TOWARDS MORNING
The shock of astonishment unmanned Evan. His pistol arm dropped weakly
at his side, his mouth hung open, he stared like an idiot. To have
crept into the house heart in mouth and pistol in hand, to have nerved
himself to meet and overcome a desperate criminal--and then to find
this! The violence of the reaction threw all his machinery out of
gear; he stalled. He felt inclined to laugh weakly.
Corinna could not see him clearly, though presumably she was aware of a
figure standing in the hall. She was very much affronted by the
violence of the intrusion, and not in the least afraid. She sat up
with her glorious hair a little tousled, and her eyes flashing like a
diminutive empress's.
"Mr. Straiker, is it you? What does this mean?" she demanded.
Evan could not readily find his tongue. Amazement broke over him in
succeeding waves like a surf. Corinna! Corinna here! Corinna a
member of the blackmailing gang! Corinna, the chief! Oh, impossible!
He was in a nightmare!
"Mr. Straiker!" repeated Corinna more sharply. "Come in at once!" She
was on her feet now.
Evan's faculties began to work again. In anticipation he tasted the
sweets of perfect revenge. This little creature had put an intolerable
humiliation upon him. Very well, here she was absolutely in his power!
Dropping the gun in his pocket, he stepped into the room smiling.
At sight of him Corinna did not cry out, but the shock she received was
dreadfully evident in her eyes. She went back a step, one hand went to
her breast, her lips formed the syllable "You!"--but no sound came from
them. Every vestige of color faded from her face.
Evan's gaze burned her up; she was so beautiful, and she had injured
him so! "So you're a member of the gang!" he said mockingly.
Corinna quickly recovered her forces. She shrugged disdainfully.
"And even the chief, it seems!"
"So it seems."
Amazement overcame him afresh. "You--you little thing!" he cried. "I
cannot believe it!"
Corinna affected to look bored.
"So this was the real work of the brotherhood!" Evan went on.
"Blackmail. This was why you couldn't fire them when they threatened
you. A new way to raise money for philanthropic purposes, I swear! To
hold up a usurer with one hand, and feed poor children with the other!"
"A usurer, yes," said Corinna contemptuously. "Your master!"
"That doesn't get under my skin," retorted Evan coolly. "No man is my
master a day longer than I choose." He dissolved in amazement again.
"But you! To think up such a scheme! To carry it out!"
"Oh, spare me your bleating!" said Corinna impatiently. "What are you
going to do about it?"
"Turn you over to the police," he said promptly.
"Three of my friends are sleeping across the hall," she said.
So perfect was her aplomb that Evan was taken aback. He half turned,
uncertainly. But as he did so, out of the tail of his eye he saw
Corinna's hand go to her bosom. He whirled back with the gun in his
hand again. A woman is at a serious disadvantage in drawing.
"Put your gun on the box," commanded Evan.
"I have no gun!" she cried. "I will not be spoken to so."
Evan took a step nearer her. His eyes glittered. "Put your gun on the
box. Don't oblige me to use force. I should enjoy it far too well!"
With a sob of rage, she drew a little pistol from her dress and threw
it on the box. Evan possessed himself of it.
"Now we'll see about the three friends across the hall," he said
mockingly.
He backed out of the room. Corinna followed to the door. In her eye
he read her purpose to make a dash for liberty down the stairs, and he
took care to give her no opening. He flung open the door opposite and
flashed his light inside the room. It was empty of course. He
returned across the hall, and Corinna backed into the lighted room
before him.
"They have stepped out, it seems," he said mockingly.
Corinna disdained to reply. Like a child, she was not in the least
abashed when her bluff was called, but immediately set her wits to work
to think of another.
"How do you purpose taking me to the police?" she asked scornfully.
"I'm not going to take you. They're coming here."
Corinna changed color. She studied his face narrowly. Evidently she
decided that he was bluffing now, for she tossed her head.
"Go and sit down on the cot," he said coolly, "so we can talk quietly."
"I will not!" cried Corinna. "How dare you speak to me so!"
He was delighted with the spirit she showed. "It's too bad no one did
it long ago," he said provokingly.
He approached her, and his eyes glittered again. Corinna, seething
with rage, retreated, and plumped herself down on the cot.
"That's better," he said indulgently. He took the small box and,
placing it against the wall, sat down and leaned back. Producing his
pipe he filled it in leisurely style, affecting to be unconscious of
her. Corinna's eyes blazed on him.
"Well, what have you to say for yourself?" he drawled at last. "You
pretty little blackmailer!"
"You needn't insult me!" cried Corinna. Her eyes filled with angry
tears.
But Evan's heart was hard. "Insult you!" he cried. "I like that!
What have you been doing to me lately?"
"If you were capable of thinking, you would see that I could not have
acted otherwise!" she said.
"You have me there," said Evan coolly. "For I don't see the necessity
of being a blackmailer."
Corinna jumped up and stamped her foot. Her face reddened, and two
large tears rolled down her cheeks. "Don't you dare to use that word
to me again, you fool!"
Evan laughed delightedly. "Why shy at the word and commit the deed?"
"You know nothing of the circumstances!" she stormed. "You have
neither sense nor feeling! You take all your ideas ready made from
others. You are as empty as a drum!"
"Bravo!" he cried. "Keep it up if it makes you feel any better!"
"If it is a crime to extort money from a foul old robber and give it to
the poor, all right, I'm a criminal! I glory in it! I would do it all
over again!"
"I don't deny one has a sneaking sympathy with a life of crime," Evan
said, affecting a judicial air. "But after all, law is law. You have
to make your choice. I chose to stay inside the law, and naturally I
have to uphold it like everybody on my side."
"You're a nice upholder of the law!" she cried. "You're just trying to
get back at me!"
Evan grinned. "You're so frank, Corinna. But after all, being on the
side of the law gives me an advantage now, doesn't it?"
"Yes, if you want to take the pay of a scoundrel like Deaves."
"Oh, I was fired some days ago. I'm working on my own now."
"You're just angry and jealous!"
"I dare say. I admit I don't mind your blackmailing operations half as
much as the other thing."
"What other thing?"
"Those fellows on the _Ernestina_; to take advantage of their wanting
you, and use them for your own ends."
"Everything was understood between us. Everything was open and
aboveboard."
"Of course. But they were already enslaved, you see. And you forced
them to serve your pride and arrogance. You queened it over them.
That makes me more indignant than blackmailing a usurer, for the other
thing's a crime against a man's best feelings, and I'm a man myself."
"You're only jealous!"
"Why should I be. _I_ wouldn't stand for the brotherhood. I know you
gave me--or I took--more than you ever gave them."
"You're a brute!"
"Why sure!"
There was a silence. Corinna kept her eyes down. It was impossible to
say of what she was thinking. But her passion of anger visibly
subsided. She murmured at last:
"If, as you say, you sympathise with me for getting money out of Simeon
Deaves----"
"I didn't quite say that," interrupted Evan. "But it's near enough, go
on!"
"Why do you want to hand me over to the police?"
It was fun to torment Corinna, and it satisfied his deep need for
vengeance. But the sight of her quiet, with the curved lashes lying on
her cheeks, and the soft lips drooping, went to his breast like a
knife. Vengeance was suddenly appeased. Such a gallant little crook!
He realised that not for a moment had he really intended to hand her
over. He jumped up.
"I'm not going to send you to jail," he said. "You're going to make
restitution."
Corinna stared.
"What do you mean?"
"Give me an order on Dordess for the bonds--if it is Dordess who has
them, and give me your word that you will lead an honest life
hereafter." He was smiling.
Corinna blazed up afresh. "Never!" she cried. "I'd die rather!"
"You _must_ do it!"
"Why must I?"
"Because you're going to marry me, and naturally I want an honest woman
to wife."
Corinna laughed a peal. "I'd die rather! And you know it now!"
Indeed in his heart he was not at all sure but that her Satanic pride
might break her before she would give in, but he bluffed it out.
"Come on!" he said. "There's no time to lose. I have sent for the
police though you make out not to believe it. I see you've been
writing on the table. Sit down and write me an order for the bonds."
"Break up our organisation on your say-so? Never!"
"If you don't the police will. Come now, whatever happens you can't go
on using those infatuated boys to further your own ends. That's low,
Corinna; that's like offering a starving man husks."
"You have your gun in your pocket," she cried passionately. "Use it,
for you'll never break my will!"
"It's not a bullet that waits you, but jail," said Evan grimly. "No
grand-stand finish, but endless dragging days in a four-by-ten cell!
Come on, give up the loot. You'll have to anyhow, and go to jail in
the bargain!"
"It's not loot!" she cried. "It's mine! By every rule of justice and
right, it's mine. Simeon Deaves robbed my father. Beggared him and
brought him to his grave!"
"Ha!" cried Evan, "I might have guessed there was something personal
here! But someone has to lose in the warfare of business."
"This was not the chance of warfare. This was malice, cold and
calculated. I'll tell you. It spoiled my childhood. Deaves and my
father were workers in the same church. You didn't know, did you, that
Deaves was a religious man. Oh, yes, always a pillar of some church
until his avarice grew so upon him that he could no longer bring
himself to subscribe. My father learned that he was using his position
in our church to lend money to other members at usurious interest, and
to collect it under threats of exposure. My father showed him up, and
Deaves was put out of the church. He set about a cold and patient
scheme of revenge, but we didn't learn this until the crash came a
couple of years afterwards. He bought up,--what do you call it?--all
my father's paper, the notes every merchant has to give to carry on his
business. At last he presented all my father's outstanding
indebtedness at once with a demand for instant payment, and when my
father couldn't meet it, Deaves sold him out, and we were ruined. It
killed my father and embittered my mother's few remaining years.
"That was what I grew up with. I don't know when it started, but the
determination to punish him grew and grew in my mind until it crowded
out every other thought. I planned for years before I did anything. I
followed him. I learned all about him. His avarice went to such
lengths at last that I began to see my chance to show him up. I met
Dordess and the others, and the idea of the Avengers slowly took shape.
There was something fine to us in the idea of making him pay to bring
pleasure and health to the poor. None of us would spend a cent of his
filthy money on ourselves. What have I done to Deaves to repay the
crushing blows he dealt to me and mine?--a few pin-pricks, that's all.
Well, it is my life. I cannot change it now."
Evan was more softened than he cared to show. "I understand," he said.
"It excuses your heart, but not your head. It was so foolish to try to
buck the law!"
"I can't help it," she said. "I would rather die than return what I
have made that old robber disgorge. I have worked too long for this!"
Evan inwardly groaned. To reason with her seemed so hopeless. "You
can't live outside the pale of the law," he said. "No man can, let
alone a woman. Only wretchedness can come of it!"
"I'll take my chance," she said with curling lip. "Thank God, I have
friends who are not so timid."
Evan changed his tone. "Well, never mind the right and the wrong of
it," he said earnestly. "Do it because I love you. I love you with
all my heart. We quarrel, but my heart speaks to yours. You must hear
it. I have endured from you what I believe no man ever forgave a
woman. But I forgive you. If you go to jail my life will be a desert.
But go to jail you shall, unless you make restitution!"
Corinna laughed mirthlessly. "Funny kind of love!" she said.
"It is the best kind of love. I have sense enough left to realise that
if I give in to you on a clear question of right it would ruin us both.
We would despise each other."
"I have promised to trouble the Deaves no further," she said. "They're
satisfied."
"The bonds must go back."
"I had already decided to break up the Avengers, too. Isn't that
enough?"
He shook his head.
She turned away. "You ask the impossible," she said. "I'd rather die!"
"But to go to jail," he said relentlessly, "to have your beautiful hair
cut off" (he was not at all sure of this, but he supposed she was not
either), "to wear the hideous prison dress, to have the sickly prison
pallor in your clear cheeks, and your eyes dimmed. Your best years,
Corinna!"
This went home. She paled; her breath came unevenly. "You say you
love me," she murmured, "and you'd hand me over to that."
"I must!"
Corinna said very low: "I love you. Isn't that enough? Costs me
something to say it. Costs me my pride. It would have been more
merciful to beat me with a club. I cannot entreat you. I never
learned how. But--but I am entreating you. Love me, Evan. Let us
begin from now. Let the past be past."
Evan was tempted then. His senses reeled. But something held fast.
"I can't!" he said.
She shrank sharply. "It is useless, then," she muttered. "I will not
be a repentant sinner!"
"For the sake of our love, Corinna!"
"You do not love me. You want to master me."
He groaned in his helplessness.
Suddenly an ominous peremptory knock on the front door rang through the
empty house.
"The police!" gasped Evan.
"Then it's over!" said Corinna, desperately calm.
"No!" he cried. "Quick! Write! I'll get you out!"
She dragged him towards the door. "Ah, come! come!" she beseeched him.
The very heart was dragged out of his breast, but he resisted her.
"Choose!" he whispered. "A living death or happiness!"
For an instant their desperate eyes contended. Corinna read in his
that he would never give in. She ran to the box and scribbled three
lines. The knock was repeated below.
She handed him the sheet with averted head. Evan blew out the lamp.
Hand in hand they ran softly down-stairs. The knock was repeated for
the third time and a gruff voice commanded:
"Open the door or we'll break it down!"
Aunt Liza was in the lower hall whimpering: "Lawsy! What you gwine do,
Miss?" And behind her they heard Simeon Deaves muttering confusedly:
"What's the matter? What's the matter?"
Evan breathed in Corinna's ear. "The cellar door under the stairs.
You lead the woman."
He felt for Simeon Deaves, and got his hand. "Follow me," he
whispered. "I'll save you."
Deaves came unresistingly, his old wits in a daze. As Evan got the
cellar door open the blows were falling on the front door. He flashed
his light to show his little party the way down. He came last and
closed the door. As he did so the front door went in with a crash.
Joining the others, Evan whispered:
"Take it easy. They'll search the rooms first."
The old man whispered tremulously: "What's the matter? I don't
understand."
"Be very quiet," returned Evan. "We're taking you home now. Be quiet
and there will be no publicity."
It was a magical suggestion. They heard no more from Deaves.
Meanwhile heavy feet were tramping overhead. Doors were flung open.
One man ran up-stairs. There were at least three men. Evan did not
think it possible they had come in sufficient force to completely
surround the house. It was safe enough to flash his light in the
depths of the cellar. He led the way to the foot of the stone steps.
The stars showed through the broken door overhead.
Making them wait behind him, he cautiously parted the thick screen of
bushes and looked out. Nothing was stirring on this side of the house.
The grass and weeds were waist high down to the edge of the woods. It
was less than fifty yards to shelter. Evan whispered to his little
party:
"Hands and knees through the grass. Take it slow. Each one keep a
hand on the ankle of the one in front. Corinna, you go first."
It was done as he ordered. Surely a more oddly-assorted party of
fugitives never acted in concert to escape the law: girl, negress,
multi-millionaire, and artist. Like a snake with four articulations,
they wound through the grass. In the most sophisticated man lingers a
wild strain; the stiff-jointed millionaire took to this means of
locomotion as naturally as the negress.
As they left the house behind them they came more within the range of
vision of those who were presumably watching the front and back. At
any rate, while they were still fifty feet from the trees, a hoarse
voice was raised from the front: "There they go!" And an answering
shout came from the rear.
The four fugitives of one accord rose to their feet and dashed for the
trees. Gaining the shadows, Corinna whispered:
"We must separate. You take Deaves."
Evan pressed her own revolver back in her hand, whispering: "Fire it
off if you are in danger."
Seizing Deaves' hand, Evan pulled him away to the right. Corinna and
Aunt Liza melted in the other direction. The old man came through the
underbrush like a reaping machine, and of course the police took after
them. For a moment Evan considered abandoning him. He would come to
no harm, of course. But on the other hand, Evan now ardently desired
to have the whole affair hushed up. He got Deaves across the rough
road in safety, and on the other side, coming to an immense spruce tree
with drooping branches, he dragged him under it, and they sank down on
a fragrant bed of needles.
The pursuing policemen, coming to the road, instinctively turned off
upon it, and Evan knew they were safe for the moment. Presently they
came back, aimlessly threshing the woods and flashing their lights, but
they had lost the trail now. They were looking for a needle in a
hay-stack. Evan's only fear was that they might stumble on Charley,
but he heard no sounds from that direction that indicated they had done
so. The sounds of searching moved off to the other side of the road,
and Evan determined to go to Charley himself.
Leaving the old man with a whispered admonition to silence, Evan set
off. He found Charley where he had left him under the leafy bush.
Evan whispered in his ear:
"I found her. I am on your side now. The police are all around us.
Make no sound!"
He unbound Charley. The latter sat up and rubbed his ankles. Whatever
he thought of the new turn of affairs, he said nothing.
Evan said: "I have Deaves back here. Follow me."
Foot by foot they crept back in a course parallel to the rough road.
Hearing footsteps approach, they hugged the earth. Two men passed in
the road. One was saying:
"Send Wilson back in the car to the road house to telephone for enough
men to surround this patch of woods. You patrol the road outside."
Evan and Charley crept away through the underbrush like foxes at the
sight of the hunter.
They reached the big spruce tree without further accident. The old man
greeted them with a moan of relief. Evan and Charley drew away from
him a little while they consulted.
Evan said: "Corinna and Aunt Liza are somewhere in the woods across the
road. We had to separate. How can we get in touch with them?"
"They'll be all right," muttered Charley. "Corinna knows this place.
They're safer than we are."
"I can't leave here until I am more sure," said Evan. "Will you take
the old man and put him on the way home?"
"All right."
"How will you go? I'll have to follow you later."
"The Lafayette trolley line will be watched, and the Yonkers line stops
at one o'clock. We'll have to walk to Yonkers. Follow the road
through the woods in the other direction, and it will put you on a
regular road. Keep going in a westerly direction."
"I get you," said Evan. "Where does Corinna live?"
"What do you want to know for?" growled Charley.
"If I hear nothing from her here, I want to go to make sure she got
home all right."
"Well, I won't tell you."
"Everything is changed now. I am on your side and hers."
"I hear you say it," Charley said sullenly.
Evan's sense of justice forced him to admit that Charley was justified.
"Well, will you do this?" he said. "When you've got the old man off
your hands, go to her place yourself, and then come to me and tell me
if she's all right."
"I'll do it if she wants me to," Charley said.
"Here's your flashlight," said Evan. "I'll keep the gun a little
while, in case Corinna calls for my help."
Charley pocketed the light in silence and led the old man forth from
under the tree. Simeon Deaves that night was like a pet dog on a
leader, passed impatiently from hand to hand.
Evan, fancying that the thick branches hindered him from hearing, crept
out and lay down on the grass. The woods were not so thick in this
place. This had evidently been part of the grounds surrounding the old
house in its palmy days, and the spruce was a relic of those times. He
heard an automobile approach in the highway, and stop at the end of the
woods track. This would be the man returning from having telephoned.
All sounds of the search through the woods had ceased. Evidently they
had decided that the better way was to watch all outlets.
No sound from any quarter betrayed the whereabouts of Corinna and the
old negress. They were swallowed up as completely as if they had taken
to their burrows like rabbits. Evan's heart was with her, wherever she
was. He had not the same anxious solicitude for her that one would
have for an ordinary woman hunted in the dark woods, for he was well
assured that Corinna was not a prey to imaginary terrors. She would be
no less at home in the woods at night than he was. Still no sound came
from her. He was not at all sure that she would summon him if hard
pressed, but they could not take her without his hearing it.
In the end the greying sky in the East bade him consider his own
retreat if he wished to avoid capture. He had committed no crime, of
course, but he was very sensible of the awkwardness of trying to
explain his own share in the night's doings, should he be taken. He
had good hopes that Corinna had escaped by now. He started to make his
way westward.
He made a wide detour around the house and struck into the rough track
on the other side, travelling softly, and keeping his ears open. He
had heard no searchers on this side. After a half mile or so he saw
light through the trees ahead. He saw a road bounding the woods on
this side, and open fields beyond.
He struck into the woods again, and took a cautious reconnaisance of
the road from the underbrush before venturing upon it--the world was
filled with ghostly light now. It was well that he did so, for he saw
a burly individual loafing in the highway, with his eye on the end of
the wood track. He wore civilian clothes, but "policeman" was written
all over him.
Evan had to get across that road somehow, but it was so straight the
watcher could see half a mile in either direction. And on the other
side there was no cover, only cultivated fields. There was one spot
some hundreds of yards north where the road dipped into a hollow and
was lost to view for a short space. Evan, keeping well within the
woods, made for that.
There was a stream with a bridge over it. By hugging the edge of the
stream and ducking under the bridge he made the other side of the road.
A field of growing corn received him.
That was his last serious hazard. In the sweet coolness of the dawn he
made his way over field after field, keeping the sunrise at his back.
He crossed the roads circumspectly and gave the villages a wide berth.
Finally he climbed a wooded hill, and from the other side looked down
into the city of Yonkers. Here he ventured to show himself openly,
took a car for town, and an hour and a half later was climbing the
stairs to his own room. His heart was heavy with anxiety.
When he entered he saw Charley sitting at his table with his head on
his arms, asleep. Evan's heart leaped. He shook the sleeper.
"Is she all right?" he cried.
Charley lifted a sullen and resentful face. "She got home all right,"
he muttered, and immediately started for the door, still swaying with
sleep.
"Wait a minute," said Evan. "Here's your gun."
Charley held out his hand for it without looking at the other.
Evan no longer blamed Charley for what had seemed like treachery.
Indeed, his heart was warm now towards his old friend. "Don't you want
to stop and talk things over?" he said.
"I have nothing to say to you," Charley said sorely, and went on out.
Evan, with a sigh, turned bedwards.