24
On Wednesday morning I motored to town and took up my residence in the
Hotel Rotterdam. I hardly knew myself amidst such grandeur. For
several days the situation remained in _status quo_. I learned from
English's daily reports that Lorina and her gang were still waiting for
my first move. I, for my part, was determined to make them move first.
Only one of his reports gave me anything to do. I quote from it:
"Among all the men who come and go in this den of crooks there is one
that has particularly excited my interest and compassion. It is an
extremely good-looking boy of eighteen or thereabouts whom I know
simply as Blondy. He seems so like a normal boy, jolly, frank and
mischievous, that I keep wondering how he fell into Lorina's clutches.
He reminds me of my boy Eddie at his age. Lorina has him thoroughly
intimidated. She is more overbearing with him than the others. He
seems not to be trusted very far, but is used as errand boy and spy.
His extreme good looks and ingenuous air, make him valuable to them I
fancy.
"Blondy's instinct seems to have led him to make friends with me,
though as far as he knows I am no better than the rest. At any rate we
have had a few talks together and feel quite intimate. Without any
suggestion from me, he has kept this from the others. It is quite
touching.
"I would like very much to get the boy out of this before the grand
catastrophe. I'm sure he's worth saving. Naturally in my position I
can't undertake any missionary work. Could you with safety arrange for
some one to get hold of the boy? He tells me that he lives at the
Adelphi Association House, No. ---- West 125th street. Apparently it
is a semi-philanthropic club or boarding-house for young men. He
passes there by the name of Ralph Manly."
I was in almost as unfavorable a position for undertaking "missionary
work" as Mr. Dunsany. After thinking the matter over I decided to
again ask the help of the famous surgeon who had befriended me in the
hospital. I called at his office for the ostensible purpose of
consulting him as to my health. When I was alone with him in his
consulting room I made myself known. Being a human kind of man,
notwithstanding his eminence, he was interested in the dramatic and
mysterious elements of my story. Far from abusing me for taking up his
valuable time, he expressed himself as very willing to help save the
boy.
We consulted a directory of charities in his office, and he found that
he was acquainted with several men on the board of managers of the
Adelphi Association. This offered an opening. He promised to proceed
with the greatest caution, and promised to write to me at my hotel if
he had any luck.
Three days later I heard from him as follows:
"I took my friend on the Adelphi board partly into my confidence, and
between him and the doctor employed by the association to safeguard the
health of the boys, the matter was easily arranged. The doctor's
regular weekly visit to the institution fell yesterday. He saw the
boy, and making believe to be struck by something in his appearance,
put him through an examination. He hinted to the boy that he was in
rather a bad way, and instructed him to report to my office for advice
this morning.
"The young fellow showed up in a very sober state of mind. He is
really as sound as a dollar, but for the present I am keeping him
anxious without being too explicit. He appears to be quite as
attractive a youth as your friend said. I am very much interested, but
am not yet prepared to make up my mind about him. He is coming
to-morrow at two-thirty. If it is convenient for you to be here, I
will arrange a meeting as if by accident."
Needless to say, I was at the doctor's office at the time specified. I
found the blonde boy already waiting among other patients in the outer
office. It was easy to recognise him from Mr. Dunsany's description.
He was better than merely good-looking; he had nice eyes. He was
dressed a little too showily as is natural to a boy of that age when he
is allowed to consult his own taste exclusively.
There happened to be a vacant chair beside him and I took it.
Presently I addressed some friendly commonplace to him. He responded
naturally. Evidently he was accustomed to having people like him.
Soon we were talking away like old friends. I was more and more taken
with him. Primarily, it was his good looks, of course, the universal
safe-conduct, but in addition to that I was strongly affected by a
quality of wistfulness in the boy's glance, of which he himself was
quite unconscious. Surely, I said to myself, a boy of his age had no
business to be carrying around a secret sorrow. The doctor, issuing
from his consulting room, saw us hobnobbing together, and allowed us to
wait until everybody else had been attended to.
He had me into the consulting room first. "Well, what do you think of
him?" he asked.
"I am charmed," I said. "There are no two words about it."
"So was I," he said, "but I didn't want to raise your hopes too high in
my letter."
After discussing a little what we would do with him, we had the boy in.
"Ralph, my friend, Mr. Boardman, wished to be regularly introduced,"
said the doctor.
Boardman was the name I had taken in my present disguise.
The boy shook hands nicely, he was neither too bashful, nor too brash,
and some facetious remarks were made all around.
"I tell Boardman," said the doctor, "that if he had done his duty by
his country and had had half a dozen sons like you he would have no
time to be worrying about his appendix now."
"Has your father got half a dozen like you?" I asked.
An expression of pain ran across the boy's face. "I have no brothers,"
he said. "My father is dead."
"Well, since you're a fatherless son, and I'm a sonless father--with an
appendix, perhaps we can cheer each other up a little," I said. "Will
you have dinner with me at my hotel to-night?"
Boys never see anything suspicious in sudden overtures of friendship.
Ralph accepted, blushing with pleasure.
The dinner was a great success. I don't know which of us was the
better entertained. My young friend's prattle, ingenuous, boastful,
lightheaded, renewed my own boyhood. It was rather painful though to
see one naturally so frank, obliged to pull up when he found himself
approaching dangerous ground. Then he would glance at me to see if I
had noticed anything.
I had him several times after that. It was a risk, of course, but one
must take risks. At the same time I was pretty sure from Mr. Dunsany's
reports that Ralph never talked of his outside affairs to any of the
gang. At least he never told Mr. Dunsany anything about his dinners
with Mr. Boardman at the Rotterdam, and he was friendly with him.
The dénouement of this incident really belongs a little later in my
story, but for the sake of continuity I will give it here.
I soon saw that I would have no difficulty in winning Ralph's full
confidence. His gratitude for friendliness was very affecting. I
could see that he often wished to bare his painful secret. I let him
take his own time about it.
It was the doctor's offering him a position in a friend's office that
brought matters to a head. Ralph refused it with a painful air. He
could give no reason for it to the doctor. Afterwards when I had him
alone with me I saw that it was coming.
"That certainly was decent of Dr. ----," he said diffidently. "I don't
know why he's so good to me."
"Oh, you're not a bad sort of boy," I said lightly.
"You, too," he said shyly. "Especially you. I--I never had a man
friend before."