GODFREY IS FRIGHTENED
I was still staring about me, that mocking laughter in my ears, when
Godfrey joined me.
"He got away, of course," he said coolly.
"Yes, and I heard him laugh!" I cried.
Godfrey looked at me quickly.
"Come, Lester," he said, soothingly, "don't let your nerves run away
with you."
"It wasn't my nerves," I protested, a little hotly. "I heard it quite
plainly. He can't be far away."
"Too far for us to catch him," Godfrey retorted, and, torch in hand,
proceeded to examine the window-sill and the ground beneath it.
"There is where he stood," he added, and the marks on the sill were
evident enough. "Of course he had his line of retreat blocked out,"
and he flashed his torch back and forth across the grass, but the
turf was so close that no trace of footsteps was visible.
We went slowly back to the house, and Godfrey sat down again to a
contemplation of the cabinet.
"It's too much for me," he said, at last. "The only way I can find
that drawer, I'm afraid, is with an axe. But I don't want to smash
the thing to pieces--"
"I should say not! It would be like smashing the Venus de Milo."
"Hardly so bad as that. But we won't smash it yet awhile. I'm going
to look up the subject of secret drawers--perhaps I'll stumble upon
something that will help me."
"And then, of course," I said, disconsolately, "it is quite possible
that there isn't any such drawer at all."
But Godfrey shook his head decidedly.
"I don't agree with you there, Lester. I'll wager that fellow who was
looking in at us could find it in a minute."
"He seemed mighty frightened lest you should."
"He had reason to be," Godfrey rejoined grimly. "I'll have another
try at it to-morrow. One thing we've got to take care of, and that is
that our friend of the burning eyes doesn't get a chance at it
first."
"Those shutters are pretty strong," I pointed out. "And Parks is no
fool."
"Yes," agreed Godfrey, "the shutters are pretty strong--they might
keep him out for ten minutes--scarcely longer than that. As for
Parks, he wouldn't last ten seconds. You don't seem to understand the
extraordinary character of this fellow."
"During your period of exaltation last night," I reminded him, "you
referred to him as the greatest criminal of modern times."
"Well," smiled Godfrey, "perhaps that _was_ a little exaggerated.
Suppose we say one of the greatest--great enough, surely, to walk all
around us, if we aren't on guard. I think I would better drop a word
to Simmonds and get him to send down a couple of men to watch the
house. With them outside, and Parks on the inside, it ought to be
fairly safe."
"I should think so!" I said. "One would imagine you were getting
ready to repel an army. Who is this fellow, anyway, Godfrey? You seem
to be half afraid of him!"
"I'm wholly afraid of him, if he's who I think he is--but it's a mere
guess as yet, Lester. Wait a day or two. I'll call up Simmonds."
He went to the 'phone, while I sat down again and looked at the
cabinet in a kind of stupefaction. What was the intrigue, of which it
seemed to be the centre? Who was this man, that Godfrey should
consider him so formidable? Why should he have chosen Philip Vantine
for a victim?
Godfrey came back while I was still groping blindly amid this maze of
mystery.
"It's all right," he said. "Simmonds is sending two of his best men
to watch the house." He stood for a moment gazing down at the
cabinet. "I'm coming back to-morrow to have another try at it," he
added. "I have left the gauntlet there on the chair, so if you feel
like having a try yourself, Lester...."
"Heaven forbid!" I protested. "But perhaps I would better tell Parks
to let you in. I hope I won't find you a corpse here, Godfrey!"
"So do I! But I don't believe you will. Yes, tell Parks to let me in
whenever I come around. And now about Rogers."
"What about him?"
"I rather thought I might want to grill him to-night. But perhaps I
would better wait till I get a little more to go on." He paused for a
moment's thought. "Yes; I'll wait," he said, finally. "I don't want
to run any risk of failing."
We went out into the hall together, and I told Parks to admit
Godfrey, whenever he wished to enter. Rogers was still sitting on the
cot, looking so crushed and sorrowful that I could not help pitying
him. I began to think that, if he were left to himself a day or two
longer, he would tell all we wished to know without any grilling.
I confided this idea to Godfrey as we went down the front steps.
"Perhaps you're right," he agreed. "I don't believe the fellow is
really crooked. Something has happened to him--something in
connection with that woman--and he has never got over it. Well, we
shall have to find out what it was. Hello, here are Simmonds's men,"
he added, as two policemen stopped before the house.
"Is this Mr. Godfrey?" one of them asked.
"Yes," said Godfrey.
"Mr. Simmonds told us to report to you, sir, if you were here."
"What we want you to do," said Godfrey, "is to watch the house--watch
it from all sides--patrol clear around it, and see that no one
approaches it."
"Very well, sir," and the men touched their helmets, and one of them
went around to the back of the house, while the other remained in
front.
"Perhaps if they concealed themselves," I suggested, "the fellow
might venture back and be nabbed."
But Godfrey shook his head.
"I don't want him to venture back," he said. "I want to scare him
off. I want him to see we're thoroughly on guard." He hailed a
passing cab, and paused with one foot on the step. "I've already told
you, Lester," he added, over his shoulder, "that I'm afraid of him.
Perhaps you thought I was joking, but I wasn't. I was never more
serious in my life. The _Record_ office," he added to the cabby, and
jingled away, leaving me staring after him.
As I turned homeward, I could not but ponder over this remarkable and
mysterious being with whom Godfrey was so impressed. Never before had
I known him to hesitate to match himself with any adversary; but now,
it seemed to me, he shunned the contest, or at least feared it
--feared that he might be outwitted and outplayed! How great a
compliment that was to the mysterious unknown only I could guess!
And then I shivered a little as I recalled that mocking and ironic
laughter. And I quickened my step, with a glance over my shoulder;
for if Godfrey was afraid, how much more reason had I to be! It was
with a sense of relief, of which I was a little ashamed, that I
reached my apartment at the Marathon and locked the door.
Just before I turned in for the night, I heard from Godfrey again,
for my telephone rang, and it was his voice that answered.
"I just wanted to tell you, Lester," he said, "that your guess was
right. The mysterious Frenchman came over on _La Touraine_, landing
at noon yesterday. He came in the steerage, and the stewards know
nothing about him. What time was it he got to Vantine's?"
"About two, I should say."
"So he probably went directly there from the boat, as you thought.
That accounts for nobody knowing him. The steamship company is
holding a bag belonging to him. I'll get them to open it to-morrow,
and perhaps we shall find out who he was."
"But, Godfrey," I broke in, "how about this other fellow--the man
with the burning eyes? He's getting on my nerves!"
"Don't let him do that, Lester!" he laughed. "We're in no danger so
long as we are not around that cabinet! That's the storm centre! I
can't tell you more than that. Good-night!" and he hung up without
waiting for me to answer.