AN ANXIOUS NIGHT.
Curran caught up with him as he turned into Broadway. He had waited to
learn if Arthur had any instructions, as he was now to return to Sister
Claire's office and explain as he might the astounding appearance of
Dillon at a critical moment.
"She's a ripe one," Arthur said, smiling at thought of her collapse, but
the next moment he frowned. "She's a devil, Curran, a handsome devil,
and we must deal with her accordingly--stamp her out like a snake. Did
you notice her?"
"No doubt she's a bad one," Curran answered thickly, but Arthur's bitter
words gave him a shiver, and he seemed to choke in his utterance.
"Make any explanation you like, Curran. She will accuse you of letting
me in perhaps. It looks like a trap, doesn't it? By the way, what became
of the boy?"
"He seemed pretty well broken up," the detective answered, "and sent me
off as soon as he learned that I had him in charge. I told him that you
had the whole business nicely in hand, and not to worry. He muttered
something about going home. Anyway, he would have no more of me, and he
went off quite steady, but looking rather queer, I thought."
Arthur, with sudden anxiety, recalled that pitiful, hopeless look of the
terrified child in Louis' face. Perhaps he had been too dazed to
understand how completely Arthur had rescued him in the nick of time. To
the lad's inexperience this cheap attempt of Claire to overcome his
innocence by a modified badger game might have the aspect of a tragedy.
Moreover, he remained ignorant of the farce into which it had been
turned.
"I am sorry you left him," he said, thoughtfully weighing the
circumstances. "This creature threatened him, of course, with
publicity, an attack on her honor by a papist emissary. He doesn't know
how little she would dare such adventure now. He may run away in his
fright, thinking that his shame may be printed in the papers, and that
the police may be watching for him. Public disgrace means ruin for him,
for, as you know, he is studying to be a priest."
"I didn't know," Curran answered stupidly, a greenish pallor spreading
over his face. "That kind of work won't bring her much luck."
"It occurs to me now that he was too frightened to understand what my
appearance meant, and what your words meant," Arthur resumed. "He may
feel an added shame that we know about it. I must find him. Do you go at
once to Sister Claire and settle your business with her. Then ride over
to the Everards, and tell the lad, if he be there, that I wish to see
him at once. If he has not yet got back, leave word with his mother ...
keep a straight face while you talk with her ... to send him over to me
as soon as he gets home. And tell her that if I meet him before he does
get home, that I shall keep him with me all night. Do you see the point?
If he has gone off in his fright, we have sixteen hours to find him. No
one must know of his trouble, in that house at least, until he is safe.
Do you think we can get on his trail right away, Curran?"
"We must," Curran said harshly, "we must. Has he any money?"
"Not enough to carry him far."
"Then ten hours' search ought to capture him."
"Report then to me at my residence within an hour. I have hopes that
this search will not be needed, that you will find him at home. But be
quicker than ever you were in your life, Curran. I'd go over to Cherry
Street myself, but my inquiries would frighten the Everards. There must
be no scandal."
Strange that he had not foreseen this possibility. For him the escapade
with the escaped nun would have been a joke, and he had not thought how
differently Louis must have regarded it. If the lad had really fled, and
his friends must learn of it, Sister Claire's share in the matter would
have to remain a profound secret. With all their great love for this
boy, his clan would rather have seen him borne to the grave than living
under the shadow of scandal in connection with this vicious woman. Her
perfidy would add disgrace to grief, and deepen their woe beyond time's
power to heal.
For with this people the prejudice against impurity was so nobly
unreasonable that mere suspicion became equal to crime. This feeling
intensified itself in regard to the priesthood. The innocence of Louis
would not save him from lifelong reproach should his recent adventure
finds its way into the sneering journals. Within the hour Curran, more
anxious than Arthur himself, brought word that the lad had not yet
reached home. His people were not worried, and promised to send him with
speed to Arthur.
"Begin your search then," said Arthur, "and report here every hour. I
have an idea he may have gone to see an aunt of his, and I'll go there
to find out. What is your plan?"
"He has no money, and he'll want to go as far as he can, and where he
won't be easily got at. He'll ship on an Indiaman. I'll set a few men to
look after the outgoing ships as a beginning."
"Secrecy above all things, understand," was the last admonition.
Darkness had come on, and the clocks struck the hour of seven as Arthur
set out for a visit to Sister Mary Magdalen. Possibly Louis had sought
her to tell the story of failure and shame, the sad result of her
foolish enterprise; and she had kept him to console him, to put him in
shape before his return home, so that none might mark the traces of his
frightful emotion. Alas, the good nun had not seen him since their visit
to Claire's office in Bleecker Street the day before. He concealed from
her the situation.
"How in the name of Heaven," said he, "did you conceive this scheme of
converting this woman?"
"She has a soul to be saved, and it's quite saveable," answered the nun
tartly. "The more hopeless from man's view, the more likely from God's.
I have a taste for hopeless enterprises."
"I wish you had left Louis out of this one," Arthur thought. "But to
deal with a wretch like her, so notorious, so fallen," he said aloud,
"you must have risked too much. Suppose, after you had entered her
office, she had sent for a reporter to see you there, to see you leaving
after kissing her, to hear a pretty story of an embassy from the
archbishop to coax her back to religion; and the next morning a long
account of this attempt on her resolution should appear in the papers?
What would your superiors say?"
"That could happen," she admitted with a shiver, "but I had her word
that my visit was to be kept a secret."
"Her word!" and he raised his hands.
"Oh, I assure you the affair was arranged beforehand to the smallest
detail," she declared. "Of course no one can trust a woman like that
absolutely. But, as you see, in this case everything went off smoothly."
"I see indeed," said Arthur too worried to smile.
"I arranged the meeting through Miss Conyngham," the nun continued, "a
very clever person for such work. I knew the danger of the enterprise,
but the woman has a soul, and I thought if some one had the courage to
take her by the hand and lead her out of her wicked life, she might do
penance, and even become a saint. She received Miss Conyngham quite
nicely indeed; and also my message that a helping hand was ready for her
at any moment. She was afraid too of a trap; but at the last she begged
to see me, and I went, with the consent of my superior."
"And how did you come to mix Louis up in the thing?"
"He happened to drop in as I was going, and I took him along. He was
very much edified, we all were."
"And he has been more edified since," observed Arthur, but the good nun
missed the sarcasm.
"She made open confession before the three of us," warming up at the
memory of that scene. "With tears in her eyes she described her fall,
her present remorse, her despair of the future, and her hope in us. Most
remarkable scene I ever witnessed. I arranged for her to call at this
convent whenever she could to plan for her return. She may be here any
time. Oh, yes, I forgot. The most touching moment of all came at the
last. When we were leaving she took Louis' hand, pressed it to her
heart, kissed it with respect, and cried out: 'You happy soul, oh, keep
the grace of God in your heart, hold to your high vocation through any
torment: to lose it, to destroy it, as I destroyed mine, is to open wide
the soul to devils.' Wasn't that beautiful now? Then she asked him in
the name of God to call on her the next day, and he promised. He may be
here to-night to tell me about it."
"You say three. Was Edith Conyngham the third?"
"Oh, no, only a sister of our community."
He burst out laughing at the thought of the fox acting so cleverly
before the three geese. Claire must have laughed herself into a fit when
they had gone. He had now to put the Sister on her guard at the expense
of her self-esteem. He tried to do so gently and considerately, fearing
hysterics.
"You put the boy in the grasp of the devil, I fear," he said. "Convert
Sister Claire! You would better have turned your prayers on Satan! She
got him alone this afternoon in her office, as you permitted, and made
him a proposition, which she had in her mind from the minute she first
saw him. I arrived in time to give her a shock, and to rescue him. Now
we are looking for him to tell him he need not fear Sister Claire's
threats to publish how he made an attack upon her virtue."
"I do not quite understand," gasped Sister Magdalen stupefied. What
Arthur thought considerate others might have named differently.
Exasperation at the downright folly of the scheme, and its threatened
results, may have actuated him. His explanation satisfied the nun, and
her fine nerve resisted hysterics and tears.
"It is horrible," she said at the last word. "But we acted honestly, and
God will not desert us. You will find Louis before morning, and I shall
spend the night in prayer until you have found him ... for him and you
... and for that poor wretch, that dreadful woman, more to be pitied
than any one."
His confidence did not encourage him. Hour by hour the messengers of
Curran appeared with the one hopeless phrase: no news. He walked about
the park until midnight, and then posted himself in the basement with
cigar and journal to while away the long hours. Sinister thoughts
troubled him, and painful fancies. He could see the poor lad hiding in
the slums, or at the mercy of wretches as vile as Claire; wandering
about the city, perhaps, in anguish over his ruined life, horrified at
what his friends must read in the morning papers, planning helplessly to
escape from a danger which did not exist, except in his own mind. Oh,
no doubt Curran would find him! Why, he _must_ find him!
Across the sea in London, Minister Livingstone slept, full fed with the
flatteries of a day, dreaming of the pleasures and honors sure to come
with the morning. Down in the prison town lived Honora, with her eyes
dulled from watching the jail and her heart sore with longing. For Owen
the prison, for Louis the pavement, for Honora and himself the sleepless
hours of the aching heart; but for the responsible Minister and his
responsible tool sweet sleep, gilded comfort, overwhelming honors. Such
things could be only because men of his sort were craven idiots. What a
wretched twist in all things human! Why not, if nothing else could be
done, go and set fire to Claire's office, the bishop's house, and the
Livingstone mansion?
However, joy came at the end of the night, for the messenger brought
word that the lad had been found, sound as a bell, having just shipped
as a common sailor on an Indiaman. Since Curran could not persuade him
to leave his ship, the detective had remained on the vessel to await
Arthur's arrival. A cab took him down to the wharf, and a man led him
along the dock to the gang-plank, thence across the deck to a space near
the forecastle, where Curran sat with Louis in the starlight.
"Then it's all true ... what he has been telling me?" Louis cried as he
leaped to his feet and took the hearty grasp of his friend.
"As true as gospel," said Arthur, using Judy's phrase. "Let's get out of
this without delay. We can talk about it at home. Curran, do you settle
with the captain."
They hurried away to the cab in silence. Before entering Arthur wrung
the hand of the detective warmly.
"It would take more than I own to pay you for this night's work, Curran.
I want you to know how I feel about it, and when the time comes ask your
own reward."
"What you have just said is half of it," the man answered in a strange
tone. "When the time comes I shall not be bashful."
"It would have been the greatest blunder of your life," Arthur said, as
they drove homeward, "if you had succeeded in getting away. It cannot be
denied, Louis, that from five o'clock this afternoon till now you made a
fool of yourself. Don't reply. Don't worry about it. Just think of this
gold-plate fact: no one knows anything about it. You are supposed to be
sleeping sweetly at my house. I settled Claire beautifully. And Sister
Magdalen, too. By the way, I must send her word by the cabby ... better
let her do penance on her knees till sunrise ... she's praying for you
... but the suspense might kill her ... no, I'll send word. As I was
saying, everything is as it was at four o'clock this afternoon."
He chattered for the lad's benefit, noting that at times Louis shivered
as with ague, and that his hands were cold. He has tasted calamity,
Arthur thought with resignation, and life will never be quite the same
thing again. In the comfortable room the marks of suffering became
painfully evident. Even joy failed to rouse his old self. Pale, wrinkled
like age, shrunken, almost lean, he presented a woful spectacle. Arthur
mixed a warm punch for him, and spread a substantial lunch.
"The sauce for this feast," said he, "is not appetite, but this fact:
that your troubles are over. Now eat."
Louis made a pretense of eating, and later, under the influence of the
punch, found a little appetite. By degrees his mind became clearer as
his body rested, the wrinkles began to disappear, his body seemed to
fill out while the comfort of the situation invaded him. Arthur, puffing
his cigar and describing his interview with Claire, looked so stanch and
solid, so sure of himself, so at ease with his neighbors, that one could
scarcely fail to catch his happy complaint.
"She has begun her descent into hell," he said placidly, "but since you
are with us still, I shall give her plenty of time to make it. What I am
surprised at is that you did not understand what my entrance meant. She
understood it. She thought Curran was due as her witness of the assault.
What surprises me still more is that you so completely forgot my advice:
no matter what the trouble and the shame, come straight to me. Here was
a grand chance to try it."
"I never thought of this kind of trouble," said Louis dully. "Anyway, I
got such a fright that I understood nothing rightly up to midnight. The
terrible feeling of public disgrace eat into me. I saw and heard people
crying over me as at a funeral, you know that hopeless crying. The road
ahead looked to be full of black clouds. I wanted to die. Then I wanted
to get away. When I found a ship they took me for a half-drunk sailor,
and hustled me into the forecastle in lively shape. When Curran found me
and hauled me out of the bunk, I had been asleep enjoying the awfullest
dreams. I took him for a trickster, who wanted to get me ashore and jail
me. I feel better. I think I can sleep now."
"Experience maybe has given you a better grip on the meaning of that
wise advice which I repeat now: no matter what the trouble, come to me."
"I shall come," said the lad with a show of spirit that delighted
Arthur. "Even if you should see me hanged the next day."
"That's a fine sentiment to sleep on, so we'll go to bed. However,
remind yourself that a little good sense when you resume business ... by
the way, it's morning ... no super-sensitiveness, no grieving, for you
were straight all through ... go right on as if nothing had happened ...
and in fact nothing has happened yet ... I can see that you understand."
They went to bed, and slept comfortably until noon. After breakfast
Louis looked passably well, yet miserable enough to make explanations
necessary for his alarmed parents. Arthur undertook the disagreeable
office, which seemed to him delightful by comparison with that other
story of a runaway son _en route_ in fancied disgrace for India. All's
well that ends well. Mary Everard wept with grief, joy, and gratitude,
and took her jewel to her arms without complaint or question. The
crotchety father was disposed to have it out with either the knaves or
the fools in the game, did not Arthur reduce him to quiet by his little
indictment.
"There is only one to quarrel with about this sad affair, John Everard,"
said he smoothly, "and that only one is your friend and well wisher,
Quincy Livingstone. I want you to remember that, when we set out to take
his scalp. It's a judgment on you that you are the first to suffer
directly by this man's plotting. You needn't talk back. The boy is going
to be ill, and you'll need all your epithets for your chief and yourself
before you see comfort again."
Recalling his son's appearance the father remained silent. Arthur's
prevision came true. The physician ordered Louis to bed for an
indefinite time, having found him suffering from shock, and threatened
with some form of fever. The danger did not daunt his mother. Whatever
of suffering yet remained, her boy would endure it in the shelter of her
arms.
"If he died this night," she said to Arthur, "I would still thank God
that sent him back to die among his own; and after God, you, son dear,
who have been more than a brother to him."
Thus the items in his account with kinsman Livingstone kept mounting
daily.