and at last disappearing around a corner.
“The motions of a panther and the manners of a yeggman,” spoke Kenyon.
“A most undesirable person to come upon, unprepared, I should say.”
He turned and made his way westward, deep in thought. He walked with
bent head, and did not notice a patrolman well along in the block who
looked at him searchingly and suspiciously; but he was allowed to pass
without interference.
A bell from a neighboring tower solemnly boomed two as he turned into
Fifth Avenue and made his way down town. The night had turned chill and
damp; he turned up the collar of his overcoat with a shiver and plunged
his hands into the wide pockets. As he strode along he drew deeply at
the cigar which he had lighted, until the end glowed redly.
When Kenyon smoked hard it was a positive indication of mental unrest.
Against the high-colored background of surprise, suspicion and possible
crime with which the night had daubed his thoughts, was thrown a
brilliant face and a pair of flashing, scornful eyes.
Who was she? Who were they? And what was the mysterious thing which so
held and so moved them all? But more than anything else, how, in the
name of all that was bizarre and astonishing, did he come to be mixed
up in it? No matter what side of the matter he set himself to consider,
he always came back to this particular one. It was a thing absolutely
beyond his comprehension.
For a good two hours he tramped the streets smoking and thinking. If
the girl had not figured in the affair it would have had but little
effect upon him; he was quite well accustomed to startling occurrences,
but her participation troubled him. Otherwise he could have gone
comfortably to bed and forgotten it all.
“There is something decidedly wrong in Selden’s Square,” muttered he,
“something that’s off color and underhand. But what is it? And how does
a girl like that--but she can have nothing to do with anything that’s
not correct. I am positive of that. There is something fine and high
about her.”
Just how he ever came to be walking along the North River front he
never knew. He was so deep in conjecture that he had given no heed to
where his steps had been leading him, and about four o’clock he found
himself in the neighborhood of the Twenty-third Street ferry. Even this
he would not have known had he not suddenly collided with a stoutly
built young man, with fiery red hair, who was just about entering a
railroad cab.
“Hello,” cried this person, sharply. “Have the goodness to look where
you are going, will you? It’s all right and proper, my friend, to carry
as much excess as you can comfortably handle. But don’t try to shoulder
any of it upon a man who has traveled much and is very tired.”
“I beg your pardon,” said Kenyon, stiffly.
The countenance of the other, in the ruddy flare of the cab lamps,
suddenly expanded into a delighted grin.
“Why, dog-bust it, it’s Kenyon!” he almost shouted. “Shake!”
“Garry Webster!” Kenyon gripped the extended hand, equally delighted.
“Why, old boy, this _is_ a surprise.”
Webster shook Kenyon’s hand with the utmost vigor.
“Well, who would ever have thought to meet you here,” cried he. “It’s
been all of ten years since I saw you last, Ken, and a good five
since I heard from you; and here you all but knock the breath out of
me before I’m in New York ten minutes. But I thought you were doing
stunts in South America with a machine gun and a backing of barefooted
patriots.”
“So I was, until a few weeks ago, but--”
“Hold on, tell me about it later. Pile in here,” drawing him toward
the cab door; “kick those bags and things out of the way. I’m for the
Waldorf, and the biggest breakfast they’ve got in the place.”
A feeling of faintness in the stomach told Kenyon that breakfast was a
thing that he stood rather in need of himself. So he got into the cab
with Webster and they bore down upon the hotel.
“I’m just in from Chicago,” the red-haired young man told Kenyon,
“going to look into the windings of the hardware business here, and see
if we can’t corral some of the trade that has been lately taken from
us.”
“Still traveling for Webster & Seybold, eh?”
“Bless you, no!” laughed Garry. “The governor took me into the firm
three years ago. This is my first business trip since, and I wouldn’t
be making it, only it’s something special. You see, a rival concern
has been cutting into our eastern trade like sixty, and something had
to be done about it. And as I am the only one in the shop that is
sufficiently acquainted with this market, why, it was me to get busy
with my trunks. Back there somewhere, in a freight shed, I’ve got
about a dozen sample cases filled with the finest steel implements
and sundries ever seen east of Pittsburg. They are the limit, and no
mistake. Webster & Seybold are out after the business of this section;
and, as I block things out, when I’ve covered the ground, the entire
harvest will be reaped and bound. I don’t intend to leave those other
fellows opening enough to put in a pound of wire nails.”
Webster so laughed and choked and shook over this ideal if exaggerated
prospect, that Kenyon, also laughing, was forced to pound him upon the
back.
“You haven’t changed much, Garry,” remarked Kenyon. “You still like to
slap your own choice of color on the future.”
“Well, there is no use in letting them put up some other shade for me,
you know. They’d only turn out a job that wouldn’t suit. Paint the
future in a good, cheerful hue, Ken, and she’ll never come to you in
mourning. I made that discovery years ago, and have always stuck to the
bright shades. No browns or grays for me.”
“But sometimes they get on of themselves.”
“Go ’long! It couldn’t happen, no matter how you take it. A man is
always master of his future.”
“Not always. Sometimes things happen over which he has no control--for
example the things which happened to me last night.”
“I can see a story in your eye. You have had an adventure.” Webster
laughed and cocked up his feet. “Let’s have it, Ken, for your stories
are always sure to have lots of go in them. But, hold on. Wait till we
get to the hotel and start in on the breakfast. I’ll enjoy it better.”
At the Waldorf-Astoria, Garry engaged a magnificent suite.
“Webster & Seybold are going to do the thing right,” remarked he, as he
walked about and approvingly surveyed the very evident elegance of the
apartments. “Hardware men like to eat costly food and absorb colored
drinks. Here is where they can do both; they can dine and sup and
luncheon and breakfast to slow music and rapid propositions. And always
will your humble servant be directly in the focus of the spot-light,
reaching them the talk. Right off the dining-room is the sample-room.
Do you get the effect? When they are feeling pleasant and comfortable
and ‘old chappy,’ I’ll pilot them in there and they will buy as they
never bought before. A man in good humor cannot possibly resist the
line I will show him. And it will be instant delivery and ninety days’
time.”
“_You_ have no thought of failure in your campaign, Garry,” remarked
Kenyon, rather soberly.
“Failure! No! No man with the goods ever fails. It’s only the poor
devils who try to win out with high prices, hard terms, and empty
hands. Proper equipment is the thing that gains commercial battles as
well as military ones.”
“I suppose that’s true. And other sorts as well, don’t you think?”
“Without a doubt.” Garry gazed at his friend curiously for a moment;
then he said: “Somehow, Ken, you give me the impression of being in
deep water. Has it anything to do with the night’s adventure?”
“It has all to do with it.”
“Oh! The experiences of these modern Babylons! I have had my own share
of them; but as a rule I sort of slough them off before many hours have
passed. It’s quite the best way. But here’s the breakfast.”
They ate in a small room, overlooking Fifth Avenue; and during
the progress of the meal, Kenyon related his experiences of the
preceding night. Webster listened with the utmost attention and many
exclamations. When Kenyon had finished he lay back in his chair and
fairly rocked with delight.
“Adventures to the adventurous!” cried he. “Why, old chap, it’s like
a night of our ancient friend, Haroun Al Raschid.” He bent forward
and continued with great interest, “And so the dark-eyed girl was
beautiful, was she?”
“Charming! Superb! I never saw anything just like her before.”
“And the indications are,” said Webster, carefully inspecting his
friend, “that you never will again. It’s the sort of thing that only
hits one once in a lifetime.”
“Oh, pshaw!”
“By all means. But that’s not going to alter anything. And you say she
was cold, scornful, imperious, and all that?”
“Yes, but only to me. To everyone else she spoke gently; and it was at
such moments that I got a glimpse of her true charm. Why, even this
fellow Forrester came in for a share of it.”
“Why not? According to your account of him, he must be rather an
attractive kind of a chap, just the sort that is apt to be strong with
women.”
Garry witnessed with unholy joy the resentment that flushed Kenyon’s
face.
“But don’t I tell you that he’s in love with this other girl, and she
with him. And then he’s not at all the sort of fellow that such a girl
would admire.”
Webster shrugged his shoulders.
“You never can tell,” said he. He lit a cigarette and lay back in his
chair, smoking thoughtfully. At last he said: “But, aside from her,
this is a peculiar experience. It’s a great deal like a dream. There is
something so absolutely lawless about it.”
“I can make neither head nor tail of it,” said Kenyon. “However, to
tell the candid truth, I have examined but one side of the matter.”
“I understand,” said Webster, with a nod. “You’re confiding in an old
pal, Ken, so don’t be backward. It’s the girl.” Kenyon was silent, so
the young man from Chicago proceeded. “Of course it is. You have been
kept so busy trying to free her of any possible blame that you have
been unable to see anything else.”
“I think you are right,” replied the other, quietly. “She impressed
me as being strangely out of place in such an atmosphere. There was
courage and goodness and high purpose in her every look and movement.”
“Exactly.” Webster instantly dropped his bantering manner at Kenyon’s
quiet, unembarrassed tone. His experience with the other told him that
anything which his friend took seriously was not to be treated lightly.
Throwing away his cigarette end, he lighted a fresh one. “I can’t think
properly unless I’m continually firing up,” explained he.
He drew quickly and deeply, and the thick blue smoke formed a veil
between him and Kenyon. Then, waving it away with his hand, he
proceeded:
“Now let us take this little affair from the very start. I suppose you
have been doing that ever since it happened; but if we are to get at
anything tangible in the way of a solution we must do it once more. Let
me play the grand inquisitor; I probably see the entire adventure from
a different angle than you, and will, perhaps, set your mind to working
upon points that all but escaped you.”
“All right,” said Kenyon, lighting a cigarette also. “Go ahead, Garry;
and I hope you make a better fist of it than I have.”
“Now, to start with: Did you get no whisper, in any way, of the name of
the old man that died last night in Selden’s Square?”
“Not the faintest. Nor that of the girl I have specially spoken of. The
other’s name was Anna. Then, of course, there was Forrester and Hong
Yo.”
“But the old man knew Nunez, your old commander in Uruguay. There is a
possible clue. Did you never hear Nunez speak of any friends who lived
here in the North?”
“Never.”
“Humph!” Webster pursed up his lips and blew a long, thin stream of
smoke toward the ceiling. “That seems conclusive enough. We’ll never
get at anything from that direction, that’s sure. But let us come to
yourself now. You’ll know more about that subject.”
Kenyon smiled.
“I’ll be sure to,” said he.
“Who were your intimates while in Montevideo?”
“I knew no one intimately save Nunez and his secretary, Balmacenso.”
“And Nunez was killed at the taking of the town by the forces of the
dictator.”
“He was.”
“And Balmacenso? What sort of a fellow was he?”
“Not a bad sort of a chap. I think he was a Spaniard. He saved my life
after the fight, packed me on a mule, I being unable to walk because
of a wrenched leg. If you fancy he had anything to do with this thing
you are on the wrong scent. These people expected me on the _Blenheim_.
Balmacenso died weeks before the _Blenheim_ entered port and at a time
when I had no notion of coming North in her. I’ve gone over all that,
but there is no explanation of the mystery in it.”
Webster looked baffled.
“Now, look here,” complained he, “don’t throw cold water upon my
investigation like this. It’s discouraging. Here I’m sweating like a
sheep, trying to get to the bottom of this thing, and you take a sort
of delight in stumping me. It’s not friendly and it’s not right.”
“I beg your pardon,” laughed Kenyon. “I’m only tickled to see how
similar your own point of view is to my own, that’s all.”
“They don’t seem as widely separated as I expected them to be, that’s a
fact,” admitted Garry. “It proves to me that it is possible for a man,
newly impressed by a most beautiful woman, to see as clearly as the
most cold-blooded of his friends. And that is a thing worth knowing.”
He smiled genially across the table at Kenyon and smoked his cigarette
contentedly.
“There remains only one other thing which I can think of,” said he.
“And that is the possibility of there being persons who knew you in New
York.”
“There is no one,” said Kenyon, positively. “I never knew but a few
people here, and them only slightly--so slightly as not even to recall
their names. And no one in the North knew of my movements in recent
years--not even you. And that I was coming to New York was not known to
myself more than two hours before I started.”
“It is deeply and blackly mysterious,” conceded Webster. “It would
require an acute intellect of the highest type to do anything with it.
One thing I can see very plainly, and that is that hardware is my line,
and not conundrums.”
“I fancied that you would give it up,” said Kenyon, smilingly.
“Only temporarily. I’ll grapple with it again.”
“Apart from the oddness of the matter where I am personally concerned,”
said Kenyon, seriously, “is the matter where it concerns others. What
are these people, and what object have they in view?”
“Hong Yo, now, did not impress you?”
“He was like a bloodless snake. I chilled at the very sight of him.”
“But the other--the hammer-throwing chap--sort of puzzled you?”
“Candidly, yes. He was boyish frankness personified, but still--”
“You have your doubts. Exactly. We are all more or less strong
believers in the adage that birds of a feather flock together. But the
old man? What of him?”
“I cannot make up my mind. He spoke of a mysterious purpose of which
I was supposed to be acquainted, as I told you, and of a mysterious
person who was to be safeguarded. And he was intensely and passionately
in earnest. Whatever it is, it was of tremendous moment to him.”
“Then there is Forrester’s whispered injunction to you at the end; also
the garrotting of the stranger from Butte outside the door. I tell you,
Ken, you have had a night of it, and no mistake.”
For a moment both were silent. They smoked thoughtfully and the corners
of their eyes were gathered in tight little lines. Suddenly the
cigarette dropped from Kenyon’s hand, and he uttered a cry.
“What is it?” asked Webster, in surprise.
“Only the check,” answered the other, ironically. “What confounded
stupidity! I never thought to look whose signature was attached to it.”
“Holy Smoke!” ejaculated Webster. And he sat regarding his friend with
bulging eyes.
Kenyon drew the check from his pocket and opened it; he gave it a
single glance, and then sank back in his chair, disappointment in every
line of his face.
“It is signed by Hong Yo,” he said.
VI
KENYON HAS ANOTHER ODD EXPERIENCE
“And when darkness fell, he stopped at a caravansary where there were
other travelers also.”
--_The Amazing Adventures of Mansour Bi._
THE two young men sat regarding one another, vexedly.
“Now was there ever such an aggravating thing before,” cried Webster,
at last. “I felt sure that it would contain the old man’s name, and
that our guessing was at an end.”
He took the check from Kenyon’s hand and inspected it closely.
“Whew!” he whistled. “Your services are placed at a pretty high figure,
Kenyon. This calls for as many as ten thousand dollars. Apparently the
parties whom you visited last night are not at all stinted for money.”
“It looks that way, to be sure,” answered Kenyon, dryly. “And upon
second thought we may glean some information from the check, after all.
The bank will surely know something of Hong Yo.”
“Unquestionably. But will they tell it to you?”
“Very likely not. Banks are rather disposed to be noncommittal, I have
found. But I can call there and inquire, at any rate.”
“Moritze & Co.,” read Webster thoughtfully, still examining the check.
“Somehow it seems to me that I’ve heard of that house before.” He
pondered awhile, then suddenly said:
“Ah, I have it. It’s a Seattle concern, and is much favored by the
Pacific trade--steamship companies, exporters, and the like. Webster
& Seybold have done business through them; they have branches in Hong
Kong and Tokio, and the Orientals seem to rely greatly upon them.” He
handed the slip of paper back to Kenyon and inquired: “But what are you
going to do with this!”
“It’s a puzzle,” returned Kenyon. “Of course the thing’s not mine.
Perhaps the best thing for me to do would be to pay another visit to 98
Selden’s Square, make a brief, vigorous statement of facts, and wash my
hands of the whole affair.”
“Do you really want to do that last?” asked Webster, with a shrewd look.
Kenyon colored; but his embarrassment was only of a moment’s duration.
“I’m not quite sure that I do,” he answered, quietly. “The adventure
is not without its interest. And then there is the girl. I rather
fancy that the desire to see her once more will begin to grow upon me
shortly; and I’m also of the opinion that I shall not put up much of a
fight against it.”
“Spoken like a courageous and candid soul,” laughed Webster. “Stick to
it; don’t be beaten. If she’s anything like your limning of her, she’s
worth some sort of an effort.”
In a little while Kenyon arose.
“I must get some sleep,” said he. “I begin to feel a bit tired.”
“Where are you stopping? Why not make a shift here, where we can keep
in touch with each other.”
“I’m putting up at a clean little German place down town; in fact
it’s very much down town. I can see the trees of Battery Park from my
window.”
“You’re broke,” stated Webster, firmly.
Kenyon gestured his admission of the charge.
“Otherwise, why the job in the stoke-hole of the _Blenheim_ on my way
up?” said he.
Webster assumed the countenance of delight.
“Now, by all that’s providential,” he cried, “I’ve got you, at last.
When we were at college and I’d go down the line, scattering my change,
you’d lend me yours in a fatherly, patronizing way that was peculiarly
aggravating. And this is my first chance to get back; I’ve never
caught you broke before.”
He lit a third cigarette and grinned widely.
“How much do you want?” asked he.
“How strong a jolt can you stand?”
“Since I entered the firm of Webster & Seybold, I’ve planted something
like fifty thousand dollars. What part of it do you want, Ken? I’ll cut
it anywhere you say.”
“Good boy, Garry!” Kenyon looked at his friend with smiling eyes; but
the corners of his mouth, usually so firm, twitched a little. “A couple
of hundred will do.”
Webster regarded him disgustedly.
“Oh, behave,” said he. “This isn’t a dime-saving fund. If you want to
hit the institution at all, you must do it big.”
“No, no.”
“He’s down and out,” thought the young man from Chicago, “and a man
in that shape needs a fair-sized dose if it’s to do him any good at
all.” Then he said aloud. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do in the way of a
compromise. We’ll make it two thousand, and not a damned cent less.”
Kenyon protested, but the other was firm. “It’s just like this,”
continued the latter, “I’ve got a reputation to uphold; and I can’t
afford, for business reasons, to have my friends live over German beer
saloons in the neighborhood of the Battery. Webster & Seybold are
above such things.”
Kenyon slept deeply all that day. Darkness was already thickening above
the city when he climbed out of bed and began to douse himself with a
huge sponge dipped in a pail of cold water.
“A dollar a day hotel doesn’t offer many conveniences,” said he, trying
to keep his teeth from chattering. “But, then, I’ve seen more limited
accommodations for the morning--or evening--bath, in more pretentious
places. It was always a dreadful question with me whether my fellow
strugglers for liberty in Uruguay ever bathed or no.”
He donned his dress clothes and took a cab to the Waldorf, where he had
engaged to dine with Webster.
“We’ll do the thing with all proper ceremony to-night,” said the
latter, “for it is probably our last chance. I’ve made arrangements for
the first hardware dinner; it’s to come off to-morrow night and is to
be followed by a long succession of others. They all fall for it, Ken;
there is something about free food and champagne that men past middle
age just can’t resist.”
“Are the samples all ready?” asked Kenyon, as they made their way among
the tables in the glittering restaurant.
“They came this afternoon; and I’ve had two men unpacking at top speed
ever since. You never saw such a brave display of useful goods in your
life. There will be a riot when the trade gets its first look.”
The restaurant was fairly well filled; and as the two passed along on
their way to a secluded nook, Kenyon’s air of elegant distinction as
usual attracted much attention.
“A short fellow with red hair could never do it,” mused Webster, as he
became aware of this. “How Providence does dump its gifts at the feet
of some people.”
A low exclamation drew his attention swiftly to a table quite near the
one they had selected; he saw a woman in a sombre motoring dress draw
a thick, dark veil about her face; a man who sat at the table with her
was regarding her with obvious surprise.
“What is it?” asked the man as Webster passed.
But the woman placed her hand upon his arm in a gesture that asked for
silence; and all the time her gaze was fixed upon the two, who were by
this time some yards away.
[Illustration: ALL THE TIME HER GAZE WAS FIXED UPON THE TWO]
“You can order for me, too,” said Webster. “I have the utmost
confidence in your taste. Meantime, I’ll watch a small comedy which
is going on behind you. No, no,” hastily, “don’t look around, because
it has struck me as being just a little queer, and I want to see the
finish.”
Kenyon laughed and said, “Well, if it’s a matter of interest, I depend
upon you to keep me posted.”
With that he gave his attention to the selection of the dinner, while
Webster, with a great assumption of carelessness, watched the couple to
whom his attention had been drawn a few moments before.
They had the appearance of having stopped during a motoring journey,
for dinner; for the man, too, wore the costume affected by that cult.
But they, apparently, had lost all interest in the meal; they bent
toward each other and conversed in low, eager tones.
“She’s telling him something, and it’s about us,” thought Garry. “And,
by George, doesn’t he seem pleased to hear it, though. I never saw a
man’s face light up so much before.”
He continued to give the couple his attention while Kenyon gave his
orders to the waiter; after the man had gone he said:
“I say, Kenyon, do you know that we seemed to startle that young woman
as we came in. Now, don’t look around, I tell you,” sharply. “They are
not yet aware that I’ve noticed them, and I’d rather they wouldn’t be.”
“Startled her, did you say?” Kenyon leaned toward the other, and his
eyes narrowed expectantly. “What does she look like?”
“I did not have a chance to see. She drew her veil instantly upon sight
of us; and it’s really the most competent veil I ever saw. It hides her
completely.”
“And the man!”
“He is elderly. His head is half bald and he has craggy, prominent
features. I wouldn’t like to be positive, but from this distance he
seems to have the coldest and most vulture-like eye I ever saw.”