CHAPTER XIX THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF KATHERINE
The curious spell of the "Fata Morgana" descended upon Katherine again asshe emerged from the concert hall and made her way through a poorlylighted side street toward the main avenue where the street cars passed.The long, waving shadows seemed to clutch at her ankles as she walked;strange noises sounded in her ears; the trees that bordered the curb lefttheir places and began to move toward her with a grotesque, circlingmotion, while the distant glare of light toward which she was travelingbegan to recede until it was a mere twinkling speck, miles away in thedistance. Again her strength forsook her, and with violently tremblinghands she grasped an iron fence railing and clung desperately to keepherself from falling. The touch of the cold metal sent a little shocktingling through her; she braced herself and looked steadily at thespectres crowding about her. The trees had gone back into their places;the shadows no longer seemed to be crouching ready to spring at her.
"Silly!" exclaimed Katherine, though her teeth still chattered.
She let go of the fence and started on; immediately the trees resumedtheir fantastic circling, and again her knees threatened to double underher. Then she realized that it was not the "Fata Morgana" that held herin thrall, but the extra lobster croquette. The disastrous fate whichMrs. Lehar had predicted would overtake Veronica had befallen herinstead--she was in the throes of acute indigestion! O, if only she hadnot eaten that second croquette! Lobster never agreed with her; sheshould have known better than to eat it, especially after she had justeaten shrimp salad. Why hadn't she had the sense to refuse that secondone? (Katherine was still unaware that she had eaten, not two, but threeof the deadly things, a circumstance which had undoubtedly saved Veronicafrom a like fate.)
She clung dizzily to the fence for a few moments, and then, feelingsomewhat relieved by the cold wind blowing strongly against her face,struck out once more for the carline. A few steps convinced her that shecould not make it; the world was whirling around her, and her limbsrefused to obey her will. A little farther up the street, where the fenceended, the arched entrance-way into a church offered a resting-place andshelter against the high wind and beating rain. Stumbling up the steps,she sank down on the stone floor, and, pressing her cold hand against herthrobbing temples, leaned weakly against the wall of her littlesanctuary.
Weariness overcame her and she sank gradually into a doze, from which shewakened with a start at the sound of a steeple clock chiming. Boom! Boom!Boom! The clanging tones echoed through the narrow street. Katherine satup hastily and stared around her in bewilderment for a moment; thenrecollected herself and rose cautiously to her feet. To her infiniterelief she found that her knees no longer had any inclination to knocktogether; the feeling of illness had passed. Taking a deep breath, andsetting her hat straight on her head, she walked steadily down the stepsand out upon the street once more. The clock which had wakened her sorudely was in the steeple just above her and Katherine gave a gasp ofdismay when she saw the time. A quarter to eleven! She should be down atthe station now, taking the ten-forty-five train back to Oakwood. Whathad happened? Could she possibly have fallen asleep in that cozy littleentrance way? Why had she not heard the clock strike the half hour? Howworried Nyoda would be when she did not come in on that ten-forty-fivetrain! she thought in sudden panic. She must hasten down to the stationimmediately and telephone Nyoda that she had missed that train, but wouldcome on the next.
Was there another train to-night? she wondered, in fresh panic.Ten-forty-five sounded like the last local. She stopped under a streetlight for the purpose of consulting her time-table, and then she made adiscovery which drove the matter of time-tables out of her head entirely,and brought the weakness back to her knees in full force, namely, thediscovery that she no longer carried her handbag. Her heart almoststopped beating, for in that handbag was Nyoda's watch--the littlejewelled watch Sherry had given her for an engagement present. Aside fromits intrinsic value, which was considerable, Nyoda cherished that watchabove all her other possessions.
She must have left the bag in the entrance-way where she had stopped torest, Katherine decided, and, forgetting all about the weakness of a halfhour ago, she ran swiftly across the street and up the steps of thechurch. She felt over every inch of the floor in the darkness, but thebag was not there.
Had she brought it with her out of the auditorium? Yes, because she haddropped it in the lobby, and in stooping to pick it up had felt the firsttouch of that dizzyness which had overpowered her so soon afterward. Shemust have lost it in the street. She retraced her steps back to theconcert hall, now dark and deserted, carefully searching all the way. Hersearch, however, was unavailing; and with a sinking feeling she realizedthat either someone had picked it up, or else she had been deliberatelyrobbed while she slept; in either event, the bag was gone, and with itNyoda's watch.
It seemed to her that she could never go home and tell Nyoda that it waslost; she wished the earth would open up and swallow her where she stood,thus releasing her, at one stroke, from her distressful position. Shebitterly reproached herself for having stayed in town that evening,--ifshe had gone home on the five-fifteen train this wouldn't have happened.Nyoda had given her precious watch into her keeping, trusting her tobring it back safely, and she had betrayed that trust; had proved herselfunreliable. Nyoda would never trust her with anything valuable again;would never send her on another errand. True, it was not exactly herfault that she had lost the bag; but if she had not been foolish enoughto eat all those lobster croquettes after eating shrimp salad she wouldnot have had any dizzy spell to distract her attention from herresponsibility.
For fully five minutes she stood still and called herself every hard nameshe could think of, and ended up by making an emphatic resolution inregard to the future attitude toward lobster croquettes. In the meantime,she decided, she had better notify the police about the watch. A blockahead of her the green and blue lights of a drug store shone blurred butunmistakable through the misty atmosphere, and she splashed her waytoward it, only to find on arriving that the place was closed. She walkedseveral more blocks, searching either for an open drug store where shecould telephone, or a corner policeman, and finding neither. A streetclock pointed to eleven, and from somewhere in the darkness behind hercame the subdued tone of the steeple chime.
The rain had stopped now, and it was growing colder; the puddles on thesidewalk began to be filmed over with ice. The wind took on a cuttingedge and came sallying forth in great gusts, shrieking along thetelephone wires and setting the electric arc lights overhead swayingwildly back and forth, until the rapidly shifting lights and shadowsbelow gave the street the look of a tossing lake. Now billowing out likea sail, now wrapping itself determinedly around her ankles, Katherine'slong coat began to make walking a difficult proceeding. Then, withoutwarning, the arc lights suddenly went out, plunging the world into utterblackness. With that, Katherine abandoned her intention of searching fora telephone and decided to get down to her train as fast as she could.With every other step she went crashing through a thin coating of iceinto a puddle, for in the darkness it was impossible to see where she wasgoing, and once she tripped over an uneven edge of flagging and wentsprawling on her hands and knees. Thereafter, she felt her way, like ablind person, with the point of her umbrella.
It was gradually borne in upon Katherine, as she floundered on throughthe puddles, that she was not retracing her steps toward the carline, butwas proceeding in a new and entirely unknown direction. The store frontswhich loomed indistinctly through the darkness were not the same ones shehad passed before; surely those others had not been so shabby anddisreputable looking. But so intense was the blackness of the night thatshe could not be sure about anything; she might be on the right trackafter all. Undoubtedly the next turn would bring her back to the lighteddrug store, and from that point she could easily locate herself. No greenand blue lights appeared when she turned the next corner, however; as faras she could see, the
re was only gloom in the distance. Katherine triedstreet after street with no better success; they all led endlessly oninto darkness. She met no one from whom she dared ask the way; for therewas only an occasional passer-by, and he usually looked tipsy. It wasevidently a factory district Katherine had wandered into, for all aroundher were great dark buildings with high chimneys, long, dim warehouses,box cars standing on sidings, silent, gloomy freight sheds; there seemedto be no end of them anywhere; in all directions they stretched out, likeBanquo's descendents, apparently to the crack of doom. The nightmare ofthe "Fata Morgana" had come true, and she was lost in the wilderness of astrange city.
For a long time Katherine had not heard the rumble of a street car, andthis phenomenon finally became so noticeable that she realized what musthave happened--the traction power had been cut off as well as thelighting current. With that realization her last hope of getting down tothe station went glimmering--unless she could get a taxicab. But wherewas one to find a taxicab in this district? A faint light gleaming in thewindow of a small shop that crouched between two tall factories luredKatherine on with the hope that here was a telephone, or at least someoneabout who could tell her the way. She hastened toward it, but her heartturned to water within her when she saw that the lettering on the windowpane was Chinese. More than anything else in the whole universe,Katherine feared a Chinaman; she was so afraid of the little yellow menthat even in broad daylight she could never go by a Chinese laundrywithout holding her breath and shuddering. Even the picture of a Chinamangave her the creeps. When she discovered that she was in a Chineseneighborhood after eleven o'clock at night, with the street lamps allout, a hoarse cry of terror broke involuntarily from her lips, and shebegan to run blindly, she knew not where, penetrating deeper and deeperinto that jungle of factories which flanks the railroad on both sides formiles.
Out of breath finally, she came to a stop, and for a few moments stoodgasping, with a hand to her side. Not far ahead of her a light from abuilding shone across the darkness of the street, and loud sounds ofrevelry coming from the direction of the light told her that the placewas a saloon. She stood still for another moment, trying to get upcourage to pass it; decided at last that with Chinamen in the otherdirection it was the lesser of two evils, and walked on, prayingfervently that none of the revellers inside would come out at the momentshe was going by. She had hardly gone a few steps when a figure appearedon the lighted sidewalk in front of the place with a suddenness whichleft no doubt of his having come from within. In the bright glareKatherine recognized the long light coat and visor cap of the man who hadstood beside her that evening in the flower shop where she had purchasedVeronica's violets, and who had looked with such a covetous eye upon theroll of bills she had taken from her inside coat pocket. The bills werestill there, and it seemed to her now that they made a very telltalebulge over her right breast. The man was coming toward her; in a fewminutes he would see and recognize her, and then----
Katherine darted into an alleyway which opened near her, and on through ahalf-open gate in a low, solid wooden fence, and crouching there behindthe fence in the darkness, she waited until the footsteps had gonepast,--creak, creak, creakety-creak, with a rhythmic squeaking of shoes.Not until the sound had died away completely did she venture forth fromher hiding place, and then she stood perfectly still and lookedcautiously about her in every direction before she made a move toproceed. With the knowledge that the danger had passed, her feeling ofpanic began to leave her, and her native coolness began to assert itself.She took a careful stock of her situation and tried to think up a way toescape from her predicament. That she was hopelessly lost in thiswilderness of streets whose names meant nothing to her, even if she hadbeen able to see the sign boards, she realized full well; instinct warnedher not to betray her situation to anyone she might meet in thisneighborhood--providing she met any one, for the wind seemed to haveblown all pedestrians off the streets; and the lateness of the hour madeit extremely unprobable that she would find a telephone. She stood on oneleg in the storklike attitude which always indicated deep thought withher, and pondered all the phases of her dilemma with the calmdeliberation which invariably came to her in moments of great stress."The only time Katherine is composed," Sahwah had said once, "is when sheis in a pickle." And if Katherine was now in the biggest pickle she hadever experienced, by the same token her brain had never worked so coollyand logically before.
"When lost in the woods," she said to herself, going over in her mind herknowledge of woodcraft, "the first thing to do is to climb a tree and getyour bearings. That's all right for the woods, but there aren't any treeshere to climb. I might climb a telegraph pole," she thought whimsically,as her eye fell upon one nearby, "and see if I can locate myself. No,that wouldn't do, either, for the whole city is dark, and I couldn't seeanything if I did get up. So much for rule number one.
"Now for rule number two. 'Establish your directions by observing andreading the signs of nature. Moss always grows on the north side oftrees.' Hm. Trees again, and telegraph poles won't do as substitutes thistime. Moss doesn't grow on the north side of telegraph poles. There isn'tany difference between the north side of a telegraph pole and anyother----"
Katherine's train of thought was suddenly interrupted by her glanceresting on the pole in question. One side of it, she could see in thelight from the saloon, was glazed with ice where the driving rain hadfrozen in the chill wind. That wind was now coming from everydirection--north, south, east and west--at once, and it was thereforeimpossible to judge from the whirling gusts which was north; but earlierin the evening, when the rain was falling, the wind had blown steadilyfrom the north. Accordingly, the strip of ice on those poles carried thevery same message as the moss on the trees in the woods. Katherineexclaimed aloud in delight at her discovery. In a twinkling she had herbearings.
"North, south, east, west," she said triumphantly, pointing in the fourrespective directions. "Not a bad piece of scouting, that. What's thedifference, whether it's moss or ice?--it's the same principle. Talkabout your _pole_ stars!
"I believe I know approximately where I am," she continued, her brainkeeping up its logical working. "We turned south from B---- Avenue to goto the Music Hall, I remember hearing Veronica say so; therefore, not yethaving come to B---- Avenue in my wanderings, I must still be on thesouth side of it, and by going due north will come to it eventually. Theway is as plain as the nose on your face; just follow the ice on thetelegraph poles. I can feel it in places where it's too dark to see. Allaboard for B---- Avenue!"
Katherine set off as fast as she could go through the darkness, whistlingin her relief, and confidently keeping her feet pointed toward the north.As if acting upon the principle that the gods help them who helpthemselves, the street lights came on again just at that moment, showingup the corners and crossings, and making progress very much easier. Shehad gone some half dozen blocks, and was once more passing the long rowof gloomy, windowless warehouses which she remembered having seen before,when it became apparent to her alert senses that she was being followed.For the last two or three blocks she had heard the sound of a footfallbehind her, turning the same corners she had turned, taking the sameshort-cut she had taken through a factory yard, and gradually drawingnearer. "Creak, creak, creakety-creak!" Through the still night air itsounded with startling distinctness; the same squeaking footfall that hadpassed her ten minutes before, when she had crouched, with wildly beatingheart, behind the fence in the dark alley. Filled with propheticapprehension, she turned and looked around, and in the light of a streetlamp several hundred yards behind her saw the figure that had loomed solarge in her fears all evening. It required no second glance to recognizethe long, light overcoat and the visor cap drawn low over the eyes. Foran instant, Katherine's feeling of alarm held her rooted to the spot,even while she noticed that the man had increased his speed and thedistance between them was rapidly lessening; then the power of locomotioncame back with a rush and she began to run. Her worst fears wereconfirmed when she heard
the man behind her start to run also.
Katherine doubled her speed and fled like a deer, slipping wildly overthe icy sidewalk and expecting every minute to fall down, but by somemiracle of good luck managing to retain her balance. Yet, run as shemight, she realized that her pursuer was gaining; the footsteps poundingalong behind her sounded nearer and nearer every minute. Her long coat,winding about her knees, caused her to slacken speed; her breath began togive out; she developed an agonizing pain in her side. She knew that therace was lost; in a moment more she would be overtaken. She had justsummoned breath for a last final spurt when she heard a crash behind herand the sound of a body falling on the sidewalk; she dashed on withoutslackening speed. The next minute she slipped on a sheet of ice in themiddle of a crossing and fell headlong to the ground, just as a taxicab,coming out of the side street, turned the corner. Katherine heard ahoarse shout and the jamming of an emergency brake, then, before she hadtime to draw breath, the car was on top of her. A blinding light flashedfor a moment in her eyes; her ears were filled with a deafening roar;then all of a sudden light and sound both ceased to be.
Hearing came back first with returning consciousness. The roaring noiseno longer sounded in her ears, and from somewhere, a long distance off,came the sound of a voice speaking.
"Can't you lift the car? She's pinned underneath the wheels. No, youcan't back up; you'll run over her head. Don't you see it's right behindthat left wheel? Got a jack in your tool box? All right. Here----Now----"
Gradually the weight that was pinning her to the ground was lifted, andshe opened her eyes to find herself beside, and no longer under, thequivering monster with the hot breath. Three figures were moving abouther in the light of the head-lamps, and now one of them knelt beside herand laid a hand on her head.
"She isn't killed," said a voice which sounded strangely familiar inKatherine's ears, a voice which somehow carried her back to Carver Houseand the library fire.
Carver House. Nyoda. Nyoda would be worried to death because she did notcome home. Poor Nyoda, how sorry she would be about the watch!
Unconsciously Katherine groaned aloud.
"She must be pretty badly hurt," continued the voice beside her ear."Help me lift her now and we'll get her into the car. A hand under hershoulders--so. I'll take her head. Easy now."
Katherine felt herself being lifted from the ground and carried past theglare of the headlamps. Suddenly there came an explosive exclamation fromone of the rescuers--the one who had done the talking--and the hand thatsupported her head trembled violently.
"Good God! It's _Katherine_."
Katherine opened her eyes fully and looked up into the dumfounded face ofSherry.
"Fo' de lan' sakes!" came an echoing exclamation from beside Sherry, andthe black face of Hercules shone out in the light.
"Hello Sherry," said Katherine, in a voice which sounded strange in herown ears.
"Katherine!" cried Sherry in terrified accents, "are you badly hurt?"
"I d-o-n-'t k-n-o-w," replied Katherine thickly, through a mouthful offur from the collar of her coat.
"I guess not," she resumed, after Sherry had laid her on the back seat ofthe car. "Nothing cracks when I wiggle it. My nose is skinned," shesupplemented a minute later, "and there's a comb sticking straight intomy head. I guess that's all."
"Oh," breathed Sherry in immeasurable relief. "It's a miracle you weren'tkilled. I thought sure you were. It looked as though both front wheelshad gone over you."
"One went over my hat and the other over the tail of my coat," repliedKatherine cheerfully. "They just missed me by a hair's breadth."
"Are you sure your head isn't hurt?" Sherry continued anxiously. "Youwere unconscious when we lifted the car off of you, you know."
Katherine solemnly felt her head all over. "There _is_ a bump there--no;that's my bump of generosity; it belongs there. Anyway, it doesn't hurtwhen I press it, so it must be all right," she assured him. "I must havefainted, I guess, when the car came on top of me. It came so suddenly,and it made such a terrible noise. You can't think how awful it was."
"It must have been." A shudder went quivering through Sherry's frame atthe thought of it. "I can't get it out of my mind. I thought those wheelswent right over you. It's nothing short of a miracle that they went oneach side of you instead of over you," he said, repeating the sentimenthe had just uttered a moment before. "It all happened so quickly thedriver didn't have a chance to turn aside. There was no one in sight oneminute, and the next minute we were right on top of you. That driver outthere's so scared he can't stand up on his legs yet."
"How did you happen to be in that taxicab?" Katherine inquired curiously.
"We're on our way home," replied Sherry. "We missed the Pennsylvania outof New York and had to take the Nickel Plate, which meant we had tochange from one station to the other here in Philadelphia. We were goingacross in a taxi."
"So you were too late to catch Dr. Phillips?" said Katherine soberly.
"Yes," replied Sherry gloomily. "The boat had gone yesterday."
"How did Hercules stand the disappointment?" asked Katherine, with quicksympathy.
"He's pretty badly cut up about it," replied Sherry. "He had quite a badspell with his heart on the train. He says he's had a 'token' that he'llnever see Marse Tad, as he calls him, again. I'm afraid he won't, myself.Even I've got a gloomy hunch that fate has the cards stacked against usthis time. From Hercules' account, I don't think Dr. Phillips will liveto reach South America."
"How unutterably tragic that would be!" sighed Katherine, beginning tofeel a load of world-sorrow pressing on her heart. What a dismal businesslife was, to be sure!
Sherry interrupted her doleful reverie. "But tell me, Katherine, what, inthe name of all that's fantastic, were you doing here in thisneighborhood at this time of night?"
Katherine explained briefly, and in her overwrought state, burst intotears at the mention of the watch.
"And you say there was a footpad actually following you?" asked Sherry inconsternation. "You were running away from this man when you fell underthe car? Where is he now?"
Katherine shook her head. "I don't know. He slipped and fell just beforeI did, and I don't know what became of him after that."
Sherry gave a long whistle, and, thrusting his head out of the taxi, gavea look around.
"There's a man coming up the street now," he said. "He's limping badly.Is that the man? He's probably trying to slip away quietly in theexcitement."
Katherine raised her head and glanced out. "That's the man," sheexclaimed. "He's the same one that followed me. Why, he's coming overhere toward us!" she said, in a tone of surprise. "How queer! Is he goingto hold us all up, I wonder?"
The man in the light overcoat, limping painfully, crossed the curb andapproached the car standing, temporarily disabled, in the middle of thestreet. Sherry thrust out a belligerent face, at the same time looking,out of the tail of his eye, for his driver and Hercules. Both were out ofsight, kneeling on the ground at the other side of the raised enginehood.
The stranger limped up and hesitated before Sherry. Katherine, lookingover Sherry's shoulder, noticing with a start of surprise that the manhad snow white hair. Although the long, light coat and the visor cap werethe same as those she had seen on the man in the flower shop, this was anentirely different man. His blue eyes were mild and pensive; his wholebearing was gentle and retiring, and, standing there with the electriclight behind him making a halo of his white hair, he looked like somelittle, old, melancholy saint.
"The young lady that you just picked up," said the stranger in a voicemellow with old-fashioned courtesy, raising his cap politely. "I havebeen following her for some time, trying unsuccessfully to catch up withher. I saw her drop this bag on the street, some two hours ago, and sincethen have been attempting to restore it to her, but have not been able toreach her. As soon as I saw her drop the bag I picked it up and hurriedafter her, but she suddenly disappeared like a conjurer's trick. I walkedaround for so
me time, looking for her, when all of a sudden the streetlights went out, and in the darkness I mistook my way and wandered downinto the factory district, where it was not long before I was hopelesslylost. The only place that showed any signs of life was a saloon down on acorner, and, although I have my opinion of those places, sir, I went inand asked the proprietor the way out of the neighborhood. It was not longafterward that I saw this same young lady who had dropped the handbag notfar ahead of me in the street, having evidently wandered down there inthe darkness just as I had done. I hurried after her, but she becamefrightened and began to run. I ran, too, thinking to overtake her andexplain the reason for my pursuit, but just when I was nearly up to her Islipped and fell on the sidewalk. I must have lain there stunned forseveral minutes, for when things had become clear again I saw this carstanding here and you gentlemen carrying the young lady into it. She isnot badly hurt, I trust? Here is the bag I spoke of."
He spied Katherine looking over Sherry's shoulder at that moment, andheld out the handbag, again lifting his cap as he did so.
At sight of the precious bag Katherine gave a shriek of joy, and seizingit with trembling fingers, looked inside to see if Nyoda's watch wasstill there. She almost sobbed with relief when her fingers closed uponthe little velvet case, from which a faint ticking came to reassure her.
"Then you aren't the man I saw in the flower shop at all!" exclaimedKatherine, covered with confusion. "When I saw your light coat and thatcap I was sure it was the same."
The two men laughed heartily.
"Isn't that just like a woman, though?" said Sherry. "They think thatevery man walking on the streets at night is a burglar, as a matter ofcourse. It never occurs to them that an honest man could possibly haveany business on the street after dark."
"I'm awfully sorry," said Katherine sheepishly, "but I really wasfrightened to death when you began to run after me. You say you have beenfollowing me ever since I dropped the bag? Where did I drop it?"
"Along by that iron fence on --th Street," answered the old man.
"That's where I was taken with the dizzy spell," said Katherine. "I musthave dropped it without knowing it when I caught ahold of the fence tosteady myself."
"But where did you go right after that?" asked the old man curiously."You disappeared as suddenly as if the earth had swallowed you. I put upmy umbrella for a few minutes to shield my face from the rain and when Ilooked out from behind it you were nowhere in sight."
"That was where I went into the dark doorway of a church, and sat down towait for the dizzy spell to wear off," replied Katherine. "I must havefallen asleep, for the first thing I knew a clock was striking a quarterto eleven. When I discovered the bag was gone I ran around like madlooking for it, and the first thing I knew I was lost, and the lightswere out, and there I was down in those awful factory yards. I saw youcoming out of that saloon and thought you were the man who had watched metake out some bills out of an inner pocket earlier this evening, and hidbehind a fence until you had gone by."
"But fate evidently intended that our paths should cross again," resumedthe old man, with the faint flicker of a smile on his pensivecountenance, "for it was not long before you were just ahead of me again.The lights came on then, and I saw you plainly."
"And I saw you, and started to run," finished Katherine, joining inSherry's burst of laughter.
Just then Hercules straightened up from the ground and came around thefront of the car.
"Kin we have yo' pocket flasher, Mist' Sherry?" he asked.
Then his glance fell upon the stranger standing beside the car. His eyesstarted from their sockets; his jaw dropped, and for a moment he stood asif petrified. Then he gave a great gasp, and with a piercing cry of"Marse Tad!" he sank upon his knees at the old man's feet.