CHAPTER II
A KISS FOR A LIFE
It was just dusk when the police officials were obliged to give up theirquest for the Superintendent and Hammond returned to Scotland Yard tomake his report to the Chief Commissioner. Dejected of mien and heavy ofheart he stopped mechanically at the door of the Superintendent's room.He would have given worlds if he had never been the unconsciousinstrument of his superior's disaster. The door stood slightly ajar andhe halted with the intention of closing it.
The electric light had been switched on and he stood in the doorway. Afigure sat at the familiar desk and as the Inspector gave one briefglance, a cry of half pain, half fear, burst from his shaking lips.
"Mr. Cleek--you, sir! But----"
Cleek--for he it was--switched round in his chair, exclaiming at sightof the man's face, "Why, man! What's wrong?"
"Mr. Narkom, sir--they've got him. He's gone!"
"Got him--who've got him? He's not dead?"
Hammond shivered at that; then hoarsely and somewhat incoherently gotout the tale of the afternoon. And as Cleek realized the trap theSuperintendent had bravely entered to save him, his friend andassociate, from danger, he collapsed into the chair, his face hidden inthe palm of his hand.
"God! A friend indeed! They think to hurt me through him," he muttered."They'll never dare to injure him, surely! God, if only I hadn't lostthat train--only by a minute, too! But I'll get him, I swear it. Therats shall pay for this----"
He leapt to his feet, his eyes narrowed down to slits, his lips set in astraight line, as he mentally reviewed once more the facts of Hammond'sstory.
"Leave me alone, Hammond. You can do nothing more. Keep a lookout at thedocks. Tell Dollops I'm all right, and to lie low himself--or he'll bethe next."
Hammond saluted and left the room, as Cleek turned to the telephone. Aquarter of an hour later, out of the sacred precincts of the Yarditself, slouched one of the most villainous-looking Apaches that Soho orMontmartre itself ever could have seen. It was Cleek the VanishingCracksman, Cleek the Man of Forty Faces--the King Rat himself on thewarpath. Had Marise of the Twisted Arm, Gustave Merode, or even Margotherself, the Queen of the Apaches, seen him, they would have feared andtrembled.
Meanwhile, the barge had transferred its precious if bulky burden to oneof the numerous produce boats going up the river and it was well on itsway to Havre before police launches or port officials were made awareof the loss.
But it was not until midnight had struck that the cramped, aching bodyof the Superintendent was hustled out of the boat at a little landingplace outside the port itself, and smuggled hastily down into cellars ofthe Coq d'Or. Officials were too used to drunken sailors being helped inand out of this none too savoury tavern to note one more helpless,stumbling figure, held up between comrades, and a brief second found Mr.Narkom in the midst of an uproarious, shouting crew of Apaches, headedby no less than Margot herself, disguised as a Breton fishwife. She hadescaped the eagle eye of her born foes, the French gendarmes, and herereigned supreme, surrounded by her comperes in crime and those subjectto her sway.
Her shrill cries of delight resounded to the roof as her eyes fell uponthe gagged and bound figure of Mr. Narkom.
"Brava, brave Jules; so you succeeded! La! La! but we 'ave the rathimself now. This is the toasted cheese, and Cleek will come after hisfriend very soon--if we send for him. Eh, _mes amis_? A splendid plan,and meanwhile the good Duke is being hurt, eh! But it is good!"
Jeering and laughing, she thrust her face close to the drawn one of theSuperintendent.
"But not so clever, eh, my friend? We cannot afford to have you andCleek, the rat!"--she spat the words out--"in England. We want a rest."
"Into the cellar--hark, what's that? All right, an aeroplane--that's allright. Into the cellar with him, lads. All we have to do now is to waitfor the rat to come to the trap!"
To the accompaniment of another laugh, Mr. Narkom was pulled down intothe vaults below, where, dazed with hunger, pain, and anxiety lest Cleekshould indeed be led into fresh danger, he sweated an hour away.
Upstairs all was renewed merriment, and in the midst of it the dooropened and a familiar figure slouched in--evil of face, disfigured withscars and bruises. As a shout arose at his appearance, there was noquestion as to his identity. "Merode. _Nom de dieu_, Gustave!" criedMargot. "But a pretty picture you cut!"
"_Sacre nom!_" he growled through his clenched teeth. "So would you, ifyou had been fighting for your life! The pigs of police are after me.Give me a drink and take me down through the cellar. The boat goes backto-night, doesn't it?"
"It does," said Margot. "Here's your drink--and drink to Jules there forhe caught the turkey gobbler. Cleek the Rat's man--Narkom!"
"Nonsense--impossible!" cried Merode with an oath.
"But not so, my friend, you shall see him," cried half a dozen voices.
"See him? I'll mark him for life, the devil. Someone go for thevitriol--here!"
With dirty, scratched, and bloodstained hands, Merode threw a coin toone of the Apaches who vanished in the blue fumes of smoke and wine,while Merode slouched deeper into the shadows as there came the sound ofa gendarme's clattering sword on the cobbles outside.
"_Mon dieu_, Margot, I mustn't be caught."
Margot gave orders swiftly. "Down with him, Jeannette, into the vaults,while I hold the fort."
Jeannette clutched Merode's arm. "Come, _mon ami_, through here! Youknow the way!"
Stumbling, cursing, praying all in one breath, Merode followed down therickety wooden ladder, down, it seemed, into the very bowels of theearth.
Thrusting open another door, Jeannette grumblingly lighted a torch stuckin the woodwork, and as Merode's eyes fell upon the figure of Mr. Narkoman oath of triumph burst from his lips.
"_Dieu_, but Margot spoke the truth. It's the pig himself. I've half amind to take him with me and make him dance with a hot iron or two!Better than vitriol----" He gave vent to a hoarse, chuckling laugh, atthe sound of which the Superintendent shivered, even though the confinedspace was close enough on the hot summer's night.
"Margot will never stand that," said Jeannette. "She means to keep himhere till Cleek the Rat comes----"
"Margot! _Nom du pipe!_ If she is Queen, I am King. Leave him to me andgive me the key of the door."
Jeannette wheeled suddenly on him.
"What key--what door?" she asked. Then without waiting for an answer shesnatched the torch from the wall and thrust it in Merode's face.
He drew back from her piercing gaze.
"_Hola!_" she cried in triumph. "I was right--it is not Merode!" ForMerode knew of the trap-door. And as the man followed her glance towardit he realized his mistake.
"And you, who are you?" she cried.
As the man shrank back she advanced, and with a swift gesture plucked atthe matted hair. It came away in her hand, and her own cry of triumph asit revealed the smooth head beneath drowned the Superintendent's cry of"Cleek!" even as he realized the double peril of himself and the manwhose friendship was dearer to him even than life itself.
"Aha, I know you now," cried Jeannette. "The great Cleek himself! And itis I who have got you--_moi_--whom she laughed at."
"And will again, _ma petite_," said Cleek, for he indeed it was."Jeannette, be merciful, as you hope for mercy. Let me get my friendhere through the door into the boat and you shall deliver me up toMargot. I will come back--I swear it--if you set him free."
"Free to bring the gendarmes on us--_pas si bete_. No, my friend,"laughed the girl.
"He will not do that, I swear it. Did Cleek the Cracksman ever break hisoath?"
"No, but Cleek of what do you call your quarters--eh--ah--Scot-landYard--eh--yes, _he_ might!" said the girl.
Swiftly, in a torrent of French patois that Narkom could not follow,Cleek pleaded, disregarding the Superintendent's own pleas to exchangehis life for that of Cleek himself.
Minutes passed and the girl remained obdurate. Suddenly she looked up.
/>
"They say you have a white-and-gold lady to be your woman over on theother side--is it not so?"
Cleek shivered and shut his eyes in a veritable agony of spirit at thisreference to Ailsa Lorne--his adored Ailsa who awaited him in therose-clad riverside home, and who within a few brief days was to havebeen his wife.
A low, sibilant laugh burst from Jeannette's painted lips.
"Eh, but she would not like to know of this little meeting, my friend?She would scorn the poor Jeannette, eh? But it is Jeannette who holdsyou like that!" She snapped her finger and thumb in triumph, and as thebursts of merriment above them seemed to roll nearer, Cleek grew very,very still. This was indeed the end, and though he would die for thesake of his friend, the blow would be none the less bitter.
Jeannette stood silent, too, looking at him. One, two, perhaps threeminutes passed before she turned again.
"Well, _mon ami_, I don't know that I owe anything to Margot up there.What happens to me if I let you go? How do you pay me--eh?"
"Jeannette, you will? You have only to tell me what to do in return."
Cleek's voice trembled despite himself at this shadow of renewed hope,and Jeannette flushed in the dark.
"Bah, but I am the fool she calls me," she muttered, "But death comessoon enough. Pay me----" She came close to him, thrusting her face closeto his. "No lover have I. I am old and plain; you are Cleek, once thelover of Margot the Queen. Kiss me! Nay, as you value your life and thatof your friend there, kiss me as you would your woman over there--thatis the price you shall pay!"
For one brief second Cleek's soul revolted. The thought of offering hislips--which he held sacred to the one fair woman who had led him up fromdepths such as these to her own pure level--sickened him. He wouldsooner yield life itself. Yet Narkom's life depended on his own, andwith a secret prayer for forgiveness he bent over, took the thin,shaking figure literally into his arms, and kissed the painted lips, notonce, but thrice. "God bless you, Jeannette!" he murmured. "He alone canreward you."
With a little moan of pain Jeannette clung to him as if indeed he werethe lover she craved; then, slipping from his arms, she turned, spedacross the room, and tugged at a small, half-hidden trap-door.
"Quick," she panted. "Slash his ropes and go--before I repent! I'll tellthem you've gone!"
Without another look or sound she disappeared up the staircase, leavingCleek to make good the escape of them both, in his heart a prayer ofgratitude, and a resolution to save Jeannette from this den of crime ifhe but lived to escape into safety.
Hardly daring to breathe, he and Narkom stumbled down another foul-ladenladder and into a noisome passage, which eventually brought them ontothe little landing stage.
"I have the 'plane here," said Cleek, with a little happy laugh. "Bebrave, my friend, but a few more minutes."
He vanished in the darkness, and though it seemed ages to the achingSuperintendent, it was barely three minutes before the shadowy, whirringbody of a War Office hydroplane hovered over him. Not more than fiveminutes later they were once more on the way to safety and to London,there to unravel the riddle which had been propounded to theSuperintendent by his chief but a few hours before.
"What's that, my friend--how did I find you?" said Cleek, later, whenMr. Narkom had got through a meal which would have done justice toDollops himself.
"Well, I 'phoned for the use of one of our sea-planes, and scouted overevery likely boat and barge in the Channel. When I saw one pass by Havreand stop just beyond, I remembered the old Coq d'Or and determined torisk it. And now, my friend, all you have to do is to rest. What's that?A case? Not to-night, Mr. Narkom, nor this morning. We both want restand a quiet hour to offer up thanks to _le bon dieu_ and Jeannette forour escape."
And that is why the case of the Mysterious Light, the riddle which wasterrifying a whole village, was given no thought until many hours later.It had been a time too fraught with danger to be thought of lightly, andboth men realized perhaps even more clearly the bond of friendship whichhad prompted both to walk into the very shadow of death in each other'sservice.