"Make it soon, desert-snake, or I'll crush your spine between my hands."
_10. The Dark House_
"Against all man-made shackles and a man-made Hell--
Alone--at last--unaided--I rebel!"
--Mundy.
I followed Yussef Ali along the winding hallways, down the
steps--Kathulos was not in the idol-room--and along the tunnel, then
through the rooms of the Temple of Dreams and out into the street,
where the street lamps gleamed drearily through the fogs and a sight
drizzle. Across the street stood an automobile, curtains closely drawn.
"That is yours," said Hassim, who had joined us. "Saunter across
natural-like. Don't act suspicious. The place may be watched. The
driver knows what to do."
Then he and Yussef Ali drifted back into the bar and I took a single
step toward the curb.
"Steephen!"
A voice that made my heart leap spoke my name! A white hand beckoned
from the shadows of a doorway. I stepped quickly there.
"Zuleika!"
"Shhh!"
She clutched my arm, slipped something into my hand; I made out vaguely
a small flask of gold.
"Hide this, quick!" came her urgent whisper. "Don't come back but go
away and hide. This is full of elixir--I will try to get you some more
before that is all gone. You must find a way of communicating with me."
"Yes, but how did you get this?" I asked amazedly.
"I stole it from the Master! Now please, I must go before he misses me."
And she sprang back into the doorway and vanished. I stood undecided. I
was sure that she had risked nothing less than her life in doing this
and I was torn by the fear of what Kathulos might do to her, were the
theft discovered. But to return to the house of mystery would certainly
invite suspicion, and I might carry out my plan and strike back before
the Skull-faced One learned of his slave's duplicity.
So I crossed the street to the waiting automobile. The driver was a
negro whom I had never seen before, a lanky man of medium height. I
stared hard at him, wondering how much he had seen. He gave no evidence
of having seen anything, and I decided that even if he had noticed me
step back into the shadows he could not have seen what passed there nor
have been able to recognize the girl.
He merely nodded as I climbed in the back seat, and a moment later we
were speeding away down the deserted and fog-haunted streets. A bundle
beside me I concluded to be the disguise mentioned by the Egyptian.
To recapture the sensations I experienced as I rode through the rainy,
misty night would be impossible. I felt as if I were already dead and
the bare and dreary streets about me were the roads of death over which
my ghost had been doomed to roam forever. A torturing joy was in my
heart, and bleak despair--the despair of a doomed man. Not that death
itself was so repellent--a dope victim dies too many deaths to shrink
from the last--but it was hard to go out just as love had entered my
barren life. And I was still young.
A sardonic smile crossed my lips--they were young, too, the men who
died beside me in No Man's Land. I drew back my sleeve and clenched my
fists, tensing my muscles. There was no surplus weight on my frame,
and much of the firm flesh had wasted away, but the cords of the great
biceps still stood out like knots of iron, seeming to indicate massive
strength. But I knew my might was false, that in reality I was a broken
husk of a man, animated only by the artificial fire of the elixir,
without which a frail girl might topple me over.
The automobile came to a halt among some trees. We were on the
outskirts of an exclusive suburb and the hour was past midnight.
Through the trees I saw a large house looming darkly against the
distant flares of night-time London.
"This is where I wait," said the negro. "No one can see the automobile
from the road or from the house."
Holding a match so that its light could not be detected outside the
car, I examined the "disguise" and was hard put to restrain an insane
laugh. The disguise was the complete hide of a gorilla! Gathering the
bundle under my arm I trudged toward the wall which surrounded the
Frenton estate. A few steps and the trees where the negro hid with the
car merged into one dark mass. I did not believe he could see me, but
for safety's sake I made, not for the high iron gate at the front but
for the wall at the side where there was no gate.
No light showed in the house. Sir Haldred was a bachelor and I was sure
that the servants were all in bed long ago. I negotiated the wall with
ease and stole across the dark lawn to a side door, still carrying
the grisly "disguise" under my arm. The door was locked, as I had
anticipated, and I did not wish to arouse anyone until I was safely
in the house, where the sound of voices would not carry to one who
might have followed me. I took hold of the knob with both hands, and,
exerting slowly the inhuman strength that was mine, began to twist. The
shaft turned in my hands and the lock within shattered suddenly, with a
noise that was like the crash of a cannon in the stillness. An instant
more and I was inside and had closed the door behind me.
* * * * *
I took a single stride in the darkness in the direction I believed the
stair to be, then halted as a beam of light flashed into my face. At
the side of the beam I caught the glimmer of a pistol muzzle. Beyond a
lean shadowy face floated.
"Stand where you are and put up your hands!"
I lifted my hands, allowing the bundle to slip to the floor. I had
heard that voice only once but I recognized it--knew instantly that the
man who held that light was John Gordon.
"How many are with you?"
His voice was sharp, commanding.
"I am alone," I answered. "Take me into a room where a light can not be
seen from the outside and I'll tell you some things you want to know."
He was silent; then, bidding me take up the bundle I had dropped, he
stepped to one side and motioned me to precede him into the next room.
There he directed me to a stairway and at the top landing opened a door
and switched on lights.
I found myself in a room whose curtains were closely drawn. During this
journey Gordon's alertness had not relaxed, and now he stood, still
covering me with his revolver. Clad in conventional garments, he stood
revealed a tall, leanly but powerfully built man, taller than I but not
so heavy--with steel-gray eyes and clean-cut features. Something about
the man attracted me, even as I noted a bruise on his jawbone where my
fist had struck in our last meeting.
"I can not believe," he said crispily, "that this apparent clumsiness
and lack of subtlety is real. Doubtless you have your own reasons for
wishing me to be in a secluded room at this time, but Sir Haldred is
efficiently protected even now. Stand still."
Muzzle pressed against my chest, he ran his hand over my garments for
concealed weapons, seeming slightly surprized when he found none.
"Still," he murmured as if to himself, "a man who can burst an iron
lock with his bare hands has scant need of weapons."
"You are wasting valuable time," I said impatiently. "I was sent here
tonight to kill Sir Haldred Frenton----"
"By whom?" the question was shot at me.
"By the man who sometimes goes disguised as a leper."
He nodded, a gleam in his scintillant eyes.
"My suspicions were correct, then."
"Doubtless. Listen to me closely--do you desire the death or arrest of
that man?"
Gordon laughed grimly.
"To one who wears the mark of the scorpion on his hand, my answer would
be superfluous."
"Then follow my directions and your wish shall be granted."
His eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"So that was the meaning of this open entry and non-resistance," he
said slowly. "Does the dope which dilates your eyeballs so warp your
mind that you think to lead me into ambush?"
I pressed my hands against my temples. Time was racing and every moment
was precious--how could I convince this man of my honesty?
"Listen; my name is Stephen Costigan of America. I was a frequenter of
Yun Shatu's dive and a hashish addict--as you have guessed, but just
now a slave of stronger dope. By virtue of this slavery, the man you
know as a false leper, whom Yun Shatu and his friends call 'Master,'
gained dominance over me and sent me here to murder Sir Haldred--why,
God only knows. But I have gained a space of respite by coming into
possession of some of this dope which I must have in order to live, and
I fear and hate this Master. Listen to me and I swear, by all things
holy and unholy, that before the sun rises the false leper shall be in
your power!"