CHAPTER XI
THE BURNING EYES
For an instant, I did not grasp the full significance of that severedwire. Then I understood.
"Yes," said Godfrey drily, "that romance of mine is looking up again.Somebody was preparing for a quiet invasion of the house to-night--somebody, of course, interested in that cabinet."
"He wasn't losing any time," I ventured.
"He knew he hadn't any to lose. When you put those wooden shuttersup, you warned him that you suspected his game. He knew, if the alarmwas on, it would ring when he cut the wire, but he also knew that thechances were a hundred to one against the cut being discovered, orthe alarm put in working order, before to-morrow."
"Why can't we ambush him?" I suggested.
"We might try, but it will be a mighty risky undertaking, Lester."
"One risky undertaking is enough for to-night," I said, with a sigh,for my belief in the existence of the secret drawer and the poisonand all the rest of it had come back with a rush. I felt almostapologetic toward Godfrey for ever doubting him. "We'd better waitand see if we survive the first one before we arrange for any more."
"All right," Godfrey laughed. "But I'll fix this break."
He got out his pen-knife, loosened two or three of the staples whichheld the wire in place, drew it out, scraped back the insulation, andtwisted the ends tightly together.
"There," he added, "that's done. If the invader tampers with thewindow again, he will set off the alarm. But I don't believe he'lltouch it. I fancy he already knows his little game is discovered."
"How would he know it?" I demanded, incredulously.
"If he is keeping an eye on this window, as he naturally would do, hehas seen my light. Perhaps he is watching us now."
I glanced at the dark square of the window with a little shiver. Thisbusiness was getting on my nerves again. But Godfrey turned away witha shrug of the shoulders.
"Now for the cabinet," he said, and led the way back upstairs.
Rogers was still sitting dejectedly on the cot, and, looking at himmore closely, I could see that he was white and shaken. His trouble,whatever its nature, plainly lay heavy on his mind.
"Have you anything to tell us, this evening, Rogers?" I asked,kindly, but he only shook his head.
"I've told you everything I know, sir," he answered, in a low voice.
"I'm not going to worry you, Rogers," I went on, "but I want you tothink it over. You can rely upon me to help you, if I can."
He looked up quickly, but caught himself, and turned his eyes away.
"Thank you, sir," was all he said.
"And now," I added, briskly, "I'll have to ask you to get up. Movethe cot away from the door, Parks."
Parks obeyed me with astonished face.
"You're not going in there, sir!" he protested, as I turned the knob.
"Yes, we are," I said, and opened the door. "Is--is...."
"No, sir," broke in Parks, understanding. "The undertakers broughtthe coffin and put him in it and moved him over to the drawing-roomthis afternoon, sir."
"I'm glad of that. I want all the lights lit, Parks, just as theywere last night."
Parks reached inside the door and switched on the electrics. Then hewent away, came back in a moment with a taper, and proceeded to lightthe gas-lights. A moment later, the lights in the inner room werealso blazing.
"There you are, sir," said Parks, and retreated to the door. "Willyou need me?"
"Not now. But wait in the hall outside. We may need you." I had anotion to tell him to have an axe handy, but I saw Godfrey smiling.
"Very good, sir," said Parks, evidently relieved, and went out andclosed the door.
I led the way into the inner room.
"Well, there it is," I said, and nodded toward the Boule cabinet,standing in the full glare of the light, every inlay and incrustationglittering like the eyes of a basilisk. "It isn't too late to give itup, Godfrey."
"Oh, yes, it is," he said, coolly, removing his coat "It was too latethe moment you told me that story. Why, Lester, if I gave it up, Ishould never sleep again!"
"And if you don't, you may never wake again," I pointed out.
He laughed lightly.
"What a dismal prophet you are! Draw up a chair and watch me."
He pulled back his shirt-sleeves, and placed his electric torch onthe floor beside the cabinet. Then he paused with folded arms tocontemplate this masterpiece of M. Boule.
"It _is_ a beauty," he said, at last, and then drew out the littledrawers, one after another, looked them over, and placed themcarefully on a chair. "Now," he added, "let us see if there is anyspace that isn't accounted for."
He took from his pocket a folding rule of ivory, opened it, and begana series of measurements so searching and intricate that half an hourpassed without a word being spoken. Then he pulled up another chair,and sat down beside me.
"I seem to be pretty much up against it," he said, "no doubt just asthe designer of the cabinet would wish me to be. The whole bottom ofthe desk is inclosed, and those three little drawers take up only asmall part of the space. Then the back of the cabinet seems to bedouble--at least, there's a space of three inches I can't accountfor. So there's room for a dozen secret drawers, if the Montespanrequired so many. And now to find the combination."
He adjusted the steel gauntlet carefully to his right hand and satdown on the floor before the cabinet.
"I'll begin at the bottom," he said. "If there is any spot I miss,tell me of it."
He ran his fingers up and down the graceful legs, carefully feelingevery inequality of the elaborate bronze ornamentation. Particularlydid his fingers linger on every boss and point, striving to push itin or move it up or down; but they were all immovable. Then heexamined the bottom of the table minutely, using his torch toillumine every crevice; but again without result.
Another half hour passed so, and when at last he came out from underthe table, his face was dripping with sweat.
"It's trying work," he said, sitting down again and mopping his face."But isn't it a beauty, Lester? The more I look at it, the morewonderful it seems."
"I told Philip Vantine I wasn't up to it, and I'm not," I said.
"Nor I, but I can appreciate it to the extent of my capacity. It'sthe Louis Fourteenth ideal of beauty--splendour carried to the nthdegree. Look at the arabesques along the front--can you imagineanything more graceful? And the engraving--nothing cut-and-driedabout that. It was done by a burin in the hands of a master--perhapsby Boule himself. I don't wonder Vantine was rather mad about it. Butwe haven't found that drawer yet," and he drew his chair close to thecabinet.
"I'd point out one thing to you, Godfrey," I said: "if you go onpoking about with the fingers of both hands, as you've been doing,you are just as apt to get struck on the left hand as on the right."
"That's true," he agreed. "Stop me if I forget."
There were three little drawers in the front of the table, and theseGodfrey had removed. He inserted his hand into the space from whichhe had taken them, and examined it carefully. Then, inch by inch, heran his fingers over the bosses and arabesques with which the sidesand top of the table were incrusted. It seemed to me that, if thesecret drawer were anywhere, it must be somewhere in this part of thecabinet, and I watched him with breathless interest. Once I thoughthe had found the drawer, for a piece of inlay at the side of thetable seemed to give a little under the pressure of his fingers; butno hidden spring was touched; no drawer sprang open; no poisonedfangs descended.
"Well," said Godfrey, sitting back in his chair at last, and wipinghis face again, "there's so much done. If there is any secret drawerin the lower part of the cabinet, it is mighty cleverly concealed.Now we'll try the upper part."
The upper part of the cabinet consisted of a series of drawers,rising one above the other, and terminated by a triangular pediment,its tympanum ornamented with some beautiful little bronzes. Thedrawers themselves were concealed by two doors, opening in thecentre, and covere
d with a most intricate design of arabesquedincrustations.
"If there is a secret drawer here," said Godfrey, "it is somewhere inthe back, where there seems to be a hollow space. But to discover thecombination...."
He ran his fingers over the inlay, and then, struck by a suddenthought, tested each of the little figures along the tympanum, butthey were all set solidly in place.
"There's one thing sure," he said, "the combination, whatever it is,is of such a nature that it could not be discovered accidentally--bya person leaning on the cabinet, for instance. It isn't a question ofmerely touching a spring; it is probably a question of releasing aseries of levers, which must be worked in a certain order, or thedrawer won't open. I'm afraid we are up against it."
"I can't pretend I'm sorry," I said, with a sigh of relief. "As faras I am concerned, I'm perfectly willing that the drawer should goundiscovered."
"Well, I am not!" retorted Godfrey, curtly, and he sat regarding thecabinet with puckered brows. Then he rose and began tapping at theback.
I don't know what it was--for I was conscious of no noise--but somemysterious attraction drew my eyes to the window at the farther sideof the room. Near the top of the wooden shutter, which Parks and Ihad put in place, was a small semi-circular opening, to allow thepassage of a little light, perhaps, and peering through this openingwere two eyes--two burning eyes....
They were fixed upon Godfrey with such feverish intentness that theydid not see my glance, and I lowered my head instantly.
"Godfrey," I said, in a shaking voice, "don't look up; don't moveyour head; but there is some one peering through the hole in theshutter opposite us."
Godfrey did not answer for quite a minute, but kept calmly on withhis examination of the cabinet.
"Did he see you look at him?" he asked, at last.
"No, he was looking at you, with his eyes almost starting out of hishead. I never saw such eyes!"
"Did you see anything of his face?"
"No, the hole is too small. I fancy I saw the fingers of one hand,which he had thrust through to steady himself."
"How high is the hole?"
"Near the top of the window."
Godfrey came back to his chair a moment later, sat down in it, andpassed his handkerchief slowly over his face. Then he leaned forward,apparently to examine the legs of the cabinet.
"I saw him," he said. "Or, rather, I saw his eyes. Rather fierce,aren't they?"
"They're a tiger's eyes," I said, with conviction.
"Well, there is no use going ahead with this while he is out there.Even if we found the drawer, we'd both be dead an instant later."
"You mean he'd kill us?"
"He would shoot us instantly. Imagine what a sensation that wouldmake, Lester. Parks hears two pistol shots, rushes in and finds uslying here dead. Grady would have a convulsion--and we should bothbe famous for a few days."
"I'll seek fame in some other way," I said drily. "What are you goingto do about it?"
"We've got to try to capture him; and if we do--well, we shall havethe fame all right! But it's a good deal like trying to pick up ascorpion--we're pretty sure to get hurt. If that fellow out there iswho I think he is, he's about the most dangerous man on earth."
He went on tapping the surface of the cabinet. As for me, I wouldhave given anything for another look at those gleaming eyes. Theyseemed to be burning into me; hot flashes were shooting up and downmy back.
"Why can't I go out as though I were going after something," Isuggested. "Then Parks and I could charge around the corner and gethim."
"You wouldn't get him, he'd get you. You wouldn't have a chance onearth. If there is a window upstairs over that one, you might dropsomething out on him, or borrow Parks's pistol and shoot him--"
"That would be pretty cowardly, wouldn't it?" I suggested, mildly.
"My dear Lester," Godfrey protested, "when you attack a poisonoussnake, you don't do it with bare hands, do you?"
I couldn't help it--I glanced again at the window....
"He's gone!" I cried.
Godfrey was at the window in two steps.
"Look at that!" he said, "and then tell me he isn't a genius!"
I followed the direction of his pointing finger and saw that, justopposite the opening in the shutter, a little hole had been cut inthe window-pane.
"That fellow foresees everything," said Godfrey, with enthusiasm. "Heprobably cut that hole as soon as it was dark. He must have guessedwe were going to examine the cabinet to-night--and he wanted not onlyto see, but to hear. He heard everything we said, Lester!"
"Let's go after him!" I cried, and, without waiting for an answer, Isprang across the ante-room and snatched open the door which led intothe hall.
Parks and Rogers were sitting on the couch just outside and I neversaw two men more thoroughly frightened.
"For God's sake, Mr. Lester!" gasped Rogers, and stopped, his hand athis throat.
"Is it Mr. Godfrey?" cried Parks.
"There's a man outside. Got your pistol, Parks?"
"Yes, sir," and he took it from his pocket.
I snatched it from him, opened the front door, leaped the railing,and stole along the house to the corner.
Then, taking my courage in both hands, I charged around it.
There was no one in sight; but from somewhere near at hand came aburst of mocking laughter.