IN WHICH A WOMAN ACCUSES ME OF MURDER AND
I PLACE A RUBY NECKLACE ABOUT HER THROAT
~1~
Anxious to renew my acquaintance with Captain Grauble at the earliest
opportunity, I sent my social secretary to invite him to meet me for a
dinner engagement in one of the popular halls of the Free Level.
When I reached the dining hall I found Captain Grauble awaiting me. But
he was not alone. Seated with him were two girls and so strange a
picture of contrast I had never seen. The girl on his right was an
extreme example of the prevailing blonde type. Her pinkish white skin
seemed transparent, her eyes were the palest blue and her hair was
bright yet pale gold. About her neck was a chain of blue stones linked
with platinum. She was dressed in a mottled gown of light blue and gold,
and so subtly blended were the colours that she and her gown seemed to
be part of the same created thing. But on Grauble's left sat a woman
whose gown was flashing crimson slashed with jetty black. Her skin was
white with a positive whiteness of rare marble and her cheeks and lips
flamed with blood's own red. The sheen of her hair was that of a raven's
wing, and her eyes scintillated with the blackness of polished jade.
The pale girl, whom Grauble introduced as Elsa, languidly reached up her
pink fingers for me to kiss and then sank back, eyeing me with mild
curiosity. But as I now turned to be presented to the other, I saw the
black-eyed beauty shrink and cower in an uncanny terror. Grauble again
repeated my name and then the name of the girl, and I, too, started in
fear, for the name he pronounced was "Katrina" and there flashed before
my vision the page from the diary that I had first read in the dank
chamber of the potash mine. In my memory's vision the words flamed and
shouted: "In no other woman have I seen such a blackness of hair and
eyes, combined with such a whiteness of skin."
The girl before me gave no sign of recognition, but only gripped the
table and pierced me with the stare of her beady eyes. Nervously I sank
into a seat. Grauble, standing over the girl, looked down at her in
angry amazement. "What ails you?" he said roughly, shaking her by
the shoulder.
But the girl did not answer him and annoyed and bewildered, he sat down.
For some moments no one spoke, and even the pale Elsa leaned forward and
seemed to quiver with excitement.
Then the girl, Katrina, slowly rose from her chair. "Who are you?" she
demanded, in a hoarse, guttural voice, still gazing at me with
terrified eyes.
I did not answer, and Grauble again reached over and gripped the girl's
arm. "I told you who he was," he said. "He is Herr Karl von Armstadt of
the Chemical Staff."
But, the girl did not sit down and continued to stare at me. Then she
raised a trembling hand and, pointing an accusing finger at me, she
cried in a piercing voice:
"You are not Karl Armstadt, but an impostor posing as Karl Armstadt!"
We were located in a well-filled dancing café, and the tragic voice of
the accuser brought a crowd of curious people about our table. Captain
Grauble waved them back. As they pushed forward again, a street guard
elbowed in, brandishing his aluminum club and asking the cause of the
commotion. The bystanders indicated Katrina and the guard, edging up,
gripped her arm and demanded an explanation.
Katrina repeated her accusation.
"Evidently," suggested Grauble, "she has known another man of the same
name, and meeting Herr von Armstadt has recalled some tragic memory."
"Perhaps," said the guard politely, "if the gentleman would show the
young lady his identification folder, she would be convinced of
her error."
For a moment I hesitated, realizing full well what an inquiry might
reveal.
"No," I said, "I do not feel that it is necessary."
"He is afraid to show it," screamed the girl. "I tell you he is trying
to pass for Armstadt but he is some one else. He looks like Karl
Armstadt and at first I thought he was Karl Armstadt, but I know he
is not."
I looked swiftly at the surrounding faces, and saw upon them suspicion
and accusation. "There may be something wrong," said a man in a military
uniform, "otherwise why should the gentleman of the staff hesitate to
show his folder?"
"Very well," I said, pulling out my folder.
The guard glanced at it. "It seems to be all right," he said, addressing
the group about the table; "now will you kindly resume your seats and
not embarrass these gentlemen with your idle curiosity?"
"Let me see the folder!" cried Katrina.
"Pardon," said the guard to me, "but I see no harm," and he handed her
the folder.
She glanced over it with feverish haste.
"Are you satisfied now?" questioned the guard.
"Yes," hissed the black-eyed girl; "I am satisfied that this is Karl
Armstadt's folder. I know every word of it, but I tell you that the man
who carries it now is not the real Karl Armstadt." And then she wheeled
upon me and screamed, "You are not Karl Armstadt, Karl Armstadt is dead,
and you have murdered him!"
In an instant the café was in an uproar. Men in a hundred types of
uniform crowded forward; small women, rainbow-garbed, stood on the
chairs and peered over taller heads of ponderous sisters of the labour
caste. Grauble again waved back the crowd and the guard brandished his
club threateningly toward some of the more inquisitive daughters
of labour.
When the crowd had fallen back to a more respectful distance, the guard
recovered my identification folder from Katrina and returned it to me.
"Perhaps," he said, "you have known the young lady and do not again care
to renew the acquaintance? If so, with your permission, I shall take her
where she will not trouble you again this evening."
"That may be best," I replied, wondering how I could explain the affair
to Captain Grauble.
"The incident is most unfortunate," said the Captain, evidently a little
nettled, "but I think this rude force unnecessary. I know Katrina well,
but I did not know she had previously known Herr von Armstadt. This
being the case, and he seeming not to wish to renew the acquaintance, I
suggest that she leave of her own accord."
But Katrina was not to be so easily dismissed. "No," she retorted, "I
will not leave until this man tells me how he came by that
identification folder and what became of the man I loved, whom he now
represents himself to be."
At these words the guard, who had been about to leave, turned back.
I glanced apprehensively at Grauble who, seeing that I was grievously
wrought up over the affair, said quietly to the officer, "You had best
take her away."
Katrina, with a black look of hatred at Grauble, went without further
words, and the curious crowd quickly melted away. The three of us who
remained at the table resumed our seats and I ordered dinner.
"My, how Katrina frightened me!" exclaimed the fragile Elsa.
"She does have temper," admitted Grauble. "Odd, though, that she would
conceive that idea that you were some one else. I have heard of all
sorts of plans of revenge for disappointments in love, but that is a
new one."
"You really know her?" questioned Elsa, turning her pale eyes upon me.
"Oh, yes, I once knew her," I replied, trying to seem unconcerned; "but
I did not recognize her at first."
"You mean you didn't care to," smiled Grauble. "Once a man had known
that woman he would hardly forget her."
"But you must have had a very emotional affair with her," said Elsa, "to
make her take on like that. Do tell us about it."
"I would rather not; there are some things one wishes to forget."
Grauble chided his dainty companion for her prying curiosity and tried
to turn the conversation into less personal channels. But Elsa's
appetite for romance had been whetted and she kept reverting to the
subject while I worried along trying to dismiss the matter. But the
ending of the affair was not to be left in my hands; as we were sitting
about our empty cups, we saw Katrina re-enter the café in company with a
high official of the level and the guard who had taken her away.
"I am sorry to disturb you," said the official, addressing me
courteously, "but this girl is very insistent in her accusation, and
perhaps, if you will aid us in the matter, it may prevent her making
further charges that might annoy you."
"And what do you wish me to do?"
"I suggest only that you should come to my office. I have telephoned to
have the records looked up and that should satisfy all and so end
the matter."
"You might come also," added the official, turning to Grauble, but he
waved back the curious Elsa who was eager to follow.
When we reached his office in the Place of Records, the official who had
brought us thither turned to a man at a desk. "You have received the
data on missing men?" he inquired.
The other handed him a sheet of paper.
The official turned to Katrina. "Will you state again, please, the time
that you say the Karl Armstadt you knew disappeared?"
Katrina quite accurately named the date at which the man whose identity
I had assumed had been called to the potash mines.
"Very well," said the official, taking up the sheet of paper, "here we
have the list of missing men for four years compiled from the weighers'
records. There is not recorded here the disappearance of a single
chemist during the whole period. If another man than a chemist should
try to step into a chemist's shoes, he would have a rather difficult
time of it." The official laughed as if he thought himself very clever.
"But that man is not Karl Armstadt," cried Katrina in a wavering voice.
"Do you think I would not know him when every night for--"
"Shut up," said the official, "and get out of here, and if I hear
anything more of this matter I shall subtract your credit."
Katrina, now whimpering, was led from the room. The official beamed upon
Capt. Grauble and myself. "Do you see," he said, "how perfectly our
records take care of these crazy accusations? The black haired one is
evidently touched in the head with jealousy, and now that she has
chanced upon you, she makes up this preposterous story, which might
cause you no end of annoyance, but here we have the absolute refutation
of the charge. Before a man can step into another's shoes, he must step
out of his own. Murdered bodies can be destroyed, although that is
difficult, but one man cannot be two men!"
We left the official chuckling over his cleverness.
"The Keeper of Records was wise after his kind," mused Grauble, "but it
never occurred to him that there might be chemists in the world who are
not registered in the card files of Berlin."
Grauble's voice sounded a note of aloofness and suspicion. Had he
penetrated my secret? Did I dare make full confession? Had Grauble given
me the least encouragement I should have done so, but he seemed to wish
to avoid further discussion and I feared to risk it.
My hope of a fuller understanding with Grauble seemed destroyed, and we
soon separated without further confidences.
~2~
When I returned home from my offices one evening some days later, my
secretary announced that a visitor was awaiting me.
I entered the reception-room and found Holknecht, who had been my
chemical assistant in the early days of my work in Berlin. Holknecht had
seemed to me a servile fawning fellow and when I received my first
promotion I had deserted him quite brutally for the very excellent
reason that he had known the other Armstadt and I feared that his dulled
intelligence might at any time be aroused to penetrate my disguise. That
he should look me up in my advancement and prosperity, doubtless to beg
some favour, seemed plausible enough, and therefore with an air of
condescending patronage, I asked what I could do for him.
"It is about Katrina," he said haltingly, as he eyed me curiously.
"Well, what about her?"
"She wants me to bring you to her."
"But suppose I do not choose to go?"
"Then there may be trouble."
"She has already tried to make trouble," I said, "but nothing came of
it."
"But that," said Holknecht, "was before she saw me."
"And what have you told her?"
"I told her about Armstadt's going to the mines and you coming back to
the hospital wearing his clothes and possessed of his folder and of your
being out of your memory."
"You mean," I replied, determined not to acknowledge his assumption of
my other identity, "that you explained to her how the illness had
changed me; and did that not make clear to her why she did not recognize
me at first?"
"There is no use," insisted Holknecht, "of your talking like that. I
never could quite make up my mind about you, though I always knew there
was something wrong. At first I believed the doctor's story, and that
you were really Armstadt, though it did seem like a sort of magic, the
way you were changed. But when you came to the laboratory and I saw you
work, I decided that you were somebody else and that the Chemical Staff
was working on some great secret and had a reason for putting some one
else in Armstadt's place. And now, of course, I know very well that that
was so, for the other Karl Armstadt would never have become a von of the
Royal Level. He didn't have that much brains."
As Holknecht was speaking I had been thinking rapidly. The thing I
feared was that the affair of the mine and hospital should be
investigated by some one with intelligence and authority. Since Katrina
had learned of that, and this Holknecht was also aware that I was a man
of unknown identity, it was very evident that they might set some
serious investigation going. But the man's own remarks suggested a
way out.
"You are quite right, Holknecht," I said; "I am not Karl Armstadt; and,
just as you have surmised, there were grave reasons why I should have
been put into his place under those peculiar circumstances. But this
matter is a state secret of the Chemical Staff and you will do well to
say nothing about it. Now is there anything I can do for you? A
promotion, perhaps, to a good position in the Protium Works?"
"No," said Holknecht, "I would rather stay where I am, but I could use a
little extra money."
"Of course; a check, perhaps; a little gift from an old friend who has
risen to power; there would be no difficulty in that, would there?"
"I think it would go through all right."
"I will make it now; say five thousand marks, and if nothing more is
said of this matter by you or Katrina, there will be another one like it
a year later."
The young man's eyes gloated as I wrote the check, which he pocketed
with greedy satisfaction. "Now," I said, "will this end the affair for
the present?"
"This makes it all right with me," replied Holknecht, "but what about
Katrina?"
"But you are to take care of her. She can only accept two hundred marks
a month and I have given you enough for that four times over."
"But she doesn't want money; she already has a full list."
"Then what does she want?"
"Jewels, of course; they all want them; jewels from the Royal Level, and
she knows you can get them for her."
"Oh, I see. Well, what would please her?"
"A necklace of rubies, the best they have, one that will cost at least
twenty thousand marks."
"That's rather expensive, is it not?"
"But her favourite lover disappeared," fenced Holknecht, "and his death
was never entered on the records. It may be the Chemical Staff knows
what became of him and maybe they do not; whatever happened, you seem to
want it kept still, so you had best get the necklace."
After a little further arguing that revealed nothing, I went to the
Royal Level, and searching out a jewelry shop, I purchased a necklace of
very beautiful synthetic rubies, for which I gave my check for twenty
thousand marks.
Returning to my apartment, I found Holknecht still waiting. He insisted
on taking the necklace to Katrina, but I feared to trust a man who
accepted bribes so shamelessly, and decided to go with him and deliver
it in person.
Sullenly, Holknecht led the way to her apartment.
Katrina sensuously gowned in flaming red was awaiting the outcome of her
blackmailing venture. She motioned me to a chair near her, while
Holknecht, utterly ignored, sank obscurely into a corner.
"So you came," said the lady of black and scarlet, leaning back among
her pillows and gazing at me through half closed eyes.
"Yes," I said, "since you have looked up Holknecht and he has explained
to you the reason for the disappearance of the man you knew, I thought
best to see you and have an understanding."
"But that dumb fellow explained nothing," declared Katrina, "except that
he told me that Armstadt went to the mines and you came back and took
his place. He wasn't even sure you were not the other Karl Armstadt
until I convinced him, and then he claimed that he had known it all the
time; and yet he had never told it. Some men are as dull as books."
"On the contrary, Holknecht is very sensible," I replied. "It is a grave
affair of state and one that it is best not to probe into."
"And just what did become of the other Armstadt?" asked Katrina, and in
her voice was only a curiosity, with no real concern.
"To tell you the truth, your lover was killed in the mine explosion," I
replied, for I thought it unwise to state that he was still alive lest
she pursue her inquiries for him and so make further trouble.
"That is too bad," said Katrina. "You see, when I knew him he was only a
chemical captain. And when he deserted me I didn't really care much. But
when the Royal Captain Grauble asked me to meet a Karl von Armstadt of
the Chemical Staff, at first I could not believe that it was the same
man I had known, but I made inquiries and learned of your rapid rise and
traced it back and I thought you really were my old Karl. And when I saw
you, you seemed to be he, but when I looked again I knew that you were
another and I was so disappointed and angry that I lost control of my
temper. I am sorry I made a scene, and that official was so stupid--as
if I would not know one man from another! How I should like to tell him
that I knew more than his stupid records."
"But that is not best," I said; "your former lover is dead and there are
grave reasons why that death should not be investigated further--" The
argument was becoming a little difficult for me and I hastened to add:
"Since you were so discourteously treated by the official, I feel that I
owe you some little token of reparation."
I now drew out the necklace and held it out to the girl.
Her black eyes gleamed with triumph at the sight of the bauble. Greedily
she grasped it and held it up between her and the light, turning it
about and watching the red rays gleaming through the stones. "And now,"
she gloated, "that faded Elsa will cease to lord it over me--and to
think that another Karl Armstadt has brought me this--why that stingy
fellow would never have bought me a blue-stone ring, if he had been made
the Emperor's Minister."
Katrina now rose and preened before her mirror. "Won't you place it
round my neck?" she asked, holding out the necklace.
Nor daring to give offence, I took the chain of rubies and attempted to
fasten it round her neck. The mechanism of the fastening was strange to
me and I was some time in getting the thing adjusted. Just as I had
succeeded in hooking the clasp, I heard a curdled oath and the neglected
Holknecht hurled himself upon us, striking me on the temple with one
fist and clutching at the throat of the girl with the other hand.
The blow sent me reeling to the floor but in another instant I was up
and had collared him and dragged him away.
"Damn you both," he whimpered; "where do I come in?"
"Put him out," said Katrina, with a glance of disdain at the cowering
man.
"I will go," snarled Holknecht, and he wrenched from my grasp and darted
toward the door. I followed, but he was fairly running down the passage
and pursuit was too undignified a thing to consider.
"You should have paid him," said Katrina, "for delivering my message."
"I have paid him," I replied. "I paid him very well."
"I wonder if he thought," she laughed, "that I would pay any attention
to a man of his petty rank. Why, I snubbed him unmercifully years ago
when the other Armstadt had the audacity to introduce me."
"Of course," I replied, "he does not understand."
And now, as I resumed my seat, I began puzzling my brain as to how I
could get away without giving offence to the second member of my pair of
blackmailers. But a little later I managed it, as it has been managed
for centuries, by looking suddenly at my watch and recalling a forgotten
appointment.
"You will come again?" purred Katrina.
"Of course," I said, "I must come again, for you are very charming, but
I am afraid it will not be for some time as I have very important duties
and just at present my leisure is exceedingly limited."
And so I made my escape, and hastened home. After debating the question
pro and con I typed a note to Holknecht in which I assured him that I
had not the least interest in Katrina. "Perhaps," I wrote, "when she has
tired a bit of the necklace, she would appreciate something else. But it
would not be wise to hurry this; but if you will call around in a month
or so, I think I can arrange for you to get her something and present it
yourself, as I do not care to see her again."