XXIV--AGAINST TIME
Billy Kane put his hand to his forehead, and brought it away wringingwet with great drops of sweat. It had come like a blow without warningupon him, staggering him for an instant with horror--and then his brainhad cleared as if by magic. It was cruelly clear now.
The girl that they meant to murder was--the Woman in Black. He had hadno thought of that while they talked in there, not until Gypsy Joe hadmentioned the Rat. And then it had seemed as though the pieces of apuzzle had been suddenly fitted together as by some unseen hand, andbare to his brain, naked, an ugly picture stood out in hideousperspective. He knew too well that the Rat had an incentive for gettingrid of her. And he knew why. And it was _she_ who had telephoned him,Billy Kane, to watch Gypsy Joe and Clarkie Munn to-night. Who else wouldknow of anything afoot concerning those two except the "she" to whomShaky Liz had told her damnable Judas story?
And he saw now why, and understood her instructions to him to watchClarkie and Gypsy Joe. If she failed in her efforts through moralpersuasion to prevent the Cherub from committing what she believed wasto be a robbery, she still, through him, Billy Kane, could look for therecovery of the cash, and still keep the young hound, that she believedin and was trying to save, out of the hands of the police, and do itwith a clear conscience since she would be in a position to return theproceeds of the theft. And then, too, perhaps, there had entered intoher calculations the element of self-protection. She expected the Cherubto go alone, but if by any chance his pals went too, those pals wereClarkie Munn and Gypsy Joe--and he, Billy Kane, in that case, would beon their heels. And he understood, too, why she had not been moreexplicit over the telephone. She had not actually anticipated trouble,and she had respected her promise to the old hag to keep the Cherub'sname out of it.
He was running now, making across town in the direction of the EastRiver. He did not know where Kegler's dock or warehouse was, but Keglerwas evidently a rather large dealer in sand, and any directory in thefirst drug store he passed would supply that information.
His mind worked on--curiously self-explanatory of his own actions. Ithad seemed pure impulse at the time that had prompted him to retreat soprecipitately from the tenement; but he realized now that it was hisbrain subconsciously, but logically, at work. He, as the Rat, could notcall in the police to raid that room where the inmates would denouncehim as the author and instigator of the very crime for which he demandedtheir arrest; and to have gone into the room alone himself and haveattempted to hold them up at the point of his pistol, while it mighthave been spectacular and dramatic, would have been little less than theact of a fool. It was not so easy for one man to hold up three others,to say nothing of a woman who was quite as abandoned, and certainly asfull of trickery, and cunning, and resource as her male companions.There would have been, then, only one other alternative--to have gone inthere coolly as the Rat, and call off the game that he was supposed tohave started. But he had already learned that they had no love for theRat, even though he was their employer in the present instance, and thatsecretly they were asking for nothing better than just such a favorablechance as that would be to "get" him, and to get, too, the large amountof cash that they credited him with having on his person.
His lips were tight, as he ran. He was conscious that he would not havehesitated to take the risk, to take any risk, if there had been no otherway of saving her. But there was another way, a very much simpler, morecommon sense and natural a way; the way he was taking now. He had onlyto go to this Kegler's dock where she would be waiting for the Cherub,and warn her. That was all. He had ample time if he hurried, since_they_ had not started yet.
Time! Yes, he had time enough. Cool, deliberate reason reassured on thatpoint, but the thought brought him a little panic-struck catch ofbreath. It might have been better, perhaps, if he had gone to theBowery, or perhaps over into Lower Broadway, in the hope, say, ofgetting a taxi that would have saved him many minutes. He shook hishead, and called himself a fool for allowing his mind to wander toinconsequent things. There were not many taxis hunting fares on theBowery, and who ever heard of an empty taxi on Lower Broadway at thishour of night! And, besides, it was not half past nine yet, and she wasnot to be there until ten. And yet--time! He flirted the moisture fromhis forehead again, as, reaching a small drug store on a corner, heturned, and entered, and asked for the directory.
He was out again in scarcely a minute. He had found Kegler's in thedirectory without difficulty, but not without certain new misgivings.Kegler's was much farther along the East River than, somehow, andentirely without reason, he had imagined it would be. He began to runagain, and again that twinge of panic seized him. True, he had a starton the others; true, they had just as far to go as he had, but with thedistance that he knew now there was to cover, and the limit that existedin the time in which to cover it, it became more than probable theywould have arranged for some special means of conveyance, whereas he hadnone.
Billy Kane dropped suddenly from a run into a slow, even nonchalantwalk. A short distance ahead of him, a small, and apparently, an old andsecond-hand car was coughing and chugging laboriously at the curb infront of the lighted window of a little grocery store. A few steps more,and he saw that the car was empty. Billy Kane's lips broadened in a hardsmile. It might be reprehensible to steal a car for a few hours; but, asbetween a car and a human life that he knew depended on him alone, heexperienced no pangs of conscience. It was the way out!
He edged over to the curb as he approached the machine, and, close tothe car now, glanced around. In through the store window he could see aman, back turned, evidently the car's owner, leaning over the counter,talking to the proprietor of the store. Billy Kane, wary of attractingpremature notice from the pedestrians here and there along the street,reached out calmly, opened the door without haste, and with a deliberateair of proprietorship slipped into the driver's seat--but in the nextinstant he had thrown in the gears, and the machine shot from the curblike a mad animal stung to frenzy.
A yell went up behind him; there came to him the glimpse of a man'sfigure rushing wildly out through the store door into the street; andthen another yell, that was echoed from different directions along thestreet. The car took the first corner on little better than two wheels.The yells died away behind. At the next intersecting street Billy Kaneturned again, and thereafter for a few blocks zigzagged his course,until, satisfied that he had thrown any immediate pursuers off histrack, he headed again over toward the East River.
And now as he drove more quietly, confident that he need no longer fearthe element of time, his mind harked back again to that scene in the oldhag's room, and there came a puzzled frown furrowing his forehead, and aqueer strained look into his face. It was not so clear after all! Thepicture in the large was there. The patient, cold-blooded winning of herconfidence in order to lure her without suspicion or hesitation to herdeath was clear enough, as was also the hideous betrayal of thatconfidence, a betrayal that plumbed the depths of human infamy, andwhose unscrupulous ingenuity and vile cunning was so typical of the Rat;but the details, examined more critically, seemed somehow foggy andobscured, and seemed to hint at something he did not quite understand.It was not that it was evidence of the Rat's return. That thought didnot trouble him, for certainly he, of all others, who had sounceremoniously possessed himself of the Rat's den and all the Rat'sbelongings, should be the first to know of it if the other had put in anappearance again; and the fact that the plot had reached itsconsummation to-night he did not consider to have any bearing on thatpoint either. Many of the Rat's plans, begun in the past, as he, BillyKane, had only too good reason to know, had reached their climax sincethe Rat himself had been away. This was probably one of them. Certainlyit had been begun more than two weeks ago, as both Shaky Liz and theCherub had said, and that was before he, Billy Kane, had assumed theRat's role, and, therefore, quite logically it seemed, before the Rathad gone away. It was not that--once started, the unholy quartet to whomthe Rat had entrusted his dirty work was quite
capable of carrying itthrough to its detestable conclusion--but it seemed strange that,adventurous as the Rat was and much as he undoubtedly desired to get theWoman in Black out of his way, he would have dared to do this. What sheheld over the Rat's head, he, Billy Kane, did not know; but he knew theRat was well aware that, in event of her disappearance, certain evidencewould be forthcoming against him within twenty-four hours. That had beenher protection, a protection with which she had appeared to bethoroughly satisfied, and she had taken occasion more than once to givethat warning to him, Billy Kane, in the belief that she was warning theRat himself. There seemed to be only one answer then to this move on theRat's part. In some way, unknown to her, he must have come intopossession of that evidence, or in some way have rendered abortive themeans by which, in event of her disappearance, it would be brought tolight.
The car rattled and jangled along. It was a miserable contraption,seedy, and badly down at the heels, but so that its engine functioned heasked nothing better. He was near the river front now, and in the regionof warehouses and buildings that, remote from the bridges and theregular trend of traffic, showed no lights at night, and where thestreets were utterly deserted, and where occasionally he caught glimpsesof the river itself like a silver thread under the moonlight. He ranstill more slowly now, studying his location with all possible care.Kegler's dock, according to the directory, was still farther on, ofcourse, but he realized that, well as he knew his New York, this wassomewhat out of the ordinary radius, and that it would be all too easyto miss his way.
He shook his head a little in perplexity. There was another thing--oneof the little details. Shaky Liz, Gypsy Joe, Clarkie Munn and the Cherubwere not in the ranks of the Crime Trust as Red Vallon, and the Cadger,and Vannet, for instance, were, and where the Rat might naturally beexpected to work upon a basis of mutual trust. It seemed strange thatthe Rat, in executing a plan like this, would give, not one, but fouroutsiders a hold on him, for if their tongues were ever loosened itmeant the death house in Sing Sing for the Rat to a certainty. Nor didthe fact that they themselves were accomplices wholly justify thisseeming lapse from cunning on the Rat's part. Accomplices before now hadbeen known to turn State's evidence! It was queer! The Rat probably hada very good reason--only it seemed a little queer!
Billy Kane shrugged his shoulders. Enough of that! He was peering out ofthe car now with growing anxiety, and with the realization forcingitself upon him that, if he had not actually lost his way, he at besthad a very confused knowledge of his exact whereabouts. His lipstightened. It was growing late, too; it must be getting perilously nearten o'clock. He had had no doubt but that, from the address in thedirectory, he could easily find the place, and he was still sure it wasfarther on; but the quarter here was outrageously dark, and a plethoraof turnings, that seemed to be nothing more than private trafficways forvarious wharfs and warehouses, made an exceedingly nasty complication.He nosed the machine along, his face growing more set and anxious everymoment. It was black here--black--nothing but a cursed blackness. Ifthere were only someone about--someone from whom he could askdirections! But there was nothing, no one, only the black, loomingshapes of buildings, and even these were becoming more scattered now;and the only signs of life were the whistles and churnings of passingcraft on the river.
The minutes passed. A sense of helplessness, of impotency, that broughta cold chill to his heart, was upon him now. Down here on the riverfront he was hopelessly lost. There was no light in the ramshackle carthat he had appropriated--it wasn't equipped with anything that evenapproached a modern device. He stopped the car, lighted a match, andlooked at his watch.
_Ten minutes of ten!_
Ten minutes! There were ten minutes left! He started the car againmechanically. There were ten minutes between her and a trap-door thatopened into the silvery streak of water out there, whose shimmering nowhad lost its beauty and seemed like the hideous, insinuating, silkymovement of some ghastly reptile. Ten minutes stood between her and thattrap-door; and he, fool that he was, had lost his way! And yet he couldhardly blame himself; the East River front at night was--but what did itmatter whether he blamed himself or not!
A low cry of bitter hurt came from his compressed lips. It wasn't onlythe Woman in Black! Her deadly peril now, the almost certainty of herdeath, brought him, in an overwhelming surge of anguish and fear theconsciousness that it was the woman he loved. He remembered theabhorrence and contempt she held for him in those steadfast, fearlessbrown eyes of hers, and he loved her for that abhorrence and contempt.It seemed to typify her, as somehow she seemed to typify a purity and acourage that was soul deep--for that contempt and abhorrence was for theman whom she believed to be the Rat, who in turn typified the dregs andlees of all that was vile. But he, Billy Kane, was not the Rat, and someday, as he was conscious now, he had hoped to stand before her in hisown person, and with his own name cleared. His hands gripped on thesteering wheel until it seemed as though the taut-drawn skin would burstover the knuckles. He remembered the poise of that dainty head, thecurve of the full, white, rounded throat, and he saw her now in---- No!He would not let his brain complete that thought. It would drive himmad. He was already in a state bordering on frenzy, almost out ofself-control. Ten minutes! There could be very few of those ten minutesleft now!
A cry came from him again, but this time one of sudden hope. To hisright, from a large building at the head of one of those trafficwaysthat led to the river bank itself, he caught sight of a lighted window.In an instant the machine was tearing forward in that direction; and ina minute more he had leaped out, and was pounding frantically with hisfists at the door of the building. This wasn't Kegler's, he knew that;but here was some sign of life at last in the deserted neighborhood.
A step sounded from within. It seemed to drag. It seemed as though itwere covering some interminable distance inside there. And then the dooropened, and an old, decrepit man, who perhaps held down a sort ofpensioned night watchman's job, a lantern in hand, stuck out his head.
"I've lost my way," said Billy Kane quickly. "Can you tell me whereKegler's place is?"
"You mean the sand docks?" inquired the other.
"Yes," said Billy Kane.
The man stepped out from the doorway, and pointed back along the river.
"That's it over there," he said. "The one beyond our wharf down here."He glanced at the car. "But you can't get through here with that carbecause this bit of road don't connect--see? You'll have to go back abit the way you came."
Billy Kane held his watch under the lantern's light. There were neitherthe five, nor the four, nor the three minutes that he had dared hopemight still remain. It was already after ten o'clock!
"Can I get down from here on foot--it's shorter this way, isn't it?"asked Billy Kane between closed teeth.
"Yes, sure, you can," said the man. "But you won't find no one there.They was expecting some barges in, but they haven't come yet, and----"
Billy Kane had already swung away from the other, and was making for theriver.
"Thanks!" he called out over his shoulder, as he ran. "I'll leave thecar here till I get back."
He heard some reply from the other, but he could not make out the words.Whatever they were, they were inconsequent now. He, Billy Kane, unlessby some miracle, was too late to warn her--and too late perhaps even tosave her. He knew fear now as he had never known it before, but it wasnot fear for himself. And he knew a passion that seemed to find itsroots in the very soul of him. If he was too late--at least there wouldbe a reckoning, come what might! His lips twitched in a queer, distortedsmile. It was strange! This fear and this passion, though they weresupreme within him, seemed curiously under control, and he wasabnormally cool and calm now, and his brain, as though lashed intovirility by some powerful stimulant, was working swiftly, incisively,leaping in flashes from premises to conclusions.
It was certain that they were already there, but there was still achance that they had not yet had time to do her any harm. And it must behis wits, not b
lundering force, that would be its own undoing, that mustturn that chance to account. He must play the Rat now in exactly thesame way as, when back there in the tenement, the thought had flashedacross his mind that he might have played it in the old hag's room. Thechances of success, it was true, were a hundredfold slimmer now thanthey would have been then; but now it was forced upon him as the onlyway, and then it had seemed an unnecessary and uncalled-for risk totake. It was the one way now. It might fail, but it would gain himaccess inside that dark, looming building across the open stretch ofbrick-and-sand-strewn yard where he was running now; and once inside, ifit were not already too late, there must be some way out for her. And ifit were too late--well then, the Cherub, and Gypsy Joe, and Clarkie Munnwould not have to press the Rat for payment for their work!
Again the distorted smile flickered on his lips. He had his bearingsnow, both literally and mentally. He ran without caution, making almostunnecessary noise, and reached the door of the building; a buildingthat, he could discern now, made the shore end of a long dock, andwhich, according to the old watchman's directions, was obviouslyKegler's place.
The building was in utter and complete darkness. He dismissed thepossibility that she was still anywhere without, still waiting for theCherub's arrival, as too improbable to warrant the waste of even asecond, and making still more noise at the door now, he tried it, foundit unlocked, pushed it open, stepped inside and closed it behind him. Aquick, startled exclamation, from a long way off, it seemed, reachedhim, and then a sibilant whisper:
"Who's dat?"
"Clarkie--Gypsy!" Billy Kane called softly. "Are you there?"
"Gawd!" a voice ejaculated hoarsely.
A light went on somewhere over Billy Kane's head. He was in a shortpassage that was flanked on either side by what were evidently thebusiness offices of the concern, and at the end of this passage now adoor was suddenly swung open. Gypsy Joe was standing in the doorway.
"De Rat!" he exclaimed in heavy amazement, and mechanically fell back asBilly Kane advanced.