When in Rome——
When my eyes had grown accustomed to the soft glow of electric lights,
I saw that I stood, alone with Ivanovitch, in a small room delicately
furnished in blue and gold. A gilded iron grille behind my guide
showed where the elevator had descended again. The Russian’s eyes were
fixed on me in an amused inquiry.
“Well,” he said presently, “shall we proceed?”
“We have arrived then?” I inquired. “What a beautiful room!”
“Yes, we have arrived. But this is just an anteroom. Now you must tell
me how you would prefer to spend the evening.”
“Spend the evening?”
“Exactly. There are rooms devoted to the god of chance, which I think
you will find amusing—and unusual. There is an entertainment, which we
might call a play, although it differs from any stage production that
you have seen in the West. There is a banquet, with viands and wines
which I think you will find strikingly unusual, and there are—the
gardens.”
I stared at him. “Man, how can I tell?” I demanded. For so many
entertainments meant a greatly decreased chance of finding Natalie or
Margaret. “Won’t you be my guide? I am sure that anything which you
recommend will be well worth seeing.”
“Seeing?” laughed Ivanovitch. “We appeal to all the senses, my
friend.” He looked at me amusedly. “But I think that the banquet is
Roman to-night and I believe that a good deal of pains has been taken
with it. If I might make a suggestion, I should say, go to the banquet
first and then, if you are not too sleepy”—he broke off, laughing—“go
to the entertainment or to the gardens, unless you are fond of
gambling. You must be hungry by now, anyway.”
“The banquet by all means then!” I laughed. “And afterwards——”
“What you will,” Ivanovitch interrupted. “But let me make one little
point clear to you before we part for the present. You will meet and
talk with beautiful women, probably. It is possible that their
costumes might lead you to jump to conclusions which would be entirely
erroneous. They are young ladies and are to be treated as such.”
I bowed to hide the joy in my eyes. Who could these beautiful young
ladies be, if not the girls who had disappeared of late? And if they
were so treated, perhaps no harm had come to Natalie and Margaret.
I looked up to find his eyes fixed on me intently. “As to the
gardens,” he went on, “that is another matter altogether. After the
banquet you can go to the gardens and sport with the—nymphs—if you
wish. And in the gardens, restrictions on the guests are—conspicuous
by their absence. You see,” he added, in a drawl, “the young lady
attendants here are—er—given garden duty, so to speak, when they do
anything, or attempt to do anything, displeasing to the management.
So—most of them behave.”
Some saving sense told me that his words were in the nature of a
taunt, intending to enrage me and make me disclose my hostility.
So I turned away to hide my anger and glanced about the room
appreciatively.
“It all sounds very attractive,” I said.
Ivanovitch stared at me for a moment. “Well,” he remarked, after the
pause, “I will arrange to have you shown to your room to dress for the
banquet. After that, perhaps we shall see each other and I can help
you choose further. But if not, you only have to make your wishes
known to your companion. When you are dressed, the attendant will
conduct you to the banquet hall. Look around you and choose your
partner for dinner without hesitation. Whoever you select, you will
find her an agreeable companion.”
The cold-blooded wickedness and cruelty underlying the man’s whole
attitude made my gorge rise, and it was all I could do to keep from
taking him by the throat and squeezing the life out of him. But there
was too much at stake for any such move as yet, and I simply nodded.
“How delightful!”
Ivanovitch turned away with a little smile and pressed a button on the
wall. A door opened at once and a young Chinese boy entered and bowed.
“This gentleman will go to the banquet,” said Ivanovitch. “Take him to
his apartment and assist him to dress.”
Then he turned to me. “Well, farewell for the present, Mr. Clayton,”
he said. “Enjoy yourself. But then, I am sure you are doing that
already!” And with this parting shot he waved his hand, opened another
door and disappeared.
I turned and stared at the young Chinaman. “You please to stlep this
way, sar?” he inquired at once, moving toward the door through which
he had come.
Now mostly all Chinamen look alike to me. But this boy’s face seemed
vaguely familiar. I looked him over closely, and suddenly I recalled
the evening after my visit to the Chief and a little dinner in a
Chinese restaurant on 39th Street with Moore. Either this was the boy
who had served us that night, or Chinamen were more alike even than I
had supposed. Had they been watching us, then, from the very first?
For a moment a sense of complete helplessness swept over me. What was
the use of fighting against such an organization? Then I shook it off
savagely and nodded to the Chinese boy to proceed.
He led me through a short corridor, decorated in the same blue and
gold. We came out into a huge hall, vaulted, beautifully carpeted and
lined with life-sized and beautiful, if somewhat daring, paintings.
There were handsome lounges and chairs also, and a big oak refectory
table in the middle. The vaulted ceiling was a mass of delicately
carved and intricate woodwork. The effect was bizarre and sensuous to
a degree.
Between the paintings on the walls there were many doors. My guide
made for one of these and threw it open with a bow. “Your room, sar.
Please to enter.”
I stood still for a moment, conscious of a rustle and murmur of voices
all around me, although the hall itself was deserted. Then I preceded
the Chinese boy into a small bedroom, delicately and quite tastefully
furnished. But here, too, gorgeous hangings which covered the walls
and a huge divan with a multitude of rich cushions created an
atmosphere both sensuous and languorous. The effect was as clever as
it was difficult to define.
Laid out on the bed was a sort of costume, but before I could look at
it, the boy opened another door leading out of my room into a tiled
room with a sunken bath. “When you have bathed, sar, I will help you
to dless,” he said woodenly.
With a short laugh I passed him and entered the bathroom, and he shut
the door after me. Evidently no mental effort or personal initiative
was required here. I could have imagined how this must have appealed
to a certain type of super-rich young man. I was only surprised that
the young Chinese boy had not offered to give me my bath.
When I returned to the other room he was still waiting. I had put on
my clothes again, a fact which did not seem to please him.
“Excuse me, sar, you not need that clothes. The entire costume is
here, sar.”
I was faced with a dilemma. If I took off all my clothes, they might
cart them off somewhere. And I would have a fine chance of escaping
from the place dressed as a Roman Senator. The first cop who saw me
would run me in. On the other hand, if I refused to wear the costume,
I would give the impression that I was not entering into the spirit of
the thing—was not a very serious reveler.
But the first risk was the greater, I decided. “Look here,” I said,
“have I got to wear that thing? Because if so, I’ll stay away from the
banquet. I dare say I can get a sandwich somewhere else, eh?”
“Oh, no, sar. You can wear that clothes if you desire. It is more
customary to wear the costume, sar, it is all!”
“Well, then, I’ll go as I am, I think. Lead on, Macduff.”
With a bow he led the way into the hall again. We passed silently down
the length of it. At the end the Chinese boy waited until I had come
up with him. Then he turned to the wall and pressed a button or
something, for the big doors facing us rolled silently open, and I
stood looking in upon a strange scene indeed.
The room into which I looked was a huge one, at least fifty feet
square and with a high-arched ceiling. Around all four sides of it
huge pillars rose to the roof. Their sides were set with innumerable
sconces, and in these flared hundreds of great torches, furnishing the
only light in the room. Curiously enough, however, there was little
smoke, and what there was must have been drawn through the ceiling in
some way, for even the upper air was not very smoky.
But I was more interested in the scene immediately before me. In the
flickering glare of the torches, which left the corners of the room in
dense shadow, I saw that a huge low table ran around three sides of
the room, and that between this table and the pillars a series of
divans, covered with many cushions, were occupied by couples,
numbering perhaps twenty-five, or about fifty people in all. But in
addition there were many divans vacant, or occupied by girls only.
The space between the pillars and the walls of the room, about ten
feet wide, was vacant except for an attendant here and there, and
served as a sort of corridor to the different divans. It was dim in
this corridor, for the torches were all on the sides of the pillars
toward the center of the room, but I could see that the space between
the pillars and the walls ran all the way around the room. And with
one or two exceptions, which I did not at first notice, the people
there were dressed entirely in the Roman costume. And a very beautiful
costume it is.
The scene was perfect in every detail, even to the languorous music,
serving as an undertone to conversation. I might have been gazing upon
a banquet given to commemorate the appointment of Caligula’s pet horse
as Prime Minister. In my morning coat and gray trousers I hesitated in
the doorway, convinced, for a moment, that my appearance would bring
down upon me the displeasure of Rome. Then the boy touched my arm.
“Please to follow the corridor, sar, and select the young lady with
whom you will dine. It is velly simple, sar.” Then he turned away and
the big doors closed behind me.
I was in for it and I walked, somewhat timidly, along the corridor to
my right, glancing this way and that. Whenever I came to a girl alone,
her eyes met mine frankly. But deep in the eyes of nearly all of them
lay repulsion and fear rather than a welcome. All of them, without
exception, were beautiful.
Fury at this abominable captivity, if such it was, surged up in me
then. I stamped along, hardly knowing what I was doing, longing for
the power to bring the organizers of such a place to book and set the
pathetic captives free. And suddenly my eyes met those of a girl whose
expression attracted my attention. Her face conveyed the impression of
great personal dignity, but beneath this there struggled a desperate
appeal, tragic in its intensity. She was reclining on one of the
lounges, and she was alone.
I passed between two of the pillars and addressed her quietly. “May I
dine here with you?”
She made room for me at once. “It will give me great pleasure,” she
answered, with an obvious effort.
Instantly an attendant, dressed in a short toga, appeared beside us
and began to heap the table with dishes and wines. Until he was gone I
contented myself with glancing at the strange scene about me. And it
was lucky that I did so, for in passing, my eye happened to fall on
the pillar immediately back of my companion. And in the side of it, at
about the height of a man’s head, I saw a tiny horizontal slit,
perhaps three inches long and half an inch high. It disappeared at
once, leaving the face of the pillar smooth, but in the instance
before it disappeared, I was certain that I had caught the glint of
human eyes fixed on me.
The girl leaned close to me suddenly, and in terror lest she should
appeal for my help and get herself into trouble through the watcher, I
began to compliment her upon her beauty, adding some drivel about its
effect upon my own heart, which I thought the watcher might consider
suitable for the occasion and the part I was supposed to be playing.
The watcher was too close and the music too distant and too soft to
attempt to warn her, then or later.
The glance, at once hopeless and disdainful, which the girl gave me
was a bitter thing to swallow, but I swallowed it for the good of us
both and the others. Besides, the attendant was forever hovering near
us, and I did not dare hazard even a glance out of keeping with my
part.
The rest of that banquet is not a pleasant memory, and I will not
describe it in detail. After that first glance my companion responded
with a kind of desperate gayety to my clumsy attempts to flirt with
her. But a good deal of the time we watched the animated scene before
us, eating and drinking automatically.
The center of the floor was clear, and in this space between the
tables daring but beautiful dance followed dance in a whirl of
shimmering and sensuous color and movement. With one exception I knew
no one of the men there and none of the girls. The exception, I saw
with a start, was a very well known Senator. But I did not know him
personally and my presence meant nothing to him.
In spite of myself, the barbarous languor and sensuousness of the
scene began to set strange visions running through my brain before
long, and I sat up and turned to look at my companion. But there was
nothing but despair in her eyes. I knew that, on such a quest, nothing
but a drug of some kind could so turn my thoughts. But evidently I
alone had been drugged, in spite of the fact that I had tasted the
food carefully and drunk very sparingly of the wine. After that I
neither ate nor drank anything at all, in spite of the persistent
urging of both my companion and the attendant who served us.
As time passed, one or two of the men around me became over-attentive
to their companions. But evidently anything of that kind was barred
here at least, for they were instantly and firmly, though courteously
dissuaded by the attendants waiting on them.
Presently one or two men rose from their places and staggered,
assisted by their companions, toward the big doors. Evidently they had
had more to drink than was good for them. They were all men of an
educated and cultivated type, and I could hardly believe that human
nature could sink so low among my own kind. But hopes and plans were
racing through my brain, too. And the sight of these men gave me an
idea.
As gradually as I could, I began to feign drunkenness, laughing a
little foolishly back into the disdainful and desperate eyes of my
companion. And presently I staggered to my feet.
“C’mon,” I said; “let’s get out of this.”
She rose at once and took my arm, and, leaning on her a little I made
a devious course through the big doors, opened for us by an attendant,
back into the hall again.
“Where is your room?” asked the girl.
Before I could answer, the Chinese boy appeared at my elbow and bowed.
I stared at him and laughed foolishly. “Don’ bob about so, my boy. He
shouldn’t, should he?” I appealed to my companion.
“This way, sar,” said the boy. He preceded us and flung open a door,
and a moment later we were back in the room originally assigned to me.
Then he went out and closed the door.
The girl guided me to the divan at once, and I sank back on it, still
laughing. “Tha’s a goo’ girl,” I said. “Pu’ some pillows unner my
head, will you, dear?”
With a flame of disgust in her eyes the girl stooped and, gathering
some cushions, began to arrange them under my head. As her face came
close to mine I whispered very softly, “Don’t jump. Are we watched?”
For an instant she grew rigid and her eyes met mine with a wild hope
and appeal in their depths. Then she went on arranging the pillows
under me. “Yes,” she whispered, so softly that I only just caught the
word.
“Tha’s right, my dear,” I said, and smiled at her fatuously, “I’m
goin’ sleep. Wanna stick aroun’?”
“Shall I sing to you?” she inquired.
“Sure, tha’ll be fine. Go ahead,” and I arranged myself more
comfortably and partly closed my eyes.
Under my lids I watched the girl go to a shelf and take down a guitar,
selecting it from among a number of other musical instruments there.
She came back and, sitting on the divan beside me, began to sing
softly. I closed my eyes altogether then, luxuriating in the beauty of
the song she sang. For her voice was lovely. But presently I began to
breathe more deeply in the hope that she would take the hint and go.
And after a time there was a soft movement beside me, and under
half-closed lids I saw her rise, replace the guitar, turn down the
light to a glow and steal silently out of the room. I lay perfectly
still and waited.
For what seemed to be an interminable time I lay quietly, not daring
to open my eyes fully. It was probably only about an hour, although it
seemed more like a week. But I soon had cause to rejoice that I had
waited so long, for, although I had heard no sound, a sudden light on
my eyelids told me that some one had turned up the light in my room
again. I was lying with my back to the room now, and so I ventured to
open my eyes a little. Of course I could not see who stood in the room
at my back directly. But fortunately the hangings on the wall in front
of me were of that Indian type of material which is inset with tiny
bits of looking-glass. And presently, in one of these I caught a
momentary glimpse of the miniature face of my new companion. It was
Mrs. Fawcette! And she was approaching the couch on which I lay!
But she never reached it for suddenly the light in the room faded out
altogether, there was a stifled scream and the sound of a scuffle,
carried on wordlessly.
It was too much for my self-control. I turned over on the couch. My
door was open and I saw a group of silent struggling figures framed in
it for an instant against the light, now dim, in the big hall beyond.
Then the door closed.
I jumped to my feet, groped my way to the door and flung it open,
rushing out into the hall beyond. It was entirely deserted.
After a moment of hesitation I turned and staggered back to my room
again, muttering drunkenly. I did not dare to start on a search yet,
in any case, and what chance had I of finding my abrupt visitors in
such a maze?
The door of my room had closed behind me. When I opened it, I found my
light burning dimly as before. I went back to the divan, lay down on
it and, still grumbling to myself, pretended to go to sleep again. At
least they had treated me only as a guest as yet. So there was still a
chance that I might escape. But before that I was determined to find
out more about the place, the conditions under which it was run and,
above all, the people running it.
So I lay quietly and waited, and presently I began to snore softly.
And after a long time the light in my room slowly faded and went out
altogether, leaving me in total darkness. This much at least was a
good sign, I thought.