A LATE EVENING CALL
A young woman in an open-neck nightgown sat up in bed, a cascade of
black hair fallen over her white shoulders. Eyes like jet beads were
fastened on him. In them he read indignation struggling with fear.
"Say, what are you anyhow--a moll buzzer? If you're a porch-climber
out for the props you've sure come to the wrong dump. I got nothin'
but bum rocks."
This was Greek to Clay. He did not know that she had asked him if he
were a man who robs women, and that she had told him he could get no
diamonds there since hers were false.
The Arizonan guessed at once that he was not in the room mentioned in
the letter. He slipped his revolver back into its place between shirt
and trousers.
"Is this house number 121?" he asked.
"No, it's 123. What of it?"
"It's the wrong house. I'm ce'tainly one chump."
The black eyes lit with sardonic mockery. The young woman knew already
that she had nothing to fear from this brown-faced man. His face was
not that of a thug. It carried its own letter of recommendation
written on it. Instinctively she felt that he had not come to rob. A
lively curiosity began to move in her.
"Say, do I look like one of them born-every-minute kind?" she asked
easily. "Go ahead and spring that old one on me about how you got
tanked at the club and come in at the window on account o' your wife
havin' a temper somethin' fierce."
"No, I--I was lookin' for some one else. I'm awful sorry I scared you.
I'd eat dirt if it would do any good, but it won't. I'm just a plumb
idiot. I reckon I'll be pushin' on my reins." He turned toward the
window.
"Stop right there where you're at," she ordered sharply. "Take a step
to that window and I'll holler for a harness bull like a Bowery bride
gettin' a wallopin' from friend husband. I gotta have an explanation.
And who told you I was scared? Forget that stuff. Take it from Annie
that she ain't the kind that scares."
The girl sat up in bed, fingers laced around the knees beneath the
blanket. There was an insouciance about her he did not understand.
She did not impress him in the least as a wanton, but if he read that
pert little face aright she was a good deal less embarrassed than he.
"I came to see some one else, but I got in the wrong house," he
explained again lamely.
"That's twice I heard both them interestin' facts. Who is this goil
you was comin' through a window to see in the middle o' the night. And
what's that gat for if it ain't to croak some other guy? You oughtta
be ashamed of yourself for not pullin' a better wheeze than that on me."
Clay blushed. In spite of the slangy impudence that dropped from the
pretty red lips the girl was slim and looked virginal.
"You're 'way off. I wasn't callin' on her to--" He stuck hopelessly.
"Whadya know about that?" she came back with obvious sarcasm. "You
soitainly give me a pain. I'll say you weren't callin' to arrange no
Sunday School picnic. Listen. Look at that wall a minute, will you?"
When he turned again at her order she was sitting on the side of the
bed wrapped in a kimono, her feet in bedroom slippers. He saw now that
she was a slender-limbed slip of a girl. The lean forearm, which
showed bare to the elbow when she raised it to draw the kimono closer
round her, told Clay that she was none too well nourished.
"I'll listen now to your fairy tale, Mr. Gumshoe Guy, but I wantta wise
you that I'm hep to men. Doncha try to string me," she advised.
Clay did not. It had occurred to him that she might give him
information of value. There was something friendly and kindly about
the humorous little mouth which parroted worldly wisdom so sagely and
the jargon of criminals so readily. He told her the story of Kitty
Mason. He could see by the girl's eyes that she had jumped to the
conclusion that he was in love with Kitty. He did not attempt to
disturb that conviction. It might enlist her sympathy.
"Honest, Annie, I believe this guy's on the level," the young woman
said aloud as though to herself. "If he ain't, he's sure a swell
mouthpiece. He don't look to me like no flat-worker--not with that mug
of his. But you never can tell."
"I'm not, Miss. My story's true." Eyes clear as the Arizona sky in a
face brown as the Arizona desert looked straight at her.
Annie Millikan had never seen a man like this before, so clean and
straight and good to look at. From childhood she had been brought up
on the fringe of that underworld the atmosphere of which is miasmic.
She was impressed in spite of herself.
"Say, why don't you go into the movies and be one of these here screen
ideals? You'd knock 'em dead," she advised flippantly, crossing her
bare ankles.
Clay laughed. He liked the insolent little twist to her mouth. She
made one strong appeal to him. This bit of a girl, so slim that he
could break her in his hands, was game to the core. He recognized it
as a quality of kinship.
"This is my busy night. When I've got more time I'll think of it.
Right now--"
She took the subject out of his mouth. "Listen, how do you know the
girl ain't a badger-worker?"
"You'll have to set 'em up on the other alley, Miss," the Westerner
said. "I don't get yore meanin'."
"Couldn't she 'a' made this date to shake you down? Blackmail stuff."
"No chance. She's not that kind."
"Mebbe you're right. I meet so many hop-nuts and dips and con guys and
gun-molls that I get to thinkin' there's no decent folks left," she
said with a touch of weariness.
"Why don't you pull yore picket-pin and travel to a new range?" he
asked. "They're no kind of people for you to be knowin'. Get out to
God's country where men are white and poor folks get half a chance."
The girl shrugged her shoulders. "Little old New York is my beat.
It's the biggest puddle in the world and I'll do my kickin' here."
Abruptly she switched the talk back to his affairs. "You wantta go
slow when you tackle Jerry Durand. I can tell you one thing. He's in
this business up to the neck. I seen his shadow Gorilla Dave comin'
outa the house next door twice to-day."
"Seen anything of the girl?"
"Nope. But she may be there. Honest, you're up against a tough game.
There's no use rappin' to the bulls. They'd tip Jerry off and the girl
wouldn't be there when they pulled the house."
"Then I must work this alone."
"Why don't you lay down on it?" she asked, her frank eyes searching
his. "You soitainly will if you've got good sense."
"I'm goin' through."
Her black eyes warmed. "Say, I'll bet you're some guy when you get
started. Hop to it and I hope you get Jerry good."
"I don't want Jerry. He's too tough for me. Once I had so much of him
I took sick and went to the hospital. It's the girl I want."
"Say, listen! I got a hunch mebbe it's a bum steer, but you can't be
sure till you try it. Why don't you get in through the roof instead o'
the window?"
"Can I get in that way?"
"Surest thing you know--if the trapdoor ain't latched. Say, stick
around outside my room half a sec, will you?"
The cattleman waited in the darkness of the passage. If his enemies
were trying to ambush him in the house next door the girl's plan might
save him. He would have a chance at least to get them unexpectedly in
the rear.
It could have been scarcely more than two minutes later that the young
woman joined him.
Her small hand slipped into his to guide him. They padded softly along
the corridor till they came to a flight of stairs running up. The girl
led the way, taking the treads without noise in her stockinged feet.
Clay followed with the utmost caution.
Again her hand found his in the darkness of the landing. She took him
toward the rear to a ladder which ended at a dormer half-door leading
to the roof. Clay fumbled with his fingers, found a hook, unfastened
it, and pushed open the trap. He looked up into a starlit night and a
moment later stepped out upon the roof. Presently the slim figure of
the girl stood beside him.
They moved across to a low wall, climbed it and came to the dormer door
of the next house. Clay knelt and lifted it an inch or two very
slowly. He lowered it again and rose.
"I'm a heap obliged to you, Miss," he said in a low voice. "You're a
game little gentleman."
She nodded. "My name is Annie Millikan."
"Mine is Clay Lindsay. I want to come and thank you proper some day."
"I take tickets at Heath's Palace of Wonders two blocks down," she
whispered.
"You'll sure sell me a ticket one of these days," Clay promised.
"Look out for yourself. Don't let 'em get you. Give 'em a chance, and
that gang would croak you sure."
"I'll be around to buy that ticket. Good-night, Miss Annie. Don't you
worry about me."
"You will be careful, won't you?"
"I never threw down on myself yet."
The girl's flippancy broke out again. "Say, lemme know when the
weddin' is and I'll send you a salad bowl," she flashed at him saucily
as he turned to go.
Clay was already busy with the door.