Chapter Sixteen
_Disarming Suspicion_
From the house across the street Caroline Smith slipped out upon thepavement and glanced warily about her. The street was empty, quieter andmore villagelike than ever, yet she knew perfectly well that John Markhad not allowed her to be gone so long without keeping watch over her.Somewhere from the blank faces of those houses across the street hisspies kept guard over her movements. Here she glanced sharply over hershoulder, and it seemed to her that a shadow flitted into the door of abasement, farther up the street.
At that she fled and did not stop running until she was at the door ofthe house of Mark. Since all was quiet, up and down the street, shepaused again, her hand upon the knob. To enter meant to step back intothe life which she hated. There had been a time when she had almostloved the life to which John Mark introduced her; there had been a timewhen she had rejoiced in the nimbleness of her fingers which had enabledher to become an adept as a thief. And, by so doing, she had kept thelife of her brother from danger, she verily believed. She was stillsaving him, and, so long as she worked for John Mark, she knew that herbrother was safe, yet she hesitated long at the door.
It would be only the work of a moment to flee back to the man she loved,tell him that she could not and dared not stay longer with the mastercriminal, and beg him to take her West to a clean life. Her hand fellfrom the knob, but she raised it again immediately.
It would not do to flee, so long as John Mark had power of life or deathover her brother. If Ronicky Doone, as he promised, was able to inspireher brother with the courage to flee from New York, give up his sportinglife and seek refuge in some far-off place, then, indeed, she would gowith Bill Gregg to the ends of the earth and mock the cunning fiend whohad controlled her life so long.
The important thing now was to disarm him of all suspicion, make himfeel that she had only visited Bill Gregg in order to say farewell tohim. With this in her mind she opened the front door and stepped intothe hall, always lighted with ominous dimness. That gloom fell about herlike the visible presence of John Mark.
A squat, powerful figure glided out of the doorway to the right. It wasHarry Morgan, and the side of his face was swathed in bandages, so thathe had to twist his mouth violently in order to speak.
"The chief," he said abruptly. "Beat it quick to his room. He wantsyou."
"Why?" asked Caroline, hoping to extract some grain or two ofinformation from the henchman.
"Listen, kid," said the sullen criminal. "D'you think I'm a nut to blowwhat I know? You beat it, and he'll tell you what he wants."
The violence of this language, however, had given her clues enough tothe workings of the chief's mind. She had always been a favored memberof the gang, and the men had whistled attendance on her hardly less thanupon Ruth Tolliver herself. This sudden harshness in the language ofHarry Morgan told her that too much was known, or guessed.
A sudden weakness came over her. "I'm going out," she said, turning toHarry Morgan who had sauntered over to the front door.
"Are you?" he asked.
"I'm going to take one turn more up the block. I'm not sleepy yet," sherepeated and put her hand on the knob of the door.
"Not so you could notice it, you ain't," retorted Morgan. "We've takenlip enough from you, kid. Your day's over. Go up and see what the chiefhas to say, but you ain't going through this door unless you walk overme."
"Those are orders?" she asked, stepping back, with her heart turningcold.
"Think I'm doing this on my own hook?"
She turned slowly to the stairs. With her hand on the balustrade shedecided to try the effect of one personal appeal. Nerving herself shewhirled and ran to Harry Morgan. "Harry," she whispered, "let me go outtill I've worked up my courage. You know he's terrible to face when he'sangry. And I'm afraid, Harry--I'm terribly afraid!"
"Are you?" asked Morgan. "Well, you ain't the first. Go and take yourmedicine like the rest of us have done, time and time running."
There was no help for it. She went wearily up the stairs to the room ofthe master thief. There she gave the accustomed rap with the properintervals. Instantly the cold, soft voice, which she knew and hated so,called to her to enter.
She found him in the act of putting aside his book. He was seated in adeep easy-chair; a dressing gown of silk and a pair of horn-rimmedspectacles gave him a look of owlish wisdom, with a touch of the owl'sfutility of expression, likewise. He rose, as usual, with all hiscourtesy. She thought at first, as he showed her to a chair, that he wasgoing to take his usual damnable tack of pretended ignorance in order tosee how much she would confess. However, tonight this was not his planof battle.
The moment she was seated, he removed his spectacles, drew a chair closeto hers and sat down, leaning far forward. "Now, my dear, foolish girl,"said the master thief, smiling benevolently upon her, "what have youbeen doing tonight to make us all miserable?"
She knew at once that he was aware of every move she had made, from thefirst to the last. It gave her firmness to tell the lie with suavity."It's a queer yarn, John," she said.
"I'm used to queer yarns," he answered. "But where have you been allthis time? It was only to take five minutes, I thought."
She made herself laugh. "That's because you don't know Ronicky Doone,John."
"I'm getting to know him, however," said the master. "And, before I'mdone, I hope to know him very well indeed."
"Well, he has a persuasive tongue."
"I think I noticed that for myself."
"And, when he told me how poor Bill Gregg had come clear across thecontinent--"
"No wonder you were touched, my dear. New Yorkers won't travel so far,will they? Not for a girl, I mean."
"Hardly! But Ronicky Doone made it such a sad affair that I promised I'dgo across and see Bill Gregg."
"Not in his room?"
"I knew you wouldn't let him come to see me here."
"Never presuppose what I'll do. But go on--I'm interested--very. Just asmuch as if Ronicky Doone himself were telling me."
She eyed him shrewdly, but, if there were any deception in him, he hidit well. She could not find the double meaning that must have beenbehind his words. "I went there, however," she said, "because I wassorry for him, John. If you had seen you'd have been sorry, too, or elseyou would have laughed; I could hardly keep from it at first."
"I suppose he took you in his arms at once?"
"I think he wanted to. Then, of course, I told him at once why I hadcome."
"Which was?"
"Simply that it was absurd for him to stay about and persecute me; thatthe letters I wrote him were simply written for fun, when I was doingsome of my cousin's work at the correspondence schools; that the bestthing he could do would be to take my regrets and go back to the West."
"Did you tell him all that?" asked John Mark in a rather changed voice.
"Yes; but not quite so bluntly."
"Naturally not; you're a gentle girl, Caroline. I suppose he took itvery hard."
"Very, but in a silly way. He's full of pride, you see. He drew himselfup and gave me a lecture about deceiving men."
"Well, since you have lost interest in him, it makes no difference."
"But in a way," she said faintly, rising slowly from her chair, "I can'thelp feeling some interest."
"Naturally not. But, you see, I was worried so much about you and thisfoolish fellow that I gave orders for him to be put out of the way, assoon as you left him."
Caroline Smith stood for a moment stunned and then ran to him.
"No, no!" she declared. "In the name of the dear mercy of Heaven, John,you haven't done that?"
"I'm sorry."
"Then call him back--the one you sent. Call him back, John, and I'llserve you the rest of my life without question. I'll never fail you,John, but for your own sake and mine, for the sake of everything fair inthe world, call him back!"
He pushed away her hands, but without violence. "I thought it would bethis way," he
said coldly. "You told a very good lie, Caroline. Isuppose clever Ronicky Doone rehearsed you in it, but it needed only theoldest trick in the world to expose you."
She recoiled from him. "It was only a joke, then? You didn't mean it,John? Thank Heaven for that!"
A savagery which, though generally concealed, was never far from thesurface, now broke out in him, making the muscles of his face tense andhis voice metallic. "Get to your room," he said fiercely, "get to yourroom. I've wasted time enough on you and your brat of a brother, and nowa Western lout is to spoil what I've done? I've a mind to wash my handsof all of you--and sink you. Get to your room, and stay there, while Imake up my mind which of the two I shall do."
She went, cringing like one beaten, to the door, and he followed her,trembling with rage.
"Or have you a choice?" he asked. "Brother or lover, which shall it be?"
She turned and stretched out her hands to him, unable to speak; but theman of the sneer struck down her arms and laughed in her face. In muteterror she fled to her room.