Sometimes on life's highway we meet a man who reminds us of one of those
high-priced pears seen in fruiterers' windows: wholesome, good to look
at, without a speck or stain on their smooth, round, rosy skins--until
we bite into them. Then, close to their hearts, we uncover a greedy,
conscienceless worm, gnawing away in the dark--and consign the whole to
the waste-barrel.
Dalton, despite his alluring exterior, had been rotten at heart from the
time he was sixteen years of age, when he had lied to his father about
his school remittances, which the old man had duplicated at once.
That none of his associates had discovered this was owing to the fact
that no one had probed deeper than the skin of his attractiveness--and
with good reason: it was clean, good to look at, bright in color, a most
welcome addition to any dinner-table. But when the drop came--and
very few fruits can stand being bumped on the sidewalk--the revelation
followed all the quicker, simply because bruised fruit rots in a day, as
even the least qualified among us can tell.
And the bruises showed clearer as time went on. The lines in his once
well-rounded, almost boyish face grew deeper and more strongly marked,
the eyes shrank far back beneath the brows, the lips became thinner and
less mobile, the hair was streaked with gray, and the feet lacked their
old-time spring.
With these there had come other changes. The smile which had won many a
woman was replaced by a self-conscious smirk; the debonair manner which
had charmed all who met him was now a mere bravado. His dress, too,
showed the strain. While his collar and neckwear were properly looked
after, and his face was clean-shaven, other parts of his make-up,
especially his shoes and hat, were much the worse for wear.
This, then, was the man who, with thoughts intent on his last and
most degrading makeshift, was forging his way up Second Avenue, the
mantilla--the veriest film of old Salamanca lace--pressed into a small
wad and stuffed in his inside pocket.
And now, while we follow him on his way up-town, it may be just as well
for us to note that up to this precise moment our devil-may-care, still
rather handsome Mr. Dalton, with the drooping eyelids and cold, hard
lips, had entirely failed to grasp the idea that, in so far as public
and private morals were concerned, he had in the last thirty minutes
fallen to the level of a common sneak-thief.
His own reasoning, in disproof of this theory, was entirely
characteristic of the man. While the pawning of one's things was of
course unfortunate and might occasion many misunderstandings and
much obloquy, such an act was not necessarily dishonest, because many
gentlemen, some of high social position, had been compelled to do the
same thing. He himself, yielding to force of circumstances, had already
pawned a good many things--his wife's first, and then his own--and would
do it again under similar conditions. That the article carefully hidden
in his pocket belonged to neither one of them, did not strike him as
altering the situation in the slightest. The mantilla was of no value to
him, nor, for that matter, to Lady Barbara. He would pawn it not alone
for the sake of the money it would bring him, to tide him over his
troubles until he could recover his losses--only a question of days,
perhaps hours--but because, by means of the transaction, he would be
enabled to restore harmony to a home which, through the obstinacy of a
woman on whom he had squandered every penny he possessed in the world,
had been temporarily broken up.
Should she rebel and refuse to join him--and she unquestionably had that
right--he would carry out a plan which had come to him in a flash when
he first picked it up. He would pawn it for what it would bring and,
watching his chance some day when Lady Barbara was out at work, force
his way into the apartment, slip the pawn-ticket where it could easily
be found--behind the china or in among her sewing materials--and with
that as proof, charge her with having stolen the lace, threatening her
with exposure unless she yielded. If she relented, he would destroy the
ticket and let the matter drop; if she continued obstinate, he would
charge her companion with being an accessory. The woman was evidently
befriending Lady Barbara for what she could get out of her. Neither
of them was seeking trouble. Between the two he could accomplish his
purpose.
What would happen in the meanwhile, when she tried to account for its
loss to Rosenthal, never caused him the slightest concern. She, of
course, could concoct some story which they would finally believe. If
not, they could deduct the value of the lace from her earnings.
He had the best of motives for his action. Their board bill was overdue.
He was harassed by the want of even the small sums of money needed for
car-fare, and of late it had become very evident that if they were to
keep their present quarters--and he was afraid to try for any others--he
must yield at once to the proprietor's pressing suggestion to “patch
up his differences with his wife,” and have her come home and once more
take charge of the suite of rooms; the owner arguing that as Mr. and
Mrs. Stanton were known to be “family people,” a profitable little game
free from police interruption might be carried on, the surplus to be
divided between the “house and Mrs. Stanton's husband.”
That she should decline again to be party to any such plan seemed to
him altogether improbable, since all she had to do to insure them
both comfort was to return home like a sensible woman, put on the best
clothes she possessed--the more attractive the better, and she certainly
was fetching in that wrapper--and be reasonably polite to such of his
friends as chose to drop in evenings for a quiet game of cards.
Moreover, she owed him something. He had made every sacrifice for her,
shared with her his every shilling, making himself an exile, if not a
fugitive, for her sake, and it was time she recognized it.
With the recall of these incidents in his checkered career a new thought
blazed up in his mind--rather a blinding thought. As its rays brightened
he halted in his course, and stood gazing across the street as if
uncertain as to his next move. Perhaps, after all, it would be best NOT
to pawn the mantilla. An outright sale would be much better. If this
were impossible, it would be just as well to destroy the ticket and
postpone his scheme for regaining possession of her person. While
something certainly was due him--and she of all women in the world
should supply it--forcing her to carry out the landlord's plan, now that
he thought it over, might result in a certain kind of publicity,
which, if his own antecedents were looked into, would be particularly
embarrassing. She might--and here a slight shiver passed through
him--she might, in her obstinacy, threaten him with the forged
certificates, a result hardly possible, for no letters of any kind had
reached her, none so far as he knew; neither had he ever discussed the
incident with her, for the simple reason that women, as a rule, never
understood such things. And yet how could he, as a financier, have tided
over an accounting which, if allowed to go on, would have wiped out the
savings of hundreds who had trusted him and whom he could not desert in
their hour of need, except by some such desperate means? Of course,
if he had to do it all over again, he would never have locked up the
stock-book in his own safe. That was a mistake. He ought to have left it
with the treasurer. Then he could have shifted the responsibility.
Just here, oddly enough, he began to think of Felix--that cold-blooded,
unimaginative man, who knew absolutely nothing about how to treat a
woman, and, for that matter, knew nothing about anything else in so far
as the practical side of life was concerned. The fool--here his brow
knit--had not only broken up the final deal, in which everything had
been fixed with Mullhallsen, the German banker, for an additional loan,
but he had unearthed and compared certain certificates, in his fight to
protect an obstinate old father. Worse still, he had taken himself
off to Australia to starve, instead of saving what he could out of the
wreck. Had he only listened to advice, the whole catastrophe might have
been averted.
And this fool would have ruined his wife as well, had not
he--Dalton--stepped in and saved her from burying herself in the
wilderness.
As the memory of the scene with Felix when the stock-book was unearthed
passed through his mind, his hand instinctively sought the bulge in his
coat-pocket. He must get rid of it and at once. Just as the certificates
had proved to be dangerous, so might this lace.
With this idea of his own peril possessing his mind his whole manner
changed. The air of triumph shown in his step and bearing when he left
Marta's door, due to his discovery of the fugitive and the terror his
presence had inspired, was gone. The old spectre always pursuing him
stepped again to his side and linked arms. His slinking, furtive air
returned, and a certain well-defined fear, as if he dreaded being
followed, showed itself in every glance.
Suddenly he caught sight of a well-patronized retreat, owned and
operated by a Mrs. Blobbs, the Polish wife of an English cheap John, and
with a quick sliding movement, he paused in front of the narrow door. He
had already taken in, from under his hat, the single gas-jet lighting
up its collection of pinchbeck jewelry, watches, revolvers, satin shoes,
fans, and other belongings of the unfortunate, and after peering up and
down the street, he slipped in noiselessly, his countenance wearing
that peculiar, shame-faced expression common to gentlemen on similar
missions. That it was not his first experience could be seen from the
way he leaned far over the counter, dropped the filmy wad, and then
straightened back--the gesture meaning that if any other customer
should come in while his negotiations were in progress, he was not to be
connected in any way with the article.
“Something rather good,” he said, pointing to the black roll.
The proprietress, a square-built woman, solid as a sack of salt, her
waist-line marked by a string tightened just above a black alpaca apron,
her dried-apple face surmounted by a dingy lace cap topped with a soiled
red ribbon, eyed him cautiously, and remarked, after loosening out
the mantilla: “Dem teater gurls only vant such tings, and dey can pay
nuddin'. No, I vouldn't even gif fife tollars. Petter dake it somevares
else.”
Dalton hesitated, turning the matter over in his mind. The transfer
would bring him the desired pawn-ticket, but the five dollars was not
sufficient to help him tide over the most pressing of his difficulties.
He had borrowed double that sum two nights before, from the barkeeper
of a pool-room where he occasionally played, and he dared not repeat his
visit until he could carry him the money.
The male Blobbs, the taller and more rotund of the two
shopkeepers--especially about the middle--now strolled in, leaned over
the counter, and picking up the lace, held it to the overhead light.
Looked at from behind, Blobbs was all shirt-sleeves and waist-coat, the
back of his flat head resting like a lid on his shoulders. Looked at
from the front, Blobbs developed into a person with shoe-brush whiskers
bristling against two yellow cheeks, the features being the five dots
a child always insists upon when drawing a face. Dalton saw at a glance
that it was Mrs. Blobbs, and not Mr. Blobbs, who was in charge of
the shop, and that any discussions with him as to the price would be
useless.
“You're an Hinglishnan, I take it,” came from the lowest dot of the
five, a blurred and uncertain mouth.
Dalton colored slightly and nodded.
“Well, what I should adwise ye to do is to take this 'ere lace to some
of them hold furnitoor shops. I know what this is. I 'ate to see a chap
like ye put to it like this, that's why I tell ye. 'Ard on your woman,
but--there's a shop hup on Fourth Avenue where they buy such things. A
Dutchman by the name of Kling, right on the corner--you can't miss it.
Take it hup to 'im and tell 'im I sent ye--we often 'elps one another.”
Dalton crumpled up the black wad, slid the package under his coat, and
without a word of thanks left the shop.
This was not the first time Blobbs had sent Kling a customer.
Indeed, there had always been more or less of a trade between the two
establishments. For, while Mrs. Blobbs had a license and could advance
money at reasonable rates, her principal business was in old-clothes
and ready-to-wear finery. Being near “The Avenue” and well known to its
denizens, many of their outgrown and out-of-fashion garments had passed
across her counter. Here the young man who pounded away on Masie's
piano, the night of her birthday party, borrowed, for a trifle, his
evening suit. Here Codman had exchanged a three-year-old overcoat,
which refused to be buttoned across his constantly increasing girth,
for enough money to pay for the velvet cuffs and collar of the new one
purchased on Sixth Avenue. Here Mrs. Codman bought remnants of finery
with which to adorn her young daughter's skirts when she went to the
ball given by the Washington chowder party. Here, too, was where the
undertaker sold the clothes of the man who stepped off a ten-story
building in the morning and was laid out that same night in Digwell's
back room, his friends depositing a fresh suit for him to be buried in,
telling the undertaker to do with the old one as he pleased. And to this
old-clothes shop flocked many another denizen of side streets, who at
one time or another had reached crises in their careers which nothing
else could relieve.
Mrs. Blobbs's curt refusal to receive the lace only added fuel to the
blazing thought that had flared up in Dalton's mind when he recalled the
certificates. Holding on to them had caused one explosion. The mantilla
might prove another such bomb. He dared not leave it at home and he
could not carry it for an indefinite time on his person. If the man
Kling would pay any decent price for it, he could have it and welcome.
With the grim spectre still linking arms with him he hurried on, making
short-cuts across the streets, until he arrived at Kling's corner. At
this point he paused. His terror must not betray him. Shaking himself
free of the spectre, he assumed his one-time nonchalant air, entered the
store and walked down the middle aisle, between the lines of sideboards,
bureaus and high desks drawn up in dress parade. Over the barricade of
the small office he caught the shine of Otto's bald head, the only other
live occupant, except Fudge, who had crept out from behind a bureau, and
bounded back with a growl. Fudge had sniffed around the legs of a good
many people, and might have written their biographies, but Dalton was
new to him. Few thieves had ever entered Kling's doors.
“I have just left your old friends, Mr. and Mrs. Blobbs,” he began
gayly, “who have advised me to bring to you rather a rare piece of lace
belonging to my wife. Fine, isn't it?” He loosened the bundle and shook
out the folds of the mantilla.
Otto put on his glasses, felt the texture of the piece between his
fingers, and spread out the pattern for closer examination. “Yes, dot's
a good piece of lace. Vot you vant to do vid it? Dere's a hole in it,
you see,” and he thrust a pudgy finger into the gash.
“Yes, I know,” returned Dalton, who, with his eye still on the dog, had
been crushing it together so that the tear might not show; “but that is
easily remedied. I want to sell it. Mr. Blobbs tells me it is worth a
hundred dollars.”
“Is dot so? Vell--vell--a hundred tollars! Dot's a good deal of money.”
He had begun to wrap it up, tucking in the ends. “No--dot Fudge dog
don't bite--go away, you. T'ank you for lettin' me see it, tell Mr.
Blobbs, but I don't vant it at dot price. And I doan know I vant it at
any price. Dey doan buy dem t'ings any more.”
Dalton saw that the mantilla had favorably impressed the dealer. He had
caught the look of pleasure when the lace was first unrolled, reading
the man's brain as he had often read the brains of the men at home who
listened to some rose-colored prospectus. These experiences had taught
him that there was always a supreme moment when one must stop praising
an article for sale, whether it were a rubber concession from an African
chief or a pound of tea over a grocer's counter. This moment had arrived
with Kling.
“I agree with you,” he said smilingly. “The valuation was Mr. Blobbs's,
not mine. I told him I should be glad to get half that amount--or even
less.”
Otto took the bundle and loosened the roll again. “I got a little girl,
Beesving--dot was her dog make such foolishness--who likes dese t'ings.
But dot is not business, for I doan sell it again once I gif it to her.
I joost put it around her shoulders for a New Year's gift. Maybe if
you--” He re-examined it closely, especially the tear, which had partly
yielded to Lady Barbara's deft fingers and tired eyes. “Vell, I tell you
vot I do, I gif you tventy tollars.”
“That, I am afraid, will not answer my purpose,” said Dalton. “Perhaps,
however, you will loan me thirty dollars on it and hold the lace for a
week or so, and I will pay you back thirty-five when some money that is
due me comes in?”
Otto looked at him from under his bushy eyebrows. “Ve don't do dot kind
of business. If I buy--I buy. If I sell--I sell. Sometimes I pay more as
a t'ing is vorth. Sometimes I pay less. I have a expert vid me who knows
vat dis is vorth, but he is busy vid a customer on de next floor, and I
doan sent for him. If you vant de tventy tollars you can have it. If you
doan, den take avay de lace. I got a lot of t'ings to do more as to talk
about it. Ven you see Blobbs, you tell him vat I say.”
Dalton's mind worked rapidly. To take the money would clean off his debt
and leave him a margin which he might treble before midnight.
“Give me the money,” he said. “It is not one-third of its value, but I
see that it is all I can do.”
Otto smiled--the smile of a man who had hit the thing at which he
aimed--felt in his inside pocket, drew out a great flat pocketbook, and
counted out the bills.
Dalton swept them up as a winner at baccarat sweeps up his coin,
apparently without counting them, stuffed the crumpled bank-notes into
his pocket, and started for the door.
Half-way down the long shop he halted opposite a sideboard laden with
old silver and glass and, to show that he was not in a hurry, paused for
an instant, picking up a cut-glass decanter with a silver top, remarking
casually, as he laid it back, “Like one I have at home,” continuing
his inspection by holding aloft a pipe-stem glass, to see the color the
better.
As he resumed his walk to the door, Felix, with Masie and a customer
ahead of him, was just descending the rear stairs from the “banquet
hall” above. He thus had a full view of the store below. Something in
the way with which the bubble-blown glass was handled attracted O'Day's
attention. He had seen a wrist with a movement like that, the poised
glass firmly held in an outstretched hand. Where, he could not tell; at
his own table, perhaps, or possibly at a club dinner. He remembered
the quick, upward toss, the slender receptacle held high. He leaned far
forward, and watched the nervous step and halting gait. Had Masie and
the customer not been ahead of him, he would have hurried past them
and called to the man to stop--not an unusual thing with him when his
suspicions were aroused. Instead, he waited until he was well down the
stairs, then strolled carelessly toward the door, intending to make some
excuse to accost the man on the sidewalk. Not that he had any definite
conviction regarding his likeness to the man he wanted; more to satisfy
his conscience that he had permitted no clew to slip past him.
What made him hesitate was the way the slouch-hat shaded the intruder's
face, the gas-jets not revealing the features. Only the end of the chin
was visible, and the round of the lower cheek showing above the heavy
cape-collar of the overcoat.
Dalton by this time had reached the street-door, which he closed gently
behind him, holding it for an instant to prevent its making a noise.
Felix lunged forward, reopened it quickly, and gazed out into the night.
Dalton had vanished as completely as if the earth had swallowed him.
Another man, who had kept his eyes on O'Day as he peered into the dark,
an undersized, gaunt-looking man, sidled toward Felix and pulled at his
coat sleeve. “I ain't too early, am I? You said eight o'clock?”
Felix looked at him keenly. “Oh, yes, I remember--no, you are all right.
How long have you been here?”
“About half an hour.”
“Did you notice which way that man went who has just shut the door?”
The tramp looked about him in a helpless way. “I wasn't lookin'. I was
a-watchin' you--waitin' for you to come out--but I got on to him when he
went in awhile ago.”
“Then you have seen him before?”
“Of course I've seen him before. He plays pool where I've been
a-workin'.”
Felix bent closer. “Do you know his name?”
“Sure! His name's Stanton. He's been puttin' sompin' to soak, I guess. I
heard last week he was up against it. Do you know him?”
Felix remained silent a moment, checking his own disappointment, and
then answered slowly: “I thought I did, but I see I am mistaken. Come
inside the store where it is warmer. I have secured you a job, and will
take you with me when I have finished here.”