THE SECRET OF THE WHARF
I sat in the evil-smelling little room with its low, blackened ceiling,
and strove to avoid making the slightest noise; but the crazy boards
creaked beneath me with every movement. The moon hung low in an almost
cloudless sky; for, following the spell of damp and foggy weather, a
fall in temperature had taken place, and there was a frosty snap in
the air to-night.
Through the open window the moonlight poured in and spilled its pure
luminance upon the filthy floor; but I kept religiously within the
shadows, so posted, however, that I could command an uninterrupted
view of the street from the point where it crossed the creek to that
where it terminated at the gates of the deserted wharf.
Above and below me the crazy building formerly known as the Joy-Shop
and once the nightly resort of the Asiatic riff-raff from the docks--
was silent, save for the squealing and scuffling of the rats. The
melancholy lapping of the water frequently reached my ears, and a more
or less continuous din from the wharves and workshops upon the further
bank of the Thames; but in the narrow, dingy streets immediately
surrounding the house, quietude reigned and no solitary footstep
disturbed it.
Once, looking down in the direction of the bridge, I gave a great
start, for a black patch of shadow moved swiftly across the path and
merged into the other shadows bordering a high wall. My heart leapt
momentarily, then, in another instant, the explanation of the mystery
became apparent--in the presence of a gaunt and prowling cat. Bestowing
a suspicious glance upward in my direction, the animal slunk away toward
the path bordering the cutting.
By a devious route amid ghostly gasometers I had crept to my post in
the early dusk, before the moon was risen, and already I was heartily
weary of my passive part in the affair of the night. I had never before
appreciated the multitudinous sounds, all of them weird and many of
them horrible, which are within the compass of those great black rats
who find their way to England with cargoes from Russia and elsewhere.
From the rafters above my head, from the wall recesses about me, from
the floor beneath my feet, proceeded a continuous and nerve-shattering
concert, an unholy symphony which seemingly accompanied the eternal
dance of the rats.
Sometimes a faint splash from below would tell of one of the revelers
taking the water, but save for the more distant throbbing of riverside
industry, and rarer note of shipping, the mad discords of this rat
saturnalia alone claimed the ear.
The hour was nigh now, when matters should begin to develop. I
followed the chimes from the clock of some church nearby--I have never
learnt its name; and was conscious of a thrill of excitement when
they warned me that the hour was actually arrived....
A strange figure appeared noiselessly, from I knew not where, and
stood fully within view upon the bridge crossing the cutting, peering
to right and left, in an attitude of listening. It was the figure of
a bedraggled old woman, gray-haired, and carrying a large bundle tied
up in what appeared to be a red shawl. Of her face I could see little,
since it was shaded by the brim of her black bonnet, but she rested
her bundle upon the low wall of the bridge, and to my intense
surprise, sat down upon it!
She evidently intended to remain there.
I drew back further into the darkness; for the presence of this
singular old woman at such a place, and at that hour, could not well
be accidental. I was convinced that the first actor in the drama had
already taken the stage. Whether I was mistaken or not must shortly
appear.
Crisp footsteps sounded upon the roadway; distantly, and from my
left. Nearer they approached and nearer. I saw the old woman, in the
shadow of the wall, glance once rapidly in the direction of the
approaching pedestrian. For some occult reason, the chorus of the
rats was stilled. Only that firm and regular tread broke the intimate
silence of the dreary spot.
Now the pedestrian came within my range of sight. It was Nayland Smith!
He wore a long tweed overcoat with which I was familiar, and a soft
felt hat, the brim pulled down all around in a fashion characteristic
of him, and probably acquired during the years spent beneath the
merciless sun of Burma. He carried a heavy walking-cane which I knew
to be a formidable weapon that he could wield to good effect. But,
despite the stillness about me, a stillness which had reigned
uninterruptedly (save for the _danse macabre_ of the rats) since the
coming of dusk, some voice within, ignoring these physical evidences
of solitude, spoke urgently of lurking assassins; of murderous
Easterns armed with those curved knives which sometimes flashed
before my eyes in dreams; of a deathly menace which hid in the
shadows about me, in the many shadows cloaking the holes and corners
of the ramshackle building, draping arches, crannies and portals to
which the moonlight could not penetrate.
He was abreast of the Joy-Shop now, and in sight of the ominous old
witch huddled upon the bridge. He pulled up suddenly and stood
looking at her. Coincident with his doing so, she began to moan and
sway her body to right and left as if in pain; then--
"Kind gentleman," she whined in a sing-song voice, "thank God you came
this way to help a poor old woman."
"What is the matter?" said Smith tersely, approaching her.
I clenched my fists. I could have cried out; I was indeed hard put to
it to refrain from crying out--from warning him. But his injunctions
had been explicit, and I restrained myself by a great effort,
preserving silence and crouching there at the window, but with every
muscle tensed and a desire for action strong upon me.
"I tripped up on a rough stone, sir," whined the old creature, "and
here I've been sitting waiting for a policeman or someone to help me,
for more than an hour, I have."
Smith stood looking down at her, his arms behind him, and in one
gloved hand swinging the cane.
"Where do you live, then?" he asked.
"Not a hundred steps from here, kind gentleman," she replied in the
monotonous voice; "but I can't move my left foot. It's only just
through the gates yonder."
"What!" snapped Smith, "on the wharf?"
"They let me have a room in the old building until it's let," she
explained. "Be helping a poor old woman, and God bless you."
"Come along, then!"
Stooping, Smith placed his arm around her shoulders, and assisted her
to her feet. She groaned as if in great pain, but gripped her red
bundle, and leaning heavily upon the supporting arm, hobbled off
across the bridge in the direction of the wharf gates at the end of
the lane.
Now at last a little action became possible, and having seen my friend
push open one of the gates and assist the old woman to enter, I crept
rapidly across the crazy floor, found the doorway, and, with little
noise, for I wore rubber-soled shoes, stole down the stairs into what
had formerly been the reception-room of the Joy-Shop, the malodorous
sanctum of the old Chinaman, John Ki.
Utter darkness prevailed there, but momentarily flicking the light of
a pocket-lamp upon the floor before me, I discovered the further steps
that were to be negotiated, and descended into the square yard which
gave access to the path skirting the creek.
The moonlight drew a sharp line of shadow along the wall of the house
above me, but the yard itself was a well of darkness. I stumbled under
the rotting brick archway, and stepped gingerly upon the muddy path
that I must follow. One hand pressed to the damp wall, I worked my way
cautiously along, for a false step had precipitated me into the foul
water of the creek. In this fashion and still enveloped by dense
shadows, I reached the angle of the building. Then--at risk of being
perceived, for the wharf and the river both were bathed in moonlight--
I peered along to the left....
Out onto the paved pathway communicating with the wharf came Smith,
shepherding his tottering charge. I was too far away to hear any
conversation that might take place between the two, but, unless Smith
gave the pre-arranged signal, I must approach no closer. Thus, as one
sees a drama upon the screen, I saw what now occurred--occurred with
dramatic, lightning swiftness.
Releasing Smith's arm, the old woman suddenly stepped back ... at the
instant that another figure, a repellent figure which approached,
stooping, apish, with a sort of loping gait, crossed from some spot
invisible to me, and sprang like a wild animal upon Smith's back!
It was a Chinaman, wearing a short loose garment of the smock pattern,
and having his head bare, so that I could see his pigtail coiled upon
his yellow crown. That he carried a cord, I perceived in the instant
of his spring, and that he had whipped it about Smith's throat with
unerring dexterity was evidenced by the one, short, strangled cry that
came from my friend's lips.
Then Smith was down, prone upon the crazy planking, with the ape-like
figure of the Chinaman perched between his shoulders--bending forward--
the wicked yellow fingers at work, tightening--tightening--tightening
the strangling-cord!
Uttering a loud cry of horror, I went racing along the gangway which
projected actually over the moving Thames waters, and gained the wharf.
But, swift as I had been, another had been swifter!
A tall figure (despite the brilliant moon, I doubted the evidence of
my sight), wearing a tweed overcoat and a soft felt hat with the brim
turned down, sprang up, from nowhere as it seemed, swooped upon the
horrible figure squatting, simianesque, between Smith's shoulder-blades,
and grasped him by the neck.
I pulled up shortly, one foot set upon the wharf. The new-comer was
the double of Nayland Smith!
Seemingly exerting no effort whatever, he lifted the strangler in that
remorseless grasp, so that the Chinaman's hands, after one quick
convulsive upward movement, hung limply beside him like the paws of a
rat in the grip of a terrier.
"You damned murderous swine!" I heard in a repressed, savage undertone.
"The knife failed, so now the cord has an innings! Go after your pal!"
Releasing one hand from the neck of the limp figure, the speaker
grasped the Chinaman by his loose, smock-like garment, swung him back,
once--a mighty swing--and hurled him far out into the river as one
might hurl a sack of rubbish!