THE CURIO SHOP
I sat up and passed my hand dazedly across my brow and then suddenly I
was broad awake and listening intently to the sound that had startled
me, the sound of my door opening stealthily. I peered through the
darkness but could discern nothing.
I waited a moment, but hearing no further sound reached under my pillow
for my revolver, for I knew I wasn't dreaming now, noticing by my
radium-faced watch that it was close to midnight. Then as I became
conscious of another presence in the room, the light was switched on
without warning, and I flung out my arm, covering the man who stood
there before me.
He was a rough-looking customer in an ugly, worn blue suit, and his cap
was pulled low over his brow. His face was unshaved, his lips were
coarse, his nose was thick, his eyebrows bushy, and the eyes beneath
were sunken and dull, a dead black in color.
"What are you doing here?" I demanded, holding the pistol in line with
his heart.
But he did not reply except by a chuckle, and I flung down the pistol
with the cry, "McKelvie!"
"I'm glad I pass muster," he said, chuckling again, but I could only
stare at him in genuine amazement. Except for that chuckle I should
never have known him!
"Here," he said, flinging a bundle on my bed, "get into those things as
fast as you can, and meet me in your library. We have no time to waste,
but I knew you would never forgive me if I left you out of this."
As soon as he was gone I attired myself in the battered old suit of
brown which he had provided, and clapped a greasy cap upon my head. Then
I surveyed myself in the mirror and turned away disappointedly. I was
disreputable enough in all conscience, but no one would have taken me
for anyone else but Carlton Davies, grown somewhat seedy in appearance.
How did McKelvie do it?
In the library I found McKelvie talking to Jenkins, the latter clad in
bathrobe and slippers, as though he had just been dragged from his room.
"Ready?" asked McKelvie, as I entered, and when I nodded he turned again
to Jenkins. "Stay out in the hall beside the phone and don't go to
sleep. If I do not phone you by one o'clock, call Headquarters and tell
them to rush some men to Hi Ling's curio shop. You understand?"
"Yes, sir," answered Jenkins, blinking.
"Don't fall asleep, as it may mean our lives," repeated McKelvie
impressively.
"No, sir. I'll stay awake. You can depend on me, sir," said Jenkins in a
hurt tone.
"Yes, I know I can," returned McKelvie. "Come on, Mr. Davies."
McKelvie swung toward me and then began to laugh. "You're far too clean.
They'd spot you for a fake in a moment."
He took what looked like a box of lampblack from his pocket and applied
it to my face. As we hurried down the hall I glanced at my reflection in
the mirror. My face was a dirty gray, sallow, unshaved. I smiled as I
followed McKelvie into the outer hall.
"Ever read Gaboriau?" he asked as we crept stealthily down the stairs.
"Yes."
"Then you know the advice that Lecoq gave his men when they wanted to
disguise themselves. 'Change the eye,' he said. 'The eye is the
important factor in disguise.' He was right and I have spent some time
practising the maxim. Try to look stupid and your eyes will deaden. Not
that way," and he caught my arm as I made for the lobby. "The back
entrance for ours unless we want to land in a cell at the police
station."
We sneaked out into the back yard, around the building, and out into the
street, where a motor car was waiting.
"All right, Wilkins. Full speed ahead," said McKelvie as we got in. With
a jerk we were off toward the Park.
"Now," I demanded, "what's it all about?"
"You've got your pistol with you?" he asked, and when I answered in the
affirmative, he went on, "Don't use it unless I give you leave. The less
shooting the better for us, I expect."
"Is it Lee?" I inquired.
"Yes. My offer of reward hustled things up a bit." McKelvie leaned
forward and called out, "Faster, Wilkins. We'll never make it at this
rate."
"He's in danger, then," I said, as we tore around corners and down side
streets to avoid the cops.
"Yes. But let me begin at the beginning. Wilkins got onto the track of a
mysterious taxi that had been seen on Mott Street about four-fifteen the
afternoon of October the eighth, and while he was hanging around one of
those Chinese joints, he saw two toughs lounging down Pell Street, and
evidently discussing the reward, since one of them was waving the
hand-bill in the other's face. Wilkins followed them into an
eating-house and by securing a table next to them, overheard their
conversation. It seemed that they had identified Lee as the young man
they had kidnapped and they were weighing the respective merits of
giving their information to me or blackmailing the 'old man,' as they
called whoever had hired them. The younger tough was for telling me, but
the older one seemed to think they could make more from the 'old man.'
Whereupon the younger one declared that the old fellow was stingier than
hell and reminded his companion that Hi Ling had tipped them that the
young man was to disappear that night, after the boss's visit at one
o'clock. When the men separated Wilkins followed the younger one and by
many judicious hints and the added compensation of some money and
promised immunity from the police, he got the rest of the story.
"This fellow and his companion had been hired to kidnap a young chap and
they had deposited him in Hi Ling's back shop in an upstairs room. There
was something the young man knew that the 'old man' wanted to learn so
much, he had gathered from the Chinaman who kept the shop. In other
words, Lee knew something of the murder and the criminal wanted to find
out just how much, or else he wanted to keep Lee from giving evidence.
It doesn't matter which. The main fact remains, that he is holding the
boy a prisoner.
"Well, when he realized that through my efforts I was bound to learn
where Lee was, since he did not trust the toughs, he gave orders that
when he had paid the boy his customary visit at one o'clock, they were
to get rid of Lee for him. One more murder wouldn't disturb his
conscience very much, I guess. Our only chance lies in getting there
ahead of the criminal."
"How do you know it's not a trap?" I asked.
"I've provided for that by my orders to Jenkins. If it's a trap the
police will have to rescue us, that's all. I feel conscience-stricken,
lugging you into what may turn out to be a fight for life," he added.
"You needn't. I wouldn't have missed it for anything," I returned. "But
why don't you surround the place with the police right away?"
"Do you know where we are going?" he asked curiously.
"To Chinatown, I should judge," I answered.
"Exactly. They keep scouts on the watch at those places, which are
respectable without and--hells within. The moment they saw the sight of
a uniform Lee Darwin would disappear and no one would ever learn what
had become of him. Days later an unrecognizable corpse would be dragged
from the river."
I shuddered. What a horrible end for the boy if we should fail to reach
him in time!
At this juncture the car stopped with a jerk at the corner of Mott and
Hester streets, and we piled out.
"Wait here for us. If we do not come by one-thirty, you can go home,"
said McKelvie.
The man turned off his engine and settled himself to wait, and the next
moment we were hurrying toward Pell Street. Then we turned another
corner and modifying our pace, lounged carelessly toward the back
entrance of Hi Ling's curio shop.
Remembering Lecoq's advice I tried to look dull and stupid as McKelvie
opened the door. We stepped inside the shop and faced the Chinaman
seated behind a counter at the rear of the room. He was a fat old
Chinaman and he gazed at us stolidly as he smoked his pipe.
In a coarse voice McKelvie asked whether the "old man" had come, saying
he had sent us to stay with the prisoner until his arrival.
The Chinaman looked at us unblinkingly for five steady minutes, then he
waved his pipe toward a rear door. We shuffled toward it as fast as we
dared, and I for one, expected that every minute he would call us back
and question us more closely. But he did not move and we gained the
doorway and saw before us, in the flickering light of a gas-jet from
above, a staircase, steep, narrow, dirty. This we climbed and found
ourselves in a small entry with a door at the back. Stealing to this
door, McKelvie listened intently for a moment, then drew his revolver
and tried the door softly. It was locked. Shifting the gun to his left
hand he took out a long, narrow steel instrument, which he inserted in
the lock. As the door yielded silently, he stole into the room and I
followed him closely.
I did not hear but I knew he had closed the door behind us, and then his
flash glowed and the disk of light darted here and there over the black
interior of the room, or, rather, hole, in which we found ourselves. It
was empty save for a narrow cot, on which lay an inert figure,
apparently asleep. We moved closer to the cot and McKelvie let the disk
of light rest upon the face of the man before us.
It was Lee Darwin, I could not be mistaken, but he looked as though he
were in the last stages of some terrible disease. His form was quite
wasted, his eyes were mere sunken hollows in his ghastly face, and his
cheekbones stood out prominently where the flesh had fallen away. I
contemplated him in horrified silence, until a touch on my arm recalled
me to action.
"I'm afraid he's too far gone to walk," whispered McKelvie. "We'll have
to carry him. The main thing is to get him out before the criminal
arrives. I don't think the old Chink will give us much trouble."
Silently McKelvie bent over Lee and shook him into consciousness. The
boy opened his haggard eyes, stared at the flash, then shuddered away
from McKelvie's restraining hand.
"Go away," he said feebly. "I have nothing to tell you. Nothing, I say."
"Mr. Darwin," said McKelvie soothingly, "it's all right. We only want to
help you get away."
Lee turned toward the sound of the voice, a dawning wonder in his eyes,
then as the sense of McKelvie's words penetrated his dulled brain and
the sound of McKelvie's rich voice fell like balm on his spirit, which
had been harassed for days by harsh voices and coarse threats, he put
out his hand and pushed aside the flash which McKelvie still kept
focused on his face.
"Help me--get up," he said.
In the darkness we helped him to his feet and got him out into the
corridor, where he collapsed again. So we lifted him by his head and
feet and carried him down the stairs.
When we reached the bottom we looked across into the placid face of the
old Chinaman contemplating us fixedly from the doorway!