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THE THIRD DEGREE
A Narrative of Metropolitan Life
by
CHARLES KLEIN and ARTHUR HORNBLOW
Authors of the novel _The Lion and the Mouse_
Illustrations by Clarence Rowe
Grosset & Dunlap Publishers :: New York
Copyright, 1909, by
G. W. Dillingham Company
_The Third Degree._
[Illustration: "I ACCUSE YOU OF PREJUDICING THE COMMUNITY AGAINST THE
PRISONER BEFORE HE COMES TO TRIAL."]
CONTENTS
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
List of Illustrations
"I ACCUSE YOU OF PREJUDICING THE COMMUNITY AGAINST THE PRISONER BEFORE
HE COMES TO TRIAL."
"YOU DID IT, AND YOU KNOW YOU DID IT."
"I CAN DO NOTHING FOR YOU," SAID THE JUDGE.
"WHEN THIS MYSTERIOUS WITNESS DOES COME I SHALL PLACE HER UNDER ARREST."
The Third Degree
CHAPTER I.
"I'm N. G.--that's a cinch! The sooner I chuck it the better!"
Caught in the swirl of the busy city's midday rush, engulfed in
Broadway's swift moving flood of hustling humanity, jostled
unceremoniously by the careless, indifferent crowds, discouraged from
stemming further the tide of pushing, elbowing men and women who hurried
up and down the great thoroughfare, Howard Jeffries, tired and hungry
and thoroughly disgusted with himself, stood still at the corner of
Fulton street, cursing the luck which had brought him to his present
plight.
It was the noon hour, the important time of day when nature loudly
claims her due, when business affairs, no matter how pressing, must be
temporarily interrupted so that the human machine may lay in a fresh
store of nervous energy. From under the portals of precipitous office
buildings, mammoth hives of human industry, which to right and left
soared dizzily from street to sky, swarmed thousands of employees of
both sexes--clerks, stenographers, shop-girls, messenger boys, all moved
by a common impulse to satisfy without further delay the animal cravings
of their physical natures. They strode along with quick, nervous step,
each chatting and laughing with his fellow, interested for the nonce in
the day's work, making plans for well-earned recreation when five
o'clock should come and the up-town stampede for Harlem and home begin.
The young man sullenly watched the scene, envious of the energy and
activity of all about him. Each one in these hurrying throngs, he
thought bitterly to himself, was a valuable unit in the prosperity and
welfare of the big town. No matter how humble his or her position, each
played a part in the business life of the great city, each was an
unseen, unknown, yet indispensable cog in the whirling, complicated
mechanism of the vast world-metropolis. Intuitively he felt that he was
not one of them, that he had no right even to consider himself their
equal. He was utterly useless to anybody. He was without position or
money. He was destitute even of a shred of self-respect. Hadn't he
promised Annie not to touch liquor again before he found a job? Yet he
had already imbibed all the whiskey which the little money left in his
pocket would buy.
Involuntarily, instinctively, he shrank back into the shadow of a
doorway to let the crowds pass. The pavements were now filled to
overflowing and each moment newcomers from the side streets came to
swell the human stream. He tried to avoid observation, fearing that some
one might recognize him, thinking all could read on his face that he was
a sot, a self-confessed failure, one of life's incompetents. In his
painful self-consciousness he believed himself the cynosure of every eye
and he winced as he thought he detected on certain faces side glances of
curiosity, commiseration and contempt.
Nor was he altogether mistaken. More than one passer-by turned to look
in his direction, attracted by his peculiar appearance. His was a type
not seen every day in the commercial district--the post-graduate college
man out at elbows. He was smooth-faced and apparently about twenty-five
years of age. His complexion was fair and his face refined. It would
have been handsome but for a drooping, irresolute mouth, which denoted
more than average weakness of character. The face was thin, chalk-like
in its lack of color and deeply seamed with the tell-tale lines of
dissipation. Dark circles under his eyes and a peculiar watery look
suggested late hours and over-fondness for alcoholic refreshment. His
clothes had the cut of expensive tailors, but they were shabby and
needed pressing. His linen was soiled and his necktie disarranged. His
whole appearance was careless and suggested that recklessness of mind
which comes of general demoralization.
Howard Jeffries knew that he was a failure, yet like most young men
mentally weak, he insisted that he could not be held altogether to
blame. Secretly, too, he despised these sober, industrious people who
seemed contented with the crumbs of comfort thrown to them. What, he
wondered idly, was their secret of getting on? How were they able to
lead such well regulated lives when he, starting out with far greater
advantages, had failed? Oh, he knew well where the trouble lay--in his
damnable weakness of character, his love for drink. That was responsible
for everything. But was it his fault if he were born weak? These people
who behaved themselves and got on, he sneered, were calm, commonplace
temperaments who found no difficulty in controlling their baser
instincts. They did right simply because they found it easier than to do
wrong. Their virtue was nothing to brag about. It was easy to be good
when not exposed to temptation. But for those born with the devil in
them it came hard. It was all a matter of heredity and influence. One's
vices as well as one's virtues are handed down to us ready made. He had
no doubt that in the Jeffries family somewhere in the unsavory past
there had been a weak, vicious ancestor from whom he had inherited all
the traits which barred his way to success.
The crowds of hungry workers grew bigger every minute. Every one was
elbowing his way into neighboring restaurants, crowding the tables and
buffets, all eating voraciously as they talked and laughed. Howard was
rudely reminded by inward pangs that he, too, was famished. Not a thing
had passed his lips since he had left home in Harlem at eight o'clock
that morning and he had told Annie that he would be home for lunch.
There was no use staying downtown any longer. For three weary hours he
had trudged from office to office seeking employment, answering
advertisements, asking for work of any kind, ready to do no matter what,
but all to no purpose. Nobody wanted him at any price. What was the good
of a man being willing to work if there was no one to employ him? A nice
look-out certainly. Hardly a dollar left and no prospect of getting any
more. He hardly had the courage to return home and face Annie. With a
muttered exclamation of impatience he spat from his mouth the
half-consumed cigarette which was hanging from his lip, and crossing
Broadway, walked listlessly in the direction of Park Place.
He had certainly made a mess of things, yet at one time, not so long
ago, what a brilliant future life seemed to have in store for him! No
boy had ever been given a better start. He remembered the day he left
home to go to Yale; he recalled his father's kind words of
encouragement, his mother's tears. Ah, if his mother had only lived!
Then, maybe, everything would have been different. But she died during
his freshman year, carried off suddenly by heart failure. His father
married again, a young woman twenty years his junior, and that had
started everything off wrong. The old home life had gone forever. He had
felt like an intruder the first time he went home and from that day his
father's roof had been distasteful to him. Yes, that was the beginning
of his hard luck. He could trace all his misfortunes back to that. He
couldn't stand for mother-in-law, a haughty, selfish, supercilious,
ambitious creature who had little sympathy for her predecessor's child,
and no scruple in showing it.
Then, at college, he had met Robert Underwood, the popular upper-class
man, who had professed to take a great fancy to him. He, a timid young
freshman, was naturally flattered by the friendship of the dashing,
fascinating sophomore and thus commenced that unfortunate intimacy which
had brought about the climax to his troubles. The suave, amiable
Underwood, whom he soon discovered to be a gentlemanly scoundrel,
borrowed his money and introduced him into the "sporty" set, an
exclusive circle into which, thanks to his liberal allowance from home,
he was welcomed with open arms. With a youth of his proclivities and
inherent weakness the outcome was inevitable. At no time overfond of
study, he regarded residence in college as a most desirable emancipation
from the restraint of home life. The love of books he considered a pose
and he scoffed at the men who took their reading seriously. The
university attracted him mostly by its most undesirable features, its
sports, its secret societies, its petty cliques, and its rowdyism. The
broad spirit and the dignity of the _alma mater_ he ignored completely.
Directly he went to Yale he started in to enjoy himself and with the
sophisticated Underwood as guide, went to the devil faster than any man
before him in the entire history of the university.
Reading, attendance at lectures, became only a convenient cloak to
conceal his turpitudes. Poker playing, automobile joy rides, hard
drinking became the daily curriculum. In town rows and orgies of every
description he was soon a recognized leader. Scandal followed scandal
until he was threatened with expulsion. Then his father heard of it and
there was a terrible scene. Jeffries, Sr., went immediately to New
Haven and there followed a stormy interview in which Howard promised to
reform, but once the parent's back was turned things went on pretty much
as before. There were fresh scandals, the smoke of which reached as far
as New York. This time Mr. Jeffries tried the plan of cutting down the
money supply and Howard found himself financially embarrassed. But this
had not quite the effect desired by the father, for, rendered desperate
by his inability to secure funds with which to carry on his sprees, the
young man started in to gamble heavily, giving notes for his losses and
pocketing the ready money when he won.
Then came the supreme scandal which turned his father's heart to steel.
Jeffries, Sr., could forgive much in a young man. He had been young
himself once. None knew better than he how difficult it is when the
blood is rich and red to keep oneself in control. But there was one
offence which a man proud of his descent could not condone. He would
never forgive the staining of the family name by a degrading marriage.
The news came to the unhappy father like a thunder-clap. Howard,
probably in a drunken spree, had married secretly a waitress employed in
one of the "sporty" restaurants in New Haven, and to make the
mésalliance worse, the girl was not even of respectable parents. Her
father, Billy Delmore, the pool-room king, was a notorious gambler and
had died in convict stripes. Fine sensation that for the yellow press.
"Banker's Son Weds Convict's Daughter." So ran the "scare heads" in the
newspapers. That was the last straw for Mr. Jeffries, Sr. He sternly
told his son that he never wanted to look upon his face again. Howard
bowed his head to the decree and he had never seen his father since.
All this the young man was reviewing in his mind when suddenly his
reflections were disturbed by a friendly hail.
"Hello, Jeffries, old sport! Don't you know a fellow frat when you see
him?"
He looked up. A young man of athletic build, with a pleasant, frank
face, was standing at the news stand under the Park Place elevated
station. Quickly Howard extended his hand.
"Hello, Coxe!" he exclaimed. "What on earth are you doing in New York?
Whoever would have expected to meet you in this howling wilderness?
How's everything at Yale?"
The athlete grinned.
"Yale be hanged! I don't care a d----. You know I graduated last June. I'm
in business now--in a broker's office in Wall Street. Say, it's great!
We had a semi-panic last week. Prices went to the devil. Stocks broke
twenty points. You should have seen the excitement on the Exchange
floor. Our football rushes were nothing to it. I tell you, it's great.
It's got college beaten to a frazzle!" Quickly he added: "What are you
doing?"
Howard averted his eyes and hung his head.
"Nothing," he answered gloomily.
Coxe had quickly taken note of his former classmate's shabby appearance.
He had also heard of his escapades.
"Didn't you hear?" muttered Howard. "Row with governor, marriage and all
that sort of thing?
"Of course," he went on, "father's damnably unjust, actuated by absurd
prejudice. Annie's a good girl and a good wife, no matter what her
father was. D----n it, this is a free country! A man can marry whom he
likes. All these ideas about family pride and family honor are
old-world notions, foreign to this soil. I'm not going to give up Annie
to please any one. I'm as fond of her now as ever. I haven't regretted a
moment that I married her. Of course, it has been hard. Father at once
shut down money supplies, making my further stay at Yale impossible, and
I was forced to come to New York to seek employment. We've managed to
fix up a small flat in Harlem and now, like Micawber, I'm waiting for
something to turn up."
Coxe nodded sympathetically.
"Come and have a drink," he said cheerily.
Howard hesitated. Once more he remembered his promise to Annie, but as
long as he had broken it once he would get no credit for refusing now.
He was horribly thirsty and depressed. Another drink would cheer him up.
It seemed even wicked to decline when it wouldn't cost him anything.
They entered a bar conveniently close at hand, and with a tremulous hand
Howard carried greedily to his lips the insidious liquor which had
undermined his health and stolen away his manhood.
"Have another?" said Coxe with a smile as he saw the glass emptied at a
gulp.
"I don't care if I do," replied Howard. Secretly ashamed of his
weakness, he shuffled uneasily on his feet.
"Well, what are you going to do, old man?" demanded Coxe as he pushed
the whiskey bottle over.
"I'm looking for a job," stammered Howard awkwardly. Hastily he went on:
"It isn't so easy. If it was only myself I wouldn't mind. I'd get along
somehow. But there's the little girl. She wants to go to work, and I
won't hear of it. I couldn't stand for that, you know."
Coxe feared a "touch." Awkwardly he said:
"I wish I could help you, old man. As it is, my own salary barely serves
to keep me in neckwear. Wall Street's great fun, but it doesn't pay
much; that is, not unless you play the game yourself."
Howard smiled feebly as he replied:
"Nonsense--I wouldn't accept help of that sort. I'm not reduced to
soliciting charity yet. I guess I'd prefer the river to that. But if you
hear of anything, keep me in mind."
The athlete made no response. He was apparently lost in thought when
suddenly he blurted out:
"Say, Jeffries, you haven't got any money, have you--say a couple of
thousand dollars?"
Howard stared at the questioner as if he doubted his sanity.
"Two thousand dollars!" he gasped. "Do you suppose that I'd be wearing
out shoe leather looking for a job, if I had two thousand dollars?"
Coxe looked disappointed as he replied:
"Oh, of course, I understand you haven't it on you, only I thought you
might be able to raise it."
"Why do you ask?" inquired Howard, his curiosity aroused.
Coxe looked around to see if any one was listening. Then in a whisper he
said:
"It's a cinch. If you had $2,000, you and I could make a snug little
fortune. Don't you understand? In my office I get tips. I'm on the
inside. I know in advance what the big men are going to do. When they
start to move a certain stock up, I'm on the job. Understand? If you had
$2,000, I could raise as much, and we'd pool our capital, starting in
the business ourselves--on a small scale, of course. If we hit it right
we might make a nice income."
Howard's mouth watered. Certainly that was the kind of life he liked
best. The feverish excitement of gambling, the close association with
rich men, the promise of a luxurious style of living--all this appealed
to him strongly. But what was the use? Where could he get $2,000? He
couldn't go to his father. He shook his head.
"I'm afraid not, old sport," he said as they left the saloon and he held
out his hand to say good-by. "But I'll bear it in mind, and if things
improve, I'll look you up. So long!"
Climbing wearily up the dirty stairs of the elevated railroad, he bought
a ticket with one of the few nickels remaining in his pocket, and taking
a seat in a northbound train started on his trip back to Harlem.
The day was overcast, rain threatened. A pall of mingled smoke and mist
hung over the entire city. From the car window as the train wound its
serpentine course in and out the maze of grimy offices, shops and
tenements, everything appeared drab, dirty and squalid. New York was
seen at its ugliest. Ensconced in a cross-seat, his chin leaning heavily
on his hand, Howard gazed dejectedly out of the window. The depressing
outlook was in keeping with his own state of mind.
How would the adventure end? Reconciliation with his father was out of
the question. Letters sent home remained without response. He wasn't
surprised. He knew his pater too well to expect that he would relent so
soon. Besides, if the old man were so infernally proud, he'd show him he
had some pride too. He'd drown himself before he'd go down on his knees,
whining to be forgiven. His father was dead wrong, anyway. His marriage
might have been foolish; Annie might be beneath him socially. She was
not educated and her father wasn't any better than he ought to be. She
did not talk correctly, her manners left much to be desired, at times he
was secretly ashamed of her. But her bringing up was her misfortune, not
her fault. The girl herself was straight as a die. She had a heart of
gold. She was far more intelligent, far more likely to make him a happy
home than some stuck-up, idle society girl who had no thought for
anything save money, dress and show. Perhaps if he had been less
honorable and not married her, his father would have thought more
highly of him. If he'd ruined the girl, no doubt he would have been
welcomed home with open arms. Pshaw! He might be a poor, weak fool, but,
thank God, they couldn't reproach him with that. Annie had been loyal to
him throughout. He'd stick to her through thick and thin.
As the train swept round the curve at 53d Street and started on its
long, straight run up the West Side, his mind reverted to Robert
Underwood. He had seen his old associate only once since leaving
college. He ran across him one day on Fifth Avenue. Underwood was coming
out of a curio shop. He explained hurriedly that he had left Yale and
when asked about his future plans talked vaguely of going in for art.
His manner was frigid and nervous--the attitude of the man who fears he
may be approached for a small loan. He was evidently well aware of the
change in his old associate's fortunes and having squeezed all he could
out of him, had no further use for him. It was only when he had
disappeared that Howard suddenly remembered a loan of $250 which
Underwood had never repaid. Some time later Howard learned that he
occupied apartments at the exclusive and expensive Astruria where he
was living in great style. He went there determined to see him and
demand his money, but the card always came back "not at home."
Underwood had always been a mystery to Howard. He knew him to be an
inveterate gambler and a man entirely without principle. No one knew who
his family were or where he came from. His source of income, too, was
always a puzzle. At college he was always hard up, borrowing right and
left and forgetting to pay, yet he always succeeded in living on the fat
of the land. His apartments in the Astruria cost a small fortune; he
dressed well, drove a smart turnout and entertained lavishly. He was not
identified with any particular business or profession. On leaving
college he became interested in art. He frequented the important art
sales and soon got his name in the newspapers as an authority on art
matters. His apartment was literally a museum of European and Oriental
art. On all sides were paintings by old masters, beautiful rugs,
priceless tapestries, rare ceramics, enamels, statuary, antique
furniture, bronzes, etc. He passed for a man of wealth, and mothers with
marriageable daughters, considering him an eligible young bachelor,
hastened to invite him to their homes, none of them conscious of the
danger of letting the wolf slip into the lambs' fold.
What a strange power of fascination, mused Howard as the train jogged
along, men of Underwood's bold and reckless type wield, especially over
women. Their very daring and unscrupulousness seems to render them more
attractive. He himself at college had fallen entirely under the man's
spell. There was no doubt that he was responsible for all his troubles.
Underwood possessed the uncanny gift of being able to bend people to his
will. What a fool he had made of him at the university! He had been his
evil genius, there was no question of that. But for meeting Underwood he
might have applied himself to serious study, left the university with
honors and be now a respectable member of the community. He remembered
with a smile that it was through Underwood that he had met his wife.
Some of the fellows hinted that Underwood had known her more intimately
than he had pretended and had only passed her on to him because he was
tired of her. He had nailed that as a lie. Annie, he could swear, was as
good a girl as ever breathed.
He couldn't explain Underwood's influence over him. He had done with him
what he chose. He wondered why he had been so weak, why he had not tried
to resist. The truth was Underwood exercised a strange, subtle power
over him. He had the power to make him do everything he wanted him to
do, no matter how foolish or unreasonable the request. Every one at
college used to talk about it. One night Underwood invited all his
classmates to his rooms and made him cut up all kinds of capers. He at
first refused, point blank--but Underwood got up and, standing directly
in front of him, gazed steadily into his eyes. Again he commanded him to
do these ridiculous, degrading things. Howard felt himself weakening. He
was suddenly seized with the feeling that he must obey. Amid roars of
laughter he recited the entire alphabet standing on one leg, he crowed
like a rooster, he hopped like a toad, and he crawled abjectly on his
belly like a snake. One of the fellows told him afterward that he had
been hypnotized. He had laughed at it then as a good joke, but now he
came to think of it, perhaps it was true. Possibly he was a subject.
Anyway he was glad to be rid of Underwood and his uncanny influence.
The train stopped with a jerk at his station and Howard rode down in the
elevator to the street Crossing Eighth Avenue, he was going straight
home when suddenly he halted. The glitter and tempting array of bottles
in a corner saloon window tempted him. He suddenly felt that if there
was one thing he needed in the world above all others it was another
drink. True, he had had more than enough already. But that was Coxe's
fault. He had invited him and made him drink. There couldn't be any harm
in taking another. He might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. By
the time he emerged from the saloon his speech was thick and his step
uncertain. A few minutes later he was painfully climbing up the rickety
stairs of a cheap-looking flat house. As he reached the top floor a
cheerful voice called out:
"Is that you, Howard, dear?"