FACE TO FACE WITH DELBRAS.
'You have found Delbras?' I echoed. This was news indeed, and I waited
eagerly for further information.
'Yes, sir. I'm sure of it. I don't doubt it; and it was in Midway
Plaisance.'
'Go on, Dave.'
'Well, it's a short story. I had been lounging around the big wheel
for some time--that monster has a sort of fascination for me; it makes
me feel like a small boy, unable to gape enough. I was looking at the
people coming and going, and I almost forgot that it was noon, until I
heard someone say close beside me, "Almost noon, Jack. Let's get out
of this." That startled me. I had not thought it was so late, and I
took a look at old Sol and started on. I was walking pretty brisk, and
all at once I came up behind a couple that made me start. One of them
was Greenback Bob, past doubt, and the other was, or so I first
thought, an Arab dressed in American trousers and coat and wearing a
fez; but when I came closer and looked him well over I was sure it
was Delbras--there were all the points, everything; and I followed
them, feeling as pleased as if I had them already in bracelets; and
then, just as I was wondering where they were going, they brought up
in a crowd before one of those Turkish theatres. The hustler was
hustling in his last crowd before dinner, and when the two pushed
their way to the ticket booth I kept close behind them.
'Well, sir, they were close by the place, but they bought no tickets,
that I'll swear; nevertheless, before I could take in the situation
they were walking past the man at the entrance and into the show, and
I made all haste to buy a ticket and follow them.
'Of course I felt sure that I was following, for I had seen them pass
through the inner door; but when I got inside, and began to look
around me, they were not there, neither of them. I looked through the
audience, it was a very thin one; made my way down to the stage to
look for the door by which they had escaped me, and I did some mental
profanity that'll be forgiven me, I know, and then I gave it up and
went outside to reconnoitre the old barrack.
'On one side its windows overlooked a lane open straight from the
street, and there was a small door in the rear corner, while in the
other a door that must have opened behind the scenes inside gave upon
a sort of court-like quarters where a lot of fellows where lounging,
and a few cooking, at an open fire. I made this discovery through a
crack in the high fence in the rear, and I prowled about until I
assured myself that my gentlemen were not there.
'I suppose I had hung about that rear inclosure some twenty minutes,
or perhaps more, when I suddenly bethought me of the other Turkish
booth and the big bazaar, and I came around to take a final look at
the front and then move on. When I reached the front, one of the
dancing-girls was posturing before the entrance, and a new voice was
calling the crowd to "come and see and admire the only original," etc;
and, sir, there upon the upper step, exhorting the public,
was--Delbras himself.'
'The clever rascal!' I exclaimed.
'You may well say so. Well, sir, it did not take me long to do my
thinking. It was almost noon, a quarter to twelve in fact, and I said
to myself, "This fellow is playing Turk, and he has turned showman. He
has just relieved the other fellow, and will be likely to be here all
the afternoon." I couldn't have stayed there if I would without being
spotted, for the moment I got myself a little nearer to him he spied
me, and began a pantomime of roping me in hand over fist with an
imaginary cable. He would have known my face if I had tried to keep
near enough to be safe in case of a sudden move, so I took the chance
of keeping my appointment with you, getting up a different mug, and
hurrying back.'
'And you expect to find him there?'
'I hope to find him there. It would never have done to have stayed. He
would have spotted me at once. The fellow is a long remove from a
fool. Carl, what do you think of this deal? What, in your opinion, is
their little game?'
'Precisely the same that you and I would play in their places. What
could a man ask better if he wants to dodge arrest, or evade
surveillance, than such a chance as Midway affords him? All he needs
is a "pull" with some of these Orientals, and they are here for the
most part for the "backsheesh." Besides, you remember, Delbras is said
to have crossed at the time many of these fellows were coming over,
and he had plenty of chance to make himself solid on the way, or even
before they crossed the water. Who knows how much fine work he has
done among these Turks, Syrians, Algerians, Egyptians, Japs, and so
on?'
'Jove! you're right enough.'
'And then, Delbras has just the face and figure to disguise well; as a
Turk, for instance'--Dave made a wry face--'or as an Arab, and even
Bob could manage to transform himself into a passable Algerian. Your
discovery of this morning, Dave, simply means that, from this moment,
in addition to the task of watching all the European faces in search
of our men, we shall have the added perplexity of peering under the
hoods, turbans, fezes, etc., of all Midway.'
Dave's face was very grave, and he was silent for some moments.
'The very fact,' he finally resumed, 'of finding Delbras in a Turk's
fez and playing the "jay" for one of their theatres shows that you're
right, Carl. Well'--getting up suddenly and catching his hat from off
the floor--'we didn't exactly come here to play; and as for
disguises--why, we've played at that game ourselves.'
We took a hasty and somewhat meagre lunch at the nearest 'stand,' and
prepared for an afternoon upon the Plaisance. But I saw clearly that
some other way must be devised to entrap our quarry; that, given the
open sesame of the temples and pagodas, the booths and pavilions, the
villages, with their ins and outs, and our tricky and elusive trio
would have an advantage against which it would be difficult to
contend.
And in this I was right. We found Delbras, or the man we believed to
be Delbras, still occupying the 'lecturer's' place at the entrance to
the theatre. He was disguised to the extent of a pair of black
whiskers and some slightly smoked gold-rimmed nose-glasses, just as he
had been in the morning; and he did not labour continuously. Instead,
he exchanged often with a second person, who took up the strain of
flowery superlatives at about every other half-hour, during which
relief the disguised Delbras gave some portion of his time to the
box-office and making of change, and the remainder to puffing
innumerable cigarettes. But in spite of our combined vigilance,
before the afternoon was over, and while the crowds were thickest and
rapid movement impossible, the man escaped our vigilance. It did not
surprise me. Those Midway throngs made veritable sanctuary for a
fleeing criminal, but it made me more than ever determined to find
some other and quicker way of getting our hands upon this gang.
All that week we haunted Midway to little purpose. Once in the very
centre of the big Turkish bazaar--where everything was sold, and which
was extended from time to time out of all proportion to its original
size--where, too, I had been arrested and ignominiously marched away,
to be rescued by Dave Brainerd--I caught a glimpse of Delbras, this
time in full Turkish costume, and minus the beard and smoked glasses.
I followed him recklessly, thrusting aside those who obstructed my way
with an impatient and ruthless hand, until I came to a spot, almost at
the southern exit of the long and narrow L, where a crowd was packed
from side to side of the eight-foot aisle, with mouths agape listening
to the exhortations of a boyish-looking fellow, wearing a Turkish fez
and a sort of smoking-jacket, and looking, in spite of this, far more
like a Jew than a follower of Mahomet. He stood at one side, close to
the entrance, and a curtain framed and partially concealed him. Behind
him, towering above him by a head and shoulders, was a tall Soudanese,
his face black, and shining, and round, and his white robe and turban
emphasizing the arm, bare, black, and massive, that waved a continuous
accompaniment to the words half spoken, half shouted, by the other:
'Buy your tickets! Buy your tickets now, now, now! Come and see how to
get married! Come to see how to get divorced! Come to see how the
ladies quarrel with their husbands! Come and see how the ladies
quarrel with each other! Buy your tickets now, now, now!'
In this singular combination of the modern fakir plying his trade and
the huge black steadily and systematically beckoning toward a stairway
partially concealed beyond the curtain, and looking like some giant
eunuch of ancient romance, there seemed something which caught and
held the public eye and the public wonder; and they crowded about the
improvised entrance, and formed an impassable wall between me and the
man so short a distance ahead, yet so utterly out of reach.
It was vain to struggle. That Turkish fez had been to Delbras an open
sesame through the packed mass of humanity, and for a time I saw it
nodding above the lesser heads half-way between the door of exit and
that half-concealing curtain. Then, presto! it was gone; and though I
went wildly around to the farther entrance, pushing and jostling to
right and left, and bringing down upon myself anathemas without
number; though I reached the south end of the building in a moment,
seemingly, and gazed in every direction, Delbras had vanished.
It was while making this wild rush that I brought upon myself the
attention of one of the very guards who had led me ignominiously away
from the presence of Smug and the Camps.
He had seen my hasty rush from the building, and, without at first
recognising me, had followed me to inquire the cause of my haste.
I knew him at the first moment; and when I had answered his inquiry,
he knew me.
'The matter? Oh, I was trying to overtake a--a person whom I
particularly wished to see,' I replied; and I saw on his countenance
the dawning look of recognition. 'Seems to me you and I have met
before. You don't want to arrest me again, do you?' I added testily;
and then I pulled myself together and asked more amiably, 'Did you
think I was running away with another wallet?'
The young fellow's face brightened. Dave's words had told him and his
companions who I was, and he answered, very respectfully:
'No, sir, not this time; though I had not recognised you at first. Can
I help you in any way, sir?'
'N--no, I'm afraid there's no help for me this time. By the way, did
you happen to see any of those parties again after you marched me off
so cruelly?'
He knitted his brows to assist his memory, and finally replied:
'Come to think, sir, I did see one of them; at least one of the
persons who had been swindled like yourself.'
'Swindled?'
'Yes, sir. You see, we didn't quite catch on at the time; it was all
done so quick, and I got the idea that it was a sort of pocket-game;
but it happened that I met the other gentleman, the next day, if I
remember, and I spoke to him, for I knew his face at once.'
'Describe him.'
'Why, not very tall, and--well, not very light nor very dark, I should
say; not much hair on his face, and dressed in a sort of gray suit.'
'Yes, I see.' I recognised the description as that of Smug, and
determined to hear more. 'And what did he say?'
'Why, nothing at first; but when I saw him looking at me sort of
sharp, I just stepped up and asked him how the row finished after the
other guard and I had hustled you off; and then I told him how we had
found out our mistake, and how your friend had let us off easy,
although both were on the detective force. And then he explained how,
as you and he were trying to keep the old man and his wife from being
fleeced, one of the gang had set up the cry of "Pickpocket!" and had
pointed at you; and then, you know, when we fished that wallet out of
your pocket it looked a----'
'Yes,' I replied gravely; 'it certainly did.'
'He said,' went on the guard, 'that he had tried to make us understand
that it was all a mistake about you, you know, but we didn't hear
him.'
'So you told him that my friend and I were upon the S.S.?' I said.
'Why, yes; was that----'
'Never mind. What did he say about the others--the tall man with the
fez, for instance? He had a notebook and some bills in his hand, you
may remember.'
'Yes, sir, I do. Yes, he told me about him. Jumbo! but didn't you all
get into a muddle. He had a narrow escape, too--the tall man, you
know. Did you know who he was?'
I shook my head.
'Well, sir, he came very near being fleeced too. He wanted to change a
bill, it seems, and the old farmer and the other fellow--the one that
told me, you know, had both been getting some change from a man that
claimed to make a business of changing foreign paper and large bills,
to accommodate people.'
'Oh!' I ejaculated.
'Yes, sir; and this gentleman--he was a big man, you know; one of them
foreign managers, and couldn't speak very good English--was just going
to change with them, a hundred, I think he said, when somebody sets up
the cry of pickpocket, you know.'
'Yes, I know; go on.'
'Well, sir, after you was gone, of course in the crowd the real
pickpocket got off scot-free. It turned out that the farmer and him
that told me had been "done" by some sharper, and that they was just
ready to pass off on this foreigner a lot of counterfeit money.'
'Great Cæsar!' I ejaculated, and then checked my hasty speech. After
all, why should I expend my breath or wrath upon this guileless guard,
who, after all, was doing me a service? and how cleverly Smug had
twisted the story, and made it serve his turn! But it must not be
repeated--if it had not been already.
'Look here,' I said in a more amiable tone, 'have you told this
affair, all or any of it, to anyone?'
'Who--me? No. Haven't had the chance. The fellow that was with me that
day was taken off next day, and I've not seen a soul I know since. I
did want to tell him.'
'It's well you did not. Look here, if you want to keep out of trouble,
you must keep perfectly dark about this matter. It's being sifted on
the quiet, and they'd take it very ill at headquarters if one of the
guards was to "leak" on them, and maybe spoil their game. And if you
should chance to meet this party again, remember, mum's the word.'
'I'll keep mum, sir. I don't want to lose my job, not yet, before I've
seen half the Fair.'
'Very good. Now, how long have you been on duty about this place?'
'Two weeks, sir--ever since I was put on the force.'
'And this foreigner--manager as you call him--did you have a good look
at him?'
'Oh yes, sir.'
'Ever seen him before?'
'Now that you ask, I'm quite sure I have, but not knowing who he was.
Yes, I'm sure I've seen him about the village among the Turks more
than once.'
'Describe him.'
'Why, he's good-looking, and tall, and dark; got a sort of proud gait,
and square shoulders; always dresses swell.'
'Thank you.' I had squeezed my orange dry, and was anxious to leave
him. I had suspected it before, and was now convinced that
unwittingly, in my attempt to play the guardian angel to Adam Camp and
his wife, I had come face to face with Delbras.
When I compared notes with Dave that night he was quite of my opinion.