A NARROW ESCAPE
I felt that night an unusual desire to take all possible precautions
before leaving the Milan for Bermondsey. I wrote a letter explaining
my visit and my suspicions, and placed it in Ashley's hands.
"Look here, Ashley," I said, "I am going off on an errand which I
don't feel quite comfortable about. Between you and me, it is
connected with the disappearance of Miss Delora's uncle. I feel that
it is likely, even probable, that I shall get into trouble, and I want
you to promise me this. If I am not back here by half-past eleven, I
want you to take this letter, which contains a full statement of
everything, to Scotland Yard. Either take it yourself," I continued,
"or send some one absolutely trustworthy with it."
The man looked a little serious.
"Very good, sir," he said. "I'll attend to it. At the same time, if I
might make the suggestion, I should take a couple of plain-clothes
policemen with me. It's a pretty low part where you are going, and one
hears of queer doings, nowadays."
"I am bound to go, Ashley," I answered, "but I am not likely to come
to much grief. I have a revolver in my pocket, and I have not studied
boxing with Baxter for nothing. I don't fancy there's anything in
Bermondsey going to hurt me."
"I hope not, sir," Ashley answered civilly. "At half-past eleven, if I
do not hear from you, I shall go myself to Scotland Yard."
I nodded.
"And in the meantime," I said, "a taxicab, if you please."
I drove to the address given me on the paper. It was an odd,
half-forgotten street, terminating in a _cul-de-sac,_ and not far
from the river. The few houses it contained were larger than the
majority of those in the neighborhood, but were in a shocking state of
repair. The one at which I eventually stopped had a timber yard
adjoining, or rather attached to it. I left the taxicab outside, and
made my somewhat uncertain way up to the front door. Only a few yards
from me a great black dog was straining at his collar and barking
furiously. I was somewhat relieved when the door was opened
immediately at my knock.
"Is Mr. Hoffmeyer staying here?" I asked.
A little old man carrying a tallow candle stuck into a cheap
candlestick nodded assent, and closed the door after me. I noticed,
without any particular pleasure, that he also drew the bolts.
"What do you do that for?" I asked sharply. "I shall only be here a
few minutes. It is not worth while locking up."
The man looked at me but said nothing. He seemed to show neither any
desire nor any ability for speech. Only as I repeated my question he
nodded slowly as one who barely understands.
"Mr. Hoffmeyer is in his room," he said. "He will be glad to see you."
I followed him along as miserable a passage as ever I saw in my
life. The walls were damp, and the paper hung down here and there in
long, untidy patches. The ceiling was barely whitewashed; the stairs
by which we passed were uncarpeted. The whole place had a most
dejected and weary appearance. Then he showed me into a small
sitting-room, in which one man sat writing at a table. He looked up as
I entered. It was Delora.
"Well," he said, "so this is how you keep your promise!"
"Something has happened since then," I answered. "I have received a
cable from my brother which we do not understand."
"A cable from your brother in Brazil?" he asked slowly.
"Yes!" I answered.
Delora turned slowly in his chair and rose to his feet. He was tall
and gaunt. His face was lined. He had somehow or other the appearance
of a man who is driven to bay. Yet there was something splendid about
the way he nerved himself to listen to me with indifference.
"What does he say--your brother?"
"The cable is inspired by Nicholas Delora," I answered. "Listen, and
I will read it to you."
I read it to him word by word. When I had finished he simply nodded.
"Is that all?" he asked.
"That is all," I answered. "You will see that what makes your brother
anxious is that not only have you failed to keep your word so far as
regards communicating with him, but you have not made use of a certain
private code arranged between you."
"The business upon which I am engaged," Delora said calmly, "is of
great importance, but I do not care to be rushing all the time to the
telegraph office. Nicholas is a nervous person. In a case like this he
should be content to wait. However, since he has sought the
interference of outsiders, I will cable him to-morrow morning."
"Very well," I answered. "I can ask no more than that. I shall go
myself to the cable office and send my brother a message."
"What shall you tell him?" Delora asked.
"I shall tell him that I have seen you," I answered, "that you are
well, and that he will hear from you to-morrow morning."
"Why cable at all?" Delora asked. "Surely to-morrow morning will be
soon enough?"
"From your point of view, yes!" I said. "But there is one other thing
which I am going to do. I am going to say in my cable, that if the
news he receives from you to-morrow morning is not satisfactory, I
shall lay the matter before the Brazilian legation here, and I shall
explain why!"
Delora's eyes were like points of fire. Nevertheless, his
self-restraint was admirable. He contented himself, indeed, with a low
bow.
"You will tell our friends there," he said slowly, "that you have seen
me? That I am--you see I admit that--living practically in hiding,
apart from my niece? You will also, perhaps, inform them of various
other little episodes with which, owing to your unfortunate habit of
looking into other people's business, you have become acquainted?"
"Naturally," I answered.
"I think not!" Delora said.
There was an instant's silence. I looked at Delora and wondered what
he meant. He looked at me as a man looks at his enemy.
"May I ask how you intend to prevent me?" I inquired.
"Easily!" he answered, with a slight sneer. "There are four men in
this house who will obey my bidding. There are also five modes of
exit, two of which lead into the river."
"I congratulate you," I said, "upon the possession of such a unique
lodging-house."
Delora sighed.
"I can assure you," he said, "that it is more expensive than the
finest suite in the Milan. Still, what would you have? When one has
friends who are too curious, one must receive them in a fitting
lodging."
"You are a very brave man, Mr. Delora," I said.
"Indeed!" he answered dryly. "I should have thought that the bravery
had lain in another direction!"
I shook my head.
"I," I said, "am, I fear, a coward. Even when to-night I started out
to keep my appointment with you I had fears. I was so afraid," I
continued, "that I even went so far as to insure my safety."
"To insure your safety!" he repeated softly, like a man who repeats
words of whose significance he is not assured.
"I admit it," I answered. "It was cowardly, and, I am sure,
unnecessary. But I did it."
His face darkened with anger.
"You have brought an escort with you, perhaps?" he said. "You have the
police outside?"
I shook my head.
"Nothing so clumsy," I answered. "There is just my taxicab, which
won't go away unless it is I who says to go, and a little note I left
with the hall-porter of the Milan, to be opened in case I was not back
in an hour and a half. You see," I continued, apologetically, "my
nerve has been a little shaken lately, and I did not know the
neighborhood."
"You are discretion itself," Delora said. "Some day I will remember
this as a joke against you. Have you been reading Gaboriau, my young
friend, or his English disciples? This is your own city--London--the
most law-abiding place on God's earth."
"I know it," I answered, "and yet a place is so much what the people
who live in it may make it. I must confess that your five exits, two
on to the river, would have given me a little shiver if I had not
known for certain that I had made my visit to you safe."
Delora tried to smile. As a matter of fact, I could see that the man
was shaking with fury.
"You are a strange person, Captain Rotherby," he said. "If I had not
seen you bear yourself as a man of courage I should have been tempted
to congratulate your army upon its freedom from your active
services. You have no more to say to me?"
"Nothing more," I answered.
"To-morrow morning at eleven o'clock," Delora said, "you will be
arrested for the attempted murder of Stephen Tapilow."
"It is exceedingly kind of you," I answered, "to give me this
warning. I will make my arrangements accordingly."
"One thing," Delora said, "would change the course of Fate."
"That one thing," I remarked, "being that I should not send this
cablegram."
"Exactly!" Delora answered, "in which case you will find your banking
account the richer by ten thousand pounds."
I looked at him steadfastly.
"What manner of a swindle is this," I asked, "In which you, Louis,
poor Bartot, the Chinese ambassador, and Heaven knows how many more,
are concerned?"
"You are an ignorant person to use such words!" Delora replied.
"Tell me, at least," I begged, "whether your niece is implicated in
this?"
"Why do you ask?" Delora exclaimed.
"Because I want to marry her," I answered.
"Do nothing until the day after to-morrow, Captain Rotherby, and you
shall marry her and have a dowry of fifty thousand pounds, besides
what her Uncle Nicholas will leave her."
"You overwhelm me!" I answered, turning toward the door.
He made no movement to arrest my departure. Suddenly I turned towards
him. Why should I not give him the benefit of this one chance!
"Delora," I said, "from the moment when you disappeared from Charing
Cross I have had but one idea concerning you, and that is that you are
engaged in some nefarious if not criminal undertaking. I believe so at
this minute. On the other hand, there is, of course, the chance that
you may be, as you say, engaged in carrying out some enterprise,
political or otherwise, which necessitates these mysterious doings on
your part. I have no wish to be your enemy, or to interfere in any
legitimate operation. If you care to take me into your confidence you
will not find me unreasonable."
Delora bowed. I caught the gleam of his white teeth underneath his
black moustache. I knew that he had made up his mind to fight.
"Captain Rotherby," he said, "I am much obliged for your offer, but I
am not in need of allies. Send your cable as soon as you will. You
will only make a little mischief of which you will afterwards be
ashamed."
I shrugged my shoulders and turned away. No one came to let me out,
but I undid the bolts myself, and stepped into my taxicab with a
little breath of relief. Somehow or other I felt as though I had
escaped from a danger which I could not define, and yet which I had
felt with every breath I had drawn in that damp, unwholesome-looking
house!