+ruins_'--hm-hm--' _extraordinary interest manifested by the Prefecture
+indicates a suspicion that the building may have been fired to conceal
+some crime of a political nature_.'"
+
+Crushing the newspaper between his hands, he tossed it into a corner.
+"That's all of importance. Thoughtful of Popinot to let me know, this
+way! The Prefecture, of course, is humming like a wasp's-nest with the
+mystery of that telegram, signed with Roddy's name and handed in at the
+Bourse an hour or so before he was 'burned to death.' Too bad I didn't
+know then what I do now; if I'd even remotely suspected Greggs'
+association with the Pack was via Bannon.... But what's the use? I did
+my possible, knowing the odds were heavy against success."
+
+"What was written on the paper?" the girl demanded obliquely.
+
+He made his eyes blank: "Written on the paper--?"
+
+"I saw something in red ink at the head of the column. You tried to
+hide it from me, but I saw.... What was it?"
+
+"Oh--that!" he laughed contemptuously: "just Popinot's impudence--an
+invitation to come out and be a good target."
+
+She shook her head impatiently: "You're not telling me the truth. It
+was something else, or you wouldn't have been so anxious to hide it."
+
+"Oh, but I assure you--!"
+
+"You can't. Be honest with me, Mr. Lanyard. It was an offer to let you
+off if you'd give me up to Bannon--wasn't it?"
+
+"Something like that," he assented sheepishly--"too absurd for
+consideration.... But now we're due to clear out of this before they
+find a way in. Not that they're likely to risk a raid until they've
+tried starving us out; but it would be as well to put a good distance
+between us before they find out we've decamped."
+
+He shrugged into his borrowed raincoat, buttoned it to his chin, and
+turned down the brim of his felt hat; but when he looked up at the girl
+again, he found she hadn't moved; rather, she remained as one
+spellbound, staring less at than through him, her expression
+inscrutable.
+
+"Well," he ventured--"if you're quite ready, Miss Shannon--?"
+
+"Mr. Lanyard," she demanded almost sharply--"what was the full wording
+of that message?"
+
+"If you must know--"
+
+"I must!"
+
+He lifted a depreciative shoulder. "If you like, I'll read it to
+you--or, rather, translate it from the thieves' argot Popinot
+complimented me by using."
+
+"Not necessary," she said tersely. "I'll take your word for it.... But
+you must tell me the truth."
+
+"As you will.... Popinot delicately suggested that if I leave you here,
+to be reunited to your alleged parent--if I'll trust to his word of
+honour, that is, and walk out of the house alone, he'll give me
+twenty-four hours in which to leave Paris."
+
+"Then only I stand between you and--"
+
+"My dear young woman!" he protested hastily. "Please don't run away
+with any absurd notion like that. Do you imagine I'd consent to treat
+with such canaille under any circumstances?"
+
+"All the same," she continued stubbornly, "I'm the stumbling-block.
+You're risking your life for me--"
+
+"I'm not," he insisted almost angrily.
+
+"You are," she returned with quiet conviction.
+
+"Well!" he laughed--"have it your own way!..."
+
+"But it's _my_ life, isn't it? I really don't see how you're going to
+prevent my risking it for anything that may seem to me worth the risk!"
+
+But she wouldn't laugh; only her countenance, suddenly bereft of its
+mutinous expression, softened winningly--and her eyes grew very kind to
+him.
+
+"As long as it's understood I understand--very well," she said quietly;
+"I'll do as you wish, Mr. Lanyard."
+
+"Good!" he cried cheerfully. "I wish, by your leave, to take you out to
+dinner.... This way, please!"
+
+Leading through the scullery, he unbarred a low, arched door in one of
+the walls, discovering the black mouth of a narrow and tunnel-like
+passageway.
+
+With a word of caution, flash-lamp in his left hand, pistol in right,
+Lanyard stepped out into the darkness.
+
+In two minutes he was back, with a look of relief.
+
+"All clear," he reported; "I felt pretty sure Popinot knew nothing of
+this way out--else we'd have entertained uninvited guests long since.
+Now, half a minute...."
+
+The electric meter occupied a place on the wall of the scullery not far
+from the door. Prying open its cover, he unscrewed and removed the fuse
+plug, plunging the entire house in complete darkness.
+
+"That'll keep 'em guessing a while!" he explained with a chuckle.
+"They'll hesitate a long time before rushing a dark house infested by a
+desperate armed man--if I know anything about that mongrel lot!...
+Besides, when they do get their courage up, the lack of light will
+stave off discovery of this way of escape.... And now, one word more."
+
+A flash of the lamp located her hand. Calmly he possessed himself of
+it, if without opposition.
+
+"I've brought you into trouble enough, as it is, through my stupidity,"
+he said; "but for that, this place should have been a refuge to us
+until we were quite ready to leave Paris. So now we mustn't forget,
+before we go out to run God-only-knows-what gauntlet, to fix a
+rendezvous in event of separation.... Popinot, for instance, may have
+drawn a cordon around the block; we can't tell until we're in the
+street; if he has, you must leave me to entertain them until you're
+safe beyond their reach.... Oh, don't worry: I'm perfectly well able to
+take care of myself....But afterwards, we must know where to find each
+other. Hotels, cafes and restaurants are out of the question: in the
+first place, we've barely money enough for our dinner; besides, they'll
+be watched closely; as for our embassies and consulates, they aren't
+open at all hours, and will likewise be watched. There remain--unless
+you can suggest something--only the churches; and I can think of none
+better suited to our purposes than the Sacre-Cour."
+
+Her fingers tightened gently upon his.
+
+"I understand," she said quietly; "if we're obliged to separate, I'm to
+go direct to the Sacre-Cour and await you there."
+
+"Right! ...But let's hope there'll be no such necessity."
+
+Hand-in-hand like frightened children, these two stole down the
+tunnel-like passageway, through a forlorn little court cramped between
+two tall old tenements, and so came out into the gloomy, sinuous and
+silent rue d'Assas.
+
+Here they encountered few wayfarers; and to these, preoccupied with
+anxiety to gain shelter from the inclement night, they seemed, no
+doubt, some student of the Quarter with his sweetheart--Lanyard in his
+shabby raincoat, striding rapidly, head and shoulders bowed against the
+driving mist, the girl in her trim Burberry clinging to his arm....
+
+Avoiding the nearer stations as dangerous, Lanyard steered a roundabout
+course through by-ways to the rue de Sevres station of the Nord-Sud
+subway; from which in due course they came to the surface again at the
+place de la Concorde, walked several blocks, took a taxicab, and in
+less than half an hour after leaving the impasse Stanislas were
+comfortably ensconced in a cabinet particulier of a little restaurant
+of modest pretensions just north of Les Halles.
+
+They feasted famously: the cuisine, if bourgeois, was admirable and,
+better still, well within the resources of Lanyard's emaciated purse.
+Nor did he fret with consciousness that, when the bill had been paid
+and the essential tips bestowed, there would remain in his pocket
+hardly more than cab fare. Supremely self-confident, he harboured no
+doubts of a smiling future--now that the dark pages in his record had
+been turned and sealed by a resolution he held irrevocable.
+
+His spirits had mounted to a high pitch, thanks to their successful
+evasion. He was young, he was in love, he was hungry, he was--in
+short--very much alive. And the consciousness of common peril knitted
+an enchanting intimacy into their communications. For the first time in
+his history Lanyard found himself in the company of a woman with whom
+he dared--and cared--to speak without reserve: a circumstance
+intrinsically intoxicating. And stimulated by her unquestionable
+interest and sympathy, he did talk without reserve of old Troyon's and
+its drudge, Marcel; of Bourke and his wanderings; of the education of
+the Lone Wolf and his career, less in pride than in relief that it was
+ended; of the future he must achieve for himself.
+
+And sitting with chin cradled on the backs of her interlaced fingers,
+the girl listened with such indulgence as women find always for their
+lovers. Of herself she had little to say: Lanyard filled in to his
+taste the outlines of the simple history of a young woman of good
+family obliged to become self-supporting.
+
+And if at times her grave eyes clouded and her attention wandered, it
+was less in ennui than because of occult trains of thought set astir by
+some chance word or phrase of Lanyard's.
+
+"I'm boring you," he surmised once with quick contrition, waking up to
+the fact that he had monopolized the conversation for many minutes on
+end.
+
+She shook a pensive head. "No, again.... But I wonder, do you
+appreciate the magnitude of the task you've undertaken?"
+
+"Possibly not," he conceded arrogantly; "but it doesn't matter. The
+heavier the odds, the greater the incentive to win."
+
+"But," she objected, "you've told me a curious story of one who never
+had a chance or incentive to 'go straight'--as you put it. And yet you
+seem to think that an overnight resolution to reform is all that's
+needed to change all the habits of a life-time. You persuade me of your
+sincerity of today; but how will it be with you tomorrow--and not so
+much tomorrow as six months from tomorrow, when you've found the going
+rough and know you've only to take one step aside to gain a smooth and
+easy way?"
+
+"If I fail, then, it will be because I'm unfit--and I'll go under, and
+never be heard of again.... But I shan't fail. It seems to me the very
+fact that I want to go straight is proof enough that I've something
+inherently decent in me to build on."
+
+"I do believe that, and yet..." She lowered her head and began to trace
+a meaningless pattern on the cloth before she resumed. "You've given me
+to understand I'm responsible for your sudden awakening, that it's
+because of a regard conceived for me you're so anxious to become an
+honest man. Suppose ... suppose you were to find out ... you'd been
+mistaken in me?"
+
+"That isn't possible," he objected promptly.
+
+She smiled upon him wistfully--and leniently from her remote coign of
+superior intuitive knowledge of human nature.
+
+"But if it were--?"
+
+"Then--I think," he said soberly--"I think I'd feel as though there
+were nothing but emptiness beneath my feet!"
+
+"And you'd backslide--?"
+
+"How can I tell?" he expostulated. "It's not a fair question. I don't
+know what I'd do, but I do know it would need something damnable to
+shake my faith in you!"
+
+"You think so now," she said tolerantly. "But if appearances were
+against me--"
+
+"They'd have to be black!"
+
+"If you found I had deceived you--?"
+
+"Miss Shannon!" He threw an arm across the table and suddenly
+imprisoned her hand. "There's no use beating about the bush. You've got
+to know--"
+
+She drew back suddenly with a frightened look and a monosyllable of
+sharp protest: "No!"
+
+"But you must listen to me. I want you to understand.... Bourke used to
+ say to me: 'The man who lets love into his life opens a door no mortal
+hand can close--and God only knows what will follow in!' And Bourke was
+right.... Now that door is open in my heart, and I think that whatever
+follows in won't be evil or degrading.... Oh, I've said it a dozen
+different ways of indirection, but I may as well say it squarely now: I
+love you; it's love of you makes me want to go straight--the hope that
+when I've proved myself you'll maybe let me ask you to marry me....
+Perhaps you're in love with a better man today; I'm willing to chance
+that; a year brings many changes. Perhaps there's something I don't
+fathom in your doubting my strength and constancy. Only the outcome can
+declare that. But please understand this: if I fail to make good, it
+will be no fault of yours; it will be because I'm unfit and have proved
+it.... All I ask is what you've generously promised me: opportunity to
+come to you at the end of the year and make my report.... And then, if
+you will, you can say no to the question I'll ask you and I shan't
+resent it, and it won't ruin me; for if a man can stick to a purpose
+for a year, he can stick to it forever, with or without the love of the
+woman he loves."
+
+She heard him out without attempt at interruption, but her answer was
+prefaced by a sad little shake of her head.
+
+"That's what makes it so hard, so terribly hard," she said.... "Of
+course I've understood you. All that you've said by indirection, and
+much besides, has had its meaning to me. And I'm glad and proud of the
+honour you offer me. But I can't accept it; I can never accept it--not
+now nor a year from now. It wouldn't be fair to let you go on hoping I
+might some time consent to marry you.... For that's impossible."
+
+"You--forgive me--you're not already married?"
+
+"No...."
+
+"Or promised?"
+
+"No...."
+
+"Or in love with someone else?"
+
+Again she told him, gently, "No."
+
+His face cleared. He squared his shoulders. He even mustered up a smile.
+
+"Then it isn't impossible. No human obstacle exists that time can't
+overthrow. In spite of all you say, I shall go on hoping with all my
+heart and soul and strength."
+
+"But you don't understand--"
+
+"Can you tell me--make me understand?"
+
+After a long pause, she told him once more, and very sadly: "No."
+
+
+
+XV
+
+SHEER IMPUDENCE
+
+Though it had been nearly eight when they entered the restaurant, it
+was something after eleven before Lanyard called for his bill.
+
+"We've plenty of time," he had explained; "it'll be midnight before we
+can move. The gentle art of house-breaking has its technique, you know,
+its professional ethics: we can't well violate the privacy of Madame
+Omber's strong-box before the caretakers on the premises are sound
+asleep. It isn't _done_, you know, it isn't class, to go burglarizing
+when decent, law-abiding folk are wide-awake.... Meantime we're better
+off here than trapezing the streets...."
+
+It's a silent web of side ways and a gloomy one by night that backs up
+north of Les Halles: old Paris, taciturn and sombre, steeped in its
+memories of grim romance. But for infrequent, flickering, corner lamps,
+the street that welcomed them from the doors of the warm and cosy
+restaurant was as dismal as an alley in some city of the dead. Its
+houses with their mansard roofs and boarded windows bent their heads
+together like mutes at a wake, black-cloaked and hooded; seldom one
+showed a light; never one betrayed by any sound the life that lurked
+behind its jealous blinds. Now again the rain had ceased and, though
+the sky remained overcast, the atmosphere was clear and brisk with a
+touch of frost, in grateful contrast to the dull and muggy airs that
+had obtained for the last twenty-four hours.
+
+"We'll walk," Lanyard suggested--"if you don't mind--part of the way at
+least; it'll eat up time, and a bit of exercise will do us both good."
+
+The girl assented quietly....
+
+The drum of their heels on fast-drying sidewalks struck sharp echoes
+from the silence of that drowsy quarter, a lonely clamour that rendered
+it impossible to ignore their apparent solitude--as impossible as it
+was for Lanyard to ignore the fact that they were followed.
+
+The shadow dogging them on the far side of the street, some fifty yards
+behind, was as noiseless as any cat; but for this circumstance--had it
+moved boldly with unmuffled footsteps--Lanyard would have been slow to
+believe it concerned with him, so confident had be felt, till that
+moment, of having given the Pack the slip.
+
+And from this he diagnosed still another symptom of the Pack's
+incurable stupidity!
+
+Supremely on the alert, he had discovered the pursuit before they left
+the block of the restaurant. Dissembling, partly to avoid alarming the
+girl, partly to trick the spy, he turned this way and that round
+several corners, until quite convinced that the shadow was dedicated to
+himself exclusively, then promptly revised his first purpose and,
+instead of sticking to darker back ways, struck out directly for the
+broad, well-lighted and lively boulevard de Sebastopol.
+
+Crossing this without a backward glance, he turned north, seeking some
+cafe whose arrangements suited his designs; and, presently, though not
+before their tramp had brought them almost to the Grand Boulevards,
+found one to his taste, a cheerful and well-lighted establishment
+occupying a corner, with entrances from both streets. A hedge of
+forlorn fir-trees knee-deep in wooden tubs guarded its terrasse of
+round metal tables and spindle-shanked chairs; of which few were
+occupied. Inside, visible through the wide plate-glass windows, perhaps
+a dozen patrons sat round half as many tables--no more--idling over
+dominoes and gossip: steady-paced burghers with their wives, men in
+small ways of business of the neighbourhood.
+
+Entering to this company, Lanyard selected a square marble-topped table
+against the back wall, entrenched himself with the girl upon the seat
+behind it, ordered coffee and writing materials, and proceeded to light
+a cigarette with the nonchalance of one to whom time is of no
+consequence.
+
+"What is it?" the girl asked guardedly as the waiter scurried off to
+execute his commands. "You've not stopped in here for nothing!"
+
+"True--but lower, please!" he begged. "If we speak English loud enough
+to be heard it will attract attention.... The trouble is, we're
+followed. But as yet our faithful shadow doesn't know we know
+it--unless he's more intelligent than he seems. Consequently, if I
+don't misjudge him, he'll take a table outside, the better to keep an
+eye on us, as soon as he sees we're apparently settled for some time.
+More than that, I've got a note to write--and not merely as a
+subterfuge. This fellow must be shaken off, and as long as we stick
+together, that can't well be done."
+
+He interrupted himself while the waiter served them, then added sugar
+to his coffee, arranged the ink bottle and paper to his satisfaction,
+and bent over his pen.
+
+"Come closer," he requested--"as if you were interested in what I'm
+writing--and amused; if you can laugh a bit at nothing, so much the
+better. But keep a sharp eye on the windows. You can do that more
+readily than I, more naturally from under the brim of your hat.... And
+tell me what you see...."
+
+He had no more than settled into the swing of composition, than the
+girl--apparently following his pen with closest attention--giggled
+coquettishly and nudged his elbow.
+
+"The window to the right of the door we came in," she said, smiling
+delightedly; "he's standing behind the fir-trees, staring in."
+
+"Can you make out who he is?" Lanyard asked without moving his lips.
+
+"Nothing more than that he's tall," she said with every indication of
+enjoying a tremendous joke. "His face is all in shadow...."
+
+"Patience!" counselled the adventurer. "He'll take heart of courage
+when convinced of our innocence."
+
+He poised his pen, examined the ceiling for inspiration, and permitted
+a slow smile to lighten his countenance.
+
+"You'll take this note, if you please," he said cheerfully, "to the
+address on the envelope, by taxi: it's some distance, near the
+Etoile.... A long chance, but one we must risk; give me half an hour
+alone and I'll guarantee to discourage this animal one way or another.
+You understand?"
+
+"Perfectly," she laughed archly.
+
+He bent and for a few moments wrote busily.
+
+"Now he's walking slowly round the corner, never taking his eyes from
+you," the girl reported, shoulder to his shoulder and head
+distractingly near his head.
+
+"Good. Can you see him any better?"
+
+"Not yet...."
+
+"This note," he said, without stopping his pen or appearing to say
+anything "is for the concierge of a building where I rent stabling for
+a little motor-car. I'm supposed there to be a chauffeur in the employ
+of a crazy Englishman, who keeps me constantly travelling with him back
+and forth between Paris and London. That's to account for the
+irregularity with which I use the car. They know me, monsieur and
+madame of the conciergerie, as Pierre Lamier; and I _think_ they're
+safe--not only trustworthy and of friendly disposition, but quite
+simple-minded; I don't believe they gossip much. So the chances are De
+Morbihan and his gang know nothing of the arrangement. But that's all
+speculation--a forlorn hope!"
+
+"I understand," the girl observed. "He's still prowling up and down
+outside the hedge."
+
+"We're not going to need that car tonight; but the hotel of Madame
+Omber is close by; and I'll follow and join you there within an hour at
+most. Meantime, this note will introduce you to the concierge and his
+wife--I hope you won't mind--as my fiancee. I'm telling them we became
+engaged in England, and I've brought you to Paris to visit my mother in
+Montrouge; but am detained by my employer's business; and will they
+please give you shelter for an hour."
+
+"He's coming in," the girl announced quietly.
+
+"In here?"
+
+"No--merely inside the row of little trees."
+
+"Which entrance?"
+
+"The boulevard side. He's taken the corner table. Now a waiter's going
+out to him."
+
+"You can see his face now?" Lanyard asked, sealing the note.
+
+"Not well...."
+
+"Nothing you recognize about him, eh?"
+
+"Nothing...."
+
+"You know Popinot and Wertheimer by sight?"
+
+"No; they're only names to me; De Morbihan and Mr. Bannon mentioned
+them last night."
+
+"It won't be Popinot," Lanyard reflected, addressing the envelope;
+"he's tubby."
+
+"This man is tall and slender."
+
+"Wertheimer, possibly. Does he suggest an Englishman, any way?"
+
+ "Not in the least. He wears a moustache--blond--twisted up like the
+Kaiser's."
+
+Lanyard made no reply; but his heart sank, and he shivered
+imperceptibly with foreboding. He entertained no doubt but that the
+worst had happened, that to the number of his enemies in Paris was
+added Ekstrom.
+
+One furtive glance confirmed this inference. He swore bitterly, if
+privately and with a countenance of child-like blandness, as he sipped
+the coffee and finished his cigarette.
+
+"Who is it, then?" she asked. "Do you know him?"
+
+He reckoned swiftly against distressing her, recalling his mention of
+the fact that Ekstrom was credited with the Huysman murder.
+
+"Merely a hanger-on of De Morbihan's," he told her lightly; "a
+spineless animal--no trouble about scaring him off.... Now take this
+note, please, and we'll go. But as we reach the door, turn back--and go
+out the other. You'll find a taxi without trouble. And stop for
+nothing!"
+
+He had shown foresight in paying when served, and was consequently able
+to leave abruptly, without giving Ekstrom time to shy. Rising smartly,
+he pushed the table aside. The girl was no less quick, and little less
+sensitive to the strain of the moment; but as she passed him her lashes
+lifted and her eyes were all his for the instant.
+
+"Good night," she breathed--"good night ... my dear!"
+
+She could have guessed no more shrewdly what he needed to nerve him
+against the impending clash. He hadn't hesitated as to his only course,
+ but till then he'd been horribly afraid, knowing too well the
+desperate cast of the outlawed German's nature. But now he couldn't
+fail.
+
+He strode briskly toward the door to the boulevard, out of the corner
+of his eye aware that Ekstrom, taken by surprise, half-started from his
+chair, then sank back.
+
+Two paces from the entrance the girl checked, murmured in French, "Oh,
+my handkerchief!" and turned briskly back. Without pause, as though he
+hadn't heard, Lanyard threw the door wide and swung out, turning
+directly to the spy. At the same time he dropped a hand into the pocket
+where nestled his automatic.
+
+Fortunately Ekstrom had chosen a table in a corner well removed from
+any in use. Lanyard could speak without fear of being overheard.
+
+But for a moment he refrained. Nor did Ekstrom speak or stir; sitting
+sideways at his table, negligently, with knees crossed, the German
+likewise kept a hand buried in the pocket of his heavy, dark ulster.
+Thus neither doubted the other's ill-will or preparedness. And through
+thirty seconds of silence they remained at pause, each striving with
+all his might to read the other's purpose in his eyes. But there was
+this distinction to be drawn between their attitudes, that whereas
+Lanyard's gaze challenged, the German's was sullenly defiant. And
+presently Lanyard felt his heart stir with relief: the spy's glance had
+winced.
+
+"Ekstrom," the adventurer said quietly, "if you fire, I'll get you
+before I fall. That's a simple statement of fact."
+
+The German hesitated, moistened the corners of his lips with a nervous
+tongue, but contented himself with a nod of acknowledgement.
+
+"Take your hand off that gun," Lanyard ordered. "Remember--I've only to
+cry your name aloud to have you torn to pieces by these people. Your
+life's not worth a moment's purchase in Paris--as you should know."
+
+The German hesitated, but in his heart knew that Lanyard didn't
+exaggerate. The murder of the inventor had exasperated all France; and
+though tonight's weather kept a third of Paris within doors, there was
+still a tide of pedestrians fluent on the sidewalk, beyond the flimsy
+barrier of firs, that would thicken to a ravening mob upon the least
+excuse.
+
+He had mistaken his man; he had thought that Lanyard, even if aware of
+his pursuit, would seek to shake it off in flight rather than turn and
+fight--and fight here, of all places!
+
+"Do you hear me?" Lanyard continued in the same level and unyielding
+tone. "Bring both hands in sight--upon the table!"
+
+There was no more hesitation: Ekstrom obeyed, if with the sullen grace
+of a wild beast that would and could slay its trainer with one sweep of
+its paw--if only it dared.
+
+For the first time since leaving the girl Lanyard relaxed his vigilant
+watch over the man long enough for one swift glance through the window
+at his side. But she was already vanished from the cafe.
+
+He breathed more freely now.
+
+"Come!" he said peremptorily. "Get up. We've got to talk, I
+presume--thrash this matter out--and we'll come to no decision here."
+
+"Where do we go, then?" the German demanded suspiciously.
+
+"We can walk."
+
+Irresolutely the spy uncrossed his knees, but didn't rise.
+
+"Walk?" he repeated, "walk where?"
+
+"Up the boulevard, if you like--where the lights are brightest."
+
+"Ah!"--with a malignant flash of teeth--"but I don't trust you."
+
+Lanyard laughed: "You wear only one shoe of that pair, my dear captain!
+We're a distrustful flock, we birds of prey. Come along! Why sit there
+sulking, like a spoiled child? You've made an ass of yourself,
+following me to Paris; sadly though you bungled that job in London, I
+gave you credit for more wit than to poke your head into the lion's
+mouth here. But--admitting that--why not be graceful about it? Here am
+I, amiably treating you like an equal: you might at least show
+gratitude enough to accept my invitation to flaner yourself!"
+
+With a grunt the spy got upon his feet, while Lanyard stood back,
+against the window, and made him free of the narrow path between the
+tree-tubs and the tables.
+
+"After you, my dear Adolph...!"
+
+The German paused, half turned towards him, choking with rage, his
+suffused face darkly relieving its white scars won at Heidelberg. At
+this, with a nod of unmistakable meaning, Lanyard advanced the muzzle
+of his pocketed weapon; and with an ugly growl the German moved on and
+out to the sidewalk, Lanyard respectfully an inch or two behind his
+elbow.
+
+"To your right," he requested pleasantly--"if it's all the same to you:
+I've business on the Boulevards..."
+
+Ekstrom said nothing for the moment, but sullenly yielded to the
+suggestion.
+
+"By the way," the adventurer presently pursued, "you might be good
+enough to inform me how you knew where we were dining--eh?"
+
+"If it interests you--"
+
+"I own it does--tremendously!"
+
+"Pure accident: I happened to be sitting in the cafe, and caught a
+glimpse of you through the door as you went upstairs. Therefore I
+waited till the waiter asked for your bill at the caisse, then
+stationed myself outside."
+
+"But why? Can you tell me what you thought to accomplish?"
+
+"You know well," Ekstrom muttered. "After what happened in London ...
+it's your life or mine!"
+
+"Spoken like a true villain! But it seems to me you overlooked a
+conspicuous chance to accomplish your hellish design, back there in the
+side streets."
+
+"Would I be such a fool as to shoot you down before finding out what
+you've done with those plans?"
+
+"You might as well have," Lanyard informed him lightly ... "For you
+won't know otherwise."
+
+With an infuriated oath the German stopped short: but he dared not
+ignore the readiness with which his tormentor imitated the manoeuvre
+and kept the pistol trained through the fabric of his raincoat.
+
+"Yes--?" the adventurer enquired with an exasperating accent of
+surprise.
+
+"Understand me," Ekstrom muttered vindictively: "next time I'll show
+you no mercy--"
+
+"But if there _is_ no next time? We're not apt to meet again, you know."
+
+"That's something beyond your knowledge--"
+
+"You think so? ... But shan't we resume our stroll? People might notice
+us standing here--you with your teeth bared like an ill-tempered
+dog.... Oh, thank you!"
+
+And as they moved on, Lanyard continued: "Shall I explain why we're not
+apt to meet again?"
+
+"If it amuses you."
+
+"Thanks once more! ... For the simple reason that Paris satisfies me;
+so here I stop."
+
+"Well?" the spy asked with a blank sidelong look.
+
+"Whereas you are leaving Paris tonight."
+
+"What makes you think that?"
+
+"Because you value your thick hide too highly to remain, my dear
+captain." Having gained the corner of the boulevard St. Denis, Lanyard
+pulled up. "One moment, by your leave. You see yonder the entrance to
+the Metro--don't you? And here, a dozen feet away, a perfectly
+able-bodied sergent de ville? Let this fateful conjunction impress you
+properly: for five minutes after you have descended to the Metro--or as
+soon as the noise of a train advises me you've had one chance to get
+away--I shall mention casually to the sergo--that I have seen Captain
+Ek--"
+
+"Hush!" the German protested in a hiss of fright.
+
+"But certainly: I've no desire to embarrass you: publicity must be
+terribly distasteful to one of your sensitive and retiring
+disposition.... But I trust you understand me? On the one hand, there's
+the Metro; on the other, there's the flic; while here, you must admit,
+am I, as large as life and very much on the job! ... And inasmuch as I
+shall certainly mention my suspicions to the minion of the law--as
+aforesaid--I'd advise you to be well out of Paris before dawn!"
+
+There was murder in the eyes of the spy as he lingered, truculently
+glowering at the smiling adventurer; and for an instant Lanyard was
+well-persuaded he had gone too far, that even there, even on that busy
+junction of two crowded thoroughfares, Ekstrom would let his temper get
+the better of his judgment and risk everything in an attempt upon the
+life of his despoiler.
+
+But he was mistaken.
+
+With a surly shrug the spy swung about and marched straight to the
+kiosk of the underground railway, into which, without one backward
+glance, he disappeared.
+
+Two minutes later the earth beneath Lanyard's feet quaked with the
+crash and rumble of a north-bound train.
+
+He waited three minutes longer; but Ekstrom didn't reappear; and at
+length convinced that his warning had proved effectual, Lanyard turned
+and made off.
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+RESTITUTION
+
+For all that success had rewarded his effrontery, Lanyard's mind was
+far from easy during the subsequent hour that he spent before
+attempting to rejoin Lucy Shannon, dodging, ducking and doubling across
+Paris and back again, with design to confuse and confound any jackals
+of the Pack that might have picked up his trail as adventitiously as
+Ekstrom had.
+
+His delight, indeed, in discomfiting his dupe was chilled by
+apprehension that it were madness, simply because the spy had proved
+unexpectedly docile, to consider the affaire Ekstrom closed. In the
+very fact of that docility inhered something strange and ominous, a
+premonition of evil which was hardly mitigated by finding the girl safe
+and sound under the wing of madame la concierge, in the little court of
+private stables, where he rented space for his car, off the rue des
+Acacias.
+
+Monsieur le concierge, it appeared, was from home; and madame,
+thick-witted, warm-hearted, simple body that she was, discovered a
+phase of beaming incuriosity most grateful to the adventurer, enabling
+him as it did to dispense with embarrassing explanations, and to whisk
+the girl away as soon as he liked.
+
+This last was just as soon as personal examination had reassured him
+with respect to his automobile--superficially an ordinary motor-cab of
+the better grade, but with an exceptionally powerful engine hidden
+beneath its hood. A car of such character, passing readily as the
+town-car of any family in modest circumstances, or else as what Paris
+calls a voiture de remise (a hackney car without taximeter) was a
+tremendous convenience, enabling its owner to scurry at will about
+cab-ridden Paris free of comment. But it could not be left standing in
+public places at odd hours, or for long, without attracting the
+interest of the police, and so was useless in the present emergency.
+Lanyard, however, entertained a shrewd suspicion that his plans might
+all miscarry and the command of a fast-travelling car soon prove
+essential to his salvation; and he cheerfully devoted a good half-hour
+to putting the motor in prime trim for the road.
+
+With this accomplished--and the facts established through discreet
+interrogation of madame la concierge that no enquiries had been made
+for "Pierre Lamier," and that she had noticed no strange or otherwise
+questionable characters loitering in the neighbourhood of late--he was
+ready for his first real step toward rehabilitation....
+
+It was past one in the morning when, with the girl on his arm, he
+issued forth into the dark and drowsy rue des Acacias and, moving
+swiftly, crossed the avenue de la Grande Armee. Thereafter, avoiding
+main-travelled highways, they struck southward through tangled side
+streets to aristocratic Passy, skirted the boulevards of the
+fortifications, and approached the private park of La Muette.
+
+The hotel particulier of that wealthy and amiable eccentric, Madame
+Helene Omber, was a souvenir of those days when Passy had been
+suburban. A survival of the Revolution, a vast, dour pile that had
+known few changes since the days of its construction, it occupied a
+large, unkempt park, irregularly triangular in shape, bounded by two
+streets and an avenue, and rendered private by high walls crowned with
+broken glass. Carriage gates opened on the avenue, guarded by a
+porter's lodge; while of three posterns that pierced the walls on the
+side streets, one only was in general use by the servants of the
+establishment; the other two were presumed to be permanently sealed.
+
+Lanyard, however, knew better.
+
+When they had turned off from the avenue, he slackened pace and moved
+at caution, examining the prospect narrowly.
+
+On the one hand rose the wall of the park, topped by naked, soughing
+limbs of neglected trees; on the other, across the way, a block of tall
+old dwellings, withdrawn behind jealous garden walls, showed stupid,
+sleepy faces and lightless eyes.
+
+Within the perspective of the street but three shapes stirred; Lanyard
+and the girl in the shadow of the wall, and a disconsolate, misprized
+cat that promptly decamped like a terror-stricken ghost.
+
+Overhead the sky was breaking and showing ebon patches and infrequent
+stars through a wind-harried wrack of cloud. The night had grown
+sensibly colder, and noisy with the rushing sweep of a new-sprung wind.
+
+Several yards from the postern-gate, Lanyard paused definitely, and
+spoke for the first time in many minutes; for the nature of their
+errand had oppressed the spirits of both and enjoined an unnatural
+silence, ever since their departure from the rue des Acacias.
+
+"This is where we stop," he said, with a jerk of his head toward the
+wall; "but it's not too late--"
+
+"For what?" the girl asked quickly.
+
+"I promised you no danger; but now I've thought it over, I can't
+promise that: there's always danger. And I'm afraid for you. It's not
+yet too late for you to turn back and wait for me in a safer place."
+
+"You asked me to accompany you for a special purpose," she argued; "you
+begged me to come with you, in fact.... Now that I have agreed and come
+this far, I don't mean to turn back without good reason."
+
+His gesture indicated uneasy acquiescence. "I should never have asked
+this of you. I think I must have been a little mad. If anything should
+come of this to injure you...!"
+
+"If you mean to do what you promised--"
+
+"Do you doubt my sincerity?"
+
+"It was your own suggestion that you leave me no excuse for doubt..."
+
+Without further remonstrance, if with a mind beset with misgivings, he
+led on to the gate--a blank door of wood, painted a dark green, deeply
+recessed in the wall.
+
+In proof of his assertion that he had long since made every preparation
+to attack the premises, Lanyard had a key ready and in the lock almost
+before they reached it.
+
+And the door swung back easily and noiselessly as though on
+well-greased hinges. As silently it shut them in.
+
+They stood upon a weed-grown gravel path, hedged about with thick
+masses of shrubbery; but the park was as black as a pocket; and the
+heavy effluvia of wet mould, decaying weeds and rotting leaves that
+choked the air, seemed only to render the murk still more opaque.
+
+But Lanyard evidently knew his way blindfold: though motives of
+prudence made him refrain from using his flash-lamp, he betrayed not
+the least incertitude in his actions.
+
+Never once at loss for the right turning, he piloted the girl swiftly
+through a bewildering black labyrinth of paths, lawns and thickets....
+
+In due course he pulled up, and she discovered that they had come out
+upon a clear space of lawn, close beside the featureless, looming bulk
+of a dark and silent building.
+
+An admonitory grasp tightened upon her fingers, and she caught his
+singularly penetrating yet guarded whisper:
+
+"This is the back of the house--the service-entrance. From this door a
+broad path runs straight to the main service gateway; you can't mistake
+it; and the gate itself has a spring lock, easy enough to open from the
+inside. Remember this in event of trouble. We might become separated in
+the darkness and confusion...."
+
+Gently returning the pressure, "I understand," she said in a whisper.
+
+Immediately he drew her on to the house, pausing but momentarily before
+a wide doorway; one half of which promptly swung open, and as soon as
+they had passed through, closed with no perceptible jar or click. And
+then Lanyard's flash-lamp was lancing the gloom on every hand, swiftly
+raking the bounds of a large, panelled servants' hall, until it picked
+out the foot of a flight of steps at the farther end. To this they
+moved stealthily over a tiled flooring.
+
+The ascent of the staircase was accomplished, however, only with
+infinite care, Lanyard testing each rise before trusting it with his
+weight or the girl's. Twice he bade her skip one step lest the
+complaints of the ancient woodwork betray them. In spite of all this,
+no less than three hideous squeals were evoked before they gained the
+top; each indicating a pause and wait of several breathless seconds.
+
+But it would seem that such servants as had been left in the house, in
+the absence of its chatelaine, either slept soundly or were accustomed
+to the midnight concert of those age-old timbers; and without
+mischance, at length, they entered the main reception-hall, revealed by
+the dancing spot-light as a room of noble proportions furnished with
+sombre magnificence.
+
+Here the girl was left alone for a few minutes, while Lanyard darted
+above-stairs for a review of the state bedchambers and servants'
+quarters.
+
+With a sensation of being crushed and suffocated by the encompassing
+dark mystery, she nerved herself against a protracted vigil. The
+obscurity on every hand seemed alive with stealthy footfalls,
+whisperings, murmurings, the passage of shrouded shapes of silence and
+of menace. Her eyes ached, her throat and temples throbbed, her skin
+crept, her scalp tingled. She seemed to hear a thousand different
+noises of alarm. The only sounds she did not hear were those--if
+any--that accompanied Lanyard's departure and return. Had he not been
+thoughtful enough, when a few feet distant, to give warning with the
+light, she might well have greeted with a cry of fright the
+consciousness of a presence near her: so silently he moved about. As it
+was, she was startled, apprehensive of some misadventure, to find him
+back so soon; for he hadn't been gone three minutes.
+
+"It's quite all right," he announced in hushed accents--no longer
+whispering. "There are just five people in the house aside from
+ourselves--all servants, asleep in the rear wing. We've got a clear
+field--if no excuse for taking foolish chances! However, we'll be
+finished and off again in less than ten minutes. This way."
+
+That way led to a huge and gloomy library at one extreme of a chain of
+great salons, a veritable treasure-gallery of exquisite furnishings and
+authentic old masters. As they moved slowly through these chambers
+Lanyard kept his flash-lamp busy; involuntarily, now and again, he
+checked the girl before some splendid canvas or extraordinary antique.
+
+"I've always meant to happen in some day with a moving-van and loot
+this place properly!" he confessed with a little affected sigh.
+"Considered from the viewpoint of an expert practitioner in
+my--ah--late profession, it's a sin and a shame to let all this go
+neglected, when it's so poorly guarded. The old lady--Madame Omber, you
+know--has all the money there is, approximately, and when she dies all
+these beautiful things go to the Louvre; for she's without kith or kin."
+
+"But how did she manage to accumulate them all?" the girl wondered.
+"It's the work of generations of passionate collectors," he explained.
+"The late Monsieur Omber was the last of his dynasty; he and his
+forebears brought together the paintings and the furniture; madame
+added the Orientals gathered together by her first husband, and her own
+collection of antique jewellery and precious stones--_her_ particular
+fad...."
+
+As he spoke the light of the flash-lamp was blotted out. An instant
+later the girl heard a little clashing noise, of curtain rings sliding
+along a pole; and this was thrice repeated.
+
+Then, following another brief pause, a switch clicked; and streaming
+from the hood of a portable desk-lamp, a pool of light flooded the
+heart of a vast place of shadows, an apartment whose doors and windows
+alike were cloaked with heavy draperies that hung from floor to ceiling
+in long and shining folds. Immense black bookcases lined the walls,
+their shelves crowded with volumes in rich bindings; from their tops
+pallid marble masks peered down inquisitively, leering and scowling at
+the intruders. A huge mantelpiece of carved marble, supporting a great,
+dark mirror, occupied the best of one wall, beneath it a wide, deep
+fireplace yawned, partly shielded by a screen of wrought brass and
+crystal. In the middle of the room stood a library table of mahogany;
+huge leather chairs and couches encumbered the remainder of its space.
+And the corner to the right of the fireplace was shut off by a high
+Japanese screen of cinnabar and gold.
+
+To this Lanyard moved confidently, carrying the lamp. Placing it on the
+floor, he grasped one wing of the screen with both hands, and at cost
+of considerable effort swung it aside, uncovering the face of a huge,
+old-style safe built into the wall.
+
+For several seconds--but not for many--Lanyard studied this problem
+intently, standing quite motionless, his head lowered and thrust
+forward, hands resting on his hips. Then turning, he nodded an
+invitation to draw nearer.
+
+"My last job," he said with a smile oddly lighted by the lamp at his
+feet--"and my easiest, I fancy. Sorry, too, for I'd rather have liked
+to show off a bit. But this old-fashioned tin bank gives no excuse for
+spectacular methods!"
+
+"But," the girl objected, "You've brought no tools!"
+
+"Oh, but I have!" And fumbling in a pocket, Lanyard produced a pencil.
+"Behold!" he laughed, brandishing it.
+
+She knitted thoughtful brows: "I don't understand."
+
+"All I need--except this."
+
+Crossing to the desk, he found a sheet of note-paper and, folding it,
+returned.
+
+"Now," he said, "give me five minutes...."
+
+Kneeling, he gave the combination-knob a smart preliminary twirl, then
+rested a shoulder against the sheet of painted iron, his cheek to its
+smooth, cold cheek, his ear close beside the dial; and with the
+practised fingers of a master locksmith began to manipulate the knob.
+
+Gently, tirelessly, to and fro he twisted, turned, raced, and checked
+the combination, caressing it, humouring it, wheedling it, inexorably
+questioning it in the dumb language his fingers spoke so deftly. And in
+his ear the click and whir and thump of shifting wards and tumblers
+murmured articulate response in the terms of their cryptic code.
+
+Now and again, releasing the knob and sitting back on his heels, he
+would bend intent scrutiny to the dial; note the position of the
+combination, and with the pencil jot memoranda on the paper. This
+happened perhaps a dozen times, at intervals of irregular duration.
+
+He worked diligently, in a phase of concentration that apparently
+excluded from his consciousness the near proximity of the girl, who
+stood--or rather stooped, half-kneeling--less than a pace from his
+shoulder, watching the process with interest hardly less keen than his
+own.
+
+Yet when one faint, odd sound broke the slumberous silence of the
+salons, instantly he swung around and stood erect in a single movement,
+gaze to the curtains.
+
+But it had only been a premonitory rumble in the throat of a tall old
+clock about to strike in the room beyond. And as its sonorous chimes
+heralded two deep-toned strokes, Lanyard laughed quietly, intimately,
+to the girl's startled eyes, and sank back before the safe.
+
+And now his task was nearly finished. Within another minute he sat back
+with face aglow, uttered a hushed exclamation of satisfaction, studied
+his memoranda for a space, then swiftly and with assured movements
+threw the knob and dial into the several positions of the combination,
+grasped the lever-handle, turned it smartly, and swung the door wide
+open.
+
+"Simple, eh?" he chuckled, with a glance aside to the girl's eager
+face, bewitchingly flushed and shadowed by the lamp's up-thrown
+glow--"when one knows the trick, of course! And now ... if one were not
+an honest man!"
+
+A wave of his hand indicated the pigeonholes with which the body of the
+safe was fitted: wide spaces and deep, stored tight with an
+extraordinary array of leather jewel-cases, packets of stout paper
+bound with tape and sealed, and boxes of wood and pasteboard of every
+shape and size.
+
+"They were only her finest pieces, her personal jewels, that Madame
+Omber took with her to England," he explained; "she's mad about them
+... never separated from them.... Perhaps the finest collection in the
+world, for size and purity of water.... She had the heart to leave
+these--all this!"
+
+Lifting a hand he chose at random, dislodged two leather cases, placed
+them on the floor, and with a blade of his pen-knife forced their
+fastenings.
+
+From the first the light smote radiance in blinding, coruscant welter.
+Here was nothing but diamond jewellery, mostly in antique settings.
+
+He took up a piece and offered it to the girl. She drew back her hand
+involuntarily.
+
+"No!" she protested in a whisper of fright.
+
+"But just look!" he urged. "There's no danger ... and you'll never see
+the like of this again!"
+
+Stubbornly she withheld her hand. "No, no!" she pleaded. "I--I'd rather
+not touch it. Put it back. Let's hurry. I--I'm frightened."
+
+He shrugged and replaced the jewel; then yielded again to impulse of
+curiosity and lifted the lid of the second case.
+
+It contained nothing but pieces set with coloured stones of the first
+order--emeralds, amethysts, sapphires, rubies, topaz, garnets,
+lapis-lazuli, jacinthes, jades, fashioned by master-craftsmen into
+rings, bracelets, chains, brooches, lockets, necklaces, of exquisite
+design: the whole thrown heedlessly together, without order or care.
+
+For a moment the adventurer stared down soberly at this priceless
+hoard, his eyes narrowing, his breathing perceptibly quickened. Then
+with a slow gesture, he reclosed the case, took from his pocket that
+other which he had brought from London, opened it, and held it aside
+beneath the light, for the girl's inspection.
+
+He looked not once either at its contents or at her, fearing lest his
+countenance betray the truth, that he had not yet succeeded completely
+in exorcising that mutinous and rebellious spirit, the Lone Wolf, from
+the tenement over which it had so long held sway; and content with the
+sound of her quick, startled sigh of amaze that what she now beheld
+could so marvellously outshine what had been disclosed by the other
+boxes, he withdrew it, shut it, found it a place in the safe, and
+without pause closed the door, shot the bolts, and twirled the dial
+until the tumblers fairly sang.
+
+One final twist of the lever-handle convincing him that the combination
+was effectively dislocated, he rose, picked up the lamp, replaced it on
+the desk with scrupulous care to leave no sign that it had been moved,
+and looked round to the girl.
+
+She was where he had left her, a small, tense, vibrant figure among the
+shadows, her eyes dark pools of wonder in a face of blazing pallor.
+
+With a high head and his shoulders well back he made a gesture
+signifying more eloquently than any words: "All that is ended!"
+
+"And now...?" she asked breathlessly.
+
+"Now for our get-away," he replied with assumed lightness. "Before dawn
+we must be out of Paris.... Two minutes, while I straighten this place
+up and leave it as I found it."
+
+He moved back to the safe, restored the wing of the screen to the spot
+from which he had moved it, and after an instant's close examination of
+the rug, began to explore his pockets.
+
+"What are you looking for?" the girl enquired.
+
+"My memoranda of the combination--"
+
+"I have it." She indicated its place in a pocket of her coat. "You left
+it on the floor, and I was afraid you might forget--"
+
+"No fear!" he laughed. "No"--as she offered him the folded paper--"keep
+it and destroy it, once we're out of this. Now those portieres..."
+
+Extinguishing the desk-light, he turned attention to the draperies at
+doors and windows....
+
+Within five minutes, they were once more in the silent streets of Passy.
+
+They had to walk as far as the Trocadero before Lanyard found a fiacre,
+which he later dismissed at the corner in the Faubourg St. Germain.
+
+Another brief walk brought them to a gate in the garden wall of a
+residence at the junction of two quiet streets.
+
+"This, I think, ends our Parisian wanderings," Lanyard announced. "If
+you'll be good enough to keep an eye out for busybodies--and yourself
+as inconspicuous as possible in this doorway..."
+
+And he walked back to the curb, measuring the wall with his eye.
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+He responded by doing it so swiftly that she gasped with surprise:
+pausing momentarily within a yard of the wall, he gathered himself
+together, shot lithely into the air, caught the top curbing with both
+hands, and...
+
+She heard the soft thud of his feet on the earth of the enclosure; the
+latch grated behind her; the door opened.
+
+"For the last time," Lanyard laughed quietly, "permit me to invite you
+to break the law by committing an act of trespass!"
+
+Securing the door, he led her to a garden bench secluded amid
+conventional shrubbery.
+
+"If you'll wait here," he suggested--"well, it will be best. I'll be
+back as soon as possible, though I may be detained some time. Still,
+inasmuch as I'm about to break into this hotel, my motives, which are
+most commendable, may be misinterpreted, and I'd rather you'd stop
+here, with the street at hand. If you hear a noise like trouble, you've
+only to unlatch the gate.... But let's hope my purely benevolent
+intentions toward the French Republic won't be misconstrued!"
+
+"I'll wait," she assured him bravely; "but won't you tell me--?"
+
+With a gesture, he indicated the mansion back of the garden.
+
+"I'm going to break in there to pay an early morning call and impart
+some interesting information to a person of considerable
+consequence--nobody less, in fact, than Monsieur Ducroy."
+
+"And who is that?"
+
+"The present Minister of War.... We haven't as yet the pleasure of each
+other's acquaintance; still, I think he won't be sorry to see me.... In
+brief, I mean to make him a present of the Huysman plans and bargain
+for our safe-conduct from France."
+
+Impulsively she offered her hand and, when he, surprised, somewhat
+diffidently took it, "Be careful!" she whispered brokenly, her pale
+sweet face upturned to his. "Oh, do be careful! I am afraid for you...."
+
+And for a little the temptation to take her in his arms was stronger
+than any he had ever known....
+
+But remembering his stipulated year of probation, he released her hand
+with an incoherent mumble, turned, and disappeared in the direction of
+the house.
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+THE FORLORN HOPE
+
+Established behind his splendid mahogany desk in his office at the
+Ministere de la Guerre, or moving majestically abroad attired in frock
+coat and glossy topper, or lending the dignity of his presence to some
+formal ceremony in that beautiful uniform which appertained unto his
+office, Monsieur Hector Ducroy cut an imposing figure.
+
+Abed ... it was sadly otherwise.
+
+Lanyard switched on the bedside light, turning it so that it struck
+full upon the face of the sleeper; and as he sat down, smiled.
+
+The Minister of War lay upon his back, his distinguished corpulence
+severely dislocating the chaste simplicity of the bed-clothing. Athwart
+his shelving chest, fat hands were folded in a gesture affectingly
+naive. His face was red, a noble high-light shone upon the promontory
+of his bald pate, his mouth was open. To the best of his unconscious
+ability he was giving a protracted imitation of a dog-fight; and he was
+really exhibiting sublime virtuosity: one readily distinguished
+individual howls, growls, yelps, against an undertone of blended voices
+of excited non-combatants...
+
+As suddenly as though some one, wearying of the entertainment, had
+lifted the needle from that record, it was discontinued. The Minister
+of War stirred uneasily in his sleep, muttered a naughty word, opened
+one eye, scowled, opened the other.
+
+He blinked furiously, half-blinded but still able to make out the
+disconcerting silhouette of a man seated just beyond the glare: a quiet
+presence that moved not but eyed him steadfastly; an apparition the
+more arresting because of its very immobility.
+
+Rapidly the face of the Minister of War lost several shades of purple.
+He moistened his lips nervously with a thick, dry tongue, and
+convulsively he clutched the bed-clothing high and tight about his
+neck, as though labouring under the erroneous impression that the
+sanctity of his person was threatened.
+
+"What do you want, monsieur?" he stuttered in a still, small voice
+which he would have been the last to acknowledge his own.
+
+"I desire to discuss a matter of business with monsieur," replied the
+intruder after a small pause. "If you will be good enough to calm
+yourself--"
+
+"I am perfectly calm--"
+
+But here the Minister of War verified with one swift glance an earlier
+impression, to the effect that the trespasser was holding something
+that shone with metallic lustre; and his soul began to curl up round
+the edges.
+
+"There are eighteen hundred francs in my pocketbook--about," he managed
+to articulate. "My watch is on the stand here. You will find the family
+plate in the dining-room safe, behind the buffet--the key is on my
+ring--and the jewels of madame my wife are in a small strong-box
+beneath the head of her bed. The combination--"
+
+"Pardon: monsieur labours under a misapprehension," the housebreaker
+interposed drily. "Had one desired these valuables, one would readily
+have taken them without going to the trouble of disturbing the repose
+of monsieur.... I have, however, already mentioned the nature of my
+errand."
+
+"Eh?" demanded the Minister of War. "What is that? But give me of your
+mercy one chance to explain! I have never wittingly harmed you,
+monsieur, and if I have done so without my knowledge, rest assured you
+have but to petition me through the proper channels and I will be only
+too glad to make amends!"
+
+"_Still_ you do not listen!" the other insisted. "Come, Monsieur
+Ducroy--calm yourself. I have not robbed you, because I have no wish to
+rob you. I have not harmed you, for I have no wish to harm you. Nor
+have I any wish other than to lay before you, as representing
+Government, a certain matter of State business."
+
+There was silence while the Minister of War permitted this exhortation
+to sink in. Then, apparently reassured, he sat up in bed and eyed his
+untimely visitor with a glare little short of truculent.
+
+"Eh? What's that?" he demanded. "Business? What sort of business? If
+you wish to submit to my consideration any matter of business, how is
+it you break into my home at dead of night and rouse me in this brutal
+fashion"--here his voice faltered--"with a lethal weapon pointed at my
+head?"
+
+"Monsieur will admit he speaks under an error," returned the burglar.
+"I have yet to point this pistol at him. I should be very sorry to feel
+obliged to do so. I display it, in fact, simply that monsieur may not
+forget himself and attempt to summon servants in his resentment of this
+(I admit) unusual method of introducing one's self to his attention.
+When we understand each other better there will be no need for such
+precautions, and then I shall put my pistol away, so that the sight of
+it may no longer annoy monsieur."
+
+"It is true, I do not understand you," grumbled the Minister of War.
+"Why--if your errand be peaceable--break into my house?"
+
+"Because it was urgently necessary to see monsieur instantly. Monsieur
+will reflect upon the reception one would receive did one ring the
+front door-bell and demand audience at three o'clock in the morning!"
+
+"Well ..." Monsieur Ducroy conceded dubiously. Then, on reflection, he
+iterated the monosyllable testily: "Well! What is it you want, then?"
+
+"I can best explain by asking monsieur to examine--what I have to show
+him."
+
+With this Lanyard dropped the pistol into his coat-pocket, from another
+produced a gold cigarette-case, and from the store of this last with
+meticulous care selected a single cigarette.
+
+Regarding the Minister of War in a mystifying manner, he began to roll
+the cigarette briskly between his palms. A small shower of tobacco
+sifted to the floor: the rice-paper cracked and came away; and with the
+bland smile and gesture of a professional conjurer, Lanyard exhibited a
+small cylinder of stiff paper between his thumb and index-finger.
+
+Goggling resentfully, Monsieur Ducroy spluttered:
+
+"Eh--what impudence is this?"
+
+His smile unchanged, Lanyard bent forward and silently dropped the
+cylinder into the Frenchman's hand. At the same time he offered him a
+pocket magnifying-glass. "What is this?" Ducroy persisted stupidly.
+"What--what--!"
+
+"If monsieur will be good enough to unroll the papers and examine them
+with the aid of this glass--"
+
+With a wondering grunt, the other complied, unrolling several small
+sheets of photographer's printing-out paper, to which several
+extraordinarily complicated and minute designs had been
+transferred--strongly resembling laborious efforts to conventionalize a
+spider's web.
+
+But no sooner had Monsieur Ducroy viewed these through the glass, than
+he started violently, uttered an excited exclamation, and subjected
+them to an examination both prolonged and exacting.
+
+"Monsieur is, no doubt, now satisfied?" Lanyard enquired when his
+patience would endure no longer.
+
+"These are genuine?" the Minister of War demanded sharply, without
+looking up.
+
+"Monsieur can readily discern notations made upon the drawings by the
+inventor, Georges Huysman, in his own hand. Furthermore, each plan has
+been marked in the lower left-hand corner with the word '_accepted_'
+followed by the initials of the German Minister of War. I think this
+establishes beyond dispute the authenticity of these photographs of the
+plan for Huysman's invention."
+
+"Yes," the Minister of War agreed breathlessly. "You have the negatives
+from which these prints were made?"
+
+"Here," Lanyard said, indicating a second cigarette.
+
+And then, with a movement so leisurely and careless that his purpose
+was accomplished before the other in his preoccupation was aware of it,
+the adventurer leaned forward and swept up the prints from the
+counterpane in front of Monsieur Ducroy.
+
+"Here!" the Frenchman exclaimed. "Why do you do that?"
+
+"Monsieur no longer questions their authenticity?"
+
+"I grant you that."
+
+"Then I return to myself these prints, pending negotiations for their
+transfer to France."
+
+"How did you come by them?" demanded Monsieur Ducroy, after a moment's
+thought.
+
+"Need monsieur ask? Is France so ill-served by her spies that you do
+not already know of the misfortune one Captain Ekstrom recently
+suffered in London?"
+
+Ducroy shook his head. Lanyard received this indication with
+impatience. It seemed hardly possible that the French Minister of War
+could be either so stupid or so ignorant....
+
+But with a patient shrug, he proceeded to elucidate.
+
+"Captain Ekstrom," he said, "but recently succeeded in photographing
+these plans and took them to London to sell to the English.
+Unfortunately for himself--unhappily for perfidious Albion!--Captain
+Ekstrom fell in with me and mistook me for Downing Street's
+representative. And here are the plans."
+
+"You are--the Lone Wolf--then?"
+
+"I am, as far as concerns you, monsieur, merely the person in
+possession of these plans, who offers them through you, to France, for
+a price."
+
+"But why introduce yourself to me in this extraordinary fashion, for a
+transaction for which the customary channels--with which you must be
+familiar--are entirely adequate?"
+
+"Simply because Ekstrom has followed me to Paris," Lanyard explained
+indulgently. "Did I venture to approach you in the usual way, my
+chances of rounding out a useful life thereafter would be practically
+nil. Furthermore, my circumstances are such that it has become
+necessary for me to leave France immediately--without an hour's
+delay--also secretly; else I might as well remain here to be
+butchered.... Now you command the only means I know of, to accomplish
+my purpose. And that is the price, the only price, you will have to pay
+me for these plans."
+
+"I don't understand you."
+
+"It is on schedule, is it not, that Captain Vauquelin of the Aviation
+Corps is to attempt a non-stop flight from Paris to London this
+morning, with two passengers, in a new Parrott biplane?"
+
+"That is so.... Well?"
+
+"I must be one of those passengers; and I have a companion, a young
+lady, who will take the place of the other."
+
+"It isn't possible, monsieur. Those arrangements are already fixed."
+
+"You will countermand them."
+
+"There is no time--"
+
+"You can get into telephonic communication with Port Aviation in two
+minutes."
+
+"But the passengers have been promised--"
+
+"You will disappoint them."
+
+"The start is to be made in the first flush of daylight. How could you
+reach Port Aviation in time?"
+
+"In your motor-car, monsieur."
+
+"It cannot be done."
+
+"It must! If the start must be delayed till we arrive, you will give
+orders that it shall be so delayed."
+
+For a minute the Minister of War hesitated; then he shook his head
+definitely.
+
+"The difficulties are insuperable--"
+
+"There is no such thing, monsieur."
+
+"I am sorry: it can't be done."
+
+"That is your answer?"
+
+"It is regrettable, monsieur..."
+
+"Very well!" Lanyard bent forward again, took a match from the stand on
+the bedside table, and struck it. Very calmly he advanced the flame
+toward the cigarette containing the roll of inflammable films.
+
+"Monsieur!" Ducroy cried in horror. "What are you doing?"
+
+Lanyard favoured him with a look of surprise.
+
+"I am about to destroy these films and prints."
+
+"You must never do that!"
+
+"Why not? They are mine, to do with as I like. If I cannot dispose of
+them at my price, I shall destroy them!"
+
+"But--my God!--what you demand is impossible! Stay, monsieur! Think
+what your action means to France!"
+
+"I have already thought of that. Now I must think of myself."
+
+"But--one moment!"
+
+Ducroy sat up in bed and dangled hairy fat legs over the side.
+
+"But one moment only, monsieur. Don't make me waste your matches!"
+
+"Monsieur, it shall be as you desire, if it lies in my power to
+accomplish it."
+
+With this the Minister of War stood up and made for the telephone, in
+his agitation forgetful of dressing-gown and slippers.
+
+"You must accomplish it, Monsieur Ducroy," Lanyard advised him gravely,
+puffing out the flame; "for if you fail, you make yourself the
+instrument of my death. Here are the plans."
+
+"You trust them to me?" Ducroy asked in astonishment.
+
+"But naturally: that makes it an affair of your honour," Lanyard
+explained suavely.
+
+With a gesture of graceful capitulation the Frenchman accepted the
+little roll of film.
+
+"Permit me," he said, "to acknowledge the honour of monsieur's
+confidence!"
+
+Lanyard bowed low: "One knows with whom one deals, monsieur!... And
+now, if you will be good enough to excuse me...."
+
+He turned to the door.
+
+"But--eh--where are you going?" Ducroy demanded.
+
+"Mademoiselle," Lanyard said, pausing on the threshold--"that is, the
+young lady who is to accompany me--is waiting anxiously in the garden,
+out yonder. I go to find and reassure her and--with your permission--to
+bring her in to the library, where we will await monsieur when he has
+finished telephoning and--ah--repaired the deficiencies in his attire;
+which one trusts he will forgive one's mentioning!"
+
+He bowed again, impudently, gaily, and--when the Minister of War looked
+up again sheepishly from contemplation of his naked shanks--had
+vanished.
+
+In high feather Lanyard made his way to a door at the rear of the house
+which gave upon the garden--in his new social status of Governmental
+protege disdaining any such a commonplace avenue as that conservatory
+window whose fastenings he had forced on entering. And boldly unbolting
+the door, he ran out into the night, to rejoin his beloved, like a man
+waking to new life.
+
+But she was no more there: the bench was vacant, the garden deserted,
+the gateway yawning on the street.
+
+With a low, stifled cry, Lanyard turned from the bench and stumbled out
+to the junction of the cross-street. But nowhere in their several
+perspectives could he see anything that moved.
+
+After some time he returned to the garden and quartered it with the
+thoroughness of a pointer beating a covert. But he did this hopelessly,
+bitterly aware that the outcome would be precisely what it eventually
+was, that is to say, nothing....
+
+He was kneeling beside the bench--scrutinizing the turf with
+microscopic attention by aid of his flash-lamp, seeking some sign of
+struggle to prove she had not left him willingly, and finding
+none--when a voice brought him momentarily out of his distraction.
+
+He looked up wildly, to discover Ducroy standing over him, his stout
+person chastely swathed in a quilted dressing-gown and trousers, his
+expression one of stupefaction.
+
+"Well, monsieur--well?" the Minister of War demanded irritably.
+"What--I repeat--what are you doing there?"
+
+Lanyard essayed response, choked up, and gulped. He rose and stood
+swaying, showing a stricken face.
+
+"Eh?" Ducroy insisted with an accent of exasperation. "Why do you stand
+glaring at me like that--eh? Come, monsieur: what ails you? I have
+arranged everything, I say. Where is mademoiselle?"
+
+Lanyard made a broken gesture.
+
+"Gone!" he muttered forlornly.
+
+Instantly the countenance of the stout Frenchman was lightened with a
+gleam of eager interest--inveterate romantic that he was!--and he
+stepped nearer, peering closely into the face of the adventurer.
+
+"Gone?" he echoed. "Mademoiselle? Your sweetheart, eh?"
+
+Lanyard assented with a disconsolate nod and sigh. Impatiently Ducroy
+caught him by the sleeve.
+
+"Come!" he insisted, tugging--"but come at once into the house. Now,
+monsieur--now at length you enlist all one's sympathies! Come, I say!
+Is it your desire that I catch my death of cold?"
+
+Indifferently Lanyard suffered himself to be led away.
+
+He was, indeed, barely conscious of what was happening. All his being
+was possessed by the thought that she had forsaken him. And he could
+well guess why: impossible for such an one as she to contemplate
+without a shudder association with the man who had been what he had
+been! Infatuate!--to have dreamed that she would tolerate the devotion
+of a criminal, that she could ever forget his identity with the Lone
+Wolf. Inevitably--soon or late--she must have fled that ignominious
+thought in dread and horror, daring whatever consequences to escape and
+forget both it and him. And better now, perhaps, than later....
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+ENIGMA
+
+He found no reason to believe she had left him other than voluntarily,
+or that their adventures since the escape from the impasse Stanislas
+had been attended upon by spies of the Pack. He could have sworn they
+hadn't been followed either to or from the rue des Acacias; their way
+had been too long and purposely too roundabout, his vigilance too
+lively, for any sort of surveillance to have been practised without his
+remarking some indication thereof, at one time or another.
+
+On the other hand (he told himself) there was every reason to believe
+she hadn't left him to go back to Bannon; concerning whom she had
+expressed herself too forcibly to excuse a surmise that she had
+preferred his protection to the Lone Wolf's.
+
+Reasoning thus, he admitted, one couldn't blame her. He could readily
+see how, illuded at first by a certain romantic glamour, she had not,
+until left to herself in the garden, come to clear perception of the
+fact that she was casting her lot with a common criminal's. Then,
+horror overmastering her of a sudden she had fled--wildly, blindly, he
+didn't doubt. But whither? He looked in vain for her at their agreed
+rendezvous, the Sacre Coeur. She had neither money nor friends in Paris.
+
+True: she had mentioned some personal jewellery she planned to
+hypothecate. Her first move, then, would be to seek the
+mont-de-piete--not to force himself again upon her, but to follow at a
+distance and ward off interference on Bannon's part.
+
+The Government pawn-shop had its invitation for Lanyard himself: he was
+there before the doors were open for the day; and fortified by loans
+negotiated on his watch, cigarette-case, and a ring or two, retired to
+a cafe commanding a view of the entrance on the rue des
+Blancs-Manteaux, and settled himself against a day-long vigil.
+
+It wasn't easy; drowsiness buzzed in his brain and weighted his
+eyelids; now and again, involuntarily, he nodded over his glass of
+black coffee. And when evening came and the mont-de-piete closed for
+the night, he rose and stumbled off, wondering if possibly he had
+napped a little without his knowledge and so missed her visit.
+
+Engaging obscure lodgings close by the rue des Acacias, he slept till
+nearly noon of the following day, then rose to put into execution a
+design which had sprung full-winged from his brain at the instant of
+wakening.
+
+He had not only his car but a chauffeur's license of long standing in
+the name of Pierre Lamier--was free, in short, to range at will the
+streets of Paris. And when he had levied on the stock of a second-hand
+clothing shop and a chemist's, he felt tolerably satisfied it would
+need sharp eyes--whether the Pack's or the Prefecture's--to identify
+"Pierre Lamier" with either Michael Lanyard or the Lone Wolf.
+
+His face, ears and neck he stained a weather-beaten brown, a discreet
+application of rouge along his cheekbones enhancing the effect of daily
+exposure to the winter winds and rains of Paris; and he gave his hands
+an even darker shade, with the added verisimilitude of finger-nails
+inked into permanent mourning. Also, he refrained from shaving: a
+stubble of two days' neglect bristled upon his chin and jowls. A rusty
+brown ulster with cap to match, shoddy trousers boasting conspicuous
+stripes of leaden colour, and patched boots completed the disguise.
+
+Monsieur and madame of the conciergerie he deceived with a yarn of
+selling his all to purchase the motor-car and embark in business for
+himself; and with their blessing, sallied forth to scout Paris
+diligently for sight or sign of the woman to whom his every heart-beat
+was dedicated.
+
+By the close of the third day he was ready to concede that she had
+managed to escape without his aid.
+
+And he began to suspect that Bannon had fled the town as well; for the
+most diligent enquiries failed to educe the least clue to the movements
+of the American following the fire at Troyon's.
+
+As for Troyon's, it was now nothing more than a gaping excavation
+choked with ashes and charred timbers; and though still rumours of
+police interest in the origin of the fire persisted, nothing in the
+papers linked the name of Michael Lanyard with their activities. His
+disappearance and Lucy Shannon's seemed to be accepted as due to death
+in the holocaust; the fact that their bodies hadn't been recovered was
+no longer a matter for comment.
+
+In short, Paris had already lost interest in the affair.
+
+Even so, it seemed, had the Pack lost interest in the Lone Wolf; or
+else his disguise was impenetrable. Twice he saw De Morbihan "flanning"
+elegantly on the Boulevards, and once he passed close by Popinot; but
+neither noticed him.
+
+Toward midnight of the third day, Lanyard, driving slowly westward on
+the boulevard de la Madeleine, noticed a limousine of familiar aspect
+round a corner half a block ahead and, drawing up in front of Viel's,
+discharge four passengers.
+
+The first was Wertheimer; and at sight of his rather striking figure,
+decked out in evening apparel from Conduit street and Bond, Lanyard
+slackened speed.
+
+Turning as he alighted, the Englishman offered his hand to a young
+woman. She jumped down to the sidewalk in radiant attire and a laughing
+temper.
+
+Involuntarily Lanyard stopped his car; and one immediately to the rear,
+swerving out to escape collision, shot past, its driver cursing him
+freely; while a sergent de ville scowled darkly and uttered an
+imperative word.
+
+He pulled himself together, somehow, and drove on.
+
+The girl was entering the restaurant by way of the revolving door,
+Wertheimer in attendance; while De Morbihan, having alighted, was
+lending a solicitous arm to Bannon.
+
+Quite automatically the adventurer drove on, rounded the Madeleine, and
+turned up the boulevard Malesherbes. Paris and all its brisk midnight
+traffic swung by without claiming a tithe of his interest: he was
+mainly conscious of lights that reeled dizzily round him like a
+multitude of malicious, mocking eyes....
+
+At the junction with the boulevard Haussmann a second sergent de ville
+roused him with a warning about careless driving. He went more sanely
+thereafter, but bore a heart of utter misery; his eyes still wore a
+dazed expression, and now and again he shook his head impatiently as
+though to rid it of a swarm of tormenting thoughts.
+
+So, it seemed, he had all along been her dupe; all the while that he
+had been ostentatiously shielding her from harm and diffidently
+discovering every evidence of devotion, she had been laughing in her
+sleeve and planning to return to the service she pretended to despise,
+with her report of a fool self-duped.
+
+A great anger welled in his bosom.
+
+Turning round, he made back to the boulevard de la Madeleine, and on
+one pretext and another contrived to haunt the neighbourhood of Viel's
+until the party reappeared, something after one o'clock.
+
+It was plain that they had supped merrily; the girl seemed in the
+gayest humour, Wertheimer a bit exhilarated, De Morbihan much amused;
+even Bannon--bearing heavily on the Frenchman's arm--was chuckling
+contentedly. The party piled back into De Morbihan's limousine and was
+driven up the avenue des Champs Elysees, pausing at the Elysee Palace
+Hotel to drop Bannon and the girl--his daughter?--whoever she was!
+
+Whither it went thereafter, Lanyard didn't trouble to ascertain. He
+drove morosely home and went to bed, though not to sleep for many
+hours: bitterness of disillusion ate like an acid in his heart.
+
+But for all his anguish, he continued in an uncertain temper. He had
+turned his back on the craft of which he was acknowledged master--for a
+woman's sake; for nothing else (he argued) had he dedicated himself to
+poverty and honest effort; and what little privation he had already
+endured was hopelessly distasteful to him. The art of the Lone Wolf,
+his consummate cunning and subtlety, was still at his command; with
+only himself to think of, he was profoundly contemptuous of the
+antagonism of the Pack; while none knew better than he with what ease
+the riches of careless Paris might be diverted to his own pockets. A
+single step aside from the path he had chosen--and tomorrow night he
+might dine at the Ritz instead of in some sordid cochers' cabaret!
+
+And since no one cared--since _she_ had betrayed his faith--what
+mattered?
+
+Why not...?
+
+Yet he could not come to a decision; the next day saw him obstinately,
+even a little stupidly, pursuing the course he had planned before his
+disheartening disillusionment.
+
+Because his money was fast ebbing and motives of prudence alone--if
+none more worthy--forbade an attempt to replenish his pocketbook by
+revisiting the little rez-de-chaussee in the rue Roget and realizing on
+its treasures, he had determined to have a taximeter fitted to his car
+and ply for hire until time or chance should settle the question of his
+future.
+
+Already, indeed, he had complied with the police regulations, and
+received permission to convert his voiture de remise into a taxicab;
+and leaving it before noon at the designated depot, he was told it
+would be ready for him at four with the "clock" installed. Returning at
+that hour, he learned that it couldn't be ready before six; and too
+bored and restless to while away two idle hours in a cafe, he wandered
+listlessly through the streets and boulevards--indifferent, in the
+black melancholy oppressing him, whether or not he were recognized--and
+eventually found himself turning from the rue St. Honore through the
+place Vendome to the rue de la Paix.
+
+This was not wise, a perilous business, a course he had no right to
+pursue. And Lanyard knew it. None the less, he persisted.
+
+It was past five o'clock--deep twilight beneath a cloudless sky--the
+life of that street of streets fluent at its swiftest. All that Paris
+knew of wealth and beauty, fashion and high estate, moved between the
+curbs. One needed the temper of a Stoic to maintain indifference to the
+allure of its pageant.
+
+Trudging steadily, he of the rusty brown ulster all but touched
+shoulders with men who were all that he had been but a few days
+since--hale, hearty, well-fed, well-dressed symbols of prosperity--and
+with exquisite women, exquisitely gowned, extravagantly be-furred and
+be-jewelled, of glowing faces and eyes dark with mystery and promise:
+spirited creatures whose laughter was soft music, whose gesture was
+pride and arrogance.
+
+One and all looked past, over, and through him, unaffectedly unaware
+that he existed.
+
+The roadway, its paving worn as smooth as glass, and tonight by grace
+of frost no less hard, rang with a clatter of hoofs high and clear
+above the resonance of motors. A myriad lights filled the wide channel
+with diffused radiance. Two endless ranks of shop-windows, facing one
+another--across the tide, flaunted treasures that kings might
+pardonably have coveted--and would.
+
+Before one corner window, Lanyard paused instinctively.
+
+The shop was that of a famous jeweller. Separated from him by only the
+thickness of plate-glass was the wealth of princes. Looking beyond that
+display, his attention focussed on the interior of an immense safe, to
+which a dapper French salesman was restoring velvet-lined trays of
+valuables. Lanyard studied the intricate, ponderous mechanism of the
+safe-door with a thoughtful gaze not altogether innocent of sardonic
+bias. It wore all the grim appearance of a strong-box that, once
+locked, would prove impregnable to everything save acquaintance with
+the combination and the consent of the time-lock. But give the Lone
+Wolf twenty minutes alone with it, twenty minutes free from
+interruption--he, the one man living who could seduce a time-lock and
+leave it apparently inviolate!...
+
+To one side of that window stood a mirror, set at an angle, and
+suddenly Lanyard caught its presentment of himself--a gaunt and hungry
+apparition, with a wolfish air he had never worn when rejoicing in his
+sobriquet, staring with eyes of predaceous lustre.
+
+Alarmed and fearing lest some passer-by be struck by this betrayal, he
+turned and moved on hastily.
+
+But his mind was poisoned by this brutal revelation of the wide, deep
+gulf that yawned between the Lone Wolf of yesterday and Pierre Lamier
+of today; between Michael Lanyard the debonnaire, the amateur of fine
+arts and fine clothing, the beau sabreur of gentlemen-cracksmen and
+that lean, worn, shabby and dispirited animal who had glared back at
+him from the jeweller's mirror.
+
+He quickened his pace, with something of that same instinct of
+self-preservation that bids the dipsomaniac avert his eyes and hurry
+past the corner gin-mill, and turned blindly off into the rue Danou,
+toward the avenue de l'Opera.
+
+But this only made it worse for him, for he could not avoid recognition
+of the softly glowing windows of the Cafe de Paris that knew him so
+well, or forget the memory of its shining rich linen, its silver and
+crystal, its perfumed atmosphere and luxury of warmth and music and
+shaded lights, its cuisine that even Paris cannot duplicate.
+
+And the truth came home to him, that he was hungry not with that brute
+appetite he had money enough in his pocket to satisfy, but with the
+lust of flesh-pots, for rare viands and old vintage wines, to know once
+more the snug embrace of a dress-coat and to breathe again the
+atmosphere of ease and station.
+
+In sudden panic he darted across the avenue and hurried north,
+determined to tantalize himself no longer with sights and sounds so
+provocative and so disturbing.
+
+Half-way across the boulevard des Capucines, to the east of the Opera,
+he leapt for his life from a man-killing taxi, found himself
+temporarily marooned upon one of those isles of safety which Paris has
+christened "thank-Gods," and stood waiting for an opening in the
+congestion of traffic to permit passage to the farther sidewalk.
+
+And presently the policeman in the middle of the boulevard signalled
+with his little white wand; the stream of east-bound vehicles checked
+and began to close up to the right of the crossing, upon which they
+encroached jealously; and a taxi on the outside, next the island,
+overshot the mark, pulled up sharply, and began to back into place.
+Before Lanyard could stir, its window was opposite him, and he was
+looking in, transfixed.
+
+There was sufficient light to enable him to see clearly the face of the
+passenger--its pale oval and the darkness of eyes whose gaze clung to
+his with an effect of confused fascination....
+
+She sat quite motionless until one white-gloved hand moved uncertainly
+toward her bosom.
+
+That brought him to; unconsciously lifting his cap, he stepped back a
+pace and started to move on.
+
+At this, she bent quickly forward and unlatched the door. It swung wide
+to him.
+
+Hardly knowing what he was doing, he accepted the dumb invitation,
+stepped in, took the empty seat, and closed the door.
+
+Almost at once the car moved on with a jerk, the girl sinking back into
+her corner with a suggestion of breathlessness, as though her effort to
+seem composed had been almost too much for her strength.
+
+Her face, turned toward Lanyard, seemed wan in the half light, but
+immobile, expressionless; only her eyes were darkly quick with
+anticipation.
+
+On his part, Lanyard felt himself hopelessly confounded, in the grasp
+of emotions that would scarce suffer him to speak. A great wonder
+obsessed him that she should have opened that door to him no less than
+that he should have entered through it. Dimly he understood that each
+had acted without premeditation; and asked himself, was she already
+regretting that momentary weakness.
+
+"Why did you do that?" he heard himself demand abruptly, his voice
+harsh, strained, and unnatural.
+
+She stiffened slightly, with a nervous movement of her shoulders.
+
+"Because I saw you... I was surprised; I had hoped--believed--you had
+left Paris."
+
+"Without you? Hardly!"
+
+"But you must," she insisted--"you _must_ go, as quickly as possible.
+It isn't safe--"
+
+
+"I'm all right," he insisted--"able-bodied--in full possession of my
+senses!"
+
+
+"But any moment you may be recognized--"
+
+"In this rig? It isn't likely.... Not that I care."
+
+She surveyed his costume curiously, perplexed.
+
+"Why are you dressed that way? Is it a disguise?"
+
+"A pretty good one. But in point of fact, it's the national livery of
+my present station in life."
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"Simply that, out of my old job, I've turned to the first resort of the
+incompetent: I'm driving a taxi."
+
+"Isn't it awfully--risky?"
+
+"You'd think so; but it isn't. Few people ever bother to look at a
+chauffeur. When they hail a taxi they're in a hurry, as a
+rule--preoccupied with business or pleasure. And then our uniforms are
+a disguise in themselves: to the public eye we look like so many
+Chinamen!"
+
+"But you're mistaken: I knew you instantly, didn't I? And those
+others--they're as keen-witted as I--certainly. Oh, you should not have
+stopped on in Paris!"
+
+"I couldn't go without knowing what had become of you."
+
+"I was afraid of that," she confessed.
+
+"Then why--?"
+
+"Oh, I know what you're going to say! Why did I run away from you?" And
+then, since he said nothing, she continued unhappily: "I can't tell
+you... I mean, I don't know how to tell you!"
+
+She kept her face averted, sat gazing blankly out of the window; but
+when he sat on, mute and unresponsive--in point of fact not knowing
+what to say--she turned to look at him, and the glare of a passing lamp
+showed her countenance profoundly distressed, mouth tense, brows
+knotted, eyes clouded with perplexity and appeal.
+
+And of a sudden, seeing her so tormented and so piteous, his
+indignation ebbed, and with it all his doubts of her were dissipated;
+dimly he divined that something behind this dark fabric of mystery and
+inconsistency, no matter how inexplicable to him, excused all her
+apparent faithlessness and instability of character and purpose. He
+could not look upon this girl and hear her voice and believe that she
+was not at heart as sound and sweet, tender and loyal, as any that ever
+breathed.
+
+A wave of tenderness and compassion brimmed his heart; he realized that
+he didn't matter, that his amour propre was of no account--that nothing
+mattered so long as she were spared one little pang of self-reproach.
+
+He said, gently: "I wouldn't have you distress yourself on my account,
+Miss Shannon... I quite understand there must be things I _can't_
+understand--that you must have had your reasons for acting as you did."
+
+"Yes," she said unevenly, but again with eyes averted--"I had; but
+they're not easy, they're impossible to explain--to you."
+
+"Yet--when all's said and done--I've no right to exact any explanation."
+
+"Ah, but how can you say that, remembering what we've been through
+together?"
+
+"You owe me nothing," he insisted; "whereas I owe you everything, even
+unquestioning faith. Even though I fail, I have this to thank you
+for--this one not-ignoble impulse my life has known."
+
+"You mustn't say that, you mustn't think it. I don't deserve it. You
+wouldn't say it--if you knew--"
+
+"Perhaps I can guess enough to satisfy myself."
+
+She gave him a swift, sidelong look of challenge, instinctively on the
+defensive.
+
+"Why," she almost gasped--"what do you think--?"
+
+"Does it matter what I think?"
+
+"It does, to me: I wish to know!"
+
+"Well," he conceded reluctantly, "I think that, when you had a chance
+to consider things calmly, waiting back there in the garden, you made
+up your mind it would be better to--to use your best judgment
+and--extricate yourself from an embarrassing position--"
+
+"You think that!" she interrupted bitterly. "You think that, after you
+had confided in me; after you'd confessed--when I made you, led you on
+to it--that you cared for me; after you'd told me how much my faith
+meant to you--you think that, after all that, I deliberately abandoned
+you because I suddenly realized you had been the Lone Wolf--!"
+
+"I'm sorry if I hurt you. But what can I think?"
+
+"But you are wrong!" she protested vehemently--"quite, quite wrong! I
+ran away from myself--not from you--and with another motive, too, that
+I can't explain."
+
+"You ran away from yourself--not from me?" he repeated, puzzled.
+
+"Don't you understand? Why make it so hard for me? Why make me say
+outright what pains me so?"
+
+"Oh, I beg of you--"
+
+"But if you won't understand otherwise--I must tell you, I suppose."
+She checked, breathless, flushed, trembling. "You recall our talk after
+dinner, that night--how I asked what if you found out you'd been
+mistaken in me, that I had deceived you; and how I told you it would be
+impossible for me ever to marry you?"
+
+"I remember."
+
+"It was because of that," she said--"I ran away; because I hadn't been
+talking idly; because you _were_ mistaken in me, because I _was_
+deceiving you, because I could never marry you, and
+because--suddenly--I came to know that, if I didn't go then and there,
+I might never find the strength to leave you, and only suffering and
+unhappiness could come of it all. I had to go, as much for your sake as
+for my own."
+
+"You mean me to understand, you found you were beginning to--to care a
+little for me?"
+
+She made an effort to speak, but in the end answered only with a dumb
+inclination of her head.
+
+"And ran away because love wasn't possible between us?"
+
+Again she nodded silently.
+
+"Because I had been a criminal, I presume!"
+
+"You've no right to say that--"
+
+"What else can I think? You tell me you were afraid I might persuade
+you to become my wife--something which, for some inexplicable reason,
+you claim is impossible. What other explanation can I infer? What other
+explanation is needed? It's ample, it covers everything, and I've no
+warrant to complain--God knows!"
+
+She tried to protest, but he cut her short.
+
+"There's one thing I don't understand at all! If that is so, if your
+repugnance for criminal associations made you run away from me--why did
+you go back to Bannon?"
+
+She started and gave him a furtive, frightened glance.
+
+"You knew that?"
+
+"I saw you--last night--followed you from Viel's to your hotel."
+
+"And you thought," she flashed in a vibrant voice--"you thought I was
+in his company of my own choice!"
+
+"You didn't seem altogether downcast," he countered, "Do you wish me to
+understand you were with him against your will?"
+
+"No," she said slowly.... "No: I returned to him voluntarily, knowing
+perfectly what I was about."
+
+"Through fear of him--?"
+
+"No. I can't claim that."
+
+"Rather than me--?"
+
+"You'll never understand," she told him a little wearily--"never. It
+was a matter of duty. I had to go back--I had to!"
+
+Her voice trailed off into a broken little sob. But as, moved beyond
+his strength to resist, Lanyard put forth a hand to take the
+white-gloved one resting on the cushion beside her, she withdrew it
+with a swift gesture of denial.
+
+"No!" she cried. "Please! You mustn't do that... You only make it
+harder..."
+
+"But you love me!"
+
+"I can't. It's impossible. I would--but I may not!"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I can't tell you."
+
+"If you love me, you must tell me."
+
+She was silent, the white hands working nervously with her handkerchief.
+
+"Lucy!" he insisted--"you must say what stands between you and my love.
+It's true, I've no right to ask, as I had no right to speak to you of
+love. But when we've said as much as we have said--we can't stop there.
+You will tell me, dear?"
+
+She shook her head: "It--it's impossible."
+
+"But you can't ask me to be content with that answer!"
+
+"Oh!" she cried--"_how_ can I make you understand?... When you said
+what you did, that night--it seemed as if a new day were dawning in my
+life. You made me believe it was because of me. You put me above
+you--where I'd no right to be; but the fact that you thought me worthy
+to be there, made me proud and happy: and for a little, in my
+blindness, I believed I could be worthy of your love and your respect.
+I thought that, if I could be as strong as you during that year you
+asked in which to prove your strength, I might listen to you, tell you
+everything, and be forgiven.... But I was wrong, how wrong I soon
+learned.... So I had to leave you at whatever cost!"
+
+She ceased to speak, and for several minutes there was silence. But for
+her quick, convulsive breathing, the girl sat like a woman of stone,
+staring dry-eyed out of the window. And Lanyard sat as moveless, the
+heart in his bosom as heavy and cold as a stone.
+
+At length, lifting his head, "You leave me no alternative," he said in
+a voice dull and hollow even in his own hearing: "I can only think one
+thing..."
+
+"Think what you must," she said lifelessly: "it doesn't matter, so long
+as you renounce me, put me out of your heart and--leave me."
+
+Without other response, he leaned forward and tapped the glass; and as
+the cab swung in toward the curb, he laid hold of the door-latch.
+
+"Lucy," he pleaded, "don't let me go believing--"
+
+She seemed suddenly infused with implacable hostility. "I tell you,"
+she said cruelly--"I don't care what you think, so long as you go!"
+
+The face she now showed him was ashen; its mouth was hard; her eyes
+shone feverishly.
+
+And then, as still he hesitated, the cab pulled up and the driver,
+leaning back, unlatched the door and threw it open. With a curt,
+resigned nod, Lanyard rose and got out.
+
+Immediately the girl bent forward and grasped the speaking-tube; the
+door slammed; the cab drew away and left him standing with the pose,
+with the gesture of one who has just heard his sentence of death
+pronounced.
+
+When he roused to know his surroundings, he found himself standing on a
+corner of the avenue du Bois.
+
+It was bitter cold in the wind sweeping down from the west, and it had
+grown very dark. Only in the sky above the Bois a long reef of crimson
+light hung motionless, against which leafless trees lifted gnarled,
+weird silhouettes.
+
+While he watched, the pushing crimson ebbed swiftly and gave way to
+mauve, to violet, to black.
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+UNMASKED
+
+When there was no more light in the sky, a profound sigh escaped
+Lanyard's lips; and with the gesture of one signifying submission to an
+omen, he turned and tramped heavily back across-town.
+
+More automaton than sentient being, he plodded on along the second
+enceinte of flaring, noisy boulevards, now and again narrowly escaping
+annihilation beneath the wheels of some coursing motor-cab or
+ponderous, grinding omnibus.
+
+Barely conscious of such escapes, he was altogether indifferent to
+them: it would have required a mortal hurt to match the dumb, sick
+anguish of his soul; more than merely a sunset sky had turned black for
+him within that hour.
+
+The cold was now intense, and he none too warmly clothed; yet there was
+sweat upon his brows.
+
+Dully there recurred to him a figure he had employed in one of his
+talks with Lucy Shannon: that, lacking his faith in her, there would be
+only emptiness beneath his feet.
+
+And now that faith was wanting in him, had been taken from him for all
+his struggles to retain it; and now indeed he danced on emptiness, the
+rope of temptation tightening round his neck, the weight of criminal
+instincts pulling it taut--strangling every right aspiration in him,
+robbing him of the very breath of that new life to which he had thought
+to give himself.
+
+If she were not worthy, of what worth the fight?...
+
+At one stage of his journey, he turned aside and, more through habit
+than desire or design, entered a cheap eating-place and consumed his
+customary evening meal without the slightest comprehension of what he
+ate or whether the food were good or poor.
+
+When he had finished, he hurried away like a haunted man. There was
+little room in his mood for sustained thought: his wits were fathoming
+a bottomless pit of black despair. He felt like a man born blind,
+through skilful surgery given the boon of sight for a day or two, and
+suddenly and without any warning thrust back again into darkness.
+
+He knew only that his brief struggle had been all wasted, that behind
+the flimsy barrier of his honourable ambition, the Lone Wolf was
+ravening. And he felt that, once he permitted that barrier to be broken
+down, it could never be repaired.
+
+He had set it up by main strength of will, for love of a woman. He must
+maintain it now for no incentive other than to retain his own good
+will--or resign himself utterly to that darkness out of which he had
+fought his way, to its powers that now beset his soul.
+
+And ... he didn't care.
+
+Quite without purpose he sought the machine-shop where he had left his
+car.
+
+He had no plans; but it was in his mind, a murderous thought, that
+before another dawn he might encounter Bannon.
+
+Interim, he would go to work. He could think out his problem while
+driving as readily as in seclusion; whatever he might ultimately elect
+to do, he could accomplish little before midnight.
+
+Toward seven o'clock, with his machine in perfect running order, he
+took the seat and to the streets in a reckless humour, in the temper of
+ a beast of prey.
+
+The barrier was down: once more the Lone Wolf was on the prowl.
+
+But for the present he controlled himself and acted perfectly his
+temporary role of taxi-bandit, fellow to those thousands who infest
+Paris. Half a dozen times in the course of the next three hours people
+hailed him from sidewalks and restaurants; he took them up, carried
+them to their several destinations, received payment, and acknowledged
+their gratuities with perfunctory thanks--thoroughly in character--but
+all with little conscious thought.
+
+He saw but one thing, the face of Lucy Shannon, white, tense,
+glimmering wanly in shadow--the countenance with which she had
+dismissed him.
+
+He had but one thought, the wish to read the riddle of her bondage. To
+accomplish this he was prepared to go to any extreme; if Bannon and his
+crew came between him and his purpose, so much the worse for them--and,
+incidentally, so much the better for society. What might befall himself
+was of no moment.
+
+He entertained but one design, to become again what he had been, the
+supreme adventurer, the prince of plunderers, to lose himself once more
+in the delirium of adventurous days and peril-haunted nights, to
+reincarnate the Lone Wolf and in his guise loot the world anew, to
+court forgetfulness even at the prison's gates....
+
+It was after ten when, cruising purposelessly, without a fare, he swung
+through the rue Auber into the place de l'Opera and, approaching the
+Cafe de la Paix, was hailed by a door-boy of that restaurant.
+
+Drawing in to the curb with the careless address that had distinguished
+his every action of that evening, he waited, with a throbbing motor,
+and with mind detached and gaze remote from the streams of foot and
+wheeled traffic that brawled past on either hand.
+
+After a moment two men issued from the revolving door of the cafe, and
+approached the cab. Lanyard paid them no attention. His thoughts were
+now engaged with a certain hotel particulier in the neighbourhood of La
+Muette and, in his preoccupation, he would need only the name of a
+destination and the sound of the cab-door slammed, to send him off like
+a shot.
+
+Then he heard one of the men cough heavily, and in a twinkling
+stiffened to rigidity in his seat. If he had heard that cough but once
+before, that once had been too often. Without a glance aside, hardening
+his features to perfect immobility, he knew that the cough was shaking
+the slighter of those two figures.
+
+And of a sudden he was acutely conscious of the clearness of the frosty
+atmosphere, of the merciless glare of electricity beating upon him from
+every side from the numberless street lamps and cafe lights. And
+poignantly he regretted neglecting to mask himself with his goggles.
+
+He wasn't left long in suspense. The coughing died away by spasms;
+followed the unmistakable, sonorous accents of Bannon.
+
+"Well, my dear boy! I have to thank you for an excellent dinner and a
+most interesting evening. Pity to break it up so early. Still, les
+affaires--you know! Sorry you're not going my way--but that's a
+handsome taxi you've drawn. What's its number--eh?"
+
+"Haven't the faintest notion," a British voice drawled in response.
+"Never fret about a taxi's number until it has run over me."
+
+"Great mistake," Bannon rejoined cheerfully. "Always take the number
+before entering. Then, if anything happens ... However, that's a
+good-looking chap at the wheel--doesn't look as if he'd run you into
+any trouble."
+
+"Oh, I fancy not," said the Englishman, bored.
+
+"Well, you never can tell. The number's on the lamp. Make a note of it
+and be on the safe side. Or trust me--I never forget numbers."
+
+With this speech Bannon ranged alongside Lanyard and looked him over,
+keenly malicious enjoyment gleaming in his evil old eyes.
+
+"You are an honest-looking chap," he observed with a mocking smile but
+in a tone of the most inoffensive admiration--"honest and--ah--what
+shall I say?--what's the word we're all using now-a-days?--efficient!
+Honest and efficient-looking, capable of better things, or I'm no
+judge! Forgive an old man's candour, my friend--and take good care of
+our British cousin here. He doesn't know his way around Paris very
+well. Still, I feel confident he'll come to no harm in _your_ company.
+Here's a franc for you." With matchless effrontery, he produced a coin
+from the pocket of his fur-lined coat.
+
+Unhesitatingly, permitting no expression to colour his features,
+Lanyard extended his palm, received the money, dropped it into his own
+pocket, and carried two fingers to the visor of his cap.
+
+"Merci, monsieur," he said evenly.
+
+"Ah, that's the right spirit!" the deep voice jeered. "Never be above
+your station, my man--never hesitate to take a tip! Here, I'll give you
+another, gratis: get out of this business: you're too good for it.
+Don't ask me how I know; I can tell by your face--Hello! Why do you
+turn down the flag? You haven't started yet!"
+
+"Conversation goes up on the clock," Lanyard replied stolidly in
+French. He turned and faced Bannon squarely, loosing a glance of
+venomous hatred into the other's eyes. "The longer I have to stop here
+listening to your senile monologue, the more you'll have to pay. What
+address, please?" he added, turning back to get a glimpse of his
+passenger.
+
+"Hotel Astoria," the porter supplied.
+
+"Very good."
+
+The porter closed the door.
+
+"But remember my advice," Bannon counselled coolly, stepping back and
+waving his hand to the man in the cab. "Good night."
+
+Lanyard took his car smartly away from the curb, wheeled round the
+corner into the boulevard des Capucines, and toward the rue Royale.
+
+He had gone but a block when the window at his back was lowered and his
+fare observed pleasantly:
+
+"That you, Lanyard?"
+
+The adventurer hesitated an instant; then, without looking round,
+responded:
+
+"Wertheimer, eh?"
+
+"Right-O! The old man had me puzzled for a minute with his silly
+chaffing. Stupid of me, too, because we'd just been talking about you."
+
+"Had you, though!"
+
+"Rather. Hadn't you better take me where we can have a quiet little
+talk?"
+
+"I'm not conscious of the necessity--"
+
+"Oh, I say!" Wertheimer protested amiably--"don't be shirty, old top.
+Give a chap a chance. Besides, I have a bit of news from Antwerp that I
+guarantee will interest you."
+
+"Antwerp?" Lanyard iterated, mystified.
+
+"Antwerp, where the ships sail from," Wertheimer laughed: "not
+Amsterdam, where the diamonds flock together, as you may know."
+
+"I don't follow you, I'm afraid."
+
+"I shan't elucidate until we're under cover."
+
+"All right. Where shall I take you?"
+
+"Any quiet cafe will do. You must know one--"
+
+"Thanks--no," said Lanyard dryly. "If I must confabulate with gentlemen
+of your kidney, I prefer to keep it dark. Even dressed as I am, I might
+be recognized, you know."
+
+But it was evident that Wertheimer didn't mean to permit himself to be
+ruffled.
+
+"Then will my modest diggings do?" he suggested pleasantly. "I've taken
+a suite in the rue Vernet, just back of the Hotel Astoria, where we can
+be as private as you please, if you've no objection."
+
+"None whatever."
+
+Wertheimer gave him the number and replaced the window....
+
+His rooms in the rue Vernet proved to be a small ground-floor apartment
+with private entrance to the street.
+
+"Took the tip from you," he told Lanyard as he unlocked the door. "I
+daresay you'd be glad to get back to that rez-de-chaussee of yours.
+Ripping place, that.... By the way--judging from your apparently robust
+state of health, you haven't been trying to live at home of late."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Indeed yes, monsieur! If I may presume to advise--I'd pull wide of the
+rue Roget for a while--for as long, at least, as you remain in your
+present intractable temper."
+
+"Daresay you're right," Lanyard assented carelessly, following, as
+Wertheimer turned up the lights, into a modest salon cosily furnished.
+"You live here alone, I understand?"
+
+"Quite: make yourself perfectly at ease; nobody can hear us. And," the
+Englishman added with a laugh, "do forget your pistol, Mr. Lanyard. I'm
+not Popinot, nor is this Troyon's."
+
+"Still," Lanyard countered, "you've just been dining with Bannon."
+
+Wertheimer laughed easily. "Had me there!" he admitted, unabashed. "I
+take it you know a bit more about the Old Man than you did a week ago?"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"But sit down: take that chair there, which commands both doors, if you
+don't trust me."
+
+"Do you think I ought to?"
+
+"Hardly. Otherwise I'd ask you to take my word that you're safe for the
+time being. As it is, I shan't be offended if you keep your gun handy
+and your sense of self-preservation running under forced draught. But
+you won't refuse to join me in a whiskey and soda?"
+
+"No," said Lanyard slowly--"not if you drink from the same bottle."
+
+Again the Englishman laughed unaffectedly as he fetched a decanter,
+glasses, bottled soda, and a box of cigarettes, and placed them within
+Lanyard's reach.
+
+The adventurer eyed him narrowly, puzzled. He knew nothing of this man,
+beyond his reputation--something unsavoury enough, in all
+conscience!--had seen him only once, and then from a distance, before
+that conference in the rue Chaptal. And now he was becoming sensitive
+to a personality uncommonly insinuating: Wertheimer was displaying all
+the poise of an Englishman of the better caste More than anybody in the
+underworld that Lanyard had ever known this blackmailer had an air of
+one acquainted with his own respect. And his nonchalance, the good
+nature with which he accepted Lanyard's pardonable distrust, his genial
+assumption of fellowship and a common footing, attracted even as it
+intrigued.
+
+With the easy courtesy of a practised host, he measured whiskey into
+Lanyard's glass till checked by a "Thank you," then helped himself
+generously, and opened the soda.
+
+"I'll not ask you to drink with me," he said with a twinkle,
+"but--chin-chin!"--and tilting his glass, half-emptied it at a draught.
+
+Muttering formally, at a disadvantage and resenting it, Lanyard drank
+with less enthusiasm if without misgivings.
+
+Wertheimer selected a cigarette and lighted it at leisure.
+
+"Well," he laughed through a cloud of smoke--"I think we're fairly on
+our way to an understanding, considering you told me to go to hell when
+last we met!"
+
+His spirit was irresistible: in spite of himself Lanyard returned the
+smile. "I never knew a man to take it with better grace," he admitted,
+lighting his own cigarette.
+
+"Why not! I _liked_ it: you gave us precisely what we asked for."
+
+"Then," Lanyard demanded gravely, "if that's your viewpoint, if you're
+decent enough to see it that way--what the devil are you doing in that
+galley?"
+
+"Mischief makes strange bed-fellows, you'll admit. And if you think
+that a fair question--what are you doing here, with me?"
+
+"Same excuse as before--trying to find out what your game is."
+
+Wertheimer eyed the ceiling with an intimate grin. "My dear fellow!" he
+protested--"all _you_ want to know is everything!"
+
+"More or less," Lanyard admitted gracelessly. "One gathers that you
+mean to stop this side the Channel for some time."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"There's a settled, personal atmosphere about this establishment. It
+doesn't look as if half your things were still in trunks."
+
+"Oh, these digs! Yes, they are comfy."
+
+"You don't miss London?"
+
+"Rather! But I shall appreciate it all the more when I go back."
+
+"Then you can go back, if you like?"
+
+"Meaning your impression is, I made it too hot for me?"
+
+Wertheimer interposed with a quizzical glance. "I shan't tell you about
+that. But I'm hoping to be able to run home for an occasional week-end
+without vexing Scotland Yard. Why not come with me some time?"
+
+Lanyard shook his head.
+
+"Come!" the Englishman rallied him. "Don't put on so much side. I'm not
+bad company. Why not be sociable, since we're bound to be thrown
+together more or less in the way of business."
+
+"Oh, I think not."
+
+"But, my dear chap, you can't keep this up. Playing taxi-way man is
+hardly your shop. And of course you understand you won't be permitted
+to engage in any more profitable pursuit until you make terms with the
+powers that be--or leave Paris."
+
+"Terms with Bannon, De Morbihan, Popinot and yourself--eh?"
+
+"With the same."
+
+"Mr. Wertheimer," Lanyard told him quietly, "none of you will stop me
+if ever I make up my mind to take the field again."
+
+"You haven't been thinking of quitting it--what?" Wertheimer demanded
+innocently, opening his eyes wide.
+
+"Perhaps..."
+
+"Ah, now I begin to see a light! So that's the reason you've come down
+to tooling a taxi. I wondered! But somehow, Mr. Lanyard"--Wertheimer's
+eyes narrowed thoughtfully--"I can hardly see you content with that
+line... even if this reform notion isn't simple swank!"
+
+"Well, what do you think?"
+
+"I think," the Englishman laughed--"_I_ think this conference doesn't
+get anywhere in particular. Our simple, trusting natures don't seem to
+fraternize as spontaneously as they might. We may as well cut the
+sparring and go, down to business--don't you think? But before we do,
+I'd like your leave to offer one word of friendly advice."
+
+"And that is--?"
+
+"'Ware Bannon!"
+
+Lanyard nodded. "Thanks," he said simply.
+
+"I say that in all sincerity," Wertheimer declared. "God knows you're
+nothing to me, but at least you've played the game like a man; and I
+won't see you butchered to make an Apache holiday for want of warning."
+
+"Bannon's as vindictive as that, you think?"
+
+"Holds you in the most poisonous regard, if you ask me. Perhaps you
+know why: I don't. Anyway, it was rotten luck that brought your car to
+the door tonight. He named you during dinner, and while apparently he
+doesn't know where to look for you, it is plain he's got no use for
+you--not, at least, until your attitude towards the organization
+changes."
+
+"It hasn't. But I'm obliged."
+
+"Sure you can't see your way to work with us?"
+
+"Absolutely."
+
+"Mind you, I'll have to report to the Old Man. I've got to tell him
+your answer."
+
+"I don't think I need tell you what to tell him," said Lanyard with a
+grin.
+
+"Still, it's worth thinking over. I know the Old Man's mind well enough
+to feel safe in offering you any inducement you can name, in reason, if
+you'll come to us. Ten thousand francs in your pocket before morning,
+if you like, and freedom to chuck this filthy job of yours--"
+
+"Please stop there!" Lanyard interrupted hotly. "I was beginning to
+like you, too... Why persist in reminding me you're intimate with the
+brute who had Roddy butchered in his sleep?"
+
+"Poor devil!" Wertheimer said gently. "That was a sickening business, I
+admit. But who told you--?"
+
+"Never mind. It's true, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes," the Englishman admitted gravely--"it's true. It lies at Bannon's
+door, when all's said.... Perhaps you won't believe me, but it's a fact
+I didn't know positively who was responsible till to-night."
+
+"You don't really expect me to swallow that? You were hand-in-glove--"
+
+"Ah, but on probation only! When they voted Roddy out, I wasn't
+consulted. They kept me in the dark--mostly, I flatter myself, because
+I draw the line at murder. If I had known--this you won't believe, of
+course--Roddy would be alive to-day."
+
+"I'd like to believe you," Lanyard admitted. "But when you ask me to
+sign articles with that damned assassin--!"
+
+"You can't play our game with clean hands," Wertheimer retorted.
+
+Lanyard found no answer to that.
+
+"If you've said all you wished to," he suggested, rising, "I can assure
+you my answer is final--and go about my business."
+
+"What's your hurry? Sit down. There's more to say--much more."
+
+"As for instance--?"
+
+"I had a fancy you might like to put a question or two."
+
+Lanyard shook his head; it was plain that Wertheimer designed to draw
+him out through his interest in Lucy Shannon.
+
+"I haven't the slightest curiosity concerning your affairs," he
+observed.
+
+"But you should have; I could tell you a great many interesting things
+that intimately affect your affairs, if I liked. You must understand
+that I shall hold the balance of power here, from now on."
+
+"Congratulations!" Lanyard laughed derisively.
+
+"No joke, my dear chap: I've been promoted over the heads of your
+friends, De Morbihan and Popinot, and shall henceforth be--as they say
+in America--the whole works."
+
+"By what warrant?"
+
+"The illustrious Bannon's. I've been appointed his lieutenant--vice
+Greggs, deposed for bungling."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me Bannon controls De Morbihan and Popinot?"
+
+The Englishman smiled indulgently. "If you didn't know it, he's
+commander-in-chief of our allied forces, presiding genius of the
+International Underworld Unlimited."
+
+"Bosh!" cried Lanyard contemptuously. "Why talk to me as if I were a
+child, to be frightened by a bogey-tale like that?"
+
+"Take it or leave it: the fact remains.... I know, if you don't. I
+confess I didn't till to-night; but I've learned some things that have
+ opened my eyes.... You see, we had a table in a quiet corner of the
+Cafe de la Paix, and since the Old Man's sailing for home before long
+it was time for him to unbosom rather thoroughly to the man he leaves
+to represent him in London and Paris. I never suspected our power
+before he began to talk...."
+
+Lanyard, watching the man closely, would have sworn he had never seen
+one more sober. He was indescribably perplexed by this ostensible
+candour--mystified and mistrustful.
+
+"And then there's this to be considered, from your side," Wertheimer
+resumed with the most business-like manner: "you can work with us
+without being obliged to deal in any way with the Old Man or De
+Morbihan, or Popinot. Bannon will never cross the Atlantic again, and
+you can do pretty much as you like, within reason--subject to my
+approval, that is."
+
+"One of us is mad," Lanyard commented profoundly.
+
+"One of us is blind to his best interests," Wertheimer amended with
+entire good-humour.
+
+"Perhaps... Let it go at that. I'm not interested--never did care for
+fairy tales."
+
+"Don't go yet. There is still much to be said on both sides of the
+argument."
+
+"Has there been one?"
+
+"Besides, I promised you news from Antwerp."
+
+"To be sure," Lanyard said, and paused, his curiosity at length engaged.
+
+Wertheimer delved into the breast-pocket of his dress-coat and produced
+a blue telegraph-form, handing it to the adventurer.
+
+Of even date, from Antwerp, it read:
+
+"_Underworld--Paris--Greggs arrested today boarding steamer for America
+after desperate struggle killed himself immediately afterward poison no
+confession--Q-2._"
+
+"_Underworld?_" Lanyard queried blankly.
+
+"Our telegraphic address, of course. 'Q-2' is our chief factor in
+Antwerp."
+
+"So they got Greggs!"
+
+"Stupid oaf," Wertheimer observed; "I've no sympathy for him. The whole
+affair was a blunder, from first to last."
+
+"But you got Greggs out and burned Troyon's--!"
+
+"Still our friends at the Prefecture weren't satisfied. Something must
+have roused their suspicions."
+
+"You don't know what?"
+
+"There must have been a leak somewhere--"
+
+"If so, it would certainly have led the police to me, after all the
+pains you were at to saddle me with the crime. There's something more
+than simple treachery in this, Mr. Wertheimer."
+
+"Perhaps you're right," said the other thoughtfully.
+
+"And it doesn't speak well for the discipline of your precious
+organization--granting, for the sake of the argument, the possibility
+of such nonsense."
+
+"Well, well, have your own way about that. I don't insist, so long as
+you agree to join forces with me."
+
+"Oh, it's with you alone, now--is it? Not with that insane fiction, the
+International Underworld Unlimited?"
+
+"With me alone. I offer you a clear field. Go where you like, do what
+you will--I wouldn't have the cheek to attempt to guide or influence
+you."
+
+Lanyard kept himself in hand with considerable difficulty.
+
+"But you?" he asked. "Where do you come in?"
+
+Wertheimer lounged back in his chair and laughed quietly. "Need you
+ask? Must I recall to you the foundations of my prosperity? You had the
+name of it glib enough on your tongue the other night in the rue
+Chaptal.... When you've done your work, you'll come to me and split the
+proceeds fairly--and as long as you do that, never a word will pass my
+lips!"
+
+"Blackmail...!"
+
+"Oh, if you insist! Odd, how I dislike that word!"
+
+Abruptly the adventurer got to his feet. "By God!" he cried, "I'd
+better get out of this before I do you an injury!"
+
+The door slammed behind him on a room ringing with Wertheimer's
+unaffected laughter.
+
+
+
+XX
+
+WAR
+
+But why?--he asked himself as he swung his cab aimlessly away--why that
+blind rage with which he had welcomed Wertheimer's overtures?
+
+Unquestionably the business of blackmailing was despicable enough; and
+as a master cracksman, of the highest caste of the criminal world, the
+Lone Wolf had warrantably treated with scorn and contempt the advances
+of a pariah like Wertheimer. But in no such spirit had he comprehended
+the Englishman's meaning, when finally that one came to the point; no
+cool disdain had coloured his attitude, but in the beginning hot
+indignation, in the end insensate rage....
+
+He puzzled himself. That fit of passion had all the aspect of a
+psychical inconsistency impossible to reconcile with reason.
+
+He recalled in perplexity how, toward the last, the face of the
+Englishman had swum in haze before his eyes; with what disfavour,
+approaching hatred, he had regarded its fixed, false smirk; with what
+loathing he had suffered the intimacy of Wertheimer's tone; how he had
+been tempted to fly at the man's throat and shake him senseless in
+reward of his effrontery: emotions that had suited better a man of
+unblemished honour and integrity subjected to the insolent addresses of
+a contemptible blackguard, emotions that might well have been expected
+of the man Lanyard had once dreamed to become.
+
+But now, since he had resigned that infatuate ambition and turned
+apostate to all his vows, his part in character had been to laugh in
+Wertheimer's face and bid him go to the devil ere a worse thing befall
+him. Instead of which, he had flown into fury. And as he sat brooding
+over the wheel, he knew that, were the circumstances to be duplicated,
+his demeanour would be the same.
+
+Was it possible he had changed so absolutely in the course of that
+short-lived spasm of reform?
+
+He cried no to that: knowing well what he contemplated, that all his
+plans were laid and serious mischance alone could prevent him from
+putting them into effect, feeling himself once more quick with the
+wanton, ruthless spirit of the Lone Wolf, invincibly self-sufficient,
+strong and cunning.
+
+When at length he roused from his reverie, it was to discover that his
+haphazard course had taken him back toward the heart of Paris; and
+presently, weary with futile cruising and being in the neighbourhood of
+the Madeleine, he sought the cab-rank there, silenced his motor, and
+relapsed into morose reflections so profound that nothing objective had
+any place in his consciousness.
+
+Thus it was that without his knowledge a brace of furtive thugs were
+able to slouch down the rank, scrutinizing it covertly but in detail,
+pause opposite Lanyard's car under pretext of lighting cigarettes,
+identify him to their satisfaction, and hastily take themselves off.
+
+Not until they were quite disappeared did the driver of the cab ahead
+dare warn him.
+
+Lounging back, this last looked the adventurer over inquisitively.
+
+"Is it, then," he enquired civilly, when Lanyard at length looked
+round, "that you are in the bad books of the good General Popinot, my
+friend?"
+
+"Eh--what's that you say?" Lanyard asked, with a stare of blank
+misapprehension.
+
+The man nodded wisely. "He who is at odds with Popinot," he observed,
+sententious, "does well not to sleep in public. You did not see those
+two who passed just now and took your number--rats of Montmartre, if I
+know my Paris! You were dreaming, my friend, and it is my impression
+that only the presence of those two flies over the way prevented your
+immediate assassination. If I were you, I should go away very quickly,
+and never stop till I had put stout walls between myself and Popinot."
+
+A chill of apprehension sent a shiver stealing down Lanyard's spine.
+
+"You're sure?"
+
+"But of a certainty, my old one!"
+
+"A thousand thanks!"
+
+Jumping down, the adventurer cranked the motor, sprang back to his
+seat, and was off like a hunted hare....
+
+And when, more than an hour later, he brought his panting car to a
+pause in a quiet and empty back-street of the Auteuil quarter, after a
+course that had involved the better part of Paris, it was with the
+conviction that he had beyond question shaken off pursuit--had there in
+fact been any attempt to follow him.
+
+He took advantage of that secluded spot to substitute false numbers for
+those he was licensed to display; then at a more sedate pace followed
+the line of the fortifications northward as far as La Muette, where,
+branching off, he sought and made a circuit of two sides of the private
+park enclosing the hotel of Madame Omber.
+
+But the mansion showed no lights, and there was nothing in the aspect
+of the property to lead him to believe that the chatelaine had as yet
+returned to Paris.
+
+Now the night was still young, but Lanyard had his cab to dispose of
+and not a few other essential details to arrange before he could take
+definite steps toward the reincarnation of the Lone Wolf.
+
+Picking a most circumspect route across the river--via the Pont
+Mirabeau--to the all-night telegraph bureau in the rue de Grenelle he
+despatched a cryptic message to the Minister of War, then with the same
+pains to avoid notice made back toward the rue des Acacias. But it
+wasn't possible to recross the Seine secretly--in effect, at
+least--without returning the way he had come--a long detour that irked
+his impatient spirit to contemplate.
+
+Unwisely he elected to cross by way of the Pont des Invalides--how
+unwisely was borne in upon him almost as soon as he turned from the
+brilliant Quai de la Conference into the darkling rue Francois Premier.
+He had won scarcely twenty yards from the corner when, with a rush, its
+motor purring like some great tiger-cat, a powerful touring-car swept
+up from behind, drew abreast, but instead of passing checked speed
+until its pace was even with his own.
+
+Struck by the strangeness of this manoeuvre, he looked quickly round,
+to recognize the moon-like mask of De Morbihan grinning sardonically at
+him over the steering-wheel of the black car.
+
+A second hasty glance discovered four men in the tonneau. Lacking time
+to identify them, Lanyard questioned their character as little as their
+malign intent: Belleville bullies, beyond doubt, drafted from Popinot's
+batallions, with orders to bring in the Lone Wolf, dead or alive.
+
+He had instant proof that his apprehensions were not exaggerated. Of a
+sudden De Morbihan cut out the muffler and turned loose, full strength,
+the electric horn. Between the harsh detonations of the exhaust and the
+mad, blatant shrieks of the warning, a hideous clamour echoed and
+re-echoed in that quiet street--a din in which the report of a
+revolver-shot was drowned out and went unnoticed. Lanyard himself might
+have been unaware of it, had he not caught out of the corner of his eye
+a flash that spat out at him like a fiery serpent's tongue, and heard
+the crash of the window behind him as it fell inward, shattered.
+
+That the shot had no immediate successor was due almost wholly to
+Lanyard's instant and instinctive action.
+
+Even before the clash of broken glass registered on his consciousness,
+he threw in the high-speed and shot away like a frightened greyhound.
+
+So sudden was this move that it caught De Morbihan himself unprepared.
+In an instant Lanyard had ten yards' lead. In another he was spinning
+on two wheels round an acute corner, into the rue Jean Goujon; and in a
+third, as he shot through that short block to the avenue d'Antin, had
+increased his lead to fifteen yards. But he could never hope to better
+that: rather, the contrary. The pursuit had the more powerful car, and
+it was captained by one said to be the most daring and skilful motorist
+in France.
+
+The considerations that dictated Lanyard's simple strategy were sound
+if unformulated: barring interference on the part of the
+police--something he dared not count upon--his sole hope lay in open
+flight and in keeping persistently to the better-lighted,
+main-travelled thoroughfares, where a repetition of the attempt would
+be inadvisable--at least, less probable. There was always a bare chance
+of an accident--that De Morbihan's car would burst a tire or be
+pocketed by the traffic, enabling Lanyard to strike off into some maze
+of dark side-streets, abandon the cab, and take to cover in good
+earnest.
+
+But that was a forlorn hope at best, and he knew it. Moreover, an
+accident was as apt to happen to him as to De Morbihan: given an
+unsound tire or a puncture, or let him be delayed two seconds by some
+traffic hindrance, and nothing short of a miracle could save him....
+
+As he swung from the avenue d'Antin into Rond Point des Champs Elysees,
+the nose of the pursuing car inched up on his right, effectually
+blocking any attempt to strike off toward the east, to the Boulevards
+and the centre of the city's life by night. He had no choice but to fly
+west-wards.
+
+He cut an arc round the sexpartite circle of the Rond Point that lost
+no inch of advantage, and straightened out, ventre-a-terre, up the
+avenue for the place de l'Etoile, shooting madly in and out of the tide
+of more leisurely traffic--and ever the motor of the touring-car purred
+contentedly just at his elbow.
+
+If there were police about, Lanyard saw nothing of them: not that he
+would have dreamed of stopping or even of checking speed for anything
+less than an immovable obstacle....
+
+But as minutes sped it became apparent that there was to be no renewed
+attempt upon his life for the time being. The pursuers could afford to
+wait. They could afford to ape the patience of Death itself.
+
+And it came then to Lanyard that he drove no more alone: Death was his
+passenger.
+
+Absorbed though he was with the control of his machine and the
+ever-shifting problems of the road, he still found time to think quite
+clearly of himself, to recognize the fact that he was very likely
+looking his last on Paris ... on life....
+
+But a little longer, and the name of Michael Lanyard would be not even
+a memory to those whose lives composed the untiring life of this broad
+avenue.
+
+Before him the Arc de Triomphe loomed ever larger and more darkly
+beautiful against the field of midnight stars He wondered, would he
+reach it alive....
+
+He did: still the pursuit bided its time. But the hood of the
+touring-car nosed him inexorably round the arch, away from the avenue
+de la Grande Armee and into the avenue du Bois.
+
+Only when in full course for Porte Dauphine did he appreciate De
+Morbihan's design. He was to be rushed out into the midnight solitudes
+of the Bois de Boulogne and there run down and slain.
+
+But now he began to nurse a feeble thrill of hope.
+
+Once inside the park enclosure, he reckoned vaguely on some opportunity
+to make sudden halt, abandon the car and, taking refuge in the friendly
+obscurity of trees and shrubbery, either make good his escape afoot or
+stand off the Apaches until police came to his aid. With night to cloak
+his movements and with a clump of trees to shelter in, he dared believe
+he would have a chance for his life--whereas in naked streets any such
+attempt would prove simply suicidal.
+
+Infrequent glances over-shoulder showed no change in the gap between
+his own and the car of the assassins. But his motor ran sweet and true:
+humouring it, coaxing it, he contrived a little longer to hold his own.
+
+Approaching the Porte Dauphine he became aware of two sergents de ville
+standing in the middle of the way and wildly brandishing their arms. He
+held on toward them relentlessly--it was their lives or his--and they
+leaped aside barely in time to save themselves.
+
+And as he slipped into the park like a hunted shadow, he fancied that
+he heard a pistol-shot--whether directed at himself by the Apaches, or
+fired by the police to emphasize their indignation, he couldn't say.
+But he was grateful enough it was a taxicab he drove, not a
+touring-car: lacking the body of his vehicle to shield him, he little
+doubted that a bullet would long since have found him.
+
+In that dead hour the drives of the Bois were almost deserted. Between
+the porte and the first carrefour he passed only one motor-car, a
+limousine whose driver shouted something inarticulate as Lanyard hummed
+past. The freedom from traffic dangers was a relief: but the pursuit
+was creeping up, inch by inch, as he swung down the road-way along the
+eastern border of the lake; and still he had found no opening, had
+recognized no invitation in the lay of the land to attempt his one
+plan; as matters stood, the Apaches would be upon him before he could
+jump from his seat.
+
+Bending low over the wheel, searching with anxious eyes the shadowed
+reaches of that winding drive, he steered for a time with one hand,
+while the other tore open his ulster and brought his pistol into
+readiness.
+
+Then, as he topped the brow of the incline, above the whine of his
+motor, the crackle of road-metal beneath the tires, and the boom of the
+rushing air in his ears, he heard the sharp clatter of hoofs, and
+surmised that the gendarmerie had given chase.
+
+And then, on a slight down-grade, though he took it at perilous speed
+and seemed veritably to ride the wind, the following machine, aided by
+its greater weight, began to close in still more rapidly. Momentarily
+the hoarse snoring of its motor sounded more loud and menacing. It was
+now a mere question of seconds....
+
+Inspiration of despair came to him, as wild as any ever conceived by
+mind of man.
+
+They approached a point where, on the left, a dense plantation walled
+the road. To the right a wide foot walk separated the drive from a
+gentle declivity sown with saplings, running down to the water.
+
+Rising in his place, Lanyard slipped from under him the heavy
+waterproof cushion.
+
+Then edging over to the left of the middle of the road, abruptly he
+shut off power and applied the brakes with all his might.
+
+From its terrific speed the cab came to a stop within twice its length.
+
+Lanyard was thrown forward against the wheel, but having braced in
+anticipation, escaped injury and effected instant recovery.
+
+The car of the Apaches was upon him in a pulse-beat. With no least
+warning of his intention, De Morbihan had no time to employ brakes.
+Lanyard saw its dark shape flash past the windows of his cab and heard
+a shout of triumph. Then with all his might he flung the heavy cushion
+across that scant space, directly into the face of De Morbihan.
+
+His aim was straight and true.
+
+In alarm, unable to comprehend the nature of that large, dark, whirling
+mass, De Morbihan attempted to lift a warding elbow. He was too slow:
+the cushion caught him in the face, full-force, and before he could
+recover or guess what he was doing, he had twisted the wheel sharply to
+the right.
+
+The car, running a little less than locomotive speed, shot across the
+strip of sidewalk, caught its right forewheel against a sapling, swung
+heavily broadside to the drive, and turned completely over as it shot
+down the slope to the lake.
+
+A terrific crash was followed by a hideous chorus of oaths, shrieks,
+cries and groans. Promptly Lanyard started his motor anew and,
+trembling in every limb, ran on for several hundred yards. But time
+pressed, and the usefulness of his car was at an end, as far as he was
+concerned; there was no saying how many times its identity might not
+have been established by the police in the course of that wild chase
+through Paris, or how soon these last might contrive to overhaul and
+apprehend him; and as soon as a bend in the road shut off the scene of
+wreck, he stopped finally, jumped down, and plunged headlong into the
+dark midnight heart of the Bois, seeking its silences where trees stood
+thickest and lights were few.
+
+Later, like some worried creature of the night, panting, dishevelled,
+his rough clothing stained and muddied, he slunk across an open space,
+a mile or so from his point of disappearance, dropped cautiously down
+into the dry bed of the moat, climbed as stealthily a slippery glacis
+of the fortifications, darted across the inner boulevard, and began to
+describe a wide arc toward his destination, the hotel Omber.
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+APOSTATE
+
+He was singularly free from any sort of exultation over the manner in
+which he had at once compassed his own escape and brought down
+catastrophe upon his self-appointed murderers; his mood was quick with
+wonder and foreboding and bewilderment. The more closely he examined
+the affair, the more strange and inexplicable it bulked in his
+understanding. He had not thought to defy the Pack and get off lightly;
+but he had looked for no such overt effort at disciplining him so long
+as he kept out of the way and suspended his criminal activities. An
+unwilling recruit is a potential traitor in the camp; and retired
+competition isn't to be feared. So it seemed that Wertheimer hadn't
+believed his protestations, or else Bannon had rejected the report
+which must have been made him by the girl. In either case, the Pack had
+not waited for the Lone Wolf to prove his insincerity; it hadn't
+bothered to declare war; it had simply struck; with less warning than a
+rattlesnake gives, it had struck--out of the dark--at his back.
+
+And so--Lanyard swore grimly--even so would he strike, now that it was
+his turn, now that his hour dawned.
+
+But he would have given much for a clue to the riddle. Why must he be
+saddled with this necessity of striking in self-defence? Why had this
+feud been forced upon him, who asked nothing better than to be let
+alone? He told himself it wasn't altogether the professional jealousy
+of De Morbihan, Popinot and Wertheimer; it was the strange, rancorous
+spite that animated Bannon.
+
+But, again, why? Could it be that Bannon so resented the aid and
+encouragement Lanyard had afforded the girl in her abortive attempt to
+escape? Or was it, perhaps, that Bannon held Lanyard responsible for
+the arrest and death of Greggs?
+
+Could it be possible that there was really anything substantial at the
+bottom of Wertheimer's wild yarn about the pretentiously named
+"International Underworld Unlimited"? Was this really a demonstration
+of purpose to crush out competition--"and hang the expense"?
+
+Or was there some less superficially tangible motive to be sought? Did
+Bannon entertain some secret, personal animus against Michael Lanyard
+himself as distinguished from the Lone Wolf?
+
+Debating these questions from every angle but to no end, he worked
+himself into a fine fury of exasperation, vowing he would consummate
+this one final coup, sequestrate himself in England until the affair
+had blown over, and in his own good time return to Paris to expose De
+Morbihan (presuming he survived the wreck in the Bois) exterminate
+Popinot utterly, drive Wertheimer into permanent retirement at
+Dartmoor, and force an accounting from Bannon though it were
+surrendered together with that invalid's last wheezing breaths....
+
+In this temper he arrived, past one in the morning, under the walls of
+the hotel Omber, and prudently selected a new point of attack. In the
+course of his preliminary examinations of the walls, it hadn't escaped
+him that their brick-and-plaster construction was in bad repair; he had
+marked down several spots where the weather had eaten the outer coat of
+plaster completely away. At one of these, midway between the avenue and
+the junction of the side-streets, he hesitated.
+
+As he had foreseen, the mortar that bound the bricks together was all
+dry and crumbling; it was no great task to work one of them loose,
+making a foothold from which he might grasp with a gloved hand the
+glass-toothed curbing, cast his ulster across this for further
+protection, and swing himself bodily atop the wall.
+
+But there, momentarily, he paused in doubt and trembling. In that
+exposed and comfortless perch, the lifeless street on one hand, the
+black mystery of the neglected park on the other, he was seized and
+shaken by a sudden revulsion of feeling like a sickness of his very
+soul. Physical fear had nothing to do with this, for he was quite alone
+and unobserved; had it been otherwise faculties trained through a
+lifetime to such work as this and now keyed to concert pitch would not
+have failed to give warning of whatever danger his grosser senses might
+have overlooked.
+
+Notwithstanding, he was afraid as though Fear's very self had laid hold
+of his soul by the heels and would not let it go until its vision of
+itself was absolute. He was afraid with a great fear such as he had
+never dreamed to know; who knew well the wincing of the flesh from risk
+of pain, the shuddering of the spirit in the shadow of death, and
+horror such as had gripped him that morning in poor Roddy's bed-chamber.
+
+But none of these had in any way taught him the measure of such fear as
+now possessed him, so absolute that he quaked like a naked soul in the
+inexorable presence of the Eternal.
+
+He was afraid of himself, in panic terror of that ego which tenanted
+the shell of functioning, sensitive stuff called Michael Lanyard: he
+was afraid of the strange, silent, incomprehensible Self lurking occult
+in him, that masked mysterious Self which in its inscrutable whim could
+make him fine or make him base, that Self impalpable and elusive as any
+shadow yet invincibly strong, his master and his fate, in one the grave
+of Yesterday, the cup of Today, the womb of Tomorrow....
+
+He looked up at the tired, dull faces of those old dwellings that
+loomed across the way with blind and lightless windows, sleeping
+without suspicion that he had stolen in among them--the grim and deadly
+thing that walked by night, the Lone Wolf, creature of pillage and
+rapine, scourged slave of that Self which knew no law....
+
+Then slowly that obsession lifted like the passing of a nightmare; and
+with a start, a little shiver and a sigh, Lanyard roused and went on to
+do the bidding of his Self for its unfathomable ends....
+
+Dropping silently to the soft, damp turf, he made himself one with the
+shadows of the park, as mute, intangible and fugitive as they, until
+presently coming out beneath the stars, on an open lawn running up to
+the library wing of the hotel, he approached a shallow stone balcony
+which jutted forth eight feet above the lawn--an elevation so
+inconsiderable that, with one bound grasping its stone balustrade, the
+adventurer was upon it in a brace of seconds.
+
+Nor did the long French windows that opened on the balcony offer him
+any real hindrance: a penknife quickly removed the dried putty round
+one small, lozenge-shaped pane, then pried out the pane itself; a hand
+through this space readily found and turned the latch; a cautious
+pressure opened the two wings far enough to admit his body; and--he
+stood inside the library.
+
+He had made no sound; and thanks to thorough familiarity with the
+ground, he needed no light. The screen of cinnabar afforded all the
+protection he required; and because he meant to accomplish his purpose
+and be out of the house with the utmost expedition, he didn't trouble
+to explore beyond a swift, casual review of the adjoining salons.
+
+The clock was chiming the three-quarters as he knelt behind the screen
+and grasped the combination-knob.
+
+But he did not turn it. That mellow music died out slowly, and left him
+transfixed, there in the silence and gloom, his eyes staring wide into
+blackness at nothing, his jaw set and rigid, his forehead knotted and
+damp with sweat, his hands so clenched that the nails bit deep into his
+palms; while he looked back over the abyss yawning between the Lone
+Wolf of tonight and the man who had, within the week, knelt in that
+spot in company with the woman he loved, bent on making restitution
+that his soul might be saved through her faith in him.
+
+He was visited by clear vision of himself: the thief caught in his
+crime by his conscience--or whatever it was, what for want of a better
+name he must call his conscience: this thing within him that revolted
+from his purpose, mutinied against the dictates of his Self, and
+stopped his hand from reaping the harvest of his cunning and daring;
+this sense of honour and of honesty that in a few brief days had grown
+more dear to him than all else in life, knitting itself inextricably
+into the fibre of his being, so that to deny it were against Nature....
+
+He closed his eyes to shut out the accusing vision, and knelt on,
+unstirring, though torn this way and that in the conflict of man's dual
+nature.
+
+Minutes passed without his knowledge.
+
+But in time he grew more calm; his hands relaxed, the muscles of his
+brow smoothed out, he breathed more slowly and deeply; his set lips
+parted and a profound sigh whispered in the stillness. A great
+weariness upon him, he rose slowly and heavily from the floor, and
+stood erect, free at last and forever from that ancient evil which so
+long had held his soul in bondage.
+
+And in that moment of victory, through the deep hush reigning in the
+house, he detected an incautious footfall on the parquetry of the
+reception-hall.
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+TRAPPED
+
+It was a sound so slight, so very small and still, that only a
+super-subtle sense of hearing could have discriminated it from the
+confused multiplicity of almost inaudible, interwoven, interdependent
+sounds that make up the slumberous quiet of every human habitation, by
+night.
+
+Lanyard, whose training had taught him how to listen, had learned that
+the nocturnal hush of each and every house has its singular cadence,
+its own gentle movement of muted but harmonious sound in which the
+introduction of an alien sound produces immediate discord, and to
+which, while at his work, he need attend only subconsciously since the
+least variation from the norm would give him warning.
+
+Now, in the silence of this old mansion, he detected a faint flutter of
+discordance that sounded a note of stealth; such a note as no move of
+his since entering had evoked.
+
+He was no longer alone, but shared the empty magnificence of those vast
+salons with one whose purpose was as furtive, as secret, as wary as his
+own; no servant or watchman roused by an intuition of evil, but one who
+had no more than he any lawful business there.
+
+And while he stood at alert attention the sound was repeated from a
+point less distant, indicating that the second intruder was moving
+toward the library.
+
+In two swift strides Lanyard left the shelter of the screen and took to
+cover in the recess of one of the tall windows, behind its heavy velvet
+hangings: an action that could have been timed no more precisely had it
+been rehearsed; he was barely in hiding when a shape of shadow slipped
+into the library, paused beside the massive desk, and raked the room
+with the light of a powerful flash-lamp.
+
+Its initial glare struck squarely into Lanyard's eyes, dazzling them,
+as he peered through a narrow opening in the portieres; and though the
+light was instantly shifted, for several moments a blur of peacock
+colour, blending, ebbing, hung like a curtain in the darkness, and he
+could see nothing distinctly--only the trail traced by that dancing
+spot-light over walls and furnishings.
+
+When at length his vision cleared, the newcomer was kneeling in turn
+before the safe; but more light was needed, and this one, lacking
+Lanyard's patience and studious caution, turned back to the desk, and,
+taking the reading-lamp, transferred it to the floor behind the screen.
+
+But even before the flood of light followed the dull click of the
+switch, Lanyard had recognized the woman.
+
+For an instant he felt dazed, half-stunned, suffocating, much as he had
+felt with Greggs' fingers tightening on his windpipe, that week-old
+night at Troyon's; he experienced real difficulty about breathing, and
+was conscious of a sickish throbbing in his temples and a pounding in
+his bosom like the tolling of a great bell. He stared, swaying....
+
+The light, gushing from the opaque hood, made the safe door a glare,
+and was thrown back into her intent, masked face, throwing out in sharp
+silhouette her lithe, sweet body, indisputably identified by the
+individual poise of her head and shoulders and the gracious contours of
+her tailored coat.
+
+She was all in black, even to her hands, no trace of white or any
+colour showing but the fair curve of the cheek below her mask and the
+red of her lips. And if more evidence were needed, the intelligence
+with which she attacked the combination, the confident, business-like
+precision distinguishing her every action, proved her an apt pupil in
+that business.
+
+His thoughts were all in a welter of miserable confusion. He knew that
+this explained many things he would have held questionable had not his
+infatuation forbidden him to consider them at all, lest he be disloyal
+to this woman whom he adored; but in the anguish of that moment he
+could entertain but one thought, and that possessed him
+altogether--that she must somehow be saved from the evil she
+contemplated....
+
+But while he hesitated, she became sensitive to his presence; though he
+had made no sound since her entrance, though he had not even stirred,
+somehow she divined that he--someone--was there in the recess of the
+window, watching her.
+
+In the act of opening the safe--using the memorandum of its combination
+which he had jotted down in her presence--he saw her pause, freeze to a
+pose of attention, then turn to stare directly at the portiere that hid
+him. And for an eternal second she remained kneeling there, so still
+that she seemed not even to breathe, her gaze fixed and level, waiting
+for some sound, some sign, some tremor of the curtain's folds, to
+confirm her suspicion.
+
+When at length she rose it was in one swift, alert movement. And as she
+paused with her slight shoulders squared and her head thrown back
+defiantly, challengingly, as one without will of his own but drawn
+irresistibly by her gaze, he stepped out into the room.
+
+And since he was no more the Lone Wolf, but now a simple man in agony,
+with no thought for their circumstances--for the fact that they were
+both house-breakers and that the slightest sound might raise a
+hue-and-cry upon them--he took one faltering step toward her, stopped,
+lifted a hand in a gesture of appeal, and stammered:
+
+"Lucy--you----"
+
+His voice broke and failed.
+
+She didn't answer, more than by recoiling as though he had offered to
+strike her, until the table stopped her, and she leaned back as if glad
+of its support.
+
+"Oh!" she cried, trembling--"why_--why_ did you do it?"
+
+He might have answered her in kind, but self-justification passed his
+power. He couldn't say, "Because this evening you made me lose faith in
+everything, and I thought to forget you by going to the devil the
+quickest way I knew--this way!"--though that was true. He couldn't say:
+"Because, a thief from boyhood, habit proved too strong for me, and I
+couldn't withstand temptation!"--for that was untrue. He could only
+hang his head and mumble the wretched confession: "I don't know."
+
+As if he hadn't spoken, she cried again: "Why--_why_ did you do it? I
+was so proud of you, so sure of you, the man who had turned straight
+because of me!... It compensated... But now...!"
+
+Her voice broke in a short, dry sob.
+
+"Compensated?" he repeated stupidly.
+
+"Yes, compensated!" She lifted her head with a gesture of impatience:
+"For this--don't you understand?--for this that I'm doing! You don't
+imagine I'm here of my own will?--that I went back to Bannon for any
+reason but to try to save you from him? I knew something of his power,
+and you didn't; I knew if I went away with you he'd never rest until he
+had you murdered. And I thought if I could mislead him by lies for a
+little time--long enough to give you a chance to escape--I
+thought--perhaps--I might be able to communicate with the police, s
+denounce him----"
+
+She hesitated, breathless and appealing.
+
+At her first words he had drawn close to her; and all their talk was
+murmurings. But this was quite instinctive; for both were beyond
+considerations of prudence, the one coherent thought of each being that
+now, once and forever, all misunderstanding must be done away with.
+
+Now, as naturally as though they had been lovers always, Lanyard took
+her hand, and clasped it between his own.
+
+"You cared as much as that!"
+
+"I love you," she told him--"I love you so much I am ready to sacrifice
+everything for you--life, liberty, honour----"
+
+"Hush, dearest, hush!" he begged, half distracted.
+
+"I mean it: if honour could hold me back, do you think I would have
+broken in here tonight to steal for Bannon?"
+
+"He sent you, eh?" Lanyard commented in a dangerous voice.
+
+"He was too cunning for me... I was afraid to tell you... I meant to
+tell--to warn you, this evening in the cab. But then I thought perhaps
+if I said nothing and sent you away believing the worst of me--perhaps
+you would save yourself and forget me----"
+
+"But never!"
+
+"I tried my best to deceive him, but couldn't. They got the truth from
+me by threats----"
+
+"They wouldn't dare----"
+
+"They dare anything, I tell you! They knew enough of what had happened,
+through their spies, to go on, and they tormented and bullied me until
+I broke down and told them everything... And when they learned you had
+brought the jewels back here, Bannon told me I must bring them to
+him--that, if I refused, he'd have you killed. I held out until
+tonight; then just as I was about to go to bed he received a telephone
+message, and told me you were driving a taxi and followed by Apaches
+and wouldn't live till daylight if I persisted in refusing."
+
+"You came alone?"
+
+"No. Three men brought me to the gate. They're waiting outside, in the
+park."
+
+"Apaches?"
+
+"Two of them. The other is Captain Ekstrom."
+
+"Ekstrom!" Lanyard cried in despair. "Is he----"
+
+The dull, heavy, crashing slam of the great front doors silenced him.
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+MADAME OMBER
+
+Before the echo of that crash ceased to reverberate from room to room,
+Lanyard slipped to one side of the doorway, from which point he could
+command the perspective of the salons together with a partial view of
+the front doors. And he was no more than there, in the shadow of the
+portieres, when light from an electrolier flooded the reception-hall.
+
+It showed him a single figure, that of a handsome woman, considerably
+beyond middle age but still a well-poised, vigorous, and commanding
+presence, in full evening dress of such magnificence as to suggest
+recent attendance at some State function.
+
+Standing beneath the light, she was restoring a key to a brocaded
+hand-bag. This done, she turned her head and spoke indistinguishably
+over her shoulder. Promptly there came into view a second woman of
+about the same age, but even more strong and able of appearance--a
+serving-woman, in plain, dark garments, undoubtedly madame's maid.
+
+Handing over the brocaded bag, madame unlatched the throat of her
+ermine cloak and surrendered it to the servant's care.
+
+Her next words were audible, and reassuring in as far as they indicated
+ignorance of anything amiss.
+
+"Thank you, Sidonie. You may go to bed now."
+
+"Madame will not need me to undress her?"
+
+"I'm not ready yet. When I am--I'm old enough to take care of myself.
+Besides, I prefer you to go to bed, Sidonie. It doesn't improve your
+temper to lose your beauty sleep."
+
+"Many thanks, madame. Good night."
+
+"Good night."
+
+The maid moved off toward the main staircase, while her mistress turned
+deliberately through the salons toward the library.
+
+At this, swinging back to the girl in a stride, and grasping her wrist
+to compel attention, Lanyard spoke in a rapid whisper, mouth close to
+her ear, but his solicitude so unselfish and so intense that for the
+moment he was altogether unconscious of either her allure or his
+passion.
+
+"This way," he said, imperatively drawing her toward the window by
+which he had entered: "there's a balcony outside--a short drop to the
+ground." And unlatching the window, he urged her through it. "Try to
+leave by the back gateway--the one I showed you before--avoiding
+Ekstrom----"
+
+"But surely you are coming too?" she insisted, hanging back.
+
+"Impossible: there's no time for us both to escape undetected. I shall
+keep madame interested only long enough for you to get away. But take
+this"--and he pressed his automatic into her hand. "No--take it; I've
+another," he lied, "and you may need it. Don't fear for me, but go--O
+my heart!--go!"
+
+The footfalls of Madame Omber were sounding dangerously near, and
+without giving the girl more opportunity to protest, Lanyard closed the
+windows, shot the latch and stole like a cat round the farther side of
+the desk, pausing within a few feet of the screen and safe.
+
+The desk-lamp was still burning, where the girl had left it behind the
+cinnabar screen; and Lanyard knew that the diffusion of its rays was
+enough to render his figure distinctly and immediately visible to one
+entering the doorway.
+
+Now everything hung upon the temper of the house-holder, whether she
+would take that apparition quietly, deceived by Lanyard's mumming into
+believing she had only a poor thievish fool to deal with, or with a
+storm of bourgeois hysteria. In the latter event, Lanyard's hand was
+ready planted, palm down, on the top of the desk: should the woman
+attempt to give the alarm, a single bound would carry the adventurer
+across it in full flight for the front doors.
+
+In the doorway the mistress of the house appeared and halted, her quick
+bright eyes shifting from the light on the floor to the dark figure of
+the thief. Then, in a stride, she found a switch and turned on the
+chandelier, a blaze of light.
+
+As this happened, Lanyard cowered, lifting an elbow as though to guard
+his face--as though expecting to find himself under the muzzle of a
+revolver.
+
+The gesture had the calculated effect of focussing the attention of the
+woman exclusively to him, after one swift glance round had shown her a
+room tenanted only by herself and a cringing thief. And immediately it
+was made manifest that, whether or not deceived, she meant to take the
+situation quietly, if in a strong hand.
+
+Her eyes narrowed and the muscles of her square, almost masculine jaw
+hardened ominously as she looked the intruder up and down. Then a
+flicker of contempt modified the grimness of her countenance. She took
+three steps forward, pausing on the other side of the desk, her back to
+the doorway.
+
+Lanyard trembled visibly....
+
+"Well!"--the word boomed like the opening gun of an engagement--"Well,
+my man!"--the shrewd eyes swerved to the closed door of the safe and
+quickly back again--"you don't seem to have accomplished much!"
+
+"For God's sake, madame!" Lanyard blurted in a husky, shaken voice,
+nothing like his own--"don't have me arrested! Give me a chance! I
+haven't taken anything. Don't call the flics!"
+
+He checked, moving an uncertain hand towards his throat as if his
+tongue had gone dry.
+
+"Come, come!" the woman answered, with a look almost of pity. "I
+haven't called anyone--as yet."
+
+The fingers of one strong white hand were drumming gently on the top of
+the desk; then, with a movement so quick and sure that Lanyard himself
+could hardly have bettered it, they slipped down to a handle of a
+drawer, jerked it open, closed round the butt of a revolver, and
+presented it at the adventurer's head.
+
+Automatically he raised both hands.
+
+"Don't shoot!" he cried. "I'm not armed----"
+
+"Is that the truth?"
+
+"You've only to search me, madame!"
+
+"Thanks!" Madame's accents now discovered a trace of dry humour. "I'll
+leave that to you. Turn out your pockets on the desk there--and,
+remember, I'll stand no nonsense!"
+
+The weapon covered Lanyard steadily, leaving him no choice but to obey.
+As it happened, he was glad of the excuse to listen for sounds to tell
+how the girl was faring in her flight, and made a pretence of trembling
+fingers cover the slowness with which he complied.
+
+But he heard nothing.
+
+When he had visibly turned every pocket inside out, and their contents
+lay upon the desk, the woman looked the exhibits over incuriously.
+
+"Put them back," she said curtly. "And then fetch that chair over
+there--the one in the corner. I've a notion I'd like to talk to you.
+That's the usual thing, isn't it?"
+
+"How?" Lanyard demanded with a vacant stare.
+
+"In all the criminal novels I've ever read, the law-abiding householder
+always sits down and has a sociable chat with the house-breaker--before
+calling in the police. I'm afraid that's part of the price you've got
+to pay for my hospitality."
+
+She paused, eyeing Lanyard inquisitively while he restored his
+belongings to his pockets. "Now, get that chair!" she ordered; and
+waited, standing, until she had been obeyed. "That's it--there! Sit
+down."
+
+Leaning against the desk, her revolver held negligently, the speaker
+favoured Lanyard with a more leisurely inspection; the harshness of her
+stare was softened, and the anger which at first had darkened her
+countenance was gone by the time she chose to pursue her catechism.
+
+"What's your name? No--don't answer! I saw your eyes waver, and I'm not
+interested in a makeshift alias. But it's the stock question, you
+know.... Do you care for a cigar?"
+
+She opened a mahogany humidor on the desk.
+
+"No, thanks."
+
+"Right--according to Hoyle: the criminal always refuses to smoke in
+these scenes. But let's forget the book and write our own lines. I'll
+ask you an original question: Why were you acting just now?"
+
+"Acting?" Lanyard repeated, intrigued by the acuteness of this
+masterful woman's mentality.
+
+"Precisely--pretending you were a common thief. For a moment you
+actually made me think you afraid of me. But you're neither the one nor
+the other. How do I know? Because you're unarmed, your voice has
+changed in the last two minutes to that of a cultivated man, you've
+stopped cringing and started thinking, and the way you walked across
+the floor and handled that chair showed how powerfully you're made. If
+I didn't have this revolver, you could overpower me in an instant--and
+I'm no weakling, as women go. So--why the acting?"
+
+Studying his captor with narrow interest, Lanyard smiled faintly and
+shrugged, but made no answer. He could do no more than this--no more
+than spare for time: the longer he indulged madame in her whim, the
+better Lucy's chances of scot-free escape. By this time, he reckoned,
+she would have found her way through the service gate to the street.
+But he was on edge with unending apprehension of mischance.
+
+"Come, come!" Madame Omber insisted. "You're hardly civil, my man.
+Answer my question!"
+
+"You don't expect me to--do you?"
+
+"Why not? You owe me at least satisfaction of my curiosity, in return
+for breaking into my house."
+
+"But if, as you suggest, I am--or was--acting with a purpose, why
+expect me to give the show away?"
+
+"That's logic. I knew you could think. More's the pity!"
+
+"Pity I can think?"
+
+"Pity you can get your own consent to waste yourself like this. I'm an
+old woman, and I know men better than most; I can see ability in you.
+So I say, it's a pity you won't use yourself to better advantage. Don't
+misunderstand me: this isn't the conventional act; I don't hold with
+encouraging a fool in his folly. You're a fool, for all your
+intelligence, and the only cure I can see for you is drastic
+punishment."
+
+"Meaning the Sante, madame?"
+
+"Quite so. I tell you frankly, when I'm finished lecturing you, off you
+go to prison."
+
+"If that's the case I don't see I stand to gain much by retailing the
+history of my life. This seems to be your cue to ring for servants to
+call the police."
+
+A trace of anger shone in the woman's eyes. "You're right," she said
+shortly; "I dare say Sidonie isn't asleep yet. I'll get her to
+telephone while I keep an eye on you."
+
+Bending over the desk, without removing her gaze from the adventurer,
+his captor groped for, found, and pressed a call-button.
+
+From some remote quarter of the house sounded the grumble of an
+electric bell.
+
+"Pity you're so brazen," she observed. "Just a little less side, and
+you'd be a rather engaging person!"
+
+Lanyard made no reply. In fact he wasn't listening.
+
+Under the strain of that suspense, the iron control which had always
+been his was breaking down--since now it was for another he was
+concerned. And he wasted no strength trying to enforce it. The stress
+of his anxiety was both undisguised and undisguisable. Nor did Madame
+Omber overlook it.
+
+"What's the trouble, eh? Is it that already you hear the cell door
+clang in your ears?"
+
+As she spoke, Lanyard left his chair with a movement in the execution
+of which all his wits co-operated, with a spring as lithe and sure and
+swift as an animal's, that carried him like a shot across the two yards
+or so between them.
+
+The slightest error in his reckoning would have finished him: for the
+other had been watching for just such a move, and the revolver was
+nearly level with Lanyard's head when he grasped it by the barrel,
+turned that to the ceiling, imprisoned the woman's wrist with his other
+hand, and in two movements had captured the weapon without injuring its
+owner.
+
+"Don't be alarmed," he said quietly. "I'm not going to do anything more
+violent than to put this weapon out of commission."
+
+Breaking it smartly, he shot a shower of cartridges to the door, and
+tossed the now-useless weapon into a wastebasket beneath the desk.
+
+"Hope I didn't hurt you," he added abstractedly--"but your pistol was
+in my way!"
+
+He took a stride toward the door, pulled up, and hung in hesitation,
+frowning absently at the woman; who, without moving, laughed quietly
+and watched him with a twinkle of malicious diversion.
+
+He repaid this with a stare of thoughtful appraisal; from the first he
+had recognized in her a character of uncommon tolerance and amiability.
+
+"Pardon, madame, but----" he began abruptly--and checked in constrained
+appreciation of his impudence.
+
+"If that's permission to interrupt your reverie," Madame Omber
+remarked, "I don't mind telling you, you're the most extraordinary
+burglar I ever heard of!"
+
+Footfalls became audible on the staircase--the hasty scuffling of
+slippered feet.
+
+"Is that you, Sidonie?" madame called.
+
+The voice of the maid replied: "Yes, madame--coming!"
+
+"Well--don't, just yet--not till I call you."
+
+"Very good, madame."
+
+The woman returned complete attention to Lanyard.
+
+"Now, monsieur-of-two-minds, what is it you wish to say to me?"
+
+"Why did you do that?" the adventurer asked, with a jerk of his head
+toward the hall.
+
+"Tell Sidonie to wait instead of calling for help? Because--well,
+because you interest me strangely. I've got a theory you're in a
+desperate quandary and are about to throw yourself on my mercy."
+
+"You are right," Lanyard admitted tersely.
+
+"Ah! Now you do begin to grow interesting! Would you mind explaining
+why you think I'll be merciful?"
+
+"Because, madame, I've done you a great service, and feel I can count
+upon your gratitude."
+
+The Frenchwoman's eyebrows lifted at this. "Doubtless, monsieur knows
+what he's talking about----"
+
+"Listen, madame: I am in love with a young woman, an American, a
+stranger and friendless in Paris. If anything happens to me tonight, if
+I am arrested or assassinated----"
+
+"Is that likely?"
+
+"Quite likely, madame: I have enemies among the Apaches, and in my own
+profession as well; and I have reason to believe that several of them
+are in this neighbourhood tonight. I may possibly not escape their
+attentions. In that event, this young lady of whom I speak will need a
+protector."
+
+"And why must I interest myself in her fate, pray?"
+
+"Because, madame, of this service I have done you ... Recently, in
+London, you were robbed----"
+
+
+The woman started and coloured with excitement: "You know something of
+my jewels?"
+
+"Everything, madame: it was I who stole them."
+
+"You? You are, then, that Lone Wolf?"
+
+"I was, madame."
+
+"Why the past tense?" the woman demanded, eyeing him with a portentous
+frown.
+
+"Because I am done with thieving."
+
+She threw back her head and laughed, but without mirth: "A likely
+story, monsieur! Have you reformed since I caught you here----?"
+
+"Does it matter when? I take it that proof, visible, tangible proof of
+my sincerity, more than a meaningless date, would be needed to convince
+you."
+
+"No doubt of that, Monsieur the Lone Wolf!"
+
+"Could you ask better proof than the restoration of your stolen
+property?"
+
+"Are you trying to bribe me to let you off with an offer to return my
+jewels?"
+
+"I'm afraid emergency reformation wouldn't persuade you----"
+
+"You may well be afraid, monsieur!"
+
+"But if I can prove I've already restored your jewels----?"
+
+"But you have not."
+
+"If madame will do me the favour to open her safe, she will find them
+there--conspicuously placed."
+
+"What nonsense----!"
+
+"Am I wrong in assuming that madame didn't return from England until
+quite recently?"
+
+"But today, in fact----"
+
+"And you haven't troubled to investigate your safe since returning?"
+
+"It had not occurred to me----"
+
+"Then why not test my statement before denying it?"
+
+With an incredulous shrug Madame Omber terminated a puzzled scrutiny of
+Lanyard's countenance, and turned to the safe.
+
+"But to have done what you declare you have," she argued, "you must
+have known the combination--since it appears you haven't broken this
+open."
+
+The combination ran glibly off Lanyard's tongue. And at this, with
+every evidence of excitement, at length beginning to hope if not to
+believe, the woman set herself to open the safe. Within a minute she
+had succeeded, the morocco-bound jewel-case was in her hand, and a
+hasty examination had assured her its treasure was intact.
+
+"But why----?" she stammered, pale with emotion--"why, monsieur, _why_?"
+
+"Because I decided to leave off stealing for a livelihood."
+
+"When did you bring these jewels here?"
+
+"Within the week--four or five nights since----"
+
+"And then--repented, eh?"
+
+"I own it."
+
+"But came here again tonight, to steal a second time what you had
+stolen once?"
+
+"That's true, too."
+
+"And I interrupted you----"
+
+
+"Pardon, madame: not you, but my better self. I came to steal--I could
+not."
+
+"Monsieur--you do not convince. I fail to fathom your motives, but----"
+
+A sudden shock of heavy trampling feet in the reception-hall,
+accompanied by a clash of excited voices, silenced her and brought
+Lanyard instantly to the face-about.
+
+Above that loud wrangle--of which neither had received the least
+warning, so completely had their argument absorbed them--Sidonie's
+accents were audible:
+
+"Madame--madame!"--a cry of protest.
+
+"What is it?" madame demanded of Lanyard.
+
+He threw her the word "Police!" as he turned and flung himself into the
+recess of the window.
+
+But when he wrenched it open the voice of a picket on the lawn saluted
+him in sharp warning; and when, involuntarily, he stepped out upon the
+balcony, a flash of flame split the gloom below, a loud report rang in
+the quiet of the park, and a bullet slapped viciously the stone facing
+of the window.
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+RENDEZVOUS
+
+With as little ceremony as though the bullet had lodged in himself,
+Lanyard tumbled back into the room, tripped, and fell sprawling; while
+to a tune of clattering boots two sergents de ville lumbered valiantly
+into the library and pulled up to discover Madame Omber standing
+calmly, safe and sound, beside her desk, and Lanyard picking himself up
+from the floor by the open window.
+
+Behind them Sidonie trotted, wringing her hands.
+
+"Madame!" she bleated--"they wouldn't listen to me, madame--I couldn't
+stop them!"
+
+"All right, Sidonie. Go back to the hall. I'll call you when needed....
+Messieurs, good morning!"
+
+One of the sergents advanced with an uncertain salute and a superfluous
+question: "Madame Omber----?" The other waited on the threshold,
+barring the way.
+
+Lanyard measured the two speculatively: the spokesman seemed a bit old
+and fat, ripe for his pension, little apt to prove seriously effective
+in a rough-and-tumble; but the other was young, sturdy, and
+broad-chested, with the poise of an athlete, and carried in addition to
+his sword a pistol naked in his hand, while his clear blue eyes,
+meeting the adventurer's, lighted up with a glint of invitation.
+
+For the present, however, Lanyard wasn't taking any. He met that
+challenge with a look of utter stupidity, folded his arms, lounged
+against the desk, and watched Madame Omber acknowledge, none too
+cordially, the other sergent's query.
+
+"I am Madame Omber--yes. What can I do for you?"
+
+The sergent gaped. "Pardon!" he stammered, then laughed as one who
+tardily appreciates a joke. "It is well we are arrived in time,
+madame," he added--"though it would seem you have not had great trouble
+with this miscreant. Where is the woman?"
+
+He moved a pace toward Lanyard: hand-cuffs jingled in his grasp.
+
+"But a moment!" madame interposed. "Woman? What woman?"
+
+Pausing, the older sergent explained in a tone of surprise:
+
+"But his accomplice, naturally! Such were our instructions--to proceed
+at once to madame's hotel, come in quietly by the servants'
+entrance--which would be open--and arrest a burglar with his female
+accomplice."
+
+Again the stout sergent moved toward Lanyard; again Madame Omber
+stopped him.
+
+"But one moment more, if you please!"
+
+Her eyes, dense with suspicion, questioned Lanyard; who, with a
+significant nod toward the jewel-case still in her hands, gave her a
+glance of dumb entreaty.
+
+After brief hesitation, "It is a mistake," madame declared; "there is
+no woman in this house, to my certain knowledge, who has no right to be
+here... But you say you received a message? I sent none!"
+
+The fat sergent shrugged. "That is not for me to dispute, madame. I
+have only my orders to go by."
+
+He glared sullenly at Lanyard; who returned a placid smile that
+(despite such hope as he might derive from madame's irresolute manner)
+masked a vast amount of trepidation. He felt tolerably sure Madame
+Omber had not sent for police on prior knowledge of his presence in the
+library. All this, then, would seem to indicate a new form of attack on
+the part of the Pack. He had probably been followed and seen to enter;
+or else the girl had been caught attempting to steal away and the
+information wrung from her by _force majeure_.... Moreover, he could
+hear two more pair of feet tramping through the salons.
+
+
+Pending the arrival of these last, Madame Omber said nothing more.
+
+And, unceremoniously enough, the newcomers shouldered into the
+library--one pompous uniformed body, of otherwise undistinguished
+appearance, promptly identified by the sergents de ville as monsieur le
+commissaire of that quarter; the other, a puffy mediocrity, known to
+Lanyard at least (if apparently to no one else) as Popinot.
+
+At this confirmation of his darkest fears, the adventurer abandoned
+hope of aid from Madame Omber and began quietly to reckon his chances
+of escape through his own efforts.
+
+But he was quite unarmed, and the odds were heavy: four against one,
+all four no doubt under arms, and two at least--the sergents--men of
+sound military training.
+
+"Madame Omber?" enquired the commissaire, saluting that lady with
+immense dignity. "One trusts that this intrusion may be pardoned, the
+circumstances remembered. In an affair of this nature, involving this
+repository of so historic treasures--"
+
+"That is quite well understood, monsieur le commissaire," madame
+replied distantly. "And this monsieur is, no doubt, your aide?"
+
+"Pardon!" the official hastened to identify his companion: "Monsieur
+Popinot, agent de la Surete, who lays these informations!"
+
+With a profound obeisance to Madame Omber, Popinot strode dramatically
+over to confront Lanyard and explore his features with his small, keen,
+shifty eyes of a pig; a scrutiny which the adventurer suffered with
+superficial calm.
+
+"It is he!" Popinot announced with a gesture. "Messieurs, I call upon
+you to arrest this man, Michael Lanyard, alias 'The Lone Wolf.'"
+
+He stepped back a pace, expanding his chest in vain effort to eclipse
+his abdomen, and glanced triumphantly at his respectful audience.
+
+"Accused," he added with intense relish, "of the murder of Inspector
+Roddy of Scotland Yard at Troyon's, as well as of setting fire to that
+establishment--"
+
+"For this, Popinot," Lanyard interrupted in an undertone, "I shall some
+day cut off your ears!" He turned to Madame Omber: "Accept, if you
+please, madame, my sincere regrets ... but this charge happens to be
+one of which I am altogether innocent."
+
+Instantly, from lounging against the desk, Lanyard straightened up: and
+the heavy humidor of brass and mahogany, on which his right hand had
+been resting, seemed fairly to leap from its place as, with a sweep of
+his arm, he sent it spinning point-blank at the younger sergent.
+
+
+Before that one, wholly unprepared, could more than gasp, the humidor
+caught him a blow like a kick just below the breastbone. He reeled, the
+breath left him in one great gust, he sat down abruptly--blue eyes wide
+with a look of aggrieved surprise--clapped both hands to his middle,
+blinked, turned pale, and keeled over on his side.
+
+But Lanyard hadn't waited to note results. He was busy. The fat sergent
+had leaped snarling upon his arm, and was struggling to hold it still
+long enough to snap a hand-cuff round the wrist; while the commissaire
+had started forward with a bellow of rage and two hands extended and
+itching for the adventurer's throat.
+
+The first received a half-arm jab on the point of his chin that jarred
+his entire system, and without in the least understanding how it
+happened, found himself whirled around and laid prostrate in the
+commissaire's path. The latter tripped, fell, and planted two hard
+knees, with the bulk of his weight atop them, on the apex of the
+sergent's paunch.
+
+At the same time Lanyard, leaping toward the doorway, noticed Popinot
+tugging at something in his hip-pocket.
+
+Followed a vivid flash, then complete darkness: with a well-aimed
+kick--an elementary movement of la savate--Lanyard had dislocated the
+switch of the electric lights, knocking its porcelain box from the
+wall, breaking the connection, and creating a short-circuit which
+extinguished every light in that part of the house.
+
+With his way thus apparently cleared, the police in confusion, darkness
+aiding him, Lanyard plunged on; but in mid-stride, as he crossed the
+threshold, his ankle was caught by the still prostrate younger sergent
+and jerked from under him.
+
+His momentum threw him with a crash--and may have spared him a worse
+mishap; for in the same breath he heard the report of a pistol and knew
+that Popinot had fired at his fugitive shadow.
+
+As he brought one heel down with crushing force on the sergent's wrist,
+freeing his foot, he was dimly conscious of the voice of the
+commissaire shouting frantic prayers to cease firing. Then the
+pain-maddened sergent crawled to his knees, lunged blindly forward,
+knocked the adventurer back in the act of rising, and fell on top of
+him.
+
+Hampered by two hundred pounds of fighting Frenchman, Lanyard felt his
+cause was lost, yet battled on--and would while breath was in him.
+
+With a heave, a twist and a squirm, he slipped from under, and swinging
+a fist at random barked his knuckles against the mouth of the sergent.
+Momentarily that one relaxed his hold, and Lanyard struggled to his
+knees, only to go down as the indomitable Frenchman grappled yet a
+second time.
+
+Now, however, as they fell, Lanyard was on top: and shifting both hands
+to his antagonist's left forearm, he wrenched it up and around. There
+was a cry of pain, and he jumped clear of one no longer to be reckoned
+with.
+
+Nevertheless, as he had feared, the delay had proved ruinous. He had
+only found his feet when an unidentified person hurled himself bodily
+through the gloom and wrapped his arms round Lanyard's thighs. And as
+both went down, two others piled up on top....
+
+For the next minute or two, Lanyard fought blindly, madly, viciously,
+striking and kicking at random. For all that--even with one sergent
+hors de combat--they were three to one; and though with the ferocity of
+sheer desperation he shook them all off, at one time, and gained a few
+yards more, it was only again to be overcome and borne down, crushed
+beneath the weight of three.
+
+His wind was going, his strength was leaving him. He mustered up every
+ounce of energy, all his wit and courage, for one last effort: fought
+like a cat, tooth and nail; toiled once more to his knees, with two
+clinging to him like wolves to the flanks of a stag; shook one off,
+regained his feet, swayed; and in one final gust of ferocity dashed
+both fists repeatedly into the face of him who still clung to him.
+
+That one was Popinot; he knew instinctively that this was so; and a
+grim joy filled him as he felt the man's clutches relax and fall away,
+and guessed how brutal was the damage he had done that fat, evil face.
+
+At length free, he made off, running, stumbling, reeling: gained the
+hall; flung open the door; and heedless of the picket who had fired on
+him from below the window, dashed down the steps and away....
+
+Three shots sped him through that intricate tangle of night-bound park.
+But all went wide; the pursuit--what little there was--blundered off at
+hap-hazard and lost itself, as well.
+
+He came to the wall, crept along in shelter of its shadow until he
+found a tree with a low-swung branch that jutted out over the street,
+climbed this, edged out over the wall, and dropped to the sidewalk.
+
+A shout from the quarter of the carriage gates greeted his appearance.
+He turned and ran again. Flying footsteps for a time pursued him; and
+once, with a sinking heart, he heard the rumble of a motor. But he
+recovered quickly, regained his wind, and ran well, with long, steady,
+ground-consuming strides; and he doubled, turned and twisted in a
+manner to wake the envy of the most subtle fox.
+
+In time he felt warranted in slowing down to a rapid walk.
+
+Weariness was now a heavy burden upon him, and his spirit numb with
+desperate need of rest; but his pace did not flag, nor his purpose
+falter from its goal.
+
+It was a long walk if a direct one to which he set himself as soon as
+confident the pursuit had failed once more. He plodded on, without
+faltering, to the one place where he might feel sure of finding his
+beloved, if she lived and were free. He knew that she had not
+forgotten, and in his heart he knew that she would never again of her
+own will fail him....
+
+Nor had she: when--weary and spent from that heartbreaking climb up the
+merciless acclivity of the Butte Montmartre--he staggered rather than
+walked past the sleepy verger and found his way through the crowding
+shadows to the softly luminous heart of the basilica of the Sacre-Cour,
+he found her there, kneeling, her head bowed upon hands resting on the
+back of the chair before her: a slight and timid figure, lost and
+lonely in the long ranks of empty chairs that filled the nave.
+
+Slowly, almost fearfully, he went to her, and silently he slipped into
+the chair by her side.
+
+She knew, without looking up, that it was he....
+
+After a little her hand stole out, closed round his fingers, and drew
+him forward with a gentle, insistent pressure. He knelt then with her,
+hand in hand--filled with the wonder of it, that he to whom religion
+had been nothing should have been brought to this by a woman's hand.
+
+He knelt for a long time, for many minutes, profoundly intrigued, his
+sombre gaze questioning the golden shadows and ancient mystery of the
+distant choir and shining altar: and there was no question in his heart
+but that, whatever should ensue of this, the unquiet spirit of the Lone
+Wolf was forevermore at rest.
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+WINGS OF THE MORNING
+
+About half-past six Lanyard left the dressing-room assigned him in the
+barracks at Port Aviation and, waddling quaintly in the heavy
+wind-resisting garments supplied him at the instance of Ducroy, made
+his way between two hangars toward the practice field.
+
+Now the eastern skies were pulsing with fitful promise of the dawn; but
+within the vast enclosure of the aerodrome the gloom of night lingered
+so stubbornly that two huge search-lights had been pressed into the
+service of those engaged in tuning up the motor of the Parrott biplane.
+
+In the intense, white, concentrated glare--that rippled oddly upon the
+wrinkled, oily garments of the dozen or so mechanics busy about the
+machine--the under sides of those wide, motionless planes hung against
+the dark with an effect of impermanence: as though they were already
+afloat and needed but a breath to send them winging skyward....
+
+To one side a number of young and keen-faced Frenchmen, officers of the
+corps, were lounging and watching the preparations with alert and
+intelligent interest.
+
+To the other, all the majesty of Mars was incarnate in the person of
+Monsieur Ducroy, posing valiantly in fur-lined coat and shining top-hat
+while he chatted with an officer whose trim, athletic figure was well
+set off by his aviating uniform.
+
+As Lanyard drew near, this last brought his heels together smartly,
+saluted the Minister of War, and strode off toward the flying-machine.
+
+"Captain Vauquelin informs me he will be ready to start in five
+minutes, monsieur," Ducroy announced. "You are in good time."
+
+"And mademoiselle?" the adventurer asked, peering anxiously round.
+
+Almost immediately the girl came forward from the shadows, with a smile
+apologetic for the strangeness of her attire.
+
+She had donned, over her street dress, an ample leather garment which
+enveloped her completely, buttoning tight at throat and wrists and
+ankles. Her small hat had been replaced by a leather helmet which left
+only her eyes, nose, mouth and chin exposed, and even these were soon
+to be hidden by a heavy veil for protection against spattering oil.
+
+"Mademoiselle is not nervous?" Ducroy enquired politely.
+
+Lucy smiled brightly.
+
+"I? Why should I be, monsieur?"
+
+"I trust mademoiselle will permit me to commend her courage. But
+pardon! I have one last word for the ear of Captain Vauquelin."
+
+Lifting his hat, the Frenchman joined the group near the machine.
+
+Lanyard stared unaffectedly at the girl, unable to disguise his wonder
+at the high spirits advertised by her rekindled colour and brilliant
+eyes.
+
+"Well?" she demanded gaily. "Don't tell me I don't look like a fright!
+I know I do!"
+
+"I daren't tell you how you look to me," Lanyard replied soberly. "But
+I will say this, that for sheer, down right pluck, you--"
+
+"Thank you, monsieur! And you?"
+
+He glanced with a deprecatory smile at the flimsy-looking contrivance
+to which they were presently to entrust their lives.
+
+"Somehow," said he doubtfully, "I don't feel in the least upset or
+exhilarated. It seems little out of the average run of life--all in the
+day's work!"
+
+"I think," she said, judgmatical, "that you're very like the other lone
+wolf, the fictitious one--Lupin, you know--a bit of a blagueur. If
+you're not nervous, why keep glancing over there?--as if you were
+rather expecting somebody--as if you wouldn't be surprised to see
+Popinot or De Morbihan pop out of the ground--or Ekstrom!"
+
+"Hum!" he said gravely. "I don't mind telling you now, that's precisely
+what I am afraid of."
+
+"Nonsense!" the girl cried in open contempt. "What could they do?"
+
+"Please don't ask me," Lanyard begged seriously. "I might try to tell
+you."
+
+"But don't worry, my dear!" Fugitively her hand touched his. "We're
+ready."
+
+It was true enough: Ducroy was moving impressively back toward them.
+
+"All is prepared," he announced in sonorous accents.
+
+A bit sobered, in silence they approached the machine.
+
+Vauquelin kept himself aloof while Lanyard and a young officer helped
+the girl to the seat to the right of the pilot, and strapped her in.
+When Lanyard had been similarly secured in the place on the left, the
+two sat, imprisoned, some six feet above the ground.
+
+Lanyard found his perch comfortable enough. A broad band of webbing
+furnished support for his back; another crossed his chest by way of
+provision against forward pitching; there were rests for his feet, and
+for his hands cloth-wound grips fixed to struts on either side.
+
+He smiled at Lucy across the empty seat, and was surprised at the
+clearness with which her answering smile was visible. But he wasn't to
+see it again for a long and weary time; almost immediately she began to
+adjust her veil.
+
+The morning had grown much lighter within the last few minutes.
+
+A long wait ensued, during which the swarm of mechanics, assistants and
+military aviators buzzed round their feet like bees.
+
+The sky was now pale to the western horizon. A fleet of heavy clouds
+was drifting off into the south, leaving in their wake thin veils of
+mist that promised soon to disappear before the rays of the sun. The
+air seemed tolerably clear and not unseasonably cold.
+
+The light grew stronger still: features of distant objects defined
+themselves; traces of colour warmed the winter landscape.
+
+At length their pilot, wearing his wind-mask, appeared and began to
+climb to his perch. With a cool nod for Lanyard and a civil bow to his
+woman passenger, he settled himself, adjusted several levers, and
+flirted a gay hand to his brother-officers.
+
+There was a warning cry. The crowd dropped back rapidly to either side.
+Ducroy lifted his hat in parting salute, cried "Bon voyage!" and
+scuttled clear like a startled rooster before a motor-car. And the
+motor and propeller broke loose with a mighty roar comparable only, in
+Lanyard's fancy, to the chant of ten thousand rivetting locusts.
+
+He felt momentarily as if his ear-drums must burst with the incessant
+and tremendous concussions registered upon them; but presently this
+sensation passed, leaving him with that of permanent deafness.
+
+Before he could recover and regain control of his startled wits the
+aviator had thrown down a lever, and the great fabric was in motion.
+
+It swept down the field like a frightened swan; and the wheels of its
+chassis, registering every infinitesimal irregularity in the surface of
+the ground, magnified them all a hundred-fold. It was like riding in a
+tumbril driven at top-speed over the Giant's Causeway. Lanyard was
+shaken violently to the very marrow of his bones; he believed that even
+his eyes must be rattling in their sockets....
+
+Then the Parrott began to ascend. Singularly enough, this change was
+marked, at first, by no more than slight lessening of the vibration:
+still the machine seemed to be dashing over a cobbled thoroughfare at
+breakneck speed; and Lanyard found it difficult to appreciate that they
+were afloat, even when he looked down and discovered a hundred feet of
+space between himself and the practice-field.
+
+In another breath they were soaring over housetops.
+
+Momentarily, now, the shocks became less frequent. And presently they
+ceased almost altogether, to be repeated only at rare intervals, when
+the drift of air opposing the planes developed irregularities in its
+velocity. There succeeded, in contrast, the sublimest peace; even the
+roaring of the propeller dwindled to a sustained drone; the biplane
+seemed to float without an effort upon a vast, still sea, flawed only
+occasionally by inconsiderable ripples.
+
+Still rising, they surprised the earliest rays of the sun; and in their
+virgin light the aeroplane was transformed into a thing of gossamer
+gold.
+
+Continually the air buffeted their faces like a flood of icy water.
+
+Below, the scroll of the world unrolled like some vast and intricately
+illuminated missal, or like some strange mosaic, marvellously minute....
+
+Lanyard could see the dial of the compass, fixed to a strut on the
+pilot's left. By that telltale their course lay nearly due northeast.
+Already the weltering roofs of Paris were in sight, to the right, the
+Eiffel Tower spearing up like a fairy pillar of gold lace-work, the
+Seine looping the cluttered acres like a sleek brown serpent, the
+Sacre-Coeur a dream-palace of opalescent walls.
+
+Versailles broke the horizon to port and slipped astern. Paris closed
+up, telescoped its panorama, became a mere blur, a smoky smudge. But it
+was long before the distance eclipsed that admonitory finger of the
+Eiffel.
+
+Vauquelin manipulating the levers, the plane tilted its nose and swam
+higher and yet higher. The song of the motor dropped an octave to a
+richer tone. The speed was sensibly increased.
+
+Lanyard contemplated with untempered wonder the fact of his equanimity:
+there seemed nothing at all strange in this extraordinary experience;
+he was by no means excited, remained merely if deeply interested. And
+he could detect in his physical sensations no trace of that qualmish
+dread he always experienced in high places: the sense he had of
+security, of solidity, was and ever remained wholly unaccountable in
+his understanding.
+
+Of a sudden, surprised by a touch on his arm, he turned to see through
+the mica windows of the wind-mask the eyes of the aviator informed with
+importunate doubt. Infinitely mystified and so an easy prey to
+sickening fear lest something were going wrong with the machine,
+Lanyard shook his head to indicate lack of comprehension. With an
+impatient gesture the aviator pointed downward. Appreciating the fact
+that speech was impossible, Lanyard clutched the struts and bent
+forward. But the pace was now so fast and their elevation so great that
+the landscape swimming beneath his vision was no more than a brownish
+plain fugitively maculated with blots of contrasting colour.
+
+He looked up blankly, but only to be treated to the same gesture.
+
+Piqued, he concentrated attention more closely upon the flat, streaming
+landscape. And suddenly he recognized something oddly familiar in an
+approaching bend of the Seine.
+
+"St.-Germain-en-Laye!" he exclaimed with a start of alarm.
+
+This was the danger point....
+
+"And over there," he reminded himself--"to the left--that wide field
+with a queer white thing in the middle that looks like a winged
+grub--that must be De Morbihan's aerodrome and his Valkyr monoplane!
+Are they bringing it out? Is that what Vauquelin means? And if so--what
+of it? I don't see ..."
+
+Suddenly doubt and wonder chilled the adventurer.
+
+Temporarily Vauquelin returned entire attention to the management of
+the biplane. The wind was now blowing more fitfully, creating
+pockets--those holes in the air so dreaded by cloud pilots--and in
+quest of more constant resistance the aviator was swinging his craft in
+ a wide northerly curve, climbing ever higher and more high.
+
+The earth soon lost all semblance of design; even the twisted silver
+wire of the Seine vanished, far over to the left; remained only the
+effect of firm suspension in that high blue vault, of a continuous low
+of iced water in the face, together with the tuneless chanting of the
+motor.
+
+After some forty minutes of this--it may have been an hour, for time
+was then an incalculable thing--Lanyard, in a mood of abnormal
+sensitiveness, began to divine additional disquiet in the mind of the
+aviator, and stared until he caught his eye.
+
+"What is it?" he screamed in futile effort to lift his voice above the
+din.
+
+But the Frenchman understood, and responded with a sweep of his arm
+toward the horizon ahead. And seeing nothing but cloud in the quarter
+indicated, Lanyard grasped the nature of a phenomenon which, from the
+first, had been vaguely troubling him. The reason why he had been able
+to perceive no real rim to the world was that the earth was all a-steam
+from the recent heavy rains; all the more remote distances were veiled
+with rising vapour. And now they were approaching the coast, to which,
+it seemed, the mists clung closest; for all the world before them slept
+beneath a blanket of dull grey.
+
+Nor was it difficult now to understand why the aviator was ill at ease
+facing the prospect of navigating a Channel fog.
+
+Several minutes later, he startled Lanyard with another peremptory
+touch on his arm followed by a significant glance over his shoulder.
+
+Lanyard turned quickly.
+
+Behind them, at a distance which he calculated roughly as two miles,
+the silhouette of a monoplane hung against the brilliant firmament,
+resembling, with its single spread of wings, more a solitary, soaring
+gull than any man-directed mechanism.
+
+Only an infrequent and almost imperceptible shifting of the wings
+proved that it was moving.
+
+He watched it for several seconds, in deepening perplexity and anxiety,
+finding it impossible to guess whether it were gaining or losing in
+that long chase, or who might be its pilot.
+
+Yet he had little doubt but that the pursuing machine had risen from
+the aerodrome of Count Remy de Morbihan at St.-Germain-en-Laye; that it
+was nothing less, in fact, than De Morbihan's Valkyr, reputed the
+fastest monoplane in Europe and winner of a dozen International events;
+and that it was guided, if not by De Morbihan himself, by one of the
+creatures of the Pack--quite possibly, even more probably, by Ekstrom!
+
+But--assuming all this--what evil could such pursuit portend? In what
+conceivable manner could the Pack reckon to further its ends by
+commissioning the monoplane to overtake or distance the Parrott? They
+could not hinder the escape of Lanyard and Lucy Shannon to England in
+any way, by any means reasonably to be imagined.
+
+Was this simply one more move to keep the pair under espionage? But
+that might more readily have been accomplished by telegraphing or
+telephoning the Pack's confreres, Wertheimer's associates in England!
+
+Lanyard gave it up, admitting his inability to trump up any sane excuse
+for such conduct; but the riddle continued to fret his mind without
+respite.
+
+From the first, from that moment when Lucy's disappearance had required
+postponement of this flight, he had feared trouble; it hadn't seemed
+reasonable to hope that the Parrott could be held in waiting on his
+convenience for many days without the secret leaking out; but it was
+trouble to develop before the start from Port Aviation that he had
+anticipated. The possibility that the Pack would be able to work any
+mischief to him, after that, had never entered his calculations. Even
+now he found it difficult to give it serious consideration.
+
+Again he glanced back. Now, in his judgment, the monoplane loomed
+larger than before against the glowing sky, indicating that it was
+overtaking them.
+
+Beneath his breath Lanyard swore from a brimming heart.
+
+The Parrott was capable of a speed of eighty miles an hour; and
+unquestionably Vauquelin was wheedling every ounce of power out of its
+willing motor. Since drawing Lanyard's attention to the pursuer he had
+brought about appreciable acceleration.
+
+But would even that pace serve to hold the Valkyr if not to distance it?
+
+His next backward look reckoned the monoplane no nearer.
+
+And another thirty minutes or go elapsed without the relative positions
+of the two flying machines undergoing any perceptible change.
+
+In the course of this period the Parrott rose to an altitude, indicated
+by the barograph at Lanyard's elbow, of more than half a mile. Below,
+the Channel fog spread itself out like a sea of milk, slowly churning.
+
+Staring down in fascination, Lanyard told himself gravely: "Blue water
+ below that, my friend!"
+
+It seemed difficult to credit the fact that they had made the flight
+from Paris in so short a time.
+
+By his reckoning--a very rough one--the Parrott was then somewhere off
+Dieppe: it ought to pick up England, in such case, not far from
+Brighton. If only one could see...!
+
+By bending forward a little and staring past the aviator Lanyard could
+catch a glimpse of Lucy Shannon.
+
+Though all her beauty and grace of person were lost in the clumsy
+swaddling of her makeshift costume, she seemed to be comfortable
+enough; and the rushing air, keen with the chill of that great
+altitude, moulded her wind-veil precisely to the exquisite contours of
+her face and stung her firm cheeks until they glowed with a rare fire
+that even that thick dark mesh could not wholly quench.
+
+The sun crept above the floor of mist, played upon it with iridescent
+rays, shot it through and through with a warm, pulsating glow like that
+of a fire opal, and suddenly turned it to a tumbled sea of gold which,
+apparently boundless, baffled every effort to surmise their position,
+whether they were above land or sea.
+
+None the less Lanyard's rough and rapid calculations persuaded him that
+they were then about Mid-Channel.
+
+He had no more than arrived at this conclusion when a sharp, startled
+movement, that rocked the planes, drew his attention to the man at his
+side.
+
+Glancing in alarm at the aviator's face, he saw it as white as
+marble--what little of it was visible beyond and beneath the wind-mask.
+
+Vauquelin was holding out an arm, and staring at it incredulously;
+Lanyard's gaze was drawn to the same spot--a ragged perforation in the
+sleeve of the pilot's leather surtout, just above the elbow.
+
+"What is it?" he enquired stupidly, again forgetting that he could not
+be heard.
+
+The eyes of the aviator, lifting from the perforation to meet Lanyard's
+stare, were clouded with consternation.
+
+Then Vauquelin turned quickly and looked back. Simultaneously he ducked
+his head and something slipped whining past Lanyard's cheek, touching
+his flesh with a touch more chill than that of the icy air itself.
+
+"Damnation!" he shrieked, almost hysterically. "That madman in the
+Valkyr is firing at us!"
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+THE FLYING DEATH
+
+Steadying himself with a splendid display of self-control and sheer
+courage, Captain Vauquelin concentrated upon the management of the
+biplane.
+
+The drone of its motor thickened again, its speed became greater, and
+the machine began to rise still higher, tracing a long, graceful curve.
+
+Lanyard glanced apprehensively toward the girl, but apparently she
+remained unconscious of anything out of the ordinary. Her face was
+still turned forward, and still the wind-veil trembled against her
+glowing cheeks.
+
+Thanks to the racket of the motor, no audible reports had accompanied
+the sharp-shooting of the man in the monoplane; while Lanyard's cry of
+horror and dismay had been audible to himself exclusively. Hearing
+nothing, Lucy suspected nothing.
+
+Again Lanyard looked back.
+
+Now the Valkyr seemed to have crept up to within the quarter of a mile
+of the biplane, and was boring on at a tremendous pace, its single
+spread of wings on an approximate level with that of the lower plane of
+the Parrott.
+
+But this last was rising steadily....
+
+The driver's seat of the Valkyr held a muffled, burly figure that might
+be anybody--De Morbihan, Ekstrom, or any other homicidal maniac. At the
+distance its actions were as illegible as their results were
+unquestionable: Lanyard saw a little tongue of flame lick out from a
+point close beside the head of the figure--he couldn't distinguish the
+firearm itself--and, like Vauquelin, quite without premeditation, he
+ducked.
+
+At the same time there sounded a harsh, ripping noise immediately above
+his head; and he found himself staring up at a long ragged tear in the
+canvas, caused by the bullet striking it aslant.
+
+"What's to be done?" he screamed passionately at Vauquelin.
+
+The aviator shook his head impatiently; and they continued to ascend;
+already the web of gold that cloaked earth and sea seemed thrice as far
+beneath their feet as it had when Vauquelin made the appalling
+discovery of his bullet-punctured sleeve.
+
+But the monoplane was doggedly following suit; as the Parrott rose, so
+did the Valkyr, if a trace more slowly and less flexibly.
+
+Lanyard had read somewhere, or heard it said, that monoplanes were poor
+machines for climbing. He told himself that, if this were true,
+Vauquelin knew his business; and from this reflection drew what comfort
+he might.
+
+And he was glad, very glad of the dark wind-veil that shrouded his
+face, which he believed to be nothing less than a mask of panic terror.
+
+He was, in fact, quite rigid with fright and horror. It were idle to
+argue that only unlikely chance would wing one of the bullets from the
+Valkyr to a vital point: there was the torn canvas overhead, there was
+that hole through Vauquelin's sleeve....
+
+And then the barograph on the strut beside Lanyard disappeared as if by
+magic. He was aware of a slight jar; the framework of the biplane
+quivered as from a heavy blow; something that resembled a handful of
+black crumbs sprayed out into the air ahead and vanished: and where the
+instrument had been, nothing remained but an iron clamp gripping the
+strut.
+
+And even as any one of these bullets might have proved fatal, their
+first successor might disable the aviator if it did not slay him
+outright; in either case, the inevitable result would be death
+following a fall from a height, as recorded on the barograph dial an
+instant before its destruction, of more than four thousand feet.
+
+They were still climbing....
+
+Now the pursuer was losing some of the advantage of his superior speed;
+the Parrott was perceptibly higher; the Valkyr must needs mount in a
+more sweeping curve.
+
+None the less, Lanyard, peering down, saw still another tongue of flame
+spit out at him; and two bullet-holes appeared in the port-side wings
+of the biplane, one in the lower, one in the upper spread of canvas.
+
+White-lipped and trembling, the adventurer began to work at the
+fastenings of his surtout. After a moment he plucked off one of his
+gloves and cast it impatiently from him. A-sprawl, it sailed down the
+wind like a wounded sparrow. He caught Vauquelin's eye upon him, quick
+with a curiosity which changed to a sudden gleam of comprehension as
+Lanyard, thrusting his hand under the leather coat, groped for his
+pocket and produced an automatic pistol which Ducroy had pressed upon
+his acceptance.
+
+They were now perhaps a hundred feet higher than the Valkyr, which was
+soaring a quarter of a mile off to starboard. Under the guidance of the
+Frenchman, the Parrott swooped round in a narrow circle until it hung
+almost immediately above the other--a manoeuvre requiring, first and
+last, something more than five minutes to effect.
+
+Meanwhile, Lanyard rebuttoned his surtout and clutched the pistol,
+trying hard not to think. But already his imagination was sick with the
+thought of what would ensue when the time came for him to carry out his
+purpose.
+
+Vauquelin touched his arm with urgent pressure; but Lanyard only shook
+his head, gulped, and without looking surrendered the weapon to the
+aviator....
+
+Bearing heavily against the chest-band, he commanded the broad white
+spread of the Valkyr's back and wings. Invisible beneath these hung the
+motor and driver's seat.
+
+An instant more, and he was aware that Vauquelin was leaning forward
+and looking down.
+
+Aiming with what deliberation was possible, the aviator emptied the
+clip of its eight cartridges in less than a minute.
+
+The vicious reports rang out against the drum of the motor like the
+cracking of a blacksnake-whip.
+
+Momentarily, Lanyard doubted if any one bullet had taken effect. He
+could not, with his swimming vision, detect sign of damage in the
+canvas of the Valkyr.
+
+He saw the empty automatic slip from Vauquelin'p numb and nerveless
+fingers. It vanished....
+
+A frightful fascination kept his gaze constant to the soaring Valkyr.
+
+Beyond it, down, deep down a mile of emptiness, was that golden floor
+of tumbled cloud, waiting ...
+
+He saw the monoplane check abruptly in its strong onward surge--as if
+it had run, full-tilt, head-on, against an invisible obstacle--and for
+what seemed a round minute it hung so, veering and wobbling, nuzzling
+the wind. Then like a sounding whale it turned and dived headlong,
+propeller spinning like a top.
+
+Down through the eighth of a mile of space it plunged plummet-like;
+then, perhaps caught in a flaw of wind, it turned sideways and began to
+revolve, at first slowly, but with increasing rapidity in its fatally
+swift descent.
+
+Toward the beginning of its revolutions, something was thrown off,
+something small, dark and sprawling ... like that glove which Lanyard
+had discarded. But this object dropped with a speed even greater than
+that of the Valkyr, in a brace of seconds had diminished to the
+proportions of a gnat, in another was engulfed in that vast sea of
+golden vapour.
+
+Even so the monoplane itself, scarcely less precipitate, spun down
+through the abyss and plunged to oblivion in the fog-rack....
+
+And Lanyard was still hanging against the chest-band, limp and spent
+and trying not to vomit, when, of a sudden and without any warning
+whatever, the stentorian chant of the motor ceased and was blotted up
+by that immense silence, by the terrible silence of those vast
+solitudes of the upper air, where never a sound is heard save the
+voices of the elements at war among themselves: a silence that rang
+with an accent as dreadful as the crack of Doom in the ears of those
+three suspended there, in the heart of that unimaginably pellucid and
+immaculate radiance, in the vast hollow of the heavens, midway between
+the deep blue of the eternal dome and the rose and golden welter of the
+fog--that fog which, cloaking earth and sea, hid as well every vestige
+of the tragedy they had wrought, every sign of the murder that they had
+done that they themselves might not be murdered and cast down to
+destruction.
+
+And, its propeller no longer gripping the air, the aeroplane drifted on
+at ever-lessening speed, until it had no way whatever and rested
+without motion of any sort; as it might have been in the cup of some
+mighty and invisible hand, held up to that stark and merciless light,
+under the passionless eye of the Infinite, to await a Judgment....
+
+Then, with a little shudder of hesitation, the planes dipped, inclined
+slightly earthwards, and began slowly and as if reluctantly to slip
+down the long and empty channels of the air.
+
+At this, rousing, Lanyard became aware of his own voice yammering
+wildly at Vauquelin:
+
+"Good God, man! Why did you do that?"
+
+Vauquelin answered only with a pale grimace and a barely perceptible
+shrug.
+
+Momentarily gathering momentum, the biplane sped downward with a
+resistless rush, with the speed of a great wind--a speed so great that
+when Lanyard again attempted speech, the breath was whipped from his
+lips and he could utter no sound.
+
+Thus from that awful height, from the still heart of that immeasurable
+void, they swept down and ever down, in a long series of sickening
+swoops, broken only by negligible pauses. And though they approached it
+on a long slant, the floor of vapour rose to meet them like a mighty
+rushing wave: in a trice the biplane was hovering instantaneously
+before plunging on down into that cold, grey world of fog.
+
+In that moment of hesitation, while still the adventurer gasped for
+breath and pawed at his streaming eyes with an aching hand, pierced
+through and through with cold, the fog showed itself as something less
+substantial than it had seemed; blurs of colour glowed through its
+folds of gauze, and with these the rounded summit of a brownish, knoll.
+
+Then they plunged on, down out of the bleak, bright sunshine into cool
+twilight depths of clinging vapours; and the good green earth lifted
+its warm bosom to receive them.
+
+Tilting its nose a trifle, fluttering as though undecided, the Parrott
+settled gracefully, with scarcely a Jar, upon a wide sweep of untilled
+land covered with short coarse grass.
+
+For some time the three remained in their perches like petrified
+things, quite moveless and--with the possible exception of the
+aviator--hardly conscious.
+
+But presently Lanyard became aware that he was regularly filling his
+lungs with air sweet, damp, wholesome, and by comparison warm, and that
+the blood was tingling painfully in his half-frozen hands and feet.
+
+He sighed as one waking from a strange dream.
+
+At the same time the aviator bestirred himself, and began a bit stiffly
+to climb down.
+
+Feeling the earth beneath his feet, he took a step or two away from the
+machine, reeling and stumbling like a drunken man, then turned back.
+
+"Come, my friend!" he urged Lanyard in a voice of strangely normal
+intonation--"look alive--if you're able--and lend me a hand with
+mademoiselle. I'm afraid she has fainted."
+
+The girl was reclining inertly in the bands of webbing, her eyes
+closed, her lips ajar, her limbs slackened.
+
+"Small blame to her!" Lanyard commented, fumbling clumsily with the
+chest-band. "That dive was enough to drive a body mad!"
+
+"But I had to do it!" the aviator protested earnestly. "I dared not
+remain longer up there. I have never before been afraid in the air, but
+after _that_ I was terribly afraid. I could feel myself going--taking
+leave of my senses--and I knew I must act if we were not to follow that
+other... God! what a death!"
+
+He paused, shuddered, and drew the back of his hand across his eyes
+before continuing: "So I cut off the ignition and volplaned. Here--my
+hand. So-o! All right, eh?"
+
+"Oh, I'm all right," Lanyard insisted confidently.
+
+But his confidence was belied by a look of daze; for the earth was
+billowing and reeling round him as though bewitched; and before he knew
+what had happened he sat down hard and stared foolishly up at the
+aviator.
+
+"Here!" said the latter courteously, his wind-mask hiding a smile--"my
+hand again, monsieur. You've endured more than you know. And now for
+mademoiselle."
+
+But when they approached the girl, she surprised both by shivering,
+sitting up, and obviously pulling herself together.
+
+"You feel better now, mademoiselle?" Vauquelin enquired, hastening to
+loosen her fastenings.
+
+
+"I'm better--yes, thank you," she admitted in a small, broken
+voice--"but not yet quite myself."
+
+She gave a hand to the aviator, the other to Lanyard, and as they
+helped her to the ground, Lanyard, warned by his experience, stood by
+with a ready arm.
+
+She needed that support, and for a few minutes didn't seem even
+conscious of it. Then gently disengaging, she moved a foot or two away.
+
+"Where are we--do you know?"
+
+"On the South Downs, somewhere?" Lanyard suggested, consulting
+Vauquelin.
+
+"That is probable," this last affirmed--"at all events, judging from
+the course I steered. Somewhere well in from the coast, at a venture; I
+don't hear the sea."
+
+"Near Lewes, perhaps?"
+
+"I have no reason to doubt that."
+
+A constrained pause ensued. The girl looked from the aviator to
+Lanyard, then turned away from both and, trembling with fatigue and
+enforcing self-control by clenching her hands, stared aimlessly off
+into the mist.
+
+Painfully, Lanyard set himself to consider their position.
+
+The Parrott had come to rest in what seemed to be a wide, shallow,
+saucer-like depression, whose irregular bounds were cloaked in fog. In
+this space no living thing stirred save themselves; and the waste was
+crossed by not so much as a sheep track. In brief, they were lost.
+There might be a road running past the saucer ten yards from its brim
+in any quarter. There might not. Possibly there was a town or village
+immediately adjacent. Quite as possibly the Downs billowed away for
+desolate miles on either hand.
+
+"Well--what do we do now?" the girl demanded suddenly, in a nervous
+voice, sharp and jarring.
+
+"Oh, we'll find a way out of this somehow," Vauquelin asserted
+confidently. "England isn't big enough for anybody to remain lost in
+it--not for long, at all events. I'm sorry only on Miss Shannon's
+account."
+
+"We'll manage, somehow," Lanyard affirmed stoutly.
+
+The aviator smiled curiously. "To begin with," he advanced, "I daresay
+we might as well get rid of these awkward costumes. They'll hamper
+walking--rather."
+
+In spite of his fatigue Lanyard was so struck by the circumstances that
+he couldn't help remarking it as he tore off his wind-veil.
+
+"Your English is remarkably good, Captain Vauquelin," he observed.
+
+The other laughed shortly.
+
+"Why not?" said he, removing his mask.
+
+Lanyard looked up into his face, stared, and fell back a pace.
+
+"Wertheimer!" he gasped.
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+DAYBREAK
+
+The Englishman smiled cheerfully in response to Lanyard's cry of
+astonishment.
+
+"In effect," he observed, stripping off his gauntlets, "you're right,
+Mr. Lanyard. 'Wertheimer' isn't my name, but it is so closely
+identified with my--ah--insinuative personality as to warrant the
+misapprehension. I shan't demand an apology so long as you permit me to
+preserve an incognito which may yet prove somewhat useful."
+
+"Incognito!" Lanyard stammered, utterly discountenanced. "Useful!"
+
+"You have my meaning exactly; although my work in Paris is now ended,
+there's no saying when it may not be convenient to be able to go back
+without establishing a new identity."
+
+Before Lanyard replied to this the look of wonder in his eyes had
+yielded to one of understanding.
+
+"Scotland Yard, eh?" he queried curtly.
+
+Wertheimer bowed. "Special agent," he added.
+
+"I might have guessed, if I'd had the wit of a goose!" Lanyard affirmed
+bitterly. "But I must admit..."
+
+"Yes," the Englishman assented pleasantly; "I did pull your leg--didn't
+I? But not more than our other friends. Of course, it's taken some
+time: I had to establish myself firmly as a shining light of the swell
+mob over here before De Morbihan would take me to his hospitable bosom."
+
+"I presume I'm to consider myself under arrest?"
+
+With a laugh, the Englishman shook his head vigorously.
+
+"No, thank you!" he declared. "I've had too convincing proof of your
+distaste for interference in your affairs. You fight too sincerely, Mr.
+Lanyard--and I'm a tired sleuth this very morning as ever was! I would
+need a week's rest to fit me for the job of taking you into custody--a
+week and some able-bodied assistance!... But," he amended with graver
+countenance, "I will say this: if you're in England a week hence, I'll
+be tempted to undertake the job on general principles. I don't in the
+least question the sincerity of your intention to behave yourself
+hereafter; but as a servant of the King, it's my duty to advise you
+that England would prefer you to start life anew--as they say--in
+another country. Several steamers sail for the States before the end of
+the week: further details I leave entirely to your discretion. But go
+you must," he concluded firmly.
+
+"I understand..." said Lanyard; and would have said more, but couldn't.
+There was something suspiciously like a mist before his eyes.
+
+Avoiding the faces of his sweetheart and the Englishman, he turned
+aside, put forth a hand blindly to a wing of the biplane to steady
+himself, and stood with head bowed and limbs trembling.
+
+Moving quietly to his side, the girl took his other hand and held it
+tight....
+
+Presently Lanyard shook himself impatiently and lifted his head again.
+
+
+"Sorry," he said, apologetic--"but your generosity--when I looked for
+nothing better than arrest--was a bit too much for my nerves!"
+
+"Nonsense!" the Englishman commented with brusque good-humour. "We're
+all upset. A drop of brandy will do us no end of good."
+
+Unbuttoning his leather surtout, he produced a flask from an inner
+pocket, filled its metal cup, and offered it to the girl.
+
+"You first, if you please, Miss Shannon. No--I insist. You positively
+need it."
+
+She allowed herself to be persuaded, drank, coughed, gasped, and
+returned the cup, which Wertheimer promptly refilled and passed to
+Lanyard.
+
+The raw spirits stung like fire, but proved an instant aid to the badly
+jangled nerves of the adventurer. In another moment he was much more
+himself.
+
+Drinking in turn, Wertheimer put away the flask. "That's better!" he
+commented. "Now I'll be able to cut along with this blessed machine
+without fretting over the fate of Ekstrom. But till now I haven't been
+able to forget----"
+
+He paused and drew a hand across his eyes.
+
+"It was, then, Ekstrom--you think?" Lanyard demanded.
+
+"Unquestionably! De Morbihan had learned--I know--of your bargain with
+Ducroy; and I know, too, that he and Ekstrom spent each morning in the
+hangars at St. Germain, after your sensational evasion. It never
+entered my head, of course, that they had any such insane scheme
+brewing as that--else I would never have so giddily arranged with
+Ducroy--through the Surete, you understand--to take Vauquelin's
+place.... Besides, who else could it have been? Not De Morbihan, for
+he's crippled for life, thanks to that affair in the Bois; not Popinot,
+who was on his way to the Sante, last I saw of him; and never
+Bannon--he was dead before I left Paris for Port Aviation."
+
+"Dead!"
+
+"Oh, quite!" the Englishman affirmed nonchalantly, "When we arrested
+him at three this morning--charged with complicity in the murder of
+Roddy--he flew into a passion that brought on a fatal haemorrhage. He
+died within ten minutes."
+
+There was a little silence....
+
+"I may tell you, Mr. Lanyard," the Englishman resumed, looking up from
+the motor, to which he was paying attentions with monkey-wrench and
+oil-can, "that you were quite off your bat when you ridiculed the idea
+of the 'International Underworld Unlimited.' Of course, if you _hadn't_
+laughed, I shouldn't feel quite as much respect for you as I do; in
+fact, the chances are you'd be in handcuffs or in a cell of the Sante,
+this very minute.... But, absurd as it sounded--and was--the
+'Underworld' project was a pet hobby of Bannon's--who'd been the brains
+of a gang of criminals in New York for many years. He was a bit touched
+on the subject: a monomaniac, if you ask me. And his enthusiasm won De
+Morbihan and Popinot over ... and me! He took a wonderful fancy to me,
+Bannon did; I really was appointed first-lieutenant in Greggs'
+stead.... So you first won my sympathy by laughing at my offer," said
+Wertheimer, restoring the oil-can to its place in the tool-kit;
+"wherein you were very wise.... In fact, my personal feeling for you is
+one of growing esteem, if you'll permit me to say so. You've most of
+the makings of a man. Will you shake hands--with a copper's nark?"
+
+He gave Lanyard's hand a firm and friendly grasp, and turned to the
+girl.
+
+"Good-bye, Miss Shannon. I'm truly grateful for the assistance you gave
+us. Without you, we'd have been sadly handicapped. I understand you
+have sent in your resignation? It's too bad: the Service will feel the
+loss of you. But I think you were right to leave us, the circumstances
+considered.... And now it's good-bye and good luck! I hope you may be
+happy.... I'm sure you can't go far without coming across a highroad or
+a village; but--for reasons not unconnected with my profession--I
+prefer to remain in ignorance of the way you go."
+
+Releasing her hand, he stepped back, saluted the lovers with a smile
+and gay gesture, and clambered briskly to the pilot's seat of the
+biplane.
+
+When firmly established, he turned the switch of the starting mechanism.
+
+The heavy, distinctive hum of the great motor filled that isolated
+hollow in the Downs like the purring of a dynamo.
+
+With a final wave of his hand, Wertheimer grasped the starting-lever.
+
+Its _brool_ deepening, the Parrott stirred, shot forward abruptly. In
+two seconds it was fifty yards distant, its silhouette already blurred,
+its wheels lifting from the rim of the hollow.
+
+Then lightly it leaped, soared, parted the mists, vanished....
+
+For some time Lanyard and Lucy Shannon remained motionless, clinging
+together, hand-in-hand, listening to the drone that presently dwindled
+to a mere thread of sound and died out altogether in the obscurity
+above them.
+
+Then, turning, they faced each other, smiling a trace uncertainly, a
+smile that said: "So all that is finished! ... Or, perhaps, we dreamed
+it!"...
+
+Suddenly, with a low cry, the girl gave herself to Lanyard's arms; and
+as this happened the mists parted and bright sunlight flooded the
+hollow in the Downs.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lone Wolf, by Louis Joseph Vance
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