'YOU ARE SUFFERING IN MY STEAD.'
It was useless to argue, and how could I refuse? For the first time,
and greatly to my amazement, I saw that self-contained and sweetly
reasonable young woman deaf to reason, and in that strange condition
which, for lack of power to understand, we men call 'hysterical.'
I went, and in spite of myself I left her presence feeling somehow
aroused and watchful--quite prepared, for a little time, to see an
assassin at every corner and beneath every tree.
'Do not overtake him,' had been her last command. 'It might offend
him. Only see him safe at his own door.'
I was not five minutes behind Lossing, and he could not, or would not,
I knew, walk rapidly. I expected to come close upon his heels before I
had reached the first corner.
That he would take the most direct and nearest route, I felt, was a
matter of course. In fact, he knew no other, or so I thought.
The direct route was straight north to Fifty-seventh Street, and east
to the entrance gate; but though I walked fast, and then almost ran, I
could see nothing of Lossing and nothing of Dave Brainerd.
What did it mean? When I had reached the end of the first block,
without a sight of Lossing, I hastened across the intersecting street
and hurried on another block, and still no Lossing. I paused, looked
around me, and seeing and hearing nothing, increased my steps almost
to a run.
At Fifty-seventh Street I paused, before turning, to look about me and
to listen. After the first block, going east, this street became quite
densely shaded by the trees on either side.
I had now reached the second block on the south side of the street,
that which contained the vacant lots and the overshadowing trees,
beneath which the bootblack's stand was placed by day; and here again
I paused and listened, in the hope that in the quiet about me I might
hear and recognise Lossing's slow, even step. But no step was heard,
and I moved on.
'It is early yet,' I assured myself; 'so early that thugs and
night-birds are hardly likely to be abroad.'
I was now opposite the bootblack's stand on the skeleton uprights
which supported his rainy-day awning, and the platform upon which his
patrons sat enthroned in state--and here memory fails me.
I had turned my gaze upon the gibbet-like uprights, and
simultaneously, as it now seems to me, a voice shouted my name; but
the sound and something else came together--something bringing with it
a sting and the sounds of a rampant engine. I saw a myriad of flashing
lights, heard a tremendous crash, and--that was all.
I came to myself a little later, outstretched upon a wire cot, and
with a cretonne cushion beneath what felt like a very large and
much-battered prize pumpkin, but what was in reality my head. There
was a glow of electric light all about and above me, and bottles of
all sizes and colours on every side.
Slowly it dawned upon my dazed senses that I was in the corner
drug-store where I had more than once called, on my return from
Washington Avenue, to buy a cigar.
I stirred slightly, and then the faces of Dave Brainerd, Lossing, the
druggist, and a big policeman came suddenly into view surrounding my
cot.
'Hello, old man, glad to see you back,' was Dave's characteristic
greeting, and the druggist, who proved to be a physician as well,
promptly placed a finger on my pulse.
'Better,' he said laconically, and turning, took from the desk at his
back a glass which he held before me. 'Can you lift your head and
drink this?' he asked.
I made a feeble effort, and with Dave's assistance got my head high
enough to swallow the medicine.
'Now,' said the surgeon, 'lie still, and I think before long you will
be all right, except for a sore head, which you will probably keep for
a day or two.'
For some time longer I lay quiet, and with no desire to think or
speak; then slowly the noise and dizziness wore away, and the strength
came back to my limbs; but when I attempted to rise, I found that my
head was paining me severely, and I contented myself with resting upon
my elbow and asking, with my eyes on Dave:
'What has happened?'
'Sandbag,' replied Dave tersely. 'Didn't you feel it?'
'I feel it now,' I said, trying to smile feebly, for I knew that Dave,
now assured that my hurt was not serious, was giving vent to his
relief in a characteristic bit of chaff.
'You see, it was this way,' he went on. 'Lossing here and I were
walking along on the north side of the street, just down here, and we
saw you cross the street on the opposite side; the lamp at the corner
showed you plainly. We saw you stop and look, and seem to listen, and
then go on, and repeat the same manoeuvre after you had crossed the
street. We had stopped under a tree, and close against the wall nearly
opposite that bootblack's stand; and we meant to cross and surprise
you, when all at once out from behind that platform sprang someone. I
gave a yell, and we heard you go down. I ran to you, and Lossing ran
and fired after the fellow, who cut across the open ground. I called
him back when I saw that you were insensible, and the next minute this
officer came up. He ran to this place (lucky it is so near), and
brought the cot, and here you are. Can you remember? Did you hear me
call?'
'Y--yes,' I said slowly, 'I--I think I tried to turn.'
'And that saved you, no doubt,' declared the druggist. 'The fellow
meant to do you deadly hurt--the weapon shows that. He meant to strike
you lower, across the back of the neck; but, at the call, you turned,
just as he had taken aim, and as a result you received the blow on the
back of the skull, the thickest part; and it struck with less than
half its force, glancing away as your head moved sidewise. It was most
fortunate for you.'
And now, as I began to think and remember, I knew that Miss Jenrys
would be waiting anxiously, and that delay would mean for her, in the
mood in which I had left her, a time of terrible suspense.
I brought myself to a sitting posture, and then got upon my feet,
rather weakly. The druggist touched my wrist again.
'If you'll take my advice,' he said, 'you will stay right here for the
night. I have a comfortable room at the back here, and I think, by
keeping up an application during the night, a cooling and healing
lotion that will keep out inflammation, you will come out in the
morning with nothing worse than a sore and tender skull to show for
your encounter. I am a regular physician--you'll be quite safe with
me.'
I accepted his courtesy as frankly as he had proffered it, and then,
while he busied himself preparing the cooling lotion, I told Dave how
I had promised to return, and that Miss Jenrys must not be kept longer
in expectation. I did not tell him why I had left the house, to return
again so soon, and Dave was not the man to question.
'Tell her,' I said, 'that all is right. She will understand; and later
I will explain to you. And tell her I find that I must delay the
reading of that letter until to-morrow morning; that it is a purely
personal matter that detains me, and that I will explain when we
meet.' He got up to go, and I turned to Lossing, who, with the tact so
natural to him, had gone to the front of the long room, and was idly
turning the leaves of a directory. 'Dave is about to do the thing I
failed to do, because of this sore head,' I said to him. 'I wish you
would stay with me until he comes back. He won't be long.'
He seated himself without a question, and while Dave was gone, and my
host busy in preparing for my comfort, he talked lightly of this and
that, and finally of my unknown assailant.
'I believe I hit him somewhere,' he said, 'for I heard him drop an
oath as he ran, and, by the way, he dropped something else, too.'
'What was that?'
He got up and went to the place where the policeman had been sitting
until, assured that he could do nothing then, he had gone out with
Dave, declaring his intention to 'go and look over the ground,' a
speech which caused Dave to smile behind his hat. From the floor,
close against the wall, Lossing took up something, which he brought
forward and laid beside me upon the cot.
It was a bar of iron at least four inches in circumference, and
incased in a length of rubber tubing, which was tied tightly over each
end. 'That,' said he, 'is the weapon, and if it had struck you fairly,
it would have been your death.'
I held it in my hand. A death-dealing weapon indeed, and I shuddered
as I put it down, asking myself meanwhile, 'Was it meant for me?'
'But for you,' I said aloud, 'you and Brainerd----'
'Don't!' He put up his hand quickly. 'When I think of what you have
done for me, and--I--I fear you are suffering now in my stead.'
It was the echo of my own thought, and I was glad to see my host
reappear, thus cutting short the subject, which I was glad to drop
just then.
The next morning found me somewhat the worse for my adventure, yet
thankful to find that I could go about my day's business, a little
stiffened from my fall, a trifle weaker than usual, and with an aching
and somewhat misshapen head. But a detective learns to bear occasional
hard knocks with fortitude, and I was thankful to be out of the affair
so easily.
As an evidence of my dazed condition of the night before was the fact
that I had not once thought to ask how Dave and Lossing chanced to be
so near me at my time of need. It was one of my first thoughts and
questions in the morning, however.
'You see,' explained Dave, 'I had not looked for any one quite so
early, but I had stationed myself very near, on the side of the street
opposite the house, and was pacing up and down, keeping the place in
sight. I had a half-dozen cigars and a pocket full of matches, and
when I wanted to turn, if anyone was in sight, I stopped and wasted a
couple of minutes trying to light my cigar--see?'
'Distinctly.'
'Well, of course, I looked to see our friend come out and go north;
and so, while I was just on the turn, I was a little upset to see
someone come out of Miss J.'s door and turn square south. Of course I
went south, too, and to carry out your plan, I, being nearer the south
crossing than he, turned and crossed in order to meet him, and all
ready to be properly surprised at the encounter, you know, according
to orders. Well, sir, we met right at the opposite corner, and instead
of our man, there was a tall, dark, well-dressed person, who hastened
his steps a bit in passing me.'
He stopped, as if for an explanation.
'It was Voisin,' I said. 'The Frenchman I told you of.'
'Um! I thought as much! Well, I stopped to light my cigar, and the
Frenchman turned on the east side of the street and went back the way
he came; I, on my side, did likewise. At the north end of the block he
turned again, this time without crossing, and I did likewise. I didn't
try to keep shady, for I thought it began to look like a game of
freezeout, and I kept the west side of the street. As might have been
expected, after two or three turns he left the field at the south end
of the block, going east; and very soon after your man came out and
turned south, which surprised me a little. He walked very fast, but I
caught up and tackled him, calling him by your name and then
apologizing, and explaining that, knowing you were to call upon Miss
J., I had been on the lay for you, having a matter of business to
impart as promptly as possible.'
'Do you think he suspected us?'
'Not then. He told me very delicately that he had left early, feeling
sure that you had some matter of importance to discuss with the
ladies, and added his fear that you would not appear for some time
yet. Of course I gave up all idea of waiting, and went on with him;
and to pass the time and make myself agreeable I told him about the
other fellow--what d'ye call him?'
'Voisin.'
'Yes, Voisin. We had reached the south corner where Voisin had turned
east, and Lossing was walking briskly. At the corner he turned to me
and proposed taking the longest route home by going over to Madison
Avenue. In fact, he felt like walking, he said. It was this queer
route that set me to telling him about Voisin's promenade, and I wound
up by wondering if you would take a new route, too. At that he took my
arm and let me know in that polite way of his that he suspected our
little game; that he knew how anxious you were for his safety, and
that he appreciated your interest. "But," says he, "don't you see that
if there is danger abroad to-night, it is Masters who runs the risk?"
I saw that he was really uneasy, and so when he proposed that we
should hasten on to Fifty-seventh Street and go down past Miss Jenrys'
once more, I agreed, thinking, I will admit, that it was a sort of
fool's errand.
'Well, sir, we had been walking at a brisk pace and were half-way down
the block between the avenues, when we saw a figure start out from the
corner beyond, and run across the street. We were almost at the
corner, and to avoid the light just there we crossed the street and
went along in the shadow of the trees and buildings, past the light
and on to the opposite corner. We had just reached it and had stopped
to look and listen for the skulkers, when we saw you come into the
light, stop, look about, and seem to listen.
'"He's after that fellow," I whispered to Lossing; "let's keep quiet
and be ready to lend a hand." We could just see the fellow jump out at
you. It's lucky the night was so clear, the shade was so thick just
there.'