A TANTALIZING GLIMPSE
Felicia laid down the receiver and looked at me. There was scarcely
any need for words. Her disappointment was written into her white
face.
"You are not to come!" I said.
"I am not--to come," she repeated. "After all, my holiday is not yet."
"Will you tell me," I asked, "where I can find your uncle?"
She shook her head.
"You must not ask me such a thing," she declared.
"Remember," I said, "that I have really called to make his
acquaintance as a matter of courtesy on behalf of my brother. What
excuse do you give me for his absence? Tell me what it is that you
are supposed to say in such a case?"
"Simply that he is away for a few days, engaged in the most important
business," she answered. "He will rejoin me here directly it is
settled."
"And in the meantime," I said thoughtfully, "you are left in a strange
hotel without friends, without a chaperon, absolutely unprotected, and
with only a head-waiter in your confidence. Felicia, there is
something very wrong here. I am not sure," I continued, "that it is
not my duty to run away with you."
She clasped her hands.
"Delightful!" she murmured. "But I mustn't think of it," she added,
with a sudden gravity, "nor must you talk to me like that. What my
uncle says is best to be done. He knows and understands. If he has had
to leave me here alone, it is because it is necessary."
"You have a great deal of faith in him," I remarked.
"He has always been kind to me," she answered, "and I know that the
business upon which he is engaged just now is hazardous and
difficult. There are men who do not wish it to go through, and they
watch for him. If they knew his whereabouts they would try to stop
him."
"Felicia, do you know what that business is?" I asked.
"I have some idea of it," she answered.
Her answer puzzled me. If Felicia really had any idea as to the nature
of it, and was content to play the part she was playing, it certainly
could not be anything of an illicit nature. Yet everything else which
had come under my notice pointed to Delora's being associated with a
criminal undertaking. I paced the room, deep in thought. Felicia all
the time was watching me anxiously.
"You are not going to leave me?" she asked very softly.
I came to a standstill before her.
"No, Felicia," I said, "I am not going to leave you! But I want to
tell you this. I am going to try and find out for myself the things
which you will not tell me. No, you must not try to stop me!" I said,
anticipating the words which indeed had trembled upon her lips. "It
must be either that or farewell, Felicia. I cannot remain here and do
absolutely nothing. I want to find your uncle, and to have some sort
of an explanation from him, and I mean to do it."
She shook her head.
"There are others who are trying to find him," she said, "but I do not
think that they will succeed. The young man who was here the other
night, for instance."
"If I fail, I fail," I answered. "At any rate, I shall be doing
something. I must go back to my brother's to-night, Felicia, because I
have promised to stay with him. In a day or two I shall return to my
rooms here, and I shall do my best to find out the meaning of your
uncle's mysterious movements. It may seem impertinent to you to
interfere in anybody else's concerns. I cannot help it. It is for
your sake. The present position is impossible!"
"You are not staying here to-night?" she asked.
"To-night, no!" I answered. "I will let you know directly I return."
"There is one thing else, Capitaine Rotherby. Could you promise it to
me, I wonder?"
"I will try," I answered.
"Do not quarrel any more, if you can help it," she begged, "with
Louis!"
Her question forced a laugh from my lips. Quarrel with Louis, indeed!
What more could I do in that direction? Then I frowned, in temporary
annoyance. I hated to hear her speak of him as a person to be
considered.
"Louis is a venomous little person," I said, "but I certainly should
not quarrel with him more than I can help. I am, unfortunately, in his
debt, or I should have dealt with him before now."
I glanced at the clock and jumped up. It was very much later than I
had thought. She gave me her hands a little wistfully.
"I do not like to think of you here alone," I said. "I wish that I
could persuade you to engage a maid."
She shook her head.
"My uncle would not allow it," she said simply. "He says that servants
are always prying into one's concerns. Good night, Capitaine
Rotherby! Thank you so much for taking me out this evening. After all,
I cannot help feeling that it has been rather like the beginning of
this holiday."
I held her hands tightly in mine.
"When it really begins," I answered, "I shall try and make it a little
more interesting!"
I declined a taxicab and turned to walk back to my brother's hotel.
Certainly in the problem of these two people who had come so curiously
into my life there was very much to give me matter for thought. I
believed in the girl, and trusted her. More than that I did not dare
to ask myself! I should have believed in her, even if her uncle were
proved to be a criminal of the most dangerous type. But none the less
I could not help realizing that her present position was a singularly
unfortunate one. To be alone in a big hotel, without maid or chaperon,
herself caught up in this web of mystery which Louis and those others
seemed to have woven around her, was in itself undesirable and
unnatural. Whatever was transpiring, I was quite certain that her
share in it was a passive one. She had been told to be silent, and
she was silent. Nothing would ever make me believe that she was a
party to any wrong-doing. And yet the more I thought of Delora the
less I trusted him. At Charing Cross Station, for instance, his had
not been the anxiety of a man intrusted with a difficult mission. His
agitation had been due to fear,--fear abject and absolute. I had seen
the symptoms more than once in my life, and there was no mistaking
them. I told myself that no man could be so shaken who was engaged in
honest dealings. Even now he was in hiding,--it could not be called
anything else,--and the one person with whom I had come in touch who
was searching for him was, without a doubt, on the side of law and
justice, with at least some settled position behind him. Delora's
deportment was more the deportment of a fugitive from justice than of
a man in the confidence of his government.
Walking a little carelessly, I took a turn too far northward, and
found myself in one of the streets leading out of Shaftesbury
Avenue. I was on the point of taking a passage which would lead me
more in my proper direction, when my attention was attracted by a
large motor-car standing outside one of the small foreign restaurants
which abound in this district. I was always interested in cars, but I
noticed this one more particularly from the fact of its utter
incompatibility with its surroundings. It was one of the handsomest
cars I had ever seen,--a sixty to eighty horse-power Daimler,--fitted
up inside with the utmost luxury. The panels were plain, and the
chauffeur, who sat motionless in his place, wore dark livery and was
apparently a foreigner. I slackened my pace to glance for a moment at
the non-skidding device on the back tire, and as I passed on I saw the
door of the little restaurant open, and a tall _commissionnaire_
hurried out. He held open the door of the car and stood at attention.
Two men issued from the restaurant and crossed the pavement. I turned
deliberately round to watch them--vulgar curiosity, perhaps, but a
curiosity which I never regretted. The first man--tall and
powerful--wore the splendid dress and black silk cap of a Chinese of
high rank. The man who followed him was Delora. I knew him in a
second, although he wore a white silk scarf around his neck,
concealing the lower part of his face, and a silk hat pushed down
almost over his eyes. I saw his little nervous glance up and down the
street, I saw him push past the _commissionnaire_ as though in a
hurry to gain the semi-obscurity of the car. I stopped short upon the
pavement, motionless for one brief and fatal moment. Then I turned
back and hastened to the side of the car. I knocked at the window.
"Delora," I said, "I must speak to you."
The car had begun to move. I wrenched at the handle, but I found it
held on the inside with a grip which even I could not move. I looked
into the broad, expressionless face of the Chinaman, who, leaning
forward, completely shielded the person of the man with whom I sought
to speak.
"One moment," I called out. "I must speak with Mr. Delora. I have a
message for him."
The car was going faster now. I tried to jump on to the step, but the
first time I missed it. Then the window was suddenly let down. The
Chinaman's arm flashed out and struck me on the chest, so that I was
forced to relinquish my grasp of the handle. I reeled back, preserving
my balance only by a desperate effort. Before I could start in
pursuit, the car had turned into the more crowded thoroughfare, and
when I reached the spot where it had disappeared a few seconds later,
it was lost amongst the stream of vehicles.
I went back to the restaurant. It was like a hundred others of its
class--stuffy, smelly, reminiscent of the poorer business quarters of
a foreign city. A waiter in a greasy dress-suit flicked some crumbs
from a vacant table and motioned me to sit down. I ordered a Fin
Champagne, and put half-a-crown into his hand.
"Tell me," I said, "five minutes ago a Chinaman and another man were
here."
The man laid the half-crown down on the table. His manner had
undergone a complete change.
"Perhaps so, sir," he answered. "We have been busy to-night. I noticed
nobody."
I called the proprietor to me--a little pale-faced man with a black
moustache, who had been hovering in the background. He hastened to my
side, smiling and bowing. This time I did not ask him a direct
question.
"I am interested in the restaurants of this quarter," I said. "Some
one has told me that your dinner is marvellous!"
He smiled a little suspiciously. The word was perhaps unfortunate!
"I am bringing some friends to try it very soon," I said.
The waiter brought my Fin Champagne. I drank it and ordered a cigar.
"You have all sorts of people here," I remarked. "I noticed a
Chinaman--he was very much like the Chinese ambassador, by the
bye--leaving as I came in."
The proprietor extended his hands.
"We have people of every class, monsieur," he assured me. "One comes
and tells his friends, and they come, and so on. I believe that there
was a Chinese gentleman here to-night. One does not notice. We were
busy."
I paid my bill and departed. The _commissionnaire_ pushed open
the door, whistle in hand. He looked at me a little curiously. Without
doubt he had watched my attempt to speak to Delora. I drew a
half-sovereign from my pocket.
"Tell me," I said, "do you want to earn that?"
He was a German, with a large pasty face and a yellow moustache. His
eyes were small, and they seemed to contract with greed as they looked
upon the coin.
"Sir!" he answered, with a bow.
"Who was the Chinese gentleman with the splendid motor-car?" I asked.
The man spread out his hands.
"Who can tell?" he said. "He dined here to-night in a private room."
A private room! Well, that was something, at any rate!
"You do not know his name or where he comes from?" I asked.
The man shook his head, glancing nervously towards the interior of the
restaurant.
"The other gentleman?" I asked.
"I do not know his name, sir," the man declared with emphasis. "He has
been here once or twice, but always alone."
I put the half-sovereign in my pocket and drew out a sovereign. The
man stretched out an eager hand which he suddenly dropped. He pointed
down the street. The swing door of the restaurant remained closed, but
over the soiled white curtain I also could see the face of the
proprietor peering out.
"It is the second turn to the left," the man said to me.
"And if you want that sovereign made into five," I said carelessly,
"my name is Captain Rotherby, and I am going from here to Claridge's
Hotel."
I walked down the street and left him looking after me. At the corner
I glanced around. The proprietor and the _commissionnaire_ were
talking together on the pavement.