A MAN FROM THE DARK
For fully five seconds Mr. Magee and the man with whom he had collided
stood facing each other on the balcony. The identical moon of the summer
romances now hung in the sky, and in its white glare Baldpate Mountain
glittered like a Christmas-card. Suddenly the wind broke a small branch
from one of the near-by trees and tossed it lightly on the snow beside
the two men--as though it were a signal for battle.
"A lucky chance," said Mr. Magee. "You're a man I've been longing to
meet. Especially since the professor left his window open this
afternoon."
"Indeed," replied the other calmly. "May I ask what you want of me?"
"Certainly." Mr. Magee laughed. "A little package. I think it's in your
pocket at this minute. A package no bigger than a man's hand."
The stranger made no reply, but looked quickly about, over his shoulder
at the path along which he had come, and then past Mr. Magee at the road
that led to freedom.
"I think it's in your pocket," repeated Mr. Magee, "and I'm going to
find out."
"I haven't time to argue with you," said the holder of the seventh key.
His voice was cold, calculating, harsh. "Get out of my way and let me
pass. Or--"
"Or what?" asked Billy Magee.
He watched the man lunge toward him in the moonlight. He saw the fist
that had the night before been the Waterloo of Mr. Max and the mayor
start on a swift true course for his head. Quickly he dodged to one side
and closed with his opponent.
Back and forth through the snow they ploughed, panting, grappling,
straining. Mr. Magee soon realized that his adversary was no weakling.
He was forced to call into play muscles he had not used in what seemed
ages--not since he sported of an afternoon in a rather odorous college
gymnasium. In moonlight and shadow, up and down, they reeled, staggered,
stumbled, the sole jarring notes in that picture of Baldpate on a quiet
winter's night.
"You queered the game last time," muttered the stranger. "But you'll
never queer it again."
Mr. Magee saved his breath. Together they crashed against the side of
the inn. Together they squirmed away, across the balcony to the railing.
Still back and forth, now in the moonlight, now in shadow, wildly they
fought. Once Mr. Magee felt his feet slip from beneath him, but caught
himself in time. His strength was going--surely--quickly. Then suddenly
his opponent seemed to weaken in his grip. With a supreme effort Magee
forced him down upon the balcony floor, and tumbled on top of him. He
felt the chill of the snow under his knees, and its wetness in his
cuffs.
"Now," he cried to himself.
The other still struggled desperately. But his struggle was without
success. For deftly Billy Magee drew from his pocket the precious
package about which there had been so much debate on Baldpate Mountain.
He clasped it close, rose and ran. In another second he was inside
number seven, and had lighted a candle at the blazing logs.
Once more he examined that closely packed little bundle; once more he
found it rich in greenbacks. Assuredly it was the greatly desired thing
he had fought for the night before. He had it again. And this time, he
told himself, he would not lose sight of it until he had placed it in
the hands of the girl of the station.
The dark shadow of the man he had just robbed was hovering at his
windows. Magee turned hastily to the door. As he did so it opened, and
Hayden entered. He carried a pistol in his hand; his face was hard,
cruel, determined; his usually expressionless eyes lighted with pleasure
as they fell on the package in Mr. Magee's possession.
"It seems I'm just in time," he said, "to prevent highway robbery."
"You think so?" asked Magee.
"See here, young man," remarked Hayden, glancing nervously over his
shoulder, "I can't waste any time in talk. Does that money belong to
you? No. Well, it does belong to me. I'm going to have it. Don't think
I'm afraid to shoot to get it. The law permits a man to fire on the
thief who tries to fleece him."
"The law, did you say?" laughed Billy Magee. "I wouldn't drag the law
into this if I were you, Mr. Hayden. I'm sure it has no connection with
events on Baldpate Mountain. You would be the last to want its attention
to be directed here. I've got this money, and I'm going to keep it."
Hayden considered a brief moment, and then swore under his breath.
"You're right," he said. "I'm not going to shoot. But there are other
ways, you whipper-snapper--" He dropped the revolver into his pocket and
sprang forward. For the second time within ten minutes Mr. Magee
steadied himself for conflict.
But Hayden stopped. Some one had entered the room through the window
behind Magee. In the dim light of the single candle Magee saw Hayden's
face go white, his lip twitch, his eyes glaze with horrible surprise.
His arms fell limply to his sides.
"Good God! Kendrick!" he cried.
The voice of the man with whom Billy Magee had but a moment before
struggled on the balcony answered:
"Yes, Hayden. I'm back."
Hayden wet his lips with his tongue.
"What--what brought you?" he asked, his voice trailing off weakly on the
last word.
"What brought me?" Suddenly, as from a volcano that had long been cold,
fire blazed up in Kendrick's eyes. "If a man knew the road from hell
back home, what would it need to bring him back?"
Hayden stood with his mouth partly open; almost a grotesque picture of
terror he looked in that dim light. Then he spoke, in an odd strained
tone, more to himself than to any one else.
"I thought you were dead," he said. "I told myself you'd never come
back. Over and over--in the night--I told myself that. But all the
time--I knew--I knew you'd come."
A cry--a woman's cry--sounded from just outside the door of number
seven. Into the room came Myra Thornhill; quickly she crossed and took
Kendrick's hands in hers.
"David," she sobbed. "Oh, David--is it a dream--a wonderful dream?"
Kendrick looked into her eyes, sheepishly at first, then gladly as he
saw what was in them. For the light there, under the tears, was such as
no man could mistake. Magee saw it. Hayden saw it too, and his voice was
even more lifeless when he spoke.
"Forgive me, David," he said. "I didn't mean--"
And then, as he saw that Kendrick did not listen, he turned and walked
quietly into the bedroom of number seven, taking no notice of Cargan and
Bland, who, with the other winter guests of Baldpate, now crowded the
doorway leading to the hall. Hayden closed the bedroom door. Mr. Magee
and the others stood silent, wondering. Their answer came quickly--the
sharp cry of a revolver behind that closed door.
It was Mr. Magee who went into the bedroom. The moonlight streamed in
through the low windows, and fell brightly on the bed. Across this
Hayden lay. Mr. Magee made sure. It was not a pleasant thing to make
sure of. Then he took the revolver from the hand that still clasped it,
covered the quiet figure on the bed, and stepped back into the outer
room.
"He--he has killed himself," he said in a low voice, closing the bedroom
door behind him.
There was a moment's frightened hush; then the voice of Kendrick rang
out:
"Killed himself? I don't understand. Why should he do that? Surely not
because--no--" He looked questioningly into the white face of the girl
at his side; she only shook her head. "Killed himself," he repeated,
like a man wakened from sleep. "I don't understand."
On tiptoe the amateur hermits of Baldpate descended to the hotel office.
Mr. Magee saw the eyes of the girl of the station upon him, wide with
doubt and alarm. While the others gathered in little groups and talked,
he took her to one side.
"When does the next train leave for Reuton?" he asked her.
"In two hours--at ten-thirty," she replied.
"You must be on it," he told her. "With you will go the
two-hundred-thousand-dollar package. I have it in my pocket now."
She took the news stolidly, and made no reply.
"Are you afraid?" asked Magee gently. "You mustn't be. No harm can touch
you. I shall stay here and see that no one follows."
"I'm not afraid," she replied. "Just startled, that's all. Did he--did
he do it because you took this money--because he was afraid of what
would happen?"
"You mean Hayden?" Magee said. "No. This money was not concerned in--his
death. That is an affair between Kendrick and him."
"I see," answered the girl slowly. "I'm so glad it wasn't--the money. I
couldn't bear it if it were."
"May I call your attention," remarked Magee, "to the fact that the long
reign of 'I'm going to' is ended, and the rule of 'I've done it' has
begun? I've actually got the money. Somehow, it doesn't seem to thrill
you the way I thought it would."
"But it does--oh, it does!" cried the girl. "I was upset--for a moment.
It's glorious news And with you on guard here, I'm not afraid to carry
it away--down the mountain--and to Reuton. I'll be with you in a moment,
ready for the journey."
She called Mrs. Norton and the two went rather timidly up-stairs
together. Mr. Magee turned to his companions in the room, and mentally
called their roll. They were all there, the professor, the mayor, Max,
Bland, Peters, Miss Thornhill, and the newcomer Kendrick, a man
prematurely old, grayed at the temples, and with a face yellowed by
fever. He and the professor were talking earnestly together, and now the
old man came and stood before Magee.
"Mr. Magee," he said seriously, "I learn from Kendrick that you have in
your possession a certain package of money that has been much buffeted
about here at Baldpate Inn. Now I suggest--no, I demand--"
"Pardon me, Professor," Mr. Magee interrupted. "I have something to
suggest--even to demand. It is that you, and every one else present,
select a chair and sit down. I suggest, though I do not demand, that you
pick comfortable chairs. For the vigil that you are about to begin will
prove a long one."
"What d'you mean?" asked the mayor of Reuton, coming militantly to
Professor Bolton's side.
Magee did not reply. Miss Norton and her mother came down the stair, the
former wrapped in a great coat. She stood on the bottom step, her cheeks
flushed, her eyes ablaze. Mr. Magee, going to her side, reflected that
she looked charming and wonderful, and wished he had time to admire. But
he hadn't. He took from one pocket the pistol he had removed from the
hand of Hayden; from the other the celebrated package of money.
"I warn you all," he said, "I will shoot any one who makes a move for
this bundle. Miss Norton is going to take it away with her--she is to
catch the ten-thirty train for Reuton. The train arrives at its
destination at twelve. Much as it pains me to say it, no one will leave
this room before twelve-fifteen."
"You--crook!" roared Cargan.
Mr. Magee smiled as he put the package in the girl's hand.
"Possibly," he said. "But, Mr. Cargan, the blackness of the kettle
always has annoyed the pot. Do not be afraid," he added to the girl.
"Every gentleman in this room is to spend the evening with me. You will
not be annoyed in any way." He looked around the menacing circle. "Go,"
he said, "and may the gods of the mountain take care of you."
The little professor of Comparative Literature stepped forward and stood
pompously before Magee.
"One moment," he remarked. "Before you steal this money in front of our
very eyes, I want to inform you who I am, and who I represent here."
"This is no time," replied Magee, "for light talk on the subject of
blondes."
"This is the time," said the professor warmly, "for me to tell you that
Mr. Kendrick here and myself represent at Baldpate Inn the prosecuting
attorney of Reuton county. We--"
Cargan, big, red, volcanic, interrupted.
"Drayton," he bellowed. "Drayton sent you here? The rat! The pup! Why, I
made that kid. I put him where he is. He won't dare touch me."
"Won't he?" returned Professor Bolton. "My dear sir, you are mistaken.
Drayton fully intends to prosecute you on the ground that you arranged
to pass Ordinance Number 45, granting the Suburban Railway the privilege
of merging with the Civic, in exchange for this bribe of two hundred
thousand dollars."
"He won't dare," cried Cargan. "I made him."
"Before election," said the professor, "I believe he often insisted to
you that he would do his duty as he saw it."
"Of course he did," replied Cargan. "But that's what they all say."
"He intends to keep his word."
The mayor of Reuton slid into the shadows.
"To think he'd do this thing to me," he whined. "After all I've done for
him."
"As I was saying, Mr. Magee," continued the professor, "Mr. Kendrick and
I came up here to secure this package of money as evidence against
Cargan and--the man above. I speak with the voice of the law when I say
you must turn this money over to me."
For answer Magee smiled at the girl.
"You'd better go now," he said. "It's a long walk down the mountain."
"You refuse?" cried the professor.
"Absolutely--don't we, Miss Norton?" said Magee.
"Absolutely," she repeated bravely.
"Then, sir," announced the old man crushingly, "you are little better
than a thief, and this girl is your accomplice."
"So it must look, on the face of it," assented Magee. The girl moved to
the big front door, and Magee, with his eyes still on the room, backed
away until he stood beside her. He handed her his key.
"I give you," he said, "to the gods of the mountain. But it's only a
loan--I shall surely want you back. I can't follow ten feet behind, as I
threatened--it will be ten hours instead. Good night, and good luck."
She turned the key in the lock.
"Billy Magee," she whispered, "yours is a faith beyond understanding. I
shall tell the gods of the mountain that I am to be--returned. Good
night, you--dear."
She went out quickly, and Magee, locking the door after her, thrust the
key into his pocket. For a moment no one stirred. Then Mr. Max leaped up
and ran through the flickering light to the nearest window.
There was a flash, a report, and Max came back into the firelight
examining a torn trousers leg.
"I don't mean to kill anybody," explained Mr. Magee. "Just to wing them.
But I'm not an expert--I might shoot higher than I intend. So I suggest
that no one else try a break for it."
"Mr. Magee," said Miss Thornhill, "I don't believe you have the
slightest idea who that girl is, nor what she wants with the money."
"That," he replied, "makes it all the more exciting, don't you think?"
"Do you mean--" the professor, exploded, "you don't know her? Well, you
young fool."
"It's rather fine of you," remarked Miss Thornhill.
"It's asinine, if it's true," the professor voiced the other side of it.
"You have said yourself--or at least you claim to have said--" Mr. Magee
reminded him, "one girl like that is worth a million suffragettes."
"And can make just as much trouble," complained Professor Bolton. "I
shall certainly see to it that the hermit's book has an honored place in
our college library."
Out of the big chair into which he had sunk came the wail of the
uncomprehending Cargan:
"He's done this thing to me--after all I've done for him."
"I hope every one is quite comfortable," remarked Mr. Magee, selecting a
seat facing the crowd. "It's to be a long wait, you know."
There was no answer. The wind roared lustily at the windows. The
firelight flickered redly on the faces of Mr. Magee's prisoners.