LIBRARY 
 
 -,ity o< California^ 
 
 IRVINE
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN
 
 i\
 
 THE 
 
 MAN IN 
 LOWER TEN 
 
 By 
 
 MARY ROBERTS RINEHART 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS Br 
 HOWARD CHANDLER CHRISTY 
 
 New York 
 GROSSET & DUNLAP 
 
 Publishers
 
 COPTRIOHT 1909 
 
 Tint BOBBS-MEB&ILI. COMPAJTT 
 
 ps 
 
 3S1S 
 
 173 
 
 M 3
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I I Go TO PrrrsBumo .....* 1 
 
 II A TORN TELEGRAM 17 
 
 III ACROSS THE AISLE ...... 39 
 
 IV NUMBERS SETEN AMD NINE .... 41 
 V THE WOMAN nr THE NEXT CAR . . . 59 
 
 VI THE Gnu. IK BLUE 69 
 
 VII A FINE GOID CHAIN ..... 70 
 
 VIII THE SECOND SECTION 76 
 
 IX THE HALCYON BREAKFAST .... 83 
 
 X Miss WEST'S REQUEST 94 
 
 XI THE NAME WAS ScLLiTAir . . . .103 
 
 XII THEGOLD'BAO 114 
 
 XIII FADED ROSES . . . . . . .131 
 
 XIV THE TRAP-DOOR . . . . . .141 
 
 XV THE CINEMATOGRAPH 153 
 
 XVI THE SHADOW OF A GIRL 170 
 
 j 
 
 XVII AT THE FARM-HOUSE AGAIN .... 180 
 
 XVIII A NEW WORLD 1M 
 
 XIX AT THE TABLE NEXT 199 
 
 XX THE NOTES AND A BAROAIN .... 308 
 
 XXI MCKNIGHT'S THSORT , 1*
 
 CONTENTS Continued 
 
 CHAPTER FAGB 
 
 XXII AT THE BOAKDING-HOUSH .... 223 
 
 XXIII A NIGHT AT THE LAURELS .... 233 
 
 XXIV His WIFE'S FATHER 254 
 
 XXV AT THE STATIOH 269 
 
 XXVI ON TO RICHMOND 279 
 
 XXVII THE SEA, THE SAND, THE STABS . . . 296 
 
 XXVIII ALISON'S STORY . . . . . .313 
 
 XXIX IN THE DININQ-ROOM 325 
 
 XXX FINER DETAILS 341 
 
 XXXI AND ONLY ONE ARM ..... 367
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 I GO TO PITTSBURG 
 
 MCKNIGHT is gradually taking over the 
 criminal end of the business. I never 
 liked it, and since the strange case of the man in 
 lower ten, I have been a bit squeamish. Given a 
 case like that, where you can build up a network 
 of clues that absolutely incriminate three en 
 tirely different people, only one of whom can be 
 guilty, and your faith in circumstantial evidence 
 dies of overcrowding. I never see a shivering, 
 white-faced wretch in the prisoners' dock that I 
 do not hark back with shuddering horror to the 
 strange events on the Pullman car Ontario, be 
 tween Washington and Pittsburg, on the night 
 of September ninth, last. 
 
 McKnight could tell the story a great deal 
 better than I, although he can not spell three 
 1
 
 2 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 consecutive words correctly. But, while h has 
 imagination and humor, he is lazj. 
 
 "It didn't happen to me, anyhow," he pro 
 tested, when I put it up to him. "And nobodj 
 cares for second-hand thrills. Besides, you want 
 the unvarnished and ungarnished truth, and I'm 
 no hand for that. I'm a lawyer." 
 
 So am I, although there have been times when 
 my assumption in that particular has been dis 
 puted. I am unmarried, and just old enough to 
 dance with the grown-up little sisters of th* 
 girls I used to know. I am fond of outdoors, 
 prefer horses to the aforesaid grown-up little 
 sisters, am without sentiment (am crossed out 
 and was substituted. Ed.) and completely 
 ruled and frequently routed by my housekeeper, 
 an elderly widow. 
 
 In fact, of all the men of my acquaintance, 1 
 was probably the most prosaic, the least adven 
 turous, the one man in a hundred who would 
 be likely to go without a deviation from the nor 
 mal through the orderly procession of the sea 
 sons, summer suits to winter flannels, golf to 
 bridge.
 
 1 GO TO PITTSBURG 3 
 
 So it was a queer freak of the demons of 
 chance to perch on my unsusceptible thirty-year- 
 old chest, tie me up with a crime, ticket me 
 ] with a love affair, and start me on that sensa 
 tional and not always respectable journey that 
 ended so surprisingly less than three weeks later 
 in the firm's private office. It had been the most 
 remarkable period of my life. I would neither 
 give it up nor live it again under any inducement, 
 and yet all that I lost was some twenty yards 
 off my drive ! 
 
 It was really McKnight's turn to make the 
 next journey. I had a tournament at Chevy 
 Chase for Saturday, and a short yacht cruise 
 planned for Sunday, and when a man has been 
 grinding at statute law for a week, he needs re 
 laxation. But McKnight begged off. It was 
 not the first time he had shirked that summer in 
 ^ order to run down to Richmond, and I was surly 
 about it. But this time he had a new excuse. 
 
 "I wouldn't be able to look after the business 
 if I did go," he said. He has a sort of wide- 
 eyed frankness that makes one ashamed to doubt 
 him. "I'm always car sick crossing the moun-
 
 4 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 tains. It's a fact, Lollie. See-sawing over the 
 peaks does it. Why, crossing the Alleghany 
 Mountains has the Gulf Stream to Bermuda 
 beaten to a frazzle." 
 
 So I gave him up finally and went home to 
 pack. He came later in the evening with his 
 machine, the Cannonball, to take me to the sta 
 tion, and he brought the forged notes in the 
 Bronson case. 
 
 "Guard them with your life," he warned me. 
 "They are more precious than honor. Sew them 
 m your chest protector, or wherever people keep 
 Valuables. I never keep any. I'll not be happy 
 until I see Gentleman Andy doing the lockstep." 
 
 He sat down on my clean collars, found my 
 cigarettes and struck a match on the mahogany 
 bed post with one movement. 
 
 "Where's the Pirate?" he demanded. The 
 Pirate is my housekeeper, Mrs. Klopton, a very 
 worthy woman, so labeled and libeled because 
 of a ferocious pair of eyes and what McKnight 
 called a bucaneering nose. I quietly closed the 
 door into the hall. 
 
 "Keep your voice down, Richey," I said. "She
 
 I GO TO PITTSBURG 8 
 
 is looking for the evening paper to see if it is 
 going to rain. She has my raincoat and an um 
 brella waiting in the hall." 
 
 The collars being damaged beyond repair, he 
 left them and went to the window. He stood 
 there for some time, staring at the blackness 
 that represented the wall of the house next door. 
 
 "It's raining now," he said over his shoulder, 
 and closed the window and the shutters. Some 
 thing in his voice made me glance up, but he 
 was watching me, his hands idly in his pockets. 
 
 "Who lives next door?" he inquired in a per 
 functory tone, after a pause. I was packing my 
 razor. 
 
 "House is empty," I returned absently. "If 
 the landlord would put it in some sort of 
 shape " 
 
 "Did you put those notes in your pocket?" 
 he broke in. 
 
 "Yes." I was impatient. "Along with my 
 certificates of registration, baptism and vaccina 
 tion. Whoever wants them will have to steal my 
 coat to get them." 
 
 "Well, I would move them, if I were you.
 
 6 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN! 
 
 Somebody in the next house was confoundedly 
 anxious to see where you put them. Somebodj 
 right at that window opposite.'* 
 
 I scoffed at the idea, but nevertheless I moved/ 
 the papers, putting them in my traveling-bag, 
 well down at the bottom. McKnight watched me 
 uneasily. 
 
 "I have a hunch that you are going to have 
 trouble," he said, as I locked the alligator bag. 
 "Darned if I like starting anything important 
 on Friday." 
 
 "You hare a congenital dislike to start any 
 thing on any old day," I retorted, still sore 
 from my lost Saturday. "And if you knew the 
 owner of that house as I do you would know that 
 if there was any one at that window he is paj- 
 ing rent for the privilege." 
 
 Mrs. Klopton rapped at the door and spok 
 discreetly from the hall. 
 
 "Did Mr. McKnight bring the evening par 
 per?" she inquired. 
 
 "Sorry, but I didn't, Mrs. Klopton," Mc 
 Knight called. "The Cubs won, three to noth 
 ing." He listened, grinning, as she moved awaj
 
 with little irritated rustles of her black silk 
 gown. 
 
 I finished my packing, changed my collar and 
 was ready to go. Then very cautiously we put 
 out the light and opened the shutters. The 
 window across was merely a deeper black in the 
 darkness. It was closed and dirty. And yet, 
 probably owing to Richey's suggestion, I had 
 an uneasy sensation of eyes staring across at 
 me. The next moment we were at the door, 
 poised for flight. 
 
 "We'll have to run for it," I said in a whisper. 
 "She's down there with a package of some sort, 
 sandwiches probably. And she's threatened me 
 with overshoes for a month. Ready now !" 
 
 I had a kaleidoscopic view of Mrs. Klopton 
 in the lower hall, holding out an armful of sucb 
 traveling impedimenta as she deemed essential, 
 Awhile beside her, Euphemia, the colored house 
 maid, grinned over a white-wrapped box. 
 
 "Awfully sorry no time back Sunday," I 
 panted over my shoulder. Then the doov closed 
 and the car was moving away. 
 
 McKnight b*t forward and stared at the
 
 8 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 of the empty house next door as we 
 passed. It was black, staring, mysterious, as 
 empty buildings are apt to be. 
 
 "I'd like to hold a post-mortem on that corpse 
 of a house," he said thoughtfully. "By George, 
 I've a notion to get out and take a look." 
 
 "Somebody after the brass pipes," I scoffed. 
 "House has been empty for a year." 
 
 With one hand on the steering wheel Mc- 
 Knight held out the other for my cigarette case. 
 "Perhaps," he said; "but I don't see what she 
 would want with brass pipe." 
 
 "A woman!" I laughed outright. "You 
 have been looking too hard at the picture in the 
 back of your watch, that's all. There's an ex 
 periment like that : if you stare long enough " 
 
 But McKnight was growing sulky: he sat 
 looking rigidly ahead, and he did not speak 
 again until he brought the Cannonball to a stop 
 at the station. Even then it was only a perfunc 
 tory remark. He went through the gate with 
 me, and with five minutes to spare, we lounged 
 and smoked in the train shed. My mind had 
 slid away from my surroundings and had wan-
 
 I GO TO PITTSBURG 9 
 
 dered to a polo pony that I couldn't afford and 
 intended to buy anyhow. Then McKnight shook 
 off his taciturnity. 
 
 "For Heaven's sake, don't look so martyred,"( 
 he burst out ; "I know you've done all the travel 
 ing this summer. I know you're missing a game 
 to-morrow. But don't be a, patient mother ; con 
 found it, I have to go to Richmond on Sunday. 
 I I want to see a girl." 
 
 "Oh, don't mind me," I observed politely. 
 "Personally, I wouldn't change places with you. 
 What's her name North ? South ?" 
 
 "West," he snapped. "Don't try to be funny. 
 And all I have to say, Blakeley, is that if you 
 ever fall in love I hope you make an egregious 
 ass of yourself." 
 
 In view of what followed, this came rather 
 close to prophecy. 
 
 The trip west was without incident. I played 
 bridge with a furniture dealer from Grand Rap 
 ids, a sales agent for a Pittsburg iron firm and 
 a young professor from an eastern college. I 
 won three rubbers out of four, finished what 
 cigarettes McKnight had left me, and went to
 
 10 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 bed about one o'clock. It was growing cooler, 
 and the rain had ceased. Once, toward morning, 
 I wakened with a start, for no apparent reason, 
 and sat bolt upright. I had an uneasy feeling 
 that some one had been looking at me, the same 
 sensation I had experienced earlier in the even 
 ing at the window. But I could feel the bag 
 with the notes, between me and the window, and 
 with my arm thrown over it for security, I 
 lapsed again into slumber. Later, when I tried 
 to piece together the fragments of that journey, 
 I remembered that my coat, which had been fold 
 ed and placed beyond my restless tossing, had 
 been rescued in the morning from a heterogene 
 ous jumble of blankets, evening papers and 
 cravat, had been shaken out with profanity and 
 donned with wrath. At the time, nothing oc 
 curred to me but the necessity of writing to the 
 Pullman Company and asking them if they ever 
 traveled in their own cars. I even formulated 
 some of the letter. 
 
 "If they are built to scale, why not take a 
 man of ordinary stature as your unit?" I wrote 
 mentally. "I can not fold together like the
 
 I GO TO PITTSBURG 11 
 
 traveling cup with which I drink your abomina 
 ble water." 
 
 I was more cheerful after I had had a cup of 
 coffee in the Union Station. It was too early to^ 
 attend to business, and I lounged in the restau 
 rant and hid behind the morning papers. As 
 I had expected, they had got hold of my visit 
 and its object. On the first page was a staring 
 announcement that the forged papers in the 
 Bronson case had been brought to Pittsburg. 
 Underneath, a telegram from Washington 
 stated that Lawrence Blakeley, of Blakeley and 
 McKnight, had left for Pittsburg the night 
 before, and that, owing to the approaching trial 
 of the Bronson case and the illness of John 
 Gilmore, the Pittsburg millionaire, who was the 
 chief witness for the prosecution, it was sup 
 posed that the visit was intimately concerned 
 with the trial. 
 
 I looked around apprehensively. There were 
 no reporters yet in sight, and thankful to have 
 escaped notice I paid for my breakfast and left. 
 'At the cab-stand I chose the least dilapidated 
 hansom I could find, and giving the driver th
 
 12 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 address of the Gilmore residence, in the East 
 end, I got in. 
 
 I was just in time. As the cab turned and 
 rolled off, a slim young man in a straw hat sepa 
 rated himself from a little group of men and 
 hurried toward us. 
 
 "Hey! Wait a minute there!" he called, 
 breaking into a trot. 
 
 But the cabby did not hear, or perhaps did 
 not care to. We jogged comfortably along, to 
 my relief, leaving the young man far behind. 
 I avoid reporters on principle, having learned 
 long ago that I am an easy mark for a clever in 
 terviewer. 
 
 It was perhaps nine o'clock when I left the 
 station. Our way was along the boulevard which 
 hugged the side of one of the city's great hills. 
 Far below, to the left, lay the railroad tracks 
 and the seventy times seven looming stacks of 
 the mills. The white mist of the river, the grays 
 and blacks of the smoke blended into a half- 
 revealing haze, dotted here and there with fire. 
 It was unlovely, tremendous. Whistler might 
 have painted it with its pathos, its majesty, but
 
 I GO TO PITTSBURG 19 
 
 he would have missed what made it infinitely 
 suggestive the rattle and roar of iron on iron, 
 the rumble of wheels, the throbbing beat, against 
 the ears, of fire and heat and brawn welding 
 prosperity. 
 
 Something of this I voiced to the grim old mil 
 lionaire who was responsible for at least part of 
 it. He was propped up in bed in his East end 
 home, listening to the market reports read by a 
 nurse, and he smiled a little at my enthusiasm. 
 
 "I can't see much beauty in it myself," he 
 said. "But it's our badge of prosperity. The 
 full dinner pail here means a nose that looks 
 like a flue. Pittsburg without smoke wouldn't 
 be Pittsburg, any more than New York prohibi 
 tion would be New York. Sit down for a few 
 minutes, Mr. Blakeley. Now, Miss Gardner, 
 Westinghouse Electric." 
 
 The nurse resumed her reading in a monoto 
 nous voice. She read literally and without un- . 
 derstanding, using initials and abbreviations as 
 they came. But the shrewd old man followed 
 her easily. Once, however, he stopped her. 
 
 "D-o is ditto," he said gently, "not do."
 
 A* the nurse droned along, I found myself 
 looking curiously at a photograph in a silver 
 frame on the bedside table. It was the picture 
 of a girl in white, with her hands clasped loosely 
 before her. Against the dark background her 
 figure stood out slim and young. Perhaps it 
 was the rather grim environment, possibly it was 
 my mood, but although as a general thing 
 photographs of young girls make no appeal to 
 me, this one did. I found my eyes straying back 
 to it. By a little finesse I even made out the 
 name written across the corner, "Alison." 
 
 Mr. Gilmore lay back among his pillows and 
 listened to the nurse's listless voice. But he 
 was watching me from under his heavy eye 
 brows, for when the reading was over, and we 
 were alone, he indicated the picture with a ges 
 ture. 
 
 "I keep it there to remind myself that I am. 
 ran old man," he said. "That is my grand 
 daughter, Alison West." 
 
 I expressed the customary polite surprise, a? 
 which, finding me responsive, he told me his age 
 with a chuckle of pride. More surprise, this
 
 1 GO TO PITTSBURG 10 
 
 time genuine. From that we went to what he 
 ate for breakfast and did not eat for luncheon, 
 and then to his reserve power, which at sixty- 
 five becomes a matter for thought. And so, hr 
 a wide circle, back to where we started, the pic 
 ture. 
 
 "Father was a rascal," John Gilmore said, 
 picking up the frame. "The happiest day of 
 my life was when I knew he was safely dead in 
 bed and not hanged. If the child had looked 
 like him, I well, she doesn't. She's a Gilmore, 
 every inch. Supposed to look like me." 
 
 "Very noticeably," I agreed soberly. 
 
 I had produced the notes by that time, and 
 replacing the picture Mr. Gilmore gathered his 
 spectacles from beside it. He wenb over the 
 four notes methodically, examining each care 
 fully and putting it down before he picked up 
 the next. Then he leaned back and took off his 
 glasses. 
 
 "They're not so bad," he said thoughtfully. 
 "Not so bad. But I never saw them before. 
 That's my unofficial signature. I am inclined 
 to think" he was speaking partly to himself
 
 16 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "to think that he has got hold of a letter of 
 mine, probably to Alison. Bronson was a friend 
 of her rapscallion of a father." 
 
 I took Mr. Gilmore's deposition and put it into 
 my traveling-bag with the forged notes. When I 
 saw them again, almost three weeks later, they 
 were unrecognizable, a mass of charred paper 
 on a copper ash-tray. In the interval other and 
 bigger things had happened : the Bronson forg 
 ery case had shrunk beside the greater and more 
 imminent mystery of the man in lower ten. And 
 Alison West had come into the story and into 
 my life.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 A TORN TELEGRAM 
 
 I LUNCHED alone at the Gilmore house, 
 and went back to the city at once. The 
 sun had lifted the mists, and a fresh summer 
 wind had cleared away the smoke pall. The 
 boulevard was full of cars flying countryward 
 for the Saturday half-holiday, toward golf and 
 tennis, green fields and babbling girls. I gritted 
 my teeth and thought of McKnight at Rich 
 mond, visiting the lady with the geographical 
 name. And then, for the first time, I associated 
 iJohn Gilmore's granddaughter with the "West** 
 that McKnight had irritably flung at me. 
 
 I still carried my traveling-bag, for Mc- 
 
 1 Knight's vision at the window of the empty 
 
 house had not been without effect. I did not 
 
 transfer the notes to my pocket, and, if I had, it 
 
 would not have altered the situation later. Only 
 
 17
 
 18 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 the other day McKnight put this very thing wp 
 to me. 
 
 "I warned you," he reminded me. '"I told you 
 there were queer things coming, and to be on ^ 
 your guard. You ought to have taken your re 
 volver." 
 
 "It would have been of exactly as much use as 
 a bucket of snow in Africa," I retorted. "If 
 I had never closed my eyes, or if I had kept my 
 finger on the trigger of a six-shooter (which i 
 novelesque for revolver), the result would haye 
 been the same. And the next time you want a 
 little excitement with every variety of thrill 
 thrown in, I can put you by way of it. You be 
 gin by getting the wrong berth in a Pullman 
 car, and end " 
 
 "Oh, I know how it ends," he finished shortly. 
 *'Don't you suppose the whole thing's written 
 on my spinal marrow ?" 
 
 But I am wandering again. That is the dif-, 
 ficulty with the unprofessional story-teller: he 
 yaws back and forth and can't keep in the wind ; 
 he drops his characters overboard when he hasn't 
 any further use for them and drowns them; ha
 
 forgets the coffee-pot and the frying-pan and 
 11 the other small essentials, and, if he carries a 
 
 love affair, he mutters a fervent "Allah be 
 
 
 praised" when he lands them, drenched with ad 
 ventures, at the matrimonial dock at the end of 
 the final chapter. 
 
 I put in a thoroughly unsatisfactory after- 
 moon. Time dragged eternally. I dropped in 
 at a summer vaudeville, and bought some ties at 
 a haberdasher's. I was bored but unexpectant; 
 I had no premonition of what was to come. 
 Nothing unusual had ever happened to me; 
 friends of mine had sometimes sailed the high 
 seas of adventure or skirted the coasts of chance, 
 but all of the shipwrecks had occurred after a 
 woman passenger had been taken on. "Ergo," 
 I had always said "no women !" I repeated it to 
 myself that evening almost savagely, when I 
 found my thoughts straying back to the picture 
 of John Gilmore's granddaughter. I even ar 
 gued as I ate my solitary dinner at a down-town 
 restaurant. 
 
 "Haven't you troubles enough," I reflected, 
 ^without looking for more? Hasn't Bad News
 
 20 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 gone lame, with a matinee race booked for next 
 week? Otherwise aren't you comfortable? Isn't 
 your house in order? Do you want to sell a pony 
 in order to have the library done over in mission 
 or the drawing-room in gold? Do you want 
 somebody to count the empty cigarette boxes 
 lying around every morning?" 
 
 Lay it to the long idle afternoon, to the new 
 environment, to anything you like, but I began 
 to think that perhaps I did. I was confoundedly 
 lonely. For the first time in my life its even 
 course began to waver: the needle registered 
 warning marks on the matrimonial seismograph, 
 lines vague enough, but lines. 
 
 My alligator bag lay at my feet, still locked. 
 While I waited for my coffee I leaned back and 
 surveyed the people incuriously. There were 
 the usual couples intent on each other: my new 
 state of mind made me regard them with toler 
 ance. But at the next table, where a man and 
 woman dined together, a different atmosphere 
 prevailed. My attention was first caught by 
 the woman's face. She had been speaking ear 
 nestly across the table, her profile turned to me.
 
 A TORN TELEGRAM 21 
 
 I had noticed casually her earnest manner, her 
 somber clothes, and the great mass of odd, 
 bronze-colored hair on her neck. But suddenly 
 she glanced toward me and the utter hopeless 
 ness^ almost tragedy of her expression struck 
 me with a shock. She half closed her eyes and 
 drew a long breath, then she turned again to the 
 man across the table. 
 
 Neither one was eating. He sat low in his 
 chair, his chin on his chest, ugly folds of thick 
 flesh protruding over his collar. He was prob 
 ably fifty, bald, grotesque, sullen, and yet not 
 without a suggestion of power. But he had 
 been drinking; as I looked, he raised an un 
 steady hand and summoned a waiter with a wine 
 list. 
 
 The young woman bent across the table and 
 spoke again quickly. She had unconsciously 
 raised her voice. Not beautiful, in her earnest- 
 1 ness and stress she rather interested me. I had 
 an idle inclination to advise the waiter to re 
 move the bottled temptation from the table. I 
 wonder what would have happened if I had? 
 Suppose Harrington had not been intoxicated
 
 29 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 when he entered the Pullman car Ontario thai 
 night ! 
 
 For they were about to make a journey, I 
 gathered, and the young woman wished to go 
 alone. I drank three cups of coffee, which ac 
 counted for my wakefulness later, and shame 
 lessly watched the tableau before me. The 
 woman's protest evidently went for nothing: 
 across the table the man grunted monosyllabic 
 replies and grew more and more lowering and 
 sullen. Once, during a brief unexpected pian~ 
 issimo in the music, her voice came to me 
 sharply : 
 
 "If I could only see him in time!" she was 
 saying. "Oh, it's terrible !" 
 
 In spite of my interest I would have for* 
 gotten the whole incident at once, erased it from 
 my mind as one does the inessentials and clut- 
 terings of memory, had I not met them again, 
 later that evening, in the Pennsylvania station. 
 The situation between them had not visibly al 
 tered: the same dogged determination showed in 
 the man's face, but the young woman daugh 
 ter or wife? I wondered had drawn down hei
 
 Tell and I could only suspect what white misery 
 lay beneath. 
 
 I bought my berth after waiting in a line of 
 some eight or ten people. When, step by step, 
 I had almost reached the window, a tall woman 
 whom I had not noticed before spoke to me from 
 my elbow. She had a ticket and money in her 
 hand. 
 
 "Will you try to get me a lower when you 
 buy yours?" she asked. "I have traveled for 
 three nights in uppers." 
 
 I consented, of course; beyond that I hardly 
 moticed the woman. I had a vague impression 
 of height and a certain amount of stateliness, 
 but the crowd was pushing behind me, and some 
 one was standing on my foot. I got two lowers 
 easily, and, turning with the change and berths, 
 held out the tickets. 
 
 "Which will you have?" I asked. "Lower 
 eleven or lower ten?" 
 
 "It makes no difference," she said "Thank 
 you very much indeed." 
 
 At random I gave her lower eleven, and called 
 s. porter to help her with her luggage. I fol-
 
 24. THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 lowed them leisurely to the train shed, and ten 
 minutes more saw us under way. 
 
 I looked into my car, but it presented the 
 peculiarly unattractive appearance common to 
 sleepers. The berths were made up ; the center 
 aisle was a path between walls of dingy, breeze- 
 repelling curtains, while the two seats at each 
 end of the car were piled high with suit-cases 
 and umbrellas. The perspiring porter was try 
 ing to be six places at once : somebody has said 
 that Pullman porters are black so they won't 
 show the dirt, but they certainly show the heat. 
 
 Nine-fifteen was an outrageous hour to go to 
 bed, especially since I sleep little or not at all 
 on the train, so I made my way to the smoker 
 and passed the time until nearly eleven with 
 cigarettes and a magazine. 
 
 The car was very close. It was a warm night, 
 and before turning in I stood a short time in 
 the vestibule. The train had been stopping at 
 frequent intervals, and, finding the brakeman 
 there, I asked the trouble. 
 
 It seemed that there was a hot-box on the 
 next car, and that not only were we late, but we
 
 A TORN TELEGRAM 23 
 
 were delaying the second section, just behind. I 
 was beginning to feel pleasantly drowsy, and 
 the air was growing cooler as we got into the 
 mountains. I said good night to the brakeman 
 and went back to my berth. To my surprise, 
 lower ten was already occupied a suit-case pro 
 jected from beneath, a pair of shoes stood on 
 the floor, and from behind the curtains came the 
 heavy, unmistakable breathing of deep sleep. I 
 hunted out the porter and together we investi 
 gated. 
 
 "Are you asleep, sir?" asked the porter, lean 
 ing over deferentially. No answer forthcom 
 ing, he opened the curtains and looked in. Yes, 
 the intruder was asleep very much asleep 
 and an overwhelming odor of whisky proclaimed 
 that he would probably remain asleep until 
 morning. I was irritated. The car was full, 
 and I was not disposed to take an upper in order 
 to allow this drunken interloper to sleep com-? 
 fortably in my berth. 
 
 "You'll have to get out of this," I said, shak 
 ing him angrily. But he merely grunted and 
 turned over. As he did so, I saw his features
 
 26 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 for the first time. It was the quarrelsome maa 
 of the restaurant. 
 
 I was less disposed than ever to relinquish my 
 claim, but the porter, after a little quiet investi 
 gation, offered a solution of the difficulty. 
 "There's no one in lower nine," he suggested, 
 pulling open the curtains just across. "It's 
 likely nine's his berth, and he's made a mistake, 
 owing to his condition. You'd better take nine, 
 sir." 
 
 I did, with a firm resolution that if nine's 
 rightful owner turned up later I should be just 
 as unwakable as the man opposite. I undressed 
 leisurely, making sure of the safety of the 
 forged notes, and placing my grip as before be 
 tween myself and the window. 
 
 Being a man of systematic habits, I arranged 
 my clothes carefully, putting my shoes out for 
 the porter to polish, and stowing my collar and 
 scarf in the little hammock swung for the pur 
 pose. 
 
 At last, with my pillows so arranged that I 
 could see out comfortably, and with the un 
 hygienic-looking blanket turned back I have el-
 
 A TORN TELEGRAM 87 
 
 ways a distrust of those much-used affairs I 
 prepared to wait gradually for sleep. 
 
 But sleep did not visit me. The train came 
 to frequent, grating stops, and I surmised the 
 hot box again. I am not a nervous man, but 
 there was something chilling in the thought of 
 the second section pounding along behind us. 
 Once, as I was dozing, our locomotive whistled a 
 shrill warning "You keep back where you be 
 long," it screamed to my drowsy ears, and from 
 somewhere behind came a chastened "AU-right- 
 I-will." 
 
 I grew more and more wide-awake. At Cres- 
 son I got up on my elbow and blinked out at the 
 station lights. Some passengers boarded the 
 train there and I heard a woman's low tones, a 
 southern voice, rich and full. Then quiet again. 
 Every nerve was tense : time passed, perhaps ten 
 minutes, possibly half an hour. Then, without 
 the slightest warning, as the train rounded a 
 curve, a heavy body was thrown into my berth. 
 The incident, trivial as it seemed, was startling 
 in its suddenness, for although my ears were 
 painfully strained and awake, I had heard no
 
 88 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 step outside. The next instant the curtain hung 
 limp again; still without a sound, my disturber 
 had slipped away into the gloom and darkness. 
 In a frenzy of walcefulness, I sat up, drew on a 
 pair of slippers and fumbled for my bath-robe. 
 
 From a berth across, probably lower ten, came 
 that particularly aggravating snore which be 
 gins lightly, delicately, faintly soprano, goes 
 down the scale a note with every breath, and, 
 after keeping the listener tense with expecta 
 tion, ends with an explosion that tears the very 
 air. I was more and more irritable : I sat on the 
 edge of the berth and hoped the snorer would 
 choke to death. 
 
 He had considerable vitality, however; he 
 withstood one shock after another and survived 
 to start again with new vigor. In desperation 
 I found some cigarettes and one match, piled 
 my blankets over my grip, and drawing the cur 
 tains together as though the berth were still oc 
 cupied, I made my way to the vestibule of the 
 car. 
 
 I was not clad for dress parade. Is it because 
 the male is so restricted to gloom in his every-
 
 day attire that he blossoms into gaudy colors in 
 his pajamas and dressing-gowns? It would take 
 a Turk to feel at home before an audience in my 
 red and yellow bath-robe, a Christmas remem- - 
 brance from Mrs. Klopton, with slippers to 
 match . 
 
 So, naturally, when I saw a feminine figure 
 on the platform, my first instinct was to dodge. 
 The woman, however, was quicker than I; she 
 gave me a startled glance, wheeled and disap 
 peared, with a flash of two bronze-colored braids, 
 into the next car. 
 
 Cigarette box in one hand, match in the other, 
 I leaned against the uncertain frame of the door 
 and gazed after her vanished figure. The moun 
 tain air flapped my bath-robe around my bare 
 ankles, my one match burned to the end and went 
 out, and still I stared. For I had seen on her 
 expressive face a haunting look that was horror, 
 nothing less. Heaven knows, I am not psycho 
 logical. Emotions have to be written large be 
 fore I can read them. But a woman in trouble 
 always appeals to me, and this woman was more 
 than that. She was in deadly fear.
 
 SO THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 If I had not been afraid of being ridiculous, 
 I would have followed her. But I fancied that 
 the apparition of a man in a red and yellow 
 bath-robe, with an unkempt thatch of hair, walk 
 ing up to her and assuring her that he would 
 protect her would probably put her into hys 
 terics. I had done that once before, when bur 
 glars had tried to break into the house, and had 
 startled the parlor maid into bed for a week. 
 So I tried to assure myself that I had imagined 
 the lady's distress or caused it, perhaps and 
 to dismiss her from my mind. Perhaps she was 
 merely anxious about the unpleasant gentleman 
 of the restaurant. I thought smugly that I 
 could have told her all about him: that he was 
 sleeping the sleep of the just and the intoxicated 
 in a berth that ought, by all that was fair and 
 right, to have been mine, and that if I were tied 
 .to a man who snored like that I should have him 
 , anaesthetized and his soft palate put where it 
 would never again flap like a loose sail in tha 
 wind. 
 
 We passed Harrisburg as I stood there. It 
 was starlight, and the great crests of the Alle-
 
 A TORN TELEGRAM 31 
 
 ghanies had given way to low hills. At intervals 
 we passed smudges of gray white, no doubt in 
 daytime comfortable farms, which McKnight 
 says is a good way of putting it, the farms be- 1 
 ing a lot more comfortable than the people on 
 them. 
 
 I was growing drowsy: the woman with the 
 bronze hair and the horrified face was fading in 
 retrospect. It was colder, too, and I turned 
 with a shiver to go in. 
 
 As I did so, a bit of paper fluttered into the 
 air and settled on my sleeve, like a butterfly on 
 a gorgeous red and yellow blossom. I picked it 
 up curiously and glanced at it. It was part of 
 a telegram that had been torn into bits. 
 
 There were only parts of four words on the 
 scrap, but it left me puzzled and thoughtful. 
 It read, " ower ten, car seve ." "Lower ten, 
 car seven," was my berth the one I had bought 
 and found preempted.
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 ACROSS THE AISLE 
 
 NO solution offering itself, I went back to 
 my berth. The snorer across had ap 
 parently strangled, or turned over, and so after 
 a time I dropped asleep, to be awakened by the 
 morning sunlight across my face. 
 
 I felt for my watch, yawning prodigiously. 
 I reached under the pillow and failed to find it, 
 but something scratched the back of my hand. 
 I sat up irritably and nursed the wound, which 
 was bleeding a little. Still drowsy, I felt more 
 cautiously for what I supposed had been my 
 scarf pin, but there was nothing there. Wide 
 awake now, I reached for my traveling-bag, on 
 the chance that I had put my watch in there. 
 I had drawn the satchel to me and had my hand 
 on the lock before I realized that it was not my 
 own! 
 
 32
 
 ACROSS THE AISLE S3 
 
 Mine was of alligator hide. I had killed the 
 beast in Florida, after the expenditure of enough 
 money to have bought a house and enough en 
 ergy to have built one. The bag I held in my 
 hand was a black one, sealskin, I think. The 
 staggering thought of what the loss of my bag 
 
 meant to me put my finger on the bell and kept 
 
 \ 
 it there until the porter came. 
 
 "Did .you ring, sir?" he asked, poking his 
 head through the curtains obsequiously. Mc- 
 Knight objects that nobody can poke his head 
 through a curtain and be obsequious. But Pull 
 man porters can and do. 
 
 "No," I snapped. "It rang itself. What in 
 thunder do you mean by exchanging my valise 
 for this one ? You'll have to find it if you waken 
 the entire car to do it. There are important 
 papers in that grip." 
 
 "Porter," called a feminine voice from an up- 
 / per berth near-by. "Porter, am I to dangle here 
 'all day?" 
 
 "Let her dangle," I said savagely. "You find 
 that bag of mine." 
 
 The porter frowned. Then he looked at me
 
 34. THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 with injured dignity. "I brought in your orel* 
 coat, sir. You carried your own valise." 
 
 The fellow was right! In an excess of cau 
 tion I had refused to relinquish my alligator 
 bag, and had turned over my other traps to the 
 porter. It was clear enough then. I was simply 
 a victim of the usual sleeping-car robbery. I 
 was in a lather of perspiration by that time : the 
 lady down the car was still dangling and talk 
 ing about it: still nearer a feminine voice was 
 giving quick orders in French, presumably to a 
 maid. The porter was on his knees, looking un 
 der the berth. 
 
 "Not there, sir," he said, dusting his knees. 
 He was visibly more cheerful, having been ab 
 solved of responsibility. "Reckon it was taken 
 while you was wanderin* around the car last 
 night." 
 
 "I'll give you fifty dollars if you find it," 1^ 
 said. "A hundred. Reach up my shoes and- 
 I'll " 
 
 I stopped abruptly. My eyes were fixed in 
 stupefied amazement on a coat that hung from 
 a hook at the foot of my berth. From the coat
 
 ACROSS THE AISLE 35 
 
 they traveled, dazed, to the soft-bosomed shirt 
 beside it, and from there to the collar and cravat 
 in the net hammock across the windows. 
 
 "A hundred!" the porter repeated, showing 
 his teeth. But I caught him bj the arm and 
 pointed to the foot of the berth. 
 
 "What what color's that coat ?" I asked un 
 steadily. 
 
 "Gray, sir." His tone was one of gentle re 
 proof. 
 
 "And the trousers?" 
 
 He reached over and held up one creased leg. 
 "Gray, too," he grinned. 
 
 "Gray !" I could not believe even his corrobo- 
 ration of my own eyes. "But my clothes were 
 blue!" The porter was amused: he dived under 
 the curtains and brought up a pair of shoes. 
 "Your shoes, sir," he said with a flourish. 
 "Reckon you've been dreaming, sir." 
 
 Now, there are two things I always avoid in 
 my dress possibly an idiosyncracy of my bach 
 elor existence. These tabooed articles are red 
 neckties and tan shoes. And not only were th 
 hoeg the porter lifted from the floor of a gor-
 
 36 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 geous shade of yellow, but the scarf which was 
 run through the turned over collar was a gaudj 
 red. It took a full minute for the real import of 
 things to penetrate my dazed intelligence. Then 
 I gave a vindictive kick at the offending en 
 semble. 
 
 "They're not mine, any of them," I snarled. 
 "They are some other fellow's. I'll sit here until 
 I take root before I put them on." 
 
 "They're nice lookin' clothes," the porter put 
 in, eying the red tie with appreciation. "Ain't 
 everybody would have left you anything." 
 
 "Call the conductor," I said shortly. Then 
 a possible explanation occurred to me. "Oh, 
 porter what's the number of this berth?" 
 
 "Seven, sir. If you cain't wear those shoes " 
 
 "Seven!" In my relief I almost shouted it. 
 "Why, then, it's simple enough. I'm in the 
 wrong berth, that's all. My berth is nine. Only 
 where the deuce is the man who belongs here?" 
 
 "Likely in nine, sir." The darky was enjoy 
 ing himself. "You and the other gentleman 
 just got mixed in the night. That's all, sir." 
 It was clear that he thought I had been drinking.
 
 ACROSS THE AISLE S7 
 
 I drew a long breath. Of course, that was the 
 explanation. This was number seven's berth, 
 that was his soft hat, this his umbrella, his coat, 
 his bag. My rage turned to irritation at my 
 self. 
 
 The porter went to the next berth and I could 
 hear his softly insinuating voice. "Time to get 
 up, sir. Are you awake ? Time to get up." 
 
 There was no response from number nine. I 
 guessed that he had opened the curtains and was 
 looking in. Then he came back. 
 
 "Number nine's empty," he said. 
 
 "Empty! Do you mean my clothes aren't 
 there?" I demanded. "My valise? Why don't 
 you answer me?" 
 
 "You doan' give me time," he retorted. 
 "There ain't nothin' there. But it's been slept 
 in." 
 
 The disappointment was the greater for my 
 few moments of hope. T sat up in a white fury 
 and put on the clothes that had been left me. 
 Then, still raging, I sat on the edge of the 
 berth and put on the obnoxious tan shoes. The 
 porter, called to his duties, made little excursions
 
 88 THE MAN. IK LOWER. TEN 
 
 back to me, to offer assistance and to chuckle &t 
 my discomfiture.* JKe stood by, outwardly de 
 corous, but with little irritating grins of amuse- 
 iment around his mouth, when. I finally emerged 
 with the red tie in my hand.. 
 
 l "Bet the owner o'f those clothes didn't become" 
 <them any more than you do," he ^ said,. as he; 
 jplied the ubiquitous whisk broom.. 
 
 >"When I get the owner of these clothes,"'! 
 retorted grimly, "he.will need a shroud*. Where's! 
 vthe conductor?" 
 
 The conductor 'was coming,' he assured me; 
 also that there was no bag answering the de^ 
 scription of mine on the car. I slammed my' 
 t way to the dressing-room, washed, choked my 
 fifteen and a half neck into a fifteen collar, and 
 'was back again in less than five minutes. The; 
 .car, as well as its occupants, was gradually tak^ ! 
 ing on a daylight appearance. I hobbled in, 
 for, one of the shoes was abominably tight, and 
 .found myself facing a young woman in blue: 
 .with an unforgetable face. ("Three 
 ready." McKnight says: "That's going 
 , J jou . don't count the Gilmore nurse."
 
 She stood, half -turned toward me, one hand idly 
 (drooping, the other steadying her as she gazed 
 out at the flying landscape. I had an instant 
 impression that I had met her somewhere, under 
 different circumstances, more cheerful ones, I 
 thought, for the girl's dejection now was evi 
 dent. Beside her, sitting down, a small dark 
 woman, considerably older, was talking in a 
 rapid undertone. The girl nodded indifferently 
 now and then. I fancied, although I was not 
 sure, that my appearance brought a startled 
 look into the young woman's face. I sat down 
 and, hands thrust deep into the other man's 
 pockets, stared ruefully at the other man's 
 shoes. 
 
 The stage was set. In a moment the curtain 
 was going up on the first act of the play. And 
 for a while we would all say our little speeches 
 and sing our little songs, and I, the villain, 
 would hold center stage while the gallery hissed. 
 
 The porter was standing beside lower ten. 
 He had reached in and was knocking valiantly. 
 But his efforts met with no response. He winked 
 at me over his shoulder ; then he unfastened the
 
 40 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 curtains and bent forward. Behind him, I saw 
 him stiffen, heard his muttered exclamation, sa\f 
 the bluish pallor that spread over his face and 
 neck. As he retreated a step the interior of 
 lower ten lay open to the day. 
 
 The man in it was on his back, the early morn 
 ing sun striking full on his upturned face. But 
 the light did not disturb him. A small stain of 
 red dyed the front of his night clothes and 
 trailed across the sheet: his half-open eyes were 
 fixed, without seeing, on the shining wood above. 
 
 I grasped the porter's shaking shoulders and 
 stared down to where the train imparted to the 
 body a grisly suggestion of motion. "Good 
 Lord," I gasped. "The man's been murdered!"
 
 NUMBERS SEVEN AND NINE 
 
 AFTERWARDS, when I tried to recall our 
 discovery of the body in lower ten, I found 
 that my most vivid impression was not that 
 made by the revelation of the opened curtain. 
 I had an instantaneous picture of a slender blue- 
 gowned girl who seemed to sense my words 
 rather than hear them, of two small hands that 
 clutched desperately at the seat beside them. 
 The girl in the aisle stood, bent toward us, per 
 plexity and alarm fighting in her face. 
 
 With twitching hands the porter attempted 
 to draw the curtains together. Then in a pa 
 ralysis of shock, he collapsed on the edge of my 
 berth and sat there swaying. In my excitement 
 I shook him. 
 
 "For Heaven's sake, keep your nerve, man," 
 I said bruskly. "You'll have every woman in 
 the car in hysterics. And if you do, you'll wish 
 41
 
 4 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 you could change places with the man in there." 
 He rolled his eyes. 
 
 A man near, who had been reading last 
 'night's paper, dropped it quickly and tiptoed 
 toward us. He peered between the partly open 
 curtains, closed them quietly and went back, 
 ostentatiously solemn, to his seat. The very 
 crackle with which he opened his paper added to 
 the bursting curiosity of the car. For the pas 
 sengers knew that something was amiss: I was 
 conscious of a sudden tension. 
 
 With the curtains closed the porter was more 
 himself; he wiped his lips with a handkerchief 
 and stood erect. 
 
 "It's my last trip in this car," he remarked 
 heavily. "There's something wrong with that 
 berth. Last trip the woman in it took an over 
 dose of some sleeping stuff, and we found her, 
 jes' like that, dead! And it ain't more'n three 
 months now since there was twins born in that 
 very spot. No, sir, it ain't natural." 
 
 At that moment a thin man with prominent 
 eyes and a spare grayish goatee creaked up the 
 aisle and paused beside me.
 
 NUMBERS SEVEN AND NINE 4S 
 
 "Porter sick?" he inquired, taking in with a 
 professional eye the porter's horror-struck face, 
 my own excitement and the slightly gaping cur- ,. 
 tains of lower ten. He reached for the darky's 
 pulse and pulled out an old-fashioned gold 
 watch. 
 
 "Hm! Only fifty! What's the matter? Had 
 a shock?" he asked shrewdly. 
 
 "Yes," I answered for the porter. "We've 
 both had one. If you are a doctor, I wish you 
 would look at the man in the berth across, lower 
 ten. I'm afraid it's too late, but I'm not ex 
 perienced in such matters." 
 
 Together we opened the curtains, and the doc 
 tor, bending down, gave a comprehensive glance 
 that took in the rolling head, the relaxed jaw, 
 the ugly stain on the sheet. The examination 
 needed only a moment. Death was written in 
 the clear white of the nostrils, the colorless lips, 
 the smoothing away of the sinister lines of the 
 night before. With its new dignity the face 
 was not unhandsome : the gray hair was still 
 plentiful, the features strong and well cut. 
 
 The doctor straightened himself and turne3
 
 44 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 to me. "Dead for some time," he said, running 
 a professional finger over the stains. "These 
 are dry and darkened, you see, and rigor mortis 
 is well established. A friend of yours?" 
 
 "I don't know him at all," I replied. "Never 
 saw him but once before." 
 
 "Then you don't know if he is traveling 
 alone?" 
 
 "No, he was not that is, I don't know any 
 thing about him," I corrected myself. It was 
 my first blunder: the doctor glanced up at me 
 quickly and then turned his attention again to 
 the body. Like a flash there had come to me 
 the vision of the woman with the bronze hair 
 and the tragic face, whom I had surprised in 
 the vestibule between the cars, somewhere in the 
 small hours of the morning. I had acted on my 
 first impulse the masculine one of shielding a 
 
 woman. 
 
 i 
 
 The doctor had unfastened the coat of the 
 'striped pajamas and exposed the dead man's 
 chest. On the left side was a small punctured 
 wound of insignificant size. 
 
 "Very neatly done," the doctor said with ap-
 
 preciation. "Couldn't have done it better my 
 self. Right through the intercostal space: no 
 time even to grunt." 
 
 "Isn't the heart around there somewhere?" I 
 asked. The medical man turned toward me and 
 smiled austerely. 
 
 "That's where it belongs, just under that 
 puncture, when it isn't gadding around in a 
 man's throat or his boots." 
 
 I had a new respect for the doctor, for any 
 one indeed who could crack even a feeble joke 
 under such circumstances, or who could run an 
 impersonal finger over that wound and those 
 stains. Odd how a healthy, normal man holds 
 the medical profession in half contemptuous re 
 gard until he gets sick, or an emergency like this 
 arises, and then turns meekly to the man who 
 knows the ins and outs of his mortal tenement, 
 takes his pills or his patronage, ties to him like a 
 rudderless ship in a gale. 
 
 "Suicide, is it, doctor?" I asked. 
 
 He stood erect, after drawing the bed-cloth 
 ing 1 over the face, and, taking off his glasses, 
 he wiped them slowly.
 
 46 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "No, it is not suicide," he announced deci 
 sively. "It is murder." 
 
 Of course, I had expected that, but the word 
 ' itself brought a shiver. I was just a bit dizzy. 
 Curious faces through the car were turned to 
 ward us, and I could hear the porter behind me 
 breathing audibly. A stout woman in negligee 
 came down the aisle and querulously confronted 
 the porter. She wore a pink dressing- jacket and 
 carried portions of her clothing. 
 
 "Porter," she began, in the voice of the lady 
 who had "dangled," "is there a rule of this 
 company that will allow a woman to occupy the 
 dressing-room for one hour and curl her hair 
 with an alcohol lamp while respectable people 
 haven't a place where they can hook their " 
 
 She stopped suddenly and stared into lower 
 ten. Her shining pink cheeks grew pasty, her 
 jaw fell. I remember trying to think of some 
 thing to say, and of saying nothing at alL 
 Then she had buried her eyeg in the nonde 
 script garments that hung from her arm and 
 tottered back the way she had come. Slowly a 
 little knot of men gathered around us, silent for
 
 the most part. The doctor was making a search 
 of the berth when the conductor elbowed his way 
 through, followed by the inquisitive man, who 
 had evidently summoned him. I had lost sight, 
 for a time, of the girl in blue. 
 
 "Do it himself?" the conductor queried, after 
 a business-like glance at the body. 
 
 "No, he didn't," the doctor asserted. "There's 
 no weapon here, and the window is closed. He 
 couldn't have thrown it out, and he didn't swal 
 low it. What on earth are you looking for s 
 man?" 
 
 Some one was on the floor at our feet, face 
 down, head peering under the berth. Now he 
 got up without apology, revealing the man who 
 had summoned the conductor. He was dusty, 
 alert, cheerful, and he dragged up with him the 
 dead man's suit-case. The sight of it brought 
 back to me at once my own predicament. 
 
 "I don't know whether there's any connection 
 or not, conductor," I said, "but I am a victim, 
 too, in less degree; I've been robbed of every 
 thing I possess, except a red and yellow bath- 
 roba. I happened to be wearing the bath-robe.
 
 48 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 which was probably the reason the thief over 
 looked it." 
 
 There was a fresh murmur in the crowd. 
 Somebody laughed nervously. The conductor 
 was irritated. 
 
 "I can't bother with that now," he snarled. 
 "The railroad company is responsible for trans 
 portation, not for clothes, jewelry and morals. 
 If people want to be stabbed and robbed in the 
 company's cars, it's their affair. Why didn't 
 you sleep in your clothes ? I do." 
 
 I took an angry step forward. Then some 
 body touched my arm, and I unclenched my fist. 
 I could understand the conductor's position, and 
 beside, in the law, I had been guilty myself of 
 contributory negligence. 
 
 "I'm not trying to make you responsible," I 
 protested, as amiably as I could, "and I believe 
 the clothes the thief left are as good as my own. 
 They are certainly newer. But my valise con 
 tained valuable papers, and it is to your interest 
 as well as mine to find the man who stole it." 
 
 "Why, of course," the doctor said shrewdly. 
 "Find the man who skipped out with this gen-
 
 NUMBERS SEVEN AND NINE 49 
 
 tleman's clothes, and you've probably got the 
 murderer." 
 
 "I went to bed in lower nine," I said, my 
 mind full again of my lost papers, "and I wak 
 ened in number seven. I was up in the night 
 prowling around, as I was unable to sleep, and 
 I must have gone back to the wrong berth. 
 Anyhow, until the porter wakened me this morn 
 ing I knew nothing of my mistake. In the in 
 terval the thief murderer, too, perhaps must 
 have come back, discovered my error, and taken 
 advantage of it to further his escape." 
 
 The inquisitive man looked at me from be 
 tween narrowed eyelids, ferret-like. 
 
 "Did any one on the train suspect you of 
 having valuable papers?" he inquired. The 
 crowd was listening intently. 
 
 "No one," I answered promptly and posi 
 tively. 
 
 The doctor was investigating the murdered 
 man's effects. The pockets of his trousers con 
 tained the usual miscellany of keys and small 
 change, while in his hip pocket was found a 
 small pearl-handled revolver of the type womea
 
 usually keep around. A gold watch with a 
 Masonic charm had slid down between the mat 
 tress and the window, while a showy diamond 
 
 stud was still fastened in the bosom of his shirt. , 
 
 \ 
 
 Taken as a whole, the personal belongings were 
 those of a man of some means, but without any 
 particular degree of breeding. The doctor 
 heaped them together. 
 
 "Either robbery was not the motive," he re 
 flected, "or the thief overlooked these things in 
 his hurry." 
 
 The latter hypothesis seemed the more tenable, 
 when, after a thorough search, we found no 
 pocket-book and less than a dollar in small 
 change. 
 
 The suit-case gave no clue. It contained one 
 empty leather-covered flask and a pint bottle, 
 Jso empty, a change of linen and some collar! 
 with the laundry mark, S. H. In the leather 
 tag on the handle was a card with the name 
 Simon Harrington, Pittsburg. 
 
 The conductor sat down on my unmade berth, 
 across, and made an entry of the name and ad 
 dress. Then, on an old envelope, he wrote a few
 
 NUMBERS SEVEN AND NINE 51 
 
 words and gave it to the porter, who disap 
 peared. 
 
 "I guess that's all I can do," he said. "I've 
 had enough trouble this trip to last for a year. 
 They don't need a conductor on these trains any 
 more; what they ought to have is a sheriff and 
 a posse." 
 
 The porter from the next car came in and 
 whispered to him. The conductor rose unhap~ 
 
 "Next car's caught the disease," he grumbled. 
 "Doctor, a woman back there has got mumps 
 or bubonic plague, or something. Will you 
 come back?" 
 
 The strange porter stood aside. 
 
 "Lady about the middle of the car," he said, 
 "in black, sir, with queer-looking hair sort of 
 opper color, I think, sir."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE WOMAN IN THE NEXT CAB 
 
 WITH the departure of the conductor and 
 the doctor, the group around lower ten 
 broke up, to re-form in smaller knots through the 
 car. The porter remained on guard. With 
 something of relief I sank into a seat. I wanted 
 to think, to try to remember the details of the 
 previous night. But my inquisitive acquaint 
 ance had other intentions. He came up and sat 
 down beside me. Like the conductor, he had 
 taken notes of the dead man's belongings, his 
 name, address, clothing and the general circum 
 stances of the crime. Now with his little note 
 book open before him, he prepared to enjoy the 
 minor sensation of the robbery. 
 
 "And now for the second victim," he began 
 cheerfully. "What is your name and address, 
 please?" 
 
 52
 
 THE WOMAN IN THE NEXT CAR 53 
 
 I eyed him with suspicion. 
 
 "I have lost everything but my name and ad 
 dress," I parried. "What do you want them 
 for ? Publication ? " 
 
 "Oh, no; dear, no!" he said, shocked at my 
 misapprehension. "Merely for my own enlight 
 enment. I like to gather data of this kind and 
 draw my own conclusions. Most interesting and 
 engrossing. Once or twice I have forestalled the 
 results of police investigation but entirely for 
 my own amusement." 
 
 I nodded tolerantly. Most of us have hob 
 bies ; I knew a man once who carried his hand 
 kerchief up his sleeve and had a mania for old 
 colored prints cut out of Godey's Lady's Boole. 
 
 "I use that inductive method originated by 
 Foe and followed since with such success by 
 Conan Doyle. Have you ever read Gaboriau? 
 Ah, you have missed a treat, indeed. And now, 
 to get down to business, what is the name of our 
 escaped thief and probable murderer?" 
 
 "How on earth do I know?" I demanded im 
 patiently. "He didn't write it in blood any 
 where, did he?"
 
 54 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 The little man looked hurt and disappointed 
 
 "Do you mean to say," he asked, "that th 
 pockets of those clothes are entirely empty?" 
 
 The pockets! In the excitement I had for 
 gotten entirely the sealskin grip which the por 
 ter now sat at my feet, and I had not investi 
 gated the pockets at all. With the inquisitive 
 man's pencil taking note of everything that I 
 found, I emptied them on the opposite seat. 
 
 Upper left-hand waist-coat, two lead pencils 
 and a fountain pen; lower right waist-coat, 
 match-box and a small stamp book; right-hand 
 pocket coat, pair of gray suede gloves, new, 
 tiize seven and a half; left-hand pocket, gun- 
 metal cigarette case studded with pearls, half- 
 full of Egyptian cigarettes. The trousers 
 pockets contained a gold penknife, a small 
 amount of money in bills and change, and a 
 handkerchief with the initial "S" on it. 
 
 Further search through the coat discovered a 
 card-case with cards bearing the name Henrj 
 Pinckney Sullivan, and a leather flask with gold 
 mountings, filled with what seemed to be very 
 fair whisky, and monogrammed H. P. S.
 
 THE WOMAN IN THE NEXT CAR 55 
 
 "His name evidently is Henry Pinckney Sul a 
 livan," said the cheerful follower of Poe, as he 
 wrote it down. "Address as yet unknown* 
 Blond, probably. Have you noticed that it ii 
 almost always the blond men who affect a very 
 light gray, with a touch of red in the scarf? 
 Fact, I assure you. I kept a record once of the 
 summer attire of men, and ninety per cent, fol 
 lowed my rule. Dark men like you affect navy 
 blue, or brown." 
 
 In spite of myself I was amused at the man's 
 shrewdness. 
 
 "Yes; the suit he took was dark a blue," I 
 said. 
 
 He rubbed his hands and smiled at me delight- 
 edly. 
 
 "Then you wore black shoes, not tan," he 
 said, with a glance at the aggressive yellow ones 
 I wore. 
 
 "Right again," I acknowledged. "Black low 
 shoes and black embroidered hose. If you keep 
 on you'll have a motive for the crime, and the 
 murderer's present place of hiding. And if you 
 eome back to the smoker with me, I'll give you
 
 56 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 an opportunity to judge if he knew good whisky 
 from bad." 
 
 I put the articles from the pockets back again 
 and got up. "I wonder if there is a diner on ?" 
 I said. "I need something sustaining after all 
 this." 
 
 I was conscious then of some one at my elbow. 
 I turned to see the young woman whose face was 
 so vaguely familiar. In the very act of speaking 
 she drew back suddenly and colored. 
 
 "Oh, I beg your pardon," she said hurried 
 ly, "I thought you were some one else." She 
 was looking in a puzzled fashion at my coat. I 
 felt all the cringing guilt of a man who has ac 
 cidentally picked up the wrong umbrella: my 
 borrowed collar sat tight on my neck. 
 
 "I'm. sorry," I said idiotically. "I'm sorry, 
 but I'm not." I have learned since that she 
 has bright brown hair, with a loose wave in it 
 that drops over her ears, and dark blue eyes with 
 black lashes and but what does it matter? One 
 enjoys a picture as a whole : not as the sum of its 
 parts. 
 
 She saw the flask then, and her errand came
 
 THE WOMAN IN THE NEXT CAB 57 
 
 back to her. "One of the ladies at the end of 
 ear has fainted," she explained. "I thought 
 perhaps a stimulant " 
 
 I picked up the flask at once and followed my 
 guide down the aisle. Two or three women were 
 working over the woman who had fainted. They 
 had opened her collar and taken out her hair 
 pins, whatever good that might do. The stout 
 woman was vigorously rubbing her wrists, with 
 the idea, no doubt, of working up her pulse i 
 The unconscious woman was the one for whom 
 I had secured lower eleven at the station. 
 
 I poured a little liquor in a bungling maseu- 
 line fashion between her lips as she leaned back, 
 with closed eyes. She choked, coughed, and ral 
 lied somewhat. 
 
 "Poor thing," said the stout lady. "As she 
 lies back that way I could almost think it was my 
 mother ; she used to faint so much." 
 
 "It would make anybody faint," chimed In an 
 other. "Murder and robbery in one night and 
 on one car. I'm thankful I always wear my 
 rings in a bag around my neck even if they do 
 get under me and keep me awake."
 
 38 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 The girl in blue was looking at us with wide, 
 startled eyes. I saw her pale a little, saw the 
 quick, apprehensive glance which she threw at 
 her traveling companion, the small woman I had 
 noticed before. There was an exchange al 
 most a clash of glances. The small woman 
 frowned. That was all. I turned my attention 
 again to my patient. 
 
 She had revived somewhat, and now she asked 
 to have the window opened. The train had 
 stopped again and the car was oppressively hot. 
 People around were looking at their watches and 
 grumbling over the delay. The doctor bustled 
 in with a remark about its being his busy day. 
 The amateur detective and the porter together 
 mounted guard over lower ten. Outside the heat 
 rose in shimmering waves from the tracks: the 
 very wood of the car was hot to touch. A Cam- 
 berwell Beauty darted through the open door 
 and made its way, in erratic plunges, great 
 wings waving, down the sunny aisle. All around 
 lay the peace of harvested fields, the quiet of the 
 country*
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE GIRL IN BLUM 
 
 1WAS growing more and more irritable* 
 The thought of what the loss of the note* 
 meant was fast crowding the murder to the back 
 of my mind. The forced inaction was intol 
 erable. 
 
 The porter had reported no bag answering 
 the description of mine on the train, but I 
 was disposed to make my own investigation. 
 I made a tour of the cars, scrutinizing every 
 variety of hand luggage, ranging from, lux 
 urious English bags with gold mountings to the 
 wicker nondescripts of the day coach at the 
 rear. I was not alone in my quest, for the girl 
 in blue was just ahead of me. Car by car she 
 preceded me through the train, unconscious that 
 I was behind her, looking at each passenger 
 as c-he passed. I fancied the proceeding was 
 59
 
 60 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 distasteful, but that she had determined on a 
 course and was carrying it through. We 
 reached the end of the train almost together 
 empty-handed, both of us. 
 
 The girl went out to the platform. When 
 she saw me she moved aside, and I stepped out 
 beside her. Behind us the track curved sharply ; 
 the early sunshine threw the train, in long black 
 shadow, orer the hot earth. Forward some 
 where they were hammering. The girl said 
 nothing, but her profile was strained and anx 
 ious. 
 
 **I if you have lost anything," I began, "I 
 wish you would let me try to help. Not that 
 my own success is anything to boast of." 
 
 She hardly glanced at me. It was not flat 
 tering. 
 
 "I have not been robbed, if that is what you 
 mean," she replied quietly. "I am perplexed. 
 That is all." 
 
 There was nothing to say to that. I lifted 
 m/ hat the other fellow's hat and turned t 
 go back to my car. Two or three members of 
 tk train crew, including the conductor, were
 
 THE GIRL IN BLUE 61 
 
 standing in the shadow talking. And at that 
 moment, from a farm-house near came the swift 
 clang of the breakfast bell, calling in the hands 
 from barn and pasture. I turned back to the 
 girl. 
 
 "We may be here for an hour," I said, "and 
 there is no buffet car on. If I remember my 
 youth, that bell means ham and eggs and country 
 butter and coif ee. If you care to run the risk " 
 
 "I am not hungry," she said, "but perhaps 
 a, cup of coffee dear me, I believe I am hun 
 gry," she finished. "Only " She glanced back 
 ef her. 
 
 "I can bring your companion," I suggested, 
 without enthusiasm. But the young woman 
 shook her head. 
 
 "She is not hungry," she objected, "and she 
 is very well, I know she wouldn't come. Do 
 you suppose we could make it if we run?" 
 
 "I haven't any idea," I said cheerfully. "Any 
 eld train would be better than thia one, if it 
 does leave us behind." 
 
 "Yes. Any train would be better than tnls 
 one," she repeated gravely. I found myseU
 
 d2 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 watching her changing expression. I had 
 spoken two dozen words to her and already I 
 felt that I knew the lights and shades in her 
 voice, I, who had always known how a woman 
 rode to hounds, and who never could have told 
 the color of her hair. 
 
 I stepped down on the ties and turned to as 
 sist her, and together we walked back to where 
 the conductor and the porter from our car were 
 in close conversation. Instinctively my hand 
 went to my cigarette pocket and came out 
 empty. She saw the gesture. 
 
 "If you want to smoke, you may," she said. 
 "I have a big cousin who smokes all the time. 
 He says I am 'kippered.' * 
 
 I drew out the gun-metal cigarette case and 
 opened it. But this most commonplace action 
 had an extraordinary result: the girl beside me 
 stopped dead still and stood staring at it with 
 fascinated eyes. 
 
 "Is where did you get that?" she demand 
 ed, with a catch in her voice ; her gaze still fixed 
 on the cigarette case. 
 
 "Then you haven't heard the rest of the trag~
 
 THE GIRL IN BLUB 6 
 
 edy?" I asked, holding out the case. "It's 
 frightfully bad luck for me, but it makes a 
 good story. You see " 
 
 At that moment the conductor and porteri 
 ceased their colloquy. The conductor came di 
 rectly toward me, tugging as he came at hi* 
 bristling gray mustache. 
 
 "I would like to talk to you in the car," he 
 said to me, with a curious glance at the young 
 lady. 
 
 "Can't it wait?" I objected. "We are on our 
 way to a cup of coffee and a slice of bacon. Be 
 merciful, as you are powerful." 
 
 "Fm afraid the breakfast will have to wait," 
 he replied. "I won't keep you long." There 
 was a note of authority in his voice which I re 
 sented; but, after all, the circumstances were 
 unusual. 
 
 "We'll have to defer that cup of coffee for a 
 while," I said to the girl; "but don't despair; 
 there's breakfast somewhere." 
 
 As we entered the car, she stood aside, but I 
 felt rather than saw that she followed us. I 
 was surprised to see a half dozen men gathered
 
 0* THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 around the berth in which I had wakened, num 
 ber seven. It had not yet been made up. 
 
 As we passed along the aisle, I was conscious 
 of a new expression on the faces of the pas 
 sengers. The tall woman who had fainted was 
 rjearching my face with narrowed eyes, while the 
 stout woman of the kindly heart avoided my 
 gaze, and pretended to look out the window. 
 
 As we pushed our way through the group, 
 I fancied that it closed around me ominously. 
 The conductor said nothing, but led the way 
 without ceremony to the side of the berth. 
 
 '*What's the matter?" I inquired. I was pu- 
 zled, but not apprehensive. "Have you some of 
 my things ? I'd be thankful even for my shoe* ; 
 these are confoundedly tight." 
 
 Nobody spoke, and I fell silent, too. For one 
 of the pillows had been turned over, and the 
 under side of the white case was streaked with 
 {brownish stains. I think it was a perceptible 
 time before I realized that the stains were blood, 
 and that the faces around were filled with sus 
 picion and distrust. 
 
 "Why, it that looks like blood," I said vacu-
 
 THE GIRL IN BLUE 65 
 
 ously. There was an incessant pounding in my 
 ears, and the conductor's voice came from far 
 off. 
 
 "It is blood," he asserted grimly. 
 
 I looked around with a dizzy attempt at non 
 chalance. "Even if it is," I remonstrated, 
 "surely you don't suppose for a moment that I 
 know anything about it!" 
 
 The amateur detective elbowed his way in. 
 He had a scrap of transparent paper in his 
 hand, and a pencil. 
 
 "I would like permission to trace the stains," 
 he began eagerly. "Also" to me "if you 
 will kindly jab your finger with a pin needle 
 anything " 
 
 "If you don't keep out of this," the conduc 
 tor said savagely, "I will do some jabbing my 
 self. As for you, sir " he turned to me. I 
 was absolutely innocent, but I knew that I pre 
 sented a typical picture of guilt; I was covered 
 with cold sweat, and the pounding in my ears 
 kept up dizzily. "As for you, sir " 
 
 The irrepressible amateur detective made a 
 quick pounce at the pillow and pushed back the
 
 66 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 over. Before our incredulous eyes he drew out 
 * narrow steel dirk which had been buried to 
 the small cross that served as a head. 
 
 There was a chorus of voices around, a quick 
 surging forward of the crowd. So that was 
 what had scratched my hand! I buried the 
 wound in my coat pocket. 
 
 "Well," I said, trying to speak naturally, 
 "doesn/'t that prove what I have been telling you ? 
 The man who committed the murder belonged 
 to this berth, and made an exchange in some 
 way after the crime. How do you know he didn't 
 change the tags so I would come back to this 
 berth ?" This was an inspiration ; I was pleased 
 with it. "That's what he did, he changed the 
 tags," I reiterated. 
 
 There was a murmur of assent around. The 
 doctor, who was standing beside me, put his hand 
 on my arm. "If this gentleman committed this 
 crime, and I for one feel sure he did not, then) 
 who is the fellow who got away? And why did 
 he go?" 
 
 "We have only one man's word for that," the 
 conductor snarled. *Fve traveled some in these
 
 THE GIRL IN BLUE 6T 
 
 ears myself, and no one ever changed berths 
 with me." 
 
 Somebody on the edge of the group asserted 
 that hereafter he would travel by daylight. I 
 glanced up and caught the eye of the girl in 
 blue. 
 
 "They are all mad," she said. Her tone was 
 low, but I heard her distinctly. "Don't take 
 them seriously enough to defend yourself." 
 
 "I am glad you think I didn't do it," I ob 
 served meekly, over the crowd. "Nothing else 
 is of any importance." 
 
 The conductor had pulled out his note-book 
 again. "Your name, please," he said gruffly. 
 
 "Lawrence Blakeley, Washington." 
 
 "Your occupation?" 
 
 "Attorney. A member of the firm of Blake- 
 ley and McKnight." 
 
 "Mr. Blakeley, you say you have occupied 
 the wrong berth and have been robbed. Do you 
 know anything of the man who did it?" 
 
 "Only from what he left behind," I answered. 
 "These clothes " 
 
 "They fit you," he said with quick suspicion.
 
 "Isn't that rather a coincidence? You are a 
 large man." 
 
 "Good Heavens," I retorted, stung into fury, 
 "do I look like a man who would wear this kind 
 of a necktie? Do you suppose I carry purple 
 and green barred silk handkerchiefs? Would 
 any man in his senses wear a pair of shoes a full 
 size too small?" 
 
 The conductor was inclined to hedge. "You 
 will have to grant that I am in a peculiar posi 
 tion," he said. "I have only your word as to 
 the exchange of berths, and you understand I 
 am merely doing my duty. Are there any clue* 
 in the pockets?" 
 
 For the second time I emptied them of their 
 contents, which he noted. "Is that all?" he fiiy- 
 ished. "There was nothing else?" 
 
 "Nothing." 
 
 "That's not all, sir," broke in the porter, 
 stepping forward. "There was a small black 
 satchel." 
 
 "That's so," I exclaimed. "I forgot the bag. 
 I don't even know where it is." 
 
 The easily swayed crowd looked suspicious
 
 THE GIRL IN BLUE 69 
 
 again. I've grown so accustomed to reading 
 the faces of a jury, seeing them swing from 
 doubt to belief, and back again to doubt, that 
 l t instinctively watch expressions. I saw that my 
 forgetfulness had done me harm that suspicion 
 was roused again. 
 
 The bag was found a couple of seats away, 
 under somebody's raincoat another dubious cir 
 cumstance. Was I hiding it? It was brought 
 to the berth and placed beside the conductor, 
 who opened it at once. 
 
 It contained the usual traveling impedimenta 
 change of linen, collars, handkerchiefs, a 
 bronze-green scarf, and a safety razor. But the 
 attention of the crowd riveted itself on a flat, 
 Russia leather wallet, around which a heavy gum 
 band was wrapped, and which bore in gilt letters 
 the name "Simon Harrington."
 
 CHAPTER VH 
 
 A FINE GOLD CHAIN 
 
 fT! HE conductor held it out to me, his face 
 JL sternly accusing. 
 
 "Is this another coincidence?" he asked. "Did 
 the man who left you his clothes and the barred 
 silk handkerchief and the tight shoes leave you 
 the spoil of the murder?" 
 
 The men standing around had drawn off a 
 little, and I saw the absolute futility of any re 
 monstrance. Have you ever seen a fly, who, in 
 these hygienic days, finding no cobwebs to en 
 tangle him, is caught in a sheet of fly paper, 
 finds himself more and more mired, and is finally 
 quiet with the sticky stillness of despair? 
 
 Well, I was the fly. I had seen too much of 
 
 circumstantial evidence to have any belief that 
 
 the establishing of my identity would weighi 
 
 much against the other incriminating details. It 
 
 70
 
 A FINE GOLD CHAIN *1 
 
 meant imprisonment and trial, probably, with 
 all the notoriety and loss of practice they would 
 entail. A man thinks quickly at a time like 
 that. All the probable consequences of the find 
 ing of that pocket-book flashed through my 
 mind as I extended my hand to take it. Then 
 I drew my arm back. 
 
 "I don't want it," I said. "Look inside. 
 Maybe the other man took the money and left the 
 wallet." 
 
 The conductor opened it, and again there was 
 a curious surging forward of the crowd. To my 
 intense disappointment the money was still there. 
 
 I stood blankly miserable while it was counted 
 out five one-hundred-dollar bills, six twenties, 
 and some fives and ones that brought the total to 
 six hundred and fifty dollars. 
 
 The little man with the note-book insisted on 
 taking the numbers of the notes, to the conduct 
 or's annoyance. It was immaterial to me: small 
 things had lost their power to irritate. I was 
 seeing myself in the prisoner's box, going 
 through all the nerve-racking routine of a trial 
 for murder the challenging of the jury, the
 
 72 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 endless cross-examinations, the alternate hope 
 and fear. I believe I said before that I had no 
 nerves, but for a few minutes that morning I 
 was as near as a man ever comes to hysteria. 
 
 I folded my arms and gave myself a mental 
 shake. I seemed to be the center of a hundred 
 eyes, expressing every shade of doubt and dis 
 trust, but I tried not to flinch. Then some one 
 created a diversion. 
 
 The amateur detective was busy again with 
 the sealskin bag, investigating the make of the 
 safety razor and the manufacturer's name on 
 the bronze-green tie. Now, however, he paused 
 and frowned, as though some pet theory had 
 been upset. 
 
 Then from a corner of the bag he drew out 
 and held up for our inspection some three inches 
 of fine gold chain, one end of which was black 
 ened and stained with blood ! 
 
 The conductor held out his hand for it, but 
 the little man was not ready to give it up. He 
 turned to me. 
 
 "You say no watch was left you? Was thert 
 a piece of chain like that?"
 
 A FINE GOLD CHAIN 73 
 
 "No chain at all," I said sulkily. "No jew 
 elry of any kind, except plain gold buttons in 
 the shirt I am wearing." 
 
 "Where are your glasses?" he threw at me 
 suddenly: instinctively my hand went to my 
 eyes. My glasses had been gone all morning, 
 and I had not even noticed their absence. The 
 little man smiled cynically and held out the 
 chain. 
 
 "I must ask you to examine this," he insisted. 
 "Isn't it a part of the fine gold chain you wear 
 over your ear?" 
 
 I didn't want to touch the thing : the stain at 
 the end made me shudder. But with a baker's 
 dozen of suspicious eyes well, we'll say four 
 teen: there were no one-eyed men I took the 
 fragment in the tips of my fingers and looked aw 
 it helplessly. 
 
 "Very fine chains are much alike," I managed 
 to say. "For all I know, this may be mine, but 
 I don't know how it got into that sealskin bag. I 
 never saw the bag until this morning after day- 
 light." 
 
 "He admits that he had the bag," somebody
 
 T4 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 said behind me. "How did you guess that he 
 wore glasses, anyhow?" to the amateur sleuth. 
 
 That gentleman cleared his throat. "There 
 were two reasons," he said, "for suspecting it. 
 When you see a man with the lines of his face 
 drooping, a healthy individual with a pensive 
 eye, suspect astigmatism. Besides, this gentle 
 man has a pronounced line across the bridge of 
 his nose and a mark on his ear from the chain." 
 
 After this remarkable exhibition of the theo 
 retical as combined with the practical, he sank 
 into a seat near-by, and still holding the chain, 
 sat with closed eyes and pursed lips. It was evi 
 dent to all the car that the solution of the mys 
 tery was a question of moments. Once he bent 
 forward eagerly and putting the chain on the 
 window-sill, proceeded to go over it with a pocket 
 magnifying glass, only to shake his head in dis 
 appointment. All the people around shook their 
 heads too, although they had not the slightest 
 idea what it was about. 
 
 The pounding in my ears began again. The 
 group around me seemed to be suddenly motion 
 less in the very act of moving, as if a hypnotist
 
 A FINE GOLD CHAIN 7S 
 
 had called "Rigid !" The girl in blue was look 
 ing at me, and above the din I thought she said 
 she must speak to me something vital. The 
 pounding grew louder and merged into a scream. 
 With a grinding and splintering the car rose 
 under my feet. Then it fell away into darknew.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE SECOND SECTION 
 
 HAVE you ever been picked up out of your 
 three-meals-a-day life, whirled around in 
 a tornado of events, and landed in a situation so 
 grotesque and yet so horrible that you laugh 
 even while you are groaning, and straining at its 
 hopelessness? McKnight says that is hysteria, 
 and that no man worthy of the name ever admits 
 to it. 
 
 Also, as McKnight says, it sounds like a tank 
 drama. Just as the revolving saw is about to 
 cut the hero into stove lengths, the second villain 
 blows up the sawmill. The hero goes up through 
 the roof and alights on the bank of a stream at 
 the feet of his lady love, who is making daisy 
 chains. 
 
 Nevertheless, when I was safely home again, 
 with Mrs. Klopton brewing strange drinks that 
 76
 
 THE SECOND SECTION 77 
 
 came in paper packets from the pharmacy, and 
 that smelled to heaven, I remember staggering 
 to the door and closing it, and then going back 
 to bed and howling out the absurdity and the 
 madness of the whole thing. And while I laughed 
 my very soul was sick, for the girl was gone by 
 that time, and I knew by all the loyalty that an 
 swers between men for honor that I would have 
 to put her out of my mind. 
 
 And yet, all the night that followed, filled as 
 it was with the shrieking demons of pain, I saw 
 her as I had seen her last, in the queer hat with 
 green ribbons. I told the doctor this, guard 
 edly, the next morning, and he said it was the 
 morphia, ana that I was lucky not to have seen 
 a row of devils with green tails. 
 
 I don't know anything about the wreck of 
 September ninth last. You who swallowed the 
 details with your coffee and digested the horrors 
 with your chop, probably know a great deal 
 more than I do. I remember very distinctly that 
 the jumping and throbbing in my arm brought 
 me back to a world that at first was nothing but 
 eky, a heap of clouds that I thought hazily
 
 *8 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 were the meringue on a blue charlotte russe. As 
 the sense of hearing was slowly added to vision, 
 .1 heard a woman near me sobbing that she had 
 lost her hat pin, and she couldn't keep her 
 hat on. 
 
 I think I dropped back into unconsciousness 
 again, for the next thing I remember was of my 
 blue patch of sky clouded with smoke, of a 
 strange roaring and crackling, of a rain of fiery 
 sparks on my face and of somebody beating at 
 me with feeble hands. I opened my eyes and 
 closed them again : the girl in blue was bending 
 over me. With that imperviousness to big things 
 and keenness to small that is the first effect of 
 shock, I tried to be facetious, when a spark 
 stung my cheek. 
 
 "You will have to rouse yourself!" the girl 
 was repeating desperately. "You've been on 
 fire twice already." A piece of striped ticking 
 floated slowly over my head. As the wind caught 
 it its charring edges leaped into flame. 
 
 "Looks like a kite, doesn't it?" I remarked 
 cheerfully. And then, as my arm gave an excru 
 ciating throb "Jove, how my arm hurts !"
 
 70 
 
 The girl bent over and spoke slowly, distinct 
 ly, as one might speak to a deaf person or a 
 child. 
 
 "Listen, Mr. Blakeley," she said earnestly, '' 
 "You must rouse yourself. There has been a 
 terrible accident. The second section ran into 
 us. The wreck is burning now, and if we don't 
 move, we will catch fire. Do you hear?" 
 
 Her voice and my arm were bringing me to 
 my senses. "I hear," I said. "I I'll sit up ID 
 a second. Are you hurt?" 
 
 "No, only bruised. Do you think you cam 
 walk?" 
 
 I drew up one foot after another, gingerly. 
 
 "They seem to move all right," I remarked 
 dubiously. "Would you mind telling me where 
 the back of my head has gone? I can't help 
 thinking it isn't there." 
 
 She made a quick examination. "It's pretty 
 badly bumped," she said. "You must have 
 fallen on it." 
 
 I had got up on my uninjured elbow by that 
 time, but the pain threw me back. "Don't look 
 at the wreck," I entreated her. "It's no fight
 
 80 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 for a woman. If if there is any way to tie up 
 this arm, I might be able to do something. 
 There may be people under those cars !" 
 
 "Then it is too late to help," she replied sol 
 emnly. A little shower of feathers, each carry 
 ing its fiery lamp, blew over us from some burn 
 ing pillow. A part of the wreck collapsed with 
 a crash. In a resolute endeavor to play a man's 
 part in the tragedy going on all around, I got 
 to my knees. Then I realized what I had not 
 noticed before : the hand and wrist of the broken 
 left arm were jammed through the handle of the 
 sealskin grip. I gasped and sat down suddenly. 
 
 "You must not do that," the girl insisted. I 
 noticed now that she kept her back to the wreck, 
 her eyes averted. "The weight of the traveling- 
 bag must be agony. Let me support the valise 
 until we get back a few yards. Then you must 
 lie down until we can get it cut off." 
 
 "Will it have to be cut off?" I asked as calmly 
 as possible. There were red-hot stabs of agony 
 clear to my neck, but we were moving slowly away 
 from the track. 
 
 "Yes," she replied, with dumfounding cool-
 
 THE SECOND SECTION 81 
 
 ness. "If I had a knife I could do it myself. 
 You might sit here and lean against this fence." 
 
 By that time my returning faculties had real 
 ized that she was going to cut off the satchel, 
 not the arm. The dizziness was leaving and I 
 was gradually becoming myself. 
 
 "If you pull, it might come," I suggested* 
 "And with that weight gone, I think I will cease 
 to be five feet eleven inches of baby." 
 
 She tried gently to loosen the handle, but it 
 would not move, and at last, with great drops of 
 cold perspiration over me, I had to give up. 
 
 "I'm afraid I can't stand it," I said. "But 
 there's a knife somewhere around these clothes, 
 and if I can find it, perhaps you can cut the 
 leather." 
 
 As I gave her the knife she turned it over, ex 
 amining it with a peculiar expression, bewilder 
 ment rather than surprise. But she said nothing. 
 She set to work deftly, and in a few minutes the 
 bag dropped free. 
 
 "That's better," I declared, sitting up. "Now, 
 if you can pin my sleeve to my coat, it will sup 
 port the arm so we can get away from here."
 
 82 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "The pin might give," she objected, "and the 
 jerk would be terrible." She looked around, 
 puzzled ; then she got up, coming back in a min 
 ute with a draggled, partly scorched sheet. This 
 she tore into a large square, and after she had 
 folded it, she slipped it under the broken arm 
 and tied it securely at the back of my neck. 
 
 The relief was immediate, and, picking up the 
 sealskin bag, I walked slowly beside her, away 
 from the track. 
 
 The first act was over: the curtain fallen. 
 The scene was "struck."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE HALCYOH BREAKFAST 
 
 WE were still dazed, I think, for we wan 
 dered like two troubled children, our 
 one idea at first to get as far away as we could 
 from the horror behind us. We were both bare 
 headed, grimy, pallid through the grit. Now 
 and then we met little groups of country folk 
 hurrying to the track: they stared at us curi 
 ously, and some wished to question us. But we 
 hurried past them ; we had put the wreck behind 
 us. That way lay madness. 
 
 Only once the girl turned and looked behind 
 her. The wreck was hidden, but the smoke cloud 
 hung heavy and dense. For the first time I re 
 membered that my companion had not been alone 
 on the train. 
 
 "It is quiet here," I suggested. "If you will 
 sit down on the bank I will go back and make 
 83
 
 84 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 some inquiries. I've been criminally thoughtless. 
 Your traveling companion " 
 
 She interrupted me, and something of her 
 splendid poise was gone. "Please don't go 
 back," she said. "I am afraid it would be of 
 no use. And I don't want to be left alone." 
 
 Heaven knows I did not want her to be alone. 
 I was more than content to walk along beside 
 her aimlessly, for any length of time. Gradu 
 ally, as she lost the exaltation of the moment, I 
 was gaining my normal condition of mind. I 
 was beginning to realize that I had lacked the 
 morning grace of a shave, that I looked like 
 some lost hope of yesterday, and that my left 
 shoe pinched outrageously. A man does not rise 
 triumphant above such handicaps. The girl, for 
 all her disordered hair and the crumpled linen 
 of her waist, in spite of her missing hat and the 
 small gold bag that hung forlornly from, a 
 broken chain, looked exceedingly lovely. 
 
 "Then I won't leave you alone," I said man 
 fully, and we stumbled on together. Thus far 
 we had seen nobody from the wreck, but well up 
 the lane we came across the tall dark woman who
 
 THE HALCYON BREAKFAST 85 
 
 had occupied lower eleven. She was half crouch 
 ing beside the road, her black hair about her 
 shoulders, and an ugly bruise over her eye. She 
 did not seem to know us, and refused to accom 
 pany us. We left her there at last, babbling 
 incoherently and rolling in her hands a dozen 
 pebbles she had gathered in the road. 
 
 The girl shuddered as we went on. Once she 
 turned and glanced at my bandage. "Does it 
 hurt very much?" she asked. 
 
 "It's growing rather numb. But it might be 
 worse,'* I answered mendaciously. If anything 
 in this world could be worse, I had never experi 
 enced it. 
 
 And so we trudged on bareheaded under the 
 ummer sun, growing parched and dusty and 
 ireary, doggedly leaving behind us the pillar of 
 smoke. I thought I knew of a trolley line some 
 where in the direction we were going, or perhaps 
 we could find a horse and trap to take us into 
 Baltimore. The girl smiled when I suggest 
 ed it. 
 
 "We will create a sensation, won't we?" she 
 asked. "Isn't it queer or perhaps it's my state
 
 86 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 of mind but I keep wishing for a pair of 
 gloves, when I haven't even a hat !" 
 
 When we reached the main road we sat down 
 for a moment, and her hair, which had been com 
 ing loose for some time, fell over her shoulders 
 in little waves that were most alluring. It 
 seemed a pity to twist it up again, but when I 
 suggested this, cautiously, she said it was trou 
 blesome and got in her eyes when it was loose. 
 So she gathered it up, while I held a row of lit 
 tle shell combs and pins, and when it was done 
 it was vastly becoming, too. Funny about hair : 
 a man never knows he has it until he begins to 
 lose it, but it's different with a girl. Something 
 of the unconventional situation began to dawn 
 on her as she put in the last hair-pin and patted 
 some stray locks to place. 
 
 "I have not told you my name," she said ab 
 ruptly. "I forgot that because I know who you 
 are, you know nothing about me. I am Alison 
 West, and my home is in Richmond." 
 
 So that was it ! This was the girl of the pho 
 tograph on John Gilmore's bedside table. The 
 girl McKnight expected to ice in Richmond the
 
 THE HALCYON BREAKFAST 87 
 
 next day, Sunday ! She was on her way back to 
 meet him! Well, what difference did it make, 
 anyhow? We had been thrown together by the 
 'merest chance. In an hour or two at the most 
 we would be back in civilization and she would 
 recall me, if she remembered me at all, as an un 
 shaven creature in a red cravat and tan shoes, 
 with a soiled Pullman sheet tied around my neck. 
 I drew a deep breath. 
 
 "Just a twinge," I said, when she glanced up 
 quickly. "It's very good of you to let me know, 
 Miss West. I have been hearing delightful 
 things about you for three months." 
 
 "From Richey McKnight?" She was frankly 
 curious. 
 
 "Yes. From Richey McKnight," I assented. 
 Was it any wonder McKnight was crazy about 
 her? I dug my heels into the dust. 
 
 "I have been visiting near Cresson, in the 
 (mountains," Miss West was saying. "The per 
 son you mentioned, Mrs. Curtis, was my hostess. 
 We we were on our way to Washington to 
 gether." She spoke slowly, as if she wished to 
 give the minimum of explanation. Across her
 
 88 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 face had come again the baffling expression ol 
 perplexity and trouble I had seen before. 
 
 "You were on your way home, I suppose? 
 Richey spoke about seeing you," I floundered, 
 finding it necessary to say something. She 
 looked at me with level, direct eyes. 
 
 "No," she returned quietly. "I did not in 
 tend to go home. I well, it doesn't matter; I 
 am going home now." 
 
 A woman in a calico dress, with two children, 
 each an exact duplicate of the other, had come 
 quickly down the road. She took in the situa 
 tion at a glance, and was explosively hospitable. 
 
 "You poor things," she said. "If you'll take 
 the first road to the left over there, and turn in 
 at the second pigsty, you will find breakfast on 
 the table and a coffee-pot on the stove. And 
 there's plenty of soap and water, too. Don't say 
 one word. There isn't a soul there to see you." 
 
 We accepted the invitation and she hurried 
 on toward the excitement and the railroad. I 
 got up carefully and helped Miss West to her 
 feet. 
 
 "At the second pigsty to the left," I repeat-
 
 THE HALCYON BREAKFAST 89 
 
 ed, "we will find the breakfast I promised you 
 seven eternities ago. Forward to the pigsty!" 
 
 We said very little for the remainder of that 
 walk. I had almost reached the limit of endur 
 ance: with every step the broken ends of the 
 bone grated together. We found the farm-house 
 without difficulty, and I remember wondering if 
 I could hold out to the end of the old stone walk 
 that led between hedges to the door. 
 
 "Allah be praised," I said with all the voice 
 I could muster. "Behold the coffee-pot !" And 
 then I put down the grip and folded up like a 
 j ack-knif e on the porch floor. 
 
 When I came around something hot was trick 
 ling down my neck, and a despairing voice was 
 saying, "Oh, I don't seem to be able to pour it 
 into your mouth. Please open your eyes." 
 
 "But I don't want it in my eyes," I replied 
 dreamily. "I haven't any idea what came over 
 me. It was the shoes, I think: the left one is aj 
 red-hot torture." I was sitting by that time 
 and looking across into her face. 
 
 Never before or since have I fainted, but I 
 would do it joyfully, a dozen times a day, if I 
 
 i
 
 00 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 could waken again to the blissful touch of soft 
 fingers on my face, the hot ecstasy of coffee 
 spilled by those fingers down my neck. There 
 was a thrill in every tone of her voice that morn 
 ing. Before long my loyalty to McKnight 
 would step between me and the girl he loved : life 
 would develop new complexities. In those early 
 hours after the wreck, full of pain as they were, 
 there was nothing of the suspicion and distrust 
 that came later. Shorn of our gauds and bau 
 bles, we were primitive man and woman, to 
 gether: our world for the hour was the deserted 
 farm-house, the slope of wheat-field that led to 
 the road, the woodland lot, the pasture. 
 
 We breakfasted together across the homely 
 table. Our cheerfulness, at first sheer reaction, 
 became less forced as we ate great slices of 
 bread from the granny oven back of the house, 
 and drank hot fluid that smelled like coffee and 
 tasted like nothing that I have ever swallowed. 
 We found cream in stone jars, sunk deep in the 
 chill water of the spring house. And there were 
 eggs, great yellow-brown ones, a basket of 
 them.
 
 THE HALCYON BREAKFAST 91 
 
 So, like two children awakened from a night 
 mare, we chattered over our food: we hunted 
 mutual friends, we laughed together at my fee 
 ble witticisms, but we put the horror behind us 
 resolutely. After all, it was the hat with the 
 green ribbons that brought back the strange 
 ness of the situation. 
 
 All along I had had the impression that Ali- 
 aon West was deliberately putting out of her 
 mind something that obtruded now and then. 
 It brought with it a return of the puzzled ex 
 pression that I had surprised early in the day, 
 before the wreck. I caught it once, when, break 
 fast over, she was tightening the sling that held 
 the broken arm. I had prolonged the morning 
 meal as much as I could, but when the wooden 
 clock with the pink roses on the dial pointed to 
 half after ten, and the mother with the duplicate 
 youngsters had not come back, Miss West made 
 the move I had dreaded. 
 
 "If we are to get into Baltimore at all we 
 must start," she said, rising. "You ought to 
 see a doctor as soon as possible." 
 
 "Hush," I said warningly. "Don't mentioa
 
 92 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 the arm, please ; it is asleep now. You may rouse 
 it." 
 
 "If I only had a hat," she reflected. "It 
 wouldn't need to be much of one, but " She 
 gave a little cry and darted to the corner. 
 "Look," she said triumphantly, "the very thing. 
 With the green streamers tied up in a bow, like 
 this do you suppose the child would mind? 
 I can put five dollars or so here that would buy 
 a dozen of them." 
 
 It was a queer affair of straw, that hat, with 
 a round crown and a rim that flopped dismally. 
 With a single movement she had turned it up at 
 one side and fitted it to her head. Grotesque by 
 itself, when she wore it it was a thing of joy. 
 
 Evidently the lack of head covering had trou 
 bled her, for she was elated at her find. She left 
 me, scrawling a note of thanks and pinning it 
 with a bill to the table-cloth, and ran up-stairs 
 to the mirror and the promised soap and water. 
 
 I did not see her when she came down. I had 
 discovered a bench with a tin basin outside the 
 kitchen door, and was washing, in a helpless, one 
 sided way. I felt rather than saw that she waa 
 
 *
 
 THE HALCYON BREAKFAST 93 
 
 standing In the door-way, and I made a final 
 plunge into the basin. 
 
 "How is it possible for a man with only a 
 right hand to wash his left ear?" I asked from 
 the roller towel. I was distinctly uncomfortable : 
 men are more rigidly creatures of convention 
 than women, whether they admit it or not. 
 "There is so much soap on me still that if I 
 laugh I will blow bubbles. Washing with rain 
 water and home-made soap is like motoring on 
 a slippery road. I only struck the high places." 
 
 Then, having achieved a brilliant polish with 
 the towel, I looked at the girl. 
 
 She was leaning against the frame of the 
 door, her face perfectly colorless, her breath 
 coming in slow, difficult respirations. The er 
 ratic hat was pinned to place, but it had slid 
 rakishly to one side. When I realized that she 
 was staring, not at me, but past me to the road 
 along which we had come, I turned and followed 
 her gaze. There was no one in sight: the lane 
 stretched dust white in the sun, no moving fig 
 ure on it, no sign of life.
 
 lass WEST'S BEQUEST 
 
 7TPIHE surprising- change in her held me 
 JL speechless. All the animation of the 
 breakfast table was gone: there was no hint of 
 the response with which, before, she had met my 
 nonsensical sallies. She stood there, white- 
 lipped, unsmiling, staring down the dusty road. 
 One hand was clenched tight over some small ob 
 ject. Her eyes dropped to it from the distant 
 road, and then closed, with a quick, indrawm 
 breath. 
 
 Her color came back slowly. Whatever had 
 caused the change, she said nothing. She was 
 anxious to leave at once, almost impatient over 
 my deliberate masculine way of getting my 
 things together. Afterward I recalled that I 
 had wanted to explore the barn for a horse and 
 some sort of a vehicle to take us to the trolley, 
 94, i
 
 MISS WEST'S REQUEST 90 
 
 and that she had refused to allow me to look. 1 
 remembered many things later that might have 
 helped me, and did not. At the time, I was only 
 completely bewildered. Save the wreck, the re 
 sponsibility for which lay between Providence 
 and the engineer of the second section, all the 
 events of that strange morning were logically 
 connected; they came from one cause, and tended 
 unerringly to one end. But the cause was bur 
 ied, the end not yet in view. 
 
 Not until we had left the house well behind 
 did the girl's face relax its tense lines. I was 
 watching her more closely than I had realized, 
 for when we had gone a little way along the 
 road she turned to me almost petulantly. 
 "Please don't stare so at me," she said, to my 
 sudden confusion. "I know the hat is dreadful. 
 Green always makes me look ghastly." 
 
 "Perhaps it was the green." I was unaccount 
 ably relieved. "Do you know, a few minutes 
 ago, you looked almost pallid to me !" 
 
 She glanced at me quickly, but I was gazing 
 ahead. We were out of sight of the house, now, 
 and with every step away from it the girl was
 
 96 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 obviously relieved. Whatever she held in her 
 hand, she never glanced at it. But she was con 
 scious of it every second. She seemed to come 
 to a decision about it while we were still in sight 
 of the gate, for she murmured something and 
 turned back alone, going swiftly, her feet stir 
 ring up small puffs of dust at every step. She 
 fastened something to the gate-post, I could 
 see the nervous haste with which she worked. 
 When she joined me again it was without ex 
 planation. But the clenched fingers were free 
 now, and while she looked tired and worn, the 
 strain had visibly relaxed. 
 
 We walked along slowly in the general direc 
 tion of the suburban trolley line. Once a man 
 with an empty wagon offered us a lift, but after 
 a glance at the springless vehicle I declined. 
 
 "The ends of the bone think they are casta 
 nets as it is," I explained. "But the lady " 
 
 The young lady, however, declined and we 
 went on together. Once, when the trolley line 
 was in sight, she got a pebble in her low shoe, 
 and we sat down under a tree until she found the 
 cause of the trouble.
 
 MISS WEST'S REQUEST 97 
 
 "I I don't know what I should have done 
 without you," I blundered. "Moral support and 
 and all that. Do you know, my first conscious 
 thought after the wreck was of relief that you 
 had not been hurt ?" 
 
 She was sitting beside me, where a big chest 
 nut tree shaded the road, and I surprised a look 
 of misery on her face that certainly my words 
 had not been meant to produce. 
 
 "And my first thought," she said slowly, "was 
 regret that I that I hadn't been obliterated, 
 blown out like a candle. Please don't look like 
 that ! I am only talking." 
 
 But her lips were trembling, and because the 
 little shams of society are forgotten at times 
 like this, I leaned over and patted her hand 
 lightly, where it rested on the grass beside me. 
 
 "You must not say those things," I expostu 
 lated. "Perhaps, after all, your friends " 
 
 "I had no friends on the train." Her voice 
 was hard again, her tone final. She drew her 
 hand from under mine, not quickly, but deci 
 sively. A car was in sight, coming toward us. 
 The steel finger of civilization, of propriety, of
 
 98 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 visiting cards and formal introductions was 
 beckoning us in. Miss West put on her shoe. 
 
 We said little on the car. The few passen 
 gers stared at us frankly, and discussed th* 
 wreck, emphasizing its horrors. The girl did 
 not seem to hear. Once she turned to me with 
 the quick, unexpected movement that was one of 
 her charms. 
 
 "I do not wish my mother to know I was in 
 the accident," she said. "Will you please not 
 tell Richey about having met me ?" 
 
 I gave my promise, of course. Again, when 
 we were almost into Baltimore, she asked to ex 
 amine the gun-metal cigarette "case, and sat 
 silent with it in her hands, while I told of the 
 early morning's events on the Ontario. 
 
 "So you see," I finished, "this grip, every 
 thing I have on, belongs to a fellow named Sul 
 livan. He probably left the train before the 
 wreck, perhaps just after the murder." 
 
 "And so you think he committed the th 
 crime?" Her eyes were on the cigarette case. 
 
 "Naturally," I said. "A man doesn't jump 
 off a, Pullman car in the middle of the night in
 
 MISS WEST'S REQUEST e9 
 
 another man's clothes, unless he is trying to get 
 away from something. Besides the dirk, there 
 were the stains that you saw. Why, I have the 
 murdered man's pocket-book in this valise at my 
 feet. What does that look like?" 
 
 I colored when I saw the ghost of a smile 
 hovering around the corners of her mouth. "That 
 is," I finished, "if you care to believe that I am 
 innocent." 
 
 The sustaining chain of her small gold bag 
 gave way just then. She did not notice it. 
 I picked it up and slid the trinket into my pocket 
 for safekeeping, where I promptly forgot it. 
 'Afterwards I wished I had let it lie unnoticed on 
 the floor of that dirty little suburban car, and 
 even now, when I see a woman carelessly dan 
 gling a similar feminine trinket, I shudder invol 
 untarily : there comes back to me the memory of 
 a girl's puzzled eyes under the brim of a flop 
 ping hat, the haunting suspicion of the sleepless 
 nights that followed. 
 
 Just then I was determined that my compan 
 ion should not stray back to the wreck, and to 
 that end I was determinedly facetious.
 
 100 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Do you know that it is Sunday?" she asked 
 suddenly, "and that we are actually ragged?" 
 
 "Never mind that," I retorted. "All Balti 
 more is divided on Sunday into three parts, those 
 who rise up and go to church, those who rise up 
 and read the newspapers, and those who don't 
 rise up. The first are somewhere between the 
 creed and the sermon, and we need not worry 
 about the others." 
 
 "You treat me like a child," she said almost 
 pettishly. "Don't try so hard to be cheerful. It 
 it is almost ghastly." 
 
 After that I subsided like a pricked balloon, 
 and the remainder of the ride was made in 
 silence. The information that she would go to 
 friends in the city was a shock : it meant an ear 
 lier separation than I had planned for. But my 
 arm was beginning again. In putting her into 
 a cab I struck it and gritted my teeth with the 
 pain. It was probably for that reason that I 
 forgot the gold bag. 
 
 She leaned forward and held out her hand. "I 
 may not have another chance to thank you," shtr 
 said, "and I think I would better not try, any-
 
 MISS WEST'S REQUEST 101 
 
 how. I can not tell you how grateful I am." I 
 muttered something about the gratitude being 
 mine : owing to the knock I was seeing two cabs, 
 and two girls were holding out two hands. 
 
 "Remember," they were both saying, "you 
 have never met me, Mr. Blakeley. And if you 
 ever hear anything about me that is not 
 pleasant, I want you to think the best you can 
 of me. Will you?" 
 
 The two girls were one now, with little flashes 
 of white light playing all around. "I I'm 
 afraid that I shall think too well for my own 
 good," I said unsteadily. And the cab drove on.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE NAME WAS SOLUYAU 
 
 I HAD my arm done up temporarily in Bal 
 timore and took the next train home. I was 
 pretty far gone when I stumbled out of a cab al 
 most into the scandalized arms of Mrs. Klopton. 
 In fifteen minutes I was in bed, with that good 
 woman piling on blankets and blistering me in 
 unprotected places with hot-water bottles. And 
 in an hour I had had a whiff of chloroform and 
 Doctor Williams had set the broken bone. 
 
 I dropped asleep then, waking in the late twi 
 light to a realization that I was at home again, 
 without the papers that meant conviction for 
 Andy Bronson, with a charge of murder hang- 
 ing over my head, and with something more than 
 an impression of the girl my best friend was in 
 love with, a girl moreover who was almost as 
 great an enigma as the crime itself. 
 103
 
 THE NAME WAS SULLIVAN 103 
 
 "And I'm no hand at guessing riddles," I 
 groaned half aloud. Mrs. Klopton came over 
 promptly and put a cold cloth on my forehead. 
 
 "Euphemia," she said to some one outside the 
 door, "telephone the doctor that he is still ram 
 bling, but that he has switched from green rib 
 bons to riddles." 
 
 "There's nothing the matter with me, Mrs. 
 Klopton," I rebelled. "I was only thinking out 
 loud. Confound that cloth: it's trickling all 
 over me !" I gave it a fling, and heard it land 
 with a soggy thud on the floor. 
 
 "Thinking out loud is delirium," Mrs. Klop 
 ton said imperturbably. "A fresh cloth, Eu- 
 phemia." 
 
 This time she held it on with a firm pressure 
 that I was too weak to resist. I expostulated 
 feebly that I was drowning, which she also laid 
 to my mental exaltation, and then I finally 
 dropped into a damp sleep. It was probably 
 midnight when I roused again. I had been 
 dreaming of the wreck, and it was inexpressibly 
 comforting to feel the stability of my bed, and 
 to realize the equal stability of Mrs. Klopton,
 
 who sat, fully attired, by the night light, read 
 ing Science and Health. 
 
 "Does that book say anything about opening 
 ihe windows on a hot night?" I suggested, when' 
 i had got my bearings. 
 
 She put it down immediately and came over 
 oo me. If there is one time when Mrs. Klopton 
 Is chastened and it is the only time it is when 
 r,he reads Science and Health. "I don't like to 
 open the shutters, Mr. Lawrence," she explained. 
 u Not since the night you went away." 
 
 But, pressed further, she refused to explain. 
 "The doctor said you were not to be excited," 
 slie persisted. "Here's your beef tea." 
 
 "Not a drop until you tell me," I said firmly. 
 "Besides, you know very well there's nothing the 
 matter with me. This arm of mine is only a 
 /alse belief." I sat up gingerly. "Now why 
 don't you open that window?" 
 
 Mrs. Klopton succumbed. "Because there are 
 }ueer goings-on in that house next door," she 
 said. "If you will take the beef tea, Mr. Law 
 rence, I will tell you." 
 
 The queer goings-on, however, proved to be
 
 THE NAME WAS SULLIVAN 105 
 
 slightly disappointing. It seemed that after I 
 left on Friday night, a light was seen flitting 
 fitfully through the empty house next door. Eu- 
 phemia had seen it first and called Mrs. Klop- 
 ton. Together they had watched it breathlessly 
 until it disappeared on the lower floor. 
 
 "You should have been a writer of ghost sto 
 ries," I said, giving my pillows a thump. "And 
 so it was fitting flitf ully !" 
 
 "That's what it was doing," she reiterated. 
 "Fitting flitfully I mean flitting fitfully how 
 you do throw one out, Mr. Lawrence! And 
 what's more, it came again !" 
 
 "Oh, come now, Mrs. Klopton," I objected, 
 "ghosts are like lightning; they never strike 
 twice in the same night. That is only worth 
 half a cup of beef tea.'* 
 
 "You may ask Euphemia," she retorted with 
 dignity. "Not more than an hour after, there 
 was a light there again. We saw it through the 
 chinks of the shutters. Only this time it be 
 gan at the lower floor and climbed!" 
 
 "You oughtn't to tell ghost stories at night," 
 came McKnight's voice from the doorway.
 
 106 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Really, Mrs. Klopton, I'm amazed at you. You 
 old duffer ! I've got you to thank for the worst 
 ,day of my life." 
 
 Mrs. Klopton gulped. Then realizing that 
 the "old duffer" was meant for me, she took her 
 empty cup and went out muttering. 
 
 "The Pirate's crazy about me, isn't she?" Mc- 
 Knight said to the closing door. Then he 
 swung around and held out his hand. 
 
 "By Jove," he said, "I've been laying you 
 out all day, lilies on the door-bell, black gloves, 
 everything. If you had had the sense of a mos 
 quito in a snow-storm, you would have tele 
 phoned me." 
 
 "I never even thought of it." I was filled 
 with remorse. "Upon my word, Rich, I hadn't 
 an idea beyond getting away from that place. 
 If you had seen what I saw " 
 
 McKnight stopped me. "Seen it ! Why, you 
 lunatic, I've been digging for you all day in the 
 ruins ! I've lunched ahd dined on horrors. Give 
 me something to rinse them down, Lollie." 
 
 He had fished the key of the cellarette from 
 its hiding-place in my shoe bag and was mixing
 
 himself what he called a Bernard Shaw a 
 foundation of brandy and soda, with a little of 
 everything else in sight to give it snap. Now 
 that I saw him clearly, he looked weary andj 
 grimy. I hated to tell him what I knew he was 
 waiting to hear, but there was no use wading 
 in by inches. I ducked and got it over. 
 
 "The notes are gone, Rich," I said, as quietly 
 as I could. In spite of himself his face fell. 
 
 "I of course I expected it," he said. "But 
 Mrs. Klopton said over the telephone that 
 you had brought home a grip and I hoped 
 well, Lord knows we ought not to complain. 
 You're here, damaged, but here." He lifted his 
 glass. "Happy days, old man 1" 
 
 "If you will give me that black bottle and a 
 teaspoon, I'll drink that in arnica, or whatever 
 the stuff is; Rich, the notes were gone before 
 the wreck !" 
 
 He wheeled and stared at me, the bottle in his I 
 hand. "Lost, strayed or stolen?" he queried 
 with forced lightness. 
 
 "Stolen, although I believe the theft was in 
 cidental to something else."
 
 108 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 Mrs. Klopton came in at that moment, with 
 an egg-nog in ner hand. She glanced at the 
 clock, and, without addressing any one in par 
 ticular, she intimated that it was time for self- 
 respecting folks to be at home in bed. Mc- 
 Knight, who could never resist a fling at her 
 back, spoke to me in a stage whisper. 
 
 "Is she talking still? or again?" he asked, 
 just before the door closed. There was a sec 
 ond's indecision with the knob, then, judging 
 discretion the better part, Mrs. Klopton went 
 away. 
 
 "Now, then," McKnight said, settling himself 
 in a chair beside the bed, "spit it out. Not the 
 wreck I know all I want about that. But the 
 theft. I can tell you beforehand that it was a 
 woman." 
 
 I had crawled painfully out of bed, and was 
 in the act of pouring the egg-nog down the 
 ipipe of the washstand. I paused, with the glass 
 in the air. 
 
 "A woman!" I repeated, startled. "What 
 makes you think that?" 
 
 "You don't know the first principles of a
 
 THE NAME WAS SULLIVAN 109 
 
 good detective yarn," he said scornfully. "Of 
 course, it was the woman in the empty house 
 next door. You said it was brass pipes, you 
 will remember. Well on with the dance: let 
 joy be unconfined." 
 
 So I told the story ; I had told it so many 
 times that day that I did it automatically. And 
 I told about the girl with the bronze hair, and 
 my suspicions. But I did not mention Alison 
 West. McKnight listened to the end without 
 interruption. When I had finished he drew a 
 long breath. 
 
 "Well!" he said. "That's something of a 
 mess, isn't it? If you can only prove your mild 
 and childlike disposition, they couldn't hold you 
 for the murder which is a regular ten-twent- 
 thirt crime, anyhow. But the notes that's dif 
 ferent. They are not burned, anyhow. Your 
 man wasn't on the train therefore, he wasn't 
 in the wreck. If he didn't know what he was 
 taking, as you seem to think, he probably reads 
 the papers, and unless he is a fathead, he's 
 awake by this time to what he's got. He'll try 
 to sell them to Bronson, probably."
 
 110 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Or to us," I put in. 
 
 We said nothing for a few minutes. Me- 
 Knight smoked a cigarette and stared at a 
 'photograph of Candida over the mantel. Can 
 dida is the best pony for a heavy mount in seven 
 states. 
 
 "I didn't go to Richmond," he observed 
 finally. The remark followed my own thoughts 
 so closely that I started. "Miss West is not 
 home yet from Seal Harbor." 
 
 Receiving no response, he lapsed again into 
 thoughtful silence. Mrs. Klopton came in just 
 as the clock struck one, and made preparation 
 for the night by putting a large gaudy com 
 fortable into an arm-chair in the dressing-room, 
 with a smaller, stiff -backed chair for her feet. 
 She was wonderfully attired in a dressing-gown 
 that was reminiscent, in parts, of all the ones 
 she had given me for a half dozen Christmases, 
 < and she had a purple veil wrapped around her 
 head, to hide Heaven knows what deficiency. 
 She examined the empty egg-nog glass, in 
 quired what the evening paper had said about 
 the weather, and then stalked into the dressing-
 
 THE NAME WAS SULLIVAN 111 
 
 room, and prepared, with much ostentatious 
 creaking, to sit up all night. 
 
 We fell silent again, while McKnight traced 
 a rough outline of the berths on the white table- 
 cover, and puzzled it out slowly. It was some 
 thing like this : 
 
 10* 
 
 8 
 
 AISLE. 
 
 "You think he changed the tags on seven and 
 nine, so that when you went back to bed you 
 thought you were crawling into nine, when it 
 was really seven, eh?" 
 
 "Probably yes." 
 
 "Then toward morning, when everybody was 
 asleep, your theory is that he changed the num 
 bers again and left the train." 
 
 "I can't think of anything else," I replied 
 wearily. 
 
 "Jove, what a game of bridge that fellow
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 would play ! It was like finessing an eight-spot 
 and winning out. They would scarcely have 
 doubted your story had the tags been reversed 
 in the morning. He certainly left you in a bad 
 way. Not a jury in the country would stand 
 out against the stains, the stiletto, and the mur 
 dered man's pocket-book in your possession." 
 
 "Then you think Sullivan did it?" I asked. 
 
 "Of course," said McKnight confidently. 
 "Unless you did it in your sleep. Look at the 
 stains on his pillow, and the dirk stuck into it. 
 And didn't he have the man Harrington's 
 pocket-book ?" 
 
 "But why did he go off without the money?" 
 I persisted. "And where does the bronze-haired 
 girl come in?" 
 
 "Search me," McKnight retorted flippantly. 
 "Inflammation of the imagination on your 
 part." 
 
 "Then there is the piece of telegram. It said 
 lower ten, car seven. It's extremely likely that 
 she had it. That telegram was about me, 
 Richey." 
 
 "I'm getting a headache," he said, putting
 
 THE NAME WAS SULLIVAN 113 
 
 out his cigarette against the sole of his shoe. 
 "All I'm certain of just now is that if there 
 hadn't been a wreck, by this time you'd be sit 
 ting in an eight by ten cell, and feeling like the 
 rhyme for it." 
 
 "But listen to this," I contended, as he picked 
 up his hat, "this fellow Sullivan is a fugitive, 
 and he's a lot more likely to make advances to 
 Bronson than to us. We could have the case 
 continued, release Bronson on bail and set a 
 watch on him." 
 
 "Not my watch," McKnight protested. "It's 
 a family heirloom." 
 
 "You'd better go home," I said firmly. "Go 
 home and go to bed. You're sleepy. You can 
 have Sullivan's red necktie to dream over if you 
 think it will help any." 
 
 Mrs. Klopton's voice came drowsily from the 
 next room, punctuated by a yawn. "Oh, I for 
 got to tell you," she called, with the suspicious 
 lisp which characterizes her at night, "somebody 
 called up about noon, Mr. Lawrence. It was 
 long distance, and he said he would call again. 
 The name was" she yawned "Sullivan."
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE GOLD BAG 
 
 I HAVE always smiled at those cases of 
 spontaneous combustion which, like fus 
 ing the component parts of a seidlitz powder, 
 unite two people in a bubbling and ephemeral 
 ecstasy. But surely there is possible, with but 
 a single meeting, an attraction so great, a com 
 munity of mind and interest so strong, that be 
 tween that first meeting and the next the bond 
 may grow into something stronger. This is 
 especially true, I fancy, of people with tempera 
 ment, the modern substitute for imagination. It 
 is a nice question whether lovers begin to love 
 when they are together, or when they are apart. 
 Not that I followed any such line of reasoning , 
 at the time. I would not even admit my folly to 
 myself. But during the restless hours of that 
 first night after the accident, when my back 
 114
 
 THE GOLD BAG 11* 
 
 ached with lying on it, and any other position 
 was torture, I found my thoughts constantly 
 going back to Alison West. I dropped into a 
 doze, to dream of touching her fingers again to 
 comfort her, and awoke to find I had patted a 
 teaspoonful of medicine out of Mrs. Klopton's 
 indignant hand. What was it McKnight had 
 said about making an egregious ass of myself? 
 
 And that brought me back to Richey, and I 
 fancy I groaned. There is no use expatiating 
 on the friendship between two men who have 
 gone together through college, have quarreled 
 and made it up, fussed together over politics and 
 debated creeds for years : men don't need to be 
 told, and women can not understand. Never 
 theless, I groaned. If it had been any one but 
 Rich! 
 
 Some things were mine, however, and I would 
 
 hold them : the halcyon breakfast, the queer hat, 
 
 j the pebble in her small shoe, the gold bag with 
 
 the broken chain the bag ! Why, it was in my 
 
 pocket at that moment. 
 
 I got up painfully and found my coat. Yes, 
 fhere was the purse, bulging with an opulent
 
 116 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 suggestion of wealth inside. I went back to bed 
 again, somewhat dizzy, between effort and the 
 touch of the trinket, so lately hers. I held it 
 up by its broken chain and gloated over it. By 
 careful attention to orders, I ought to be out in 
 a day or so. Then I could return it to her. I 
 really ought to do that: it was valuable, and I 
 wouldn't care to trust it to the mail. I could 
 run down to Richmond, and see her once there 
 was no disloyalty to Rich in that. 
 
 I had no intention of opening the little bag. 
 I put it under my pillow which was my reason 
 for refusing to have the linen slips changed, to 
 Mrs. Klopton's dismay. And sometimes during 
 the morning, while I lay under a virgin field of 
 white, ornamented with strange flowers, my cig 
 arettes hidden beyond discovery, and Science 
 and Health on a table by my elbow, as if by the 
 merest accident, I slid my hand under my pillow 
 and touched it reverently. 
 
 McKnight came in about eleven. I heard his 
 car at the curb, followed almost immediately by 
 his slam at the front door, and his usual clamor 
 on the stairs. He had a bottle under his arm,
 
 THE GOLD BAG 117 
 
 rightly surmising that I had been forbidden 
 stimulant, and a large box of cigarettes in his 
 pocket, suspecting my deprivation. 
 
 "Well," he said cheerfully. "How did you 
 sleep after keeping me up half the night?" 
 
 I slid my hand around: the purse was well 
 covered. 
 
 "Have it now, or wait till I get the cork out?" 
 he rattled on. 
 
 "I don't want anything," I protested. "I 
 wish you wouldn't be so darned cheerful, 
 Richey." He stopped whistling to stare at me. 
 
 " *I am saddest when I sing !' " he quoted unc 
 tuously. "It's pure reaction, Lollie. Yesterday 
 the sky was low: I was digging for my best 
 friend. To-day he lies before me, his peevish 
 self. Yesterday I thought the notes were 
 burned : to-day I look forward to a good cross 
 country chase, and with luck we will draw.' 1 
 His voice changed suddenly. "Yesterday shft 
 was in Seal Harbor. To-day she is here." 
 
 "Here in Washington?" I asked, as naturally 
 as I could. 
 
 "Yes. Going to stay a week or two/'
 
 118 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Oh, I had a little hen and she had a wooden leg 
 And nearly every morning she used to lay am 
 egg" 
 
 \ 
 "Will you stop that racket, Rich! It's the 
 
 real thing this time, I suppose?" 
 
 "She's the best little chicken that we have on the 
 
 farm 
 And another little drink won't do u anj 
 
 harm" 
 
 he finished, twisting out the corkscrew. Thea 
 he came over and sat down on the bed. 
 
 "Well," he said judicially, "since you drag it 
 from me, I think perhaps it is. You you're 
 such a confirmed woman-hater that I hardly 
 knew how you would take it." 
 
 "Nothing of the sort," I denied testily. "Be 
 cause a man reaches the age of thirty without 
 making maudlin love to every " 
 
 "I've taken to long country rides," he went 
 on reflectively, without listening to me, "and 
 yesterday I ran over a sheep ; nearly went into 
 the ditch. But there's a Providence that watches
 
 THE GOLD BAG 119 
 
 over fools and lovers, and just now I know 
 darned well that I'm one, and I have a sneaking 
 idea I'm both." 
 
 "You are both," I said with disgust. "If you 
 can be rational for one moment, I wish you 
 would tell me why that man Sullivan called me 
 over the telephone yesterday morning." 
 
 "Probably hadn't yet discovered the Bron- 
 son notes providing you hold to your theory 
 that the theft was incidental to the murder. 
 May have wanted his own clothes again, or to 
 thank you for yours. Search me: I can't think 
 of anything else." The doctor came in just 
 then. 
 
 As I said before, I think a lot of my doctor 
 when I am ill. He is a young man, with an 
 air of breezy self-confidence and good humor. 
 He looked directly past the bottle, which is a 
 very valuable accomplishment, and shook hands 
 . with McKnight until I could put the cigarettes 
 under the bedclothes. He had interdicted to 
 bacco. Then he sat down beside the bed and felt 
 around the bandages with hands as gentle as a 
 baby's.
 
 120 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Pretty good shape," he said. "How did you 
 sleep ?" 
 
 "Oh, occasionally," I replied. "I would like 
 to sit up, doctor." 
 
 "Nonsense. Take a rest while you have an 
 excuse for it. I wish to thunder I could stay 
 in bed for a day or so. I was up all night." 
 
 "Have a drink," McKnight said, pushing 
 over the bottle. 
 
 "Twins !" The doctor grinned. 
 
 "Have two drinks." 
 
 But the medical man refused. 
 
 "I wouldn't even wear a champagne-colored 
 necktie during business hours," he explained. 
 n 'By the way, I had another case from your ac 
 cident, Mr. Blakeley, late yesterday afternoon. 
 Under the tongue, please." He stuck a ther 
 mometer in my mouth. 
 
 I had a sudden terrible vision of the amateur 
 detective coming to light, note-book, cheerful 
 impertinence and incriminating data. "A small 
 man ?" I demanded, "gray hair " 
 
 "Keep your mouth closed," the doctor said 
 peremptorily. "No. A woman, with a frac-
 
 THE GOLD BAG 
 
 tured skull. Beautiful case. Van Kirk was up 
 to his eyes and sent for me. Hemorrhage, right- 
 sided paralysis, irregular pupils all the trim 
 mings. Worked for two hours." 
 
 "Did she recover?" McKnight put in. He 
 was examining the doctor with a new awe. 
 
 "She lifted her right arm before I left," the 
 doctor finished cheerily, "so the operation was a 
 success, even if she should die." 
 
 "Good Heavens," McKnight broke in, "and I 
 thought you were just an ordinary mortal, like 
 the rest of us ! Let me touch you for luck. Was 
 she pretty?" 
 
 "Yes, and young. Had a wealth of bronze- 
 colored hair. Upon my soul, I hated to cut it." 
 
 McKnight and I exchanged glances. 
 
 "Do you know her name, doctor?" I asked. 
 
 "No. The nurses said her clothes cam* from 
 a Pittsburg tailor." 
 
 "She is not conscious, I suppose?" 
 
 "No ; she may be, to-morrow or in a week." 
 
 He looked at the thermometer, murmured 
 something about liquid diet, avoiding my eye 
 Mrs. Klopton was broiling a chop at the time
 
 123 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 and took his departure, humming cheerfully as 
 he went down-stairs. McKnight looked after 
 him wistfully. 
 
 "Jove, I wish I had his constitution," he ex 
 claimed. "Neither nerves nor heart! What a 
 chauffeur he would make !" 
 
 But I was serious. 
 
 "I have an idea," I said grimly, "that this 
 small matter of the murder is going to come up 
 again, and that your uncle will be in the deuce 
 of a fix if it does. If that woman is going to 
 die, somebody ought to be around to take her 
 deposition. She knows a lot, if she didn't do 
 it herself. I wish you would go down to the 
 telephone and get the hospital. Find out her 
 name, and if she is conscious." 
 
 McKnight went under protest. "I haven't 
 much time," he said, looking at his watch. "I'm 
 to meet Mrs. West and Alison at one. I want 
 you to know them, Lollie. You would like the 
 mother." 
 
 "Why not the daughter?" I inquired. I 
 touched the little gold bag under the pillow. 
 
 "Well," he said judicially, "you've always dfc-
 
 THE GOLD BAG 
 
 lared against the immaturity and romantic non 
 sense of very young women " 
 
 "I never said anything of the sort," I retorted 
 furiously. 
 
 " 'There is more satisfaction to be had out of 
 a good saddle horse !' " he quoted me. " 'Mora 
 excitement out of a polo pony, and as for the 
 eternal matrimonial chase, give me instead a 
 good stubble, a fox, some decent hounds and a 
 hunter, and I'll show you the real joys of the 
 chase!'" 
 
 "For Heaven's sake, go down to the telephone, 
 you make my head ache," I said savagely. 
 
 I hardly know what prompted me to take out 
 the gold purse and look at it. It was an iin- 
 becile thing to do call it impulse, sentimen 
 tality, what you wish. I brought it out, one 
 eye on the door, for Mrs. Klopton has a ready 
 eye and a noiseless shoe. But the house was 
 quiet. Down-stairs McKnight was flirting with 
 the telephone central and there was an odor of 
 boneset tea in the air. I think Mrs. Kloptou 
 was fascinated out of her theories by the "bone- 
 Bet" in connection with the fractured arm.
 
 124 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 Anyhow, I held up the bag and looked at it. 
 It must have been unfastened, for the next in 
 stant there was an avalanche on the snowfield of 
 the counterpane some money, a wisp of a hand 
 kerchief, a tiny booklet with thin leaves, covered 
 with a powdery substance and a necklace. I 
 drew myself up slowly and stared at the neck 
 lace. 
 
 It was one of the semi-barbaric affairs that 
 women are wearing now, a heavy pendant o 
 gold chains and carved cameos, swung from a 
 thin neck chain of the same metal. The neck 
 lace was broken: in three places the links were 
 pulled apart and the cameos swung loose and 
 partly detached. But it was the supporting 
 chain that held my eye and fascinated with its 
 sinister suggestion. Three inches of it had been 
 snapped off, and as well as I knew anything on 
 earth, I knew that the bit of chain that the ama 
 teur detective had found, blood-stain and all, 
 belonged just there. 
 
 And there was no one I could talk to about it, 
 no one to tell me how hideously absurd it was, 
 no one to give me a slap and tell me there are
 
 THE GOLD BAG 185 
 
 tons of fine gold chains made every year, or to 
 point out the long arm of coincidence! 
 
 With my one useful hand I fumbled the 
 things back into the bag and thrust it deep out 
 of sight among the pillows. Then I lay back 
 in a cold perspiration. What connection had 
 Alison West with this crime? Why had she 
 stared so at the gun-metal cigarette case that 
 morning on the train? What had alarmed her 
 so at the farm-house? What had she taken back 
 to the gate? Why did she wish she had not 
 escaped from the wreck? And last, in Heaven's 
 name, how did a part of her necklace become 
 torn off and covered with blood? 
 
 Down-stairs McKnight was still at the tele 
 phone, and amusing himself with Mrs. Klopton 
 in the interval of waiting. 
 
 "Why did he come home in a gray suit, when 
 he went away in a blue?" he repeated. "Well, 
 wrecks are queer things, Mrs. Klopton. The 
 suit may have turned gray with fright. Or per 
 haps wrecks do as queer stunts as lightning. 
 Friend of mine once was struck by lightning; 
 he and the caddy had taken refuge under a tree.
 
 126 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 After the flash, when they recovered conscious 
 ness, there was my friend in the caddy's clothes, 
 and the caddy In his. And as my friend was a 
 large man and the caddy a very small boy " 
 
 McKnight's story was interrupted by the in 
 dignant slam of the dining-room door. He was 
 obliged to wait some time, and even his eternal 
 cheerfulness was ebbing when he finally got the 
 hospital. 
 
 "Is Doctor Van Kirk there?" he asked. "Not 
 there? Well, can you tell me how the patient 
 is whom Doctor Williams, from Washington, 
 operated on last night? Well, I'm glad of that. 
 Is she conscious? Do you happen to know her 
 name? Yes, I'll hold the line." 
 
 There was a long pause, then McKnight'a 
 voice : 
 
 "Hello yes. Thank you very much. Good- 
 by." 
 
 He came up-stairs, two steps at a time. 
 
 "Look here," he said, bursting into the room, 
 "there may be something in your theory, after 
 all. The woman's name it may be a coinci 
 dence, but it's curious her name is Sullivan."
 
 THE GOLD BAG 17 
 
 **What did I tell you ?" I said, sitting up sud 
 denly in bed. "She's probably a sister of that 
 scoundrel in lower seven, and she was afraid of 
 what he might do." 
 
 "Well, I'll go there some day soon. She's not 
 conscious yet. In the meantime, the only thing 
 I can do is to keep an eye, through a detective^ 
 on the people who try to approach Bronson, 
 We'll have the case continued, anyhow, in the 
 hope that the stolen notes will sooner or later turn 
 up." 
 
 "Confound this arm," I said, paying for mj 
 energy with some excruciating throbs. "There's 
 so much to be looked after, and here I am, ban 
 daged, splinted, and generally useless. It'i a 
 beastly shame." 
 
 "Don't forget that I am here," said Ma- 
 Knight pompously. "And another thing, when 
 you feel this way just remember there are twp 
 less desirable places where you might be. One> 
 is jail, and the other is " He strummed on an 
 imaginary harp, with devotional eyes. 
 
 But McKnight's light-heartedness jarred OB 
 me that morning. I lay and frowned under my
 
 128 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 helplessness. When by chance I touched the 
 little gold bag, it seemed to scorch my fingers. 
 Richey, finding me unresponsive, left to keep his 
 luncheon engagement with Alison West. As he 
 clattered down the stairs, I turned my back to 
 the morning sunshine and abandoned myself to 
 misery. By what strain on her frayed nerves 
 was Alison West keeping up, I wondered? Un 
 der the circumstances, would I dare to return the 
 bag? Knowing that I had it, would she hate 
 me for my knowledge? Or had I exaggerated 
 the importance of the necklace, and in that case 
 had she forgotten me already? 
 
 But McKnight had not gone, after all. I 
 heard him coming back, his voice preceding him, 
 and I groaned with irritation. 
 
 "Wake up !" he called. "Somebody's sent you 
 a lot of flowers. Please hold the box, Mrs. Klop- 
 ton ; I'm going out to be run down by an auto 
 mobile." 
 
 I roused to feeble interest. My brother's wife 
 is punctilious about such things; all the new 
 babies in the family have silver rattles, and all 
 the sick people flowers.
 
 THE GOLD BAG 129 
 
 McKnight pulled up an armful of roses, and 
 held them out to me. 
 
 "Wonder who they're from?" he said, fum- 
 jbling in the box for a card. "There's, no name 
 yes, here's one." 
 
 He held it up and read it with exasperating 
 slowness. 
 
 " 'Best wishes for an early recovery. 
 
 A COMPANION IN MISFORTUNE.' 
 
 "Well, what do you know about that !" he ex 
 claimed. "That's something you didn't tell me, 
 Lollie." 
 
 "It was hardly worth mentioning," I said 
 mendaciously, with my heart beating until I 
 could hear it. She had not forgotten, after all. 
 
 McKnight took a bud and fastened it in his 
 buttonhole. I'm afraid I was not especially 
 pleasant about it. They were her roses, and 
 anyhow, they were meant for me. Richey left 
 very soon, with an irritating final grin at the 
 box. 
 
 "Good-by, sir woman-hater," he jeered at me 
 from the door.
 
 130 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 So he wore one of the roses she had sent me, 
 to luncheon with her, and I lay back among my 
 pillows and tried to remember that it was his 
 game, anyhow, and that I wasn't even drawing 
 cards. To remember that, and to forget the 
 broken necklace under my head!
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 FADED KOSES 
 
 I WAS in the house for a week. Much of 
 that time I spent in composing and de 
 stroying letters of thanks to Miss West, and 
 in growling at the doctor. McKnight dropped 
 in daily, but he was less cheerful than usual. 
 Now and then I caught him eying me as if he 
 had something to say, but whatever it was he 
 kept it to himself. Once during the week he 
 went to Baltimore and saw the woman in the 
 hospital there. From the description I had little 
 difficulty in recognizing the young woman who 
 had been with the murdered man in Pittsburg. 
 But she was still unconscious. An elderly aunt 
 had appeared, a gaunt person in black, who sat 
 around like a buzzard on a fence, according to 
 McKnight, and wept, in a mixed figure, into a 
 damp handkerchief. 
 
 131
 
 132 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 On the last day of my imprisonment he 
 stopped in to thrash out a case that was com 
 ing up in court the next day, and to play a 
 game of double solitaire with me. 
 
 "Who won the ball game ?" I asked. 
 
 "We were licked. Ask me something pleas 
 ant. Oh, by the way, Bronson's out to-day." 
 
 "I'm glad I'm not on his bond," I said pes 
 simistically. "He'll clear out." 
 
 "Not he." McKnight pounced on my ace. 
 "He's no fool. Don't you suppose he knows 
 you took those notes to Pittsburg? The papers 
 were full of it. And he knows you escaped with 
 your life and a broken arm from the wreck. 
 What do we do next? The Commonwealth con 
 tinues the case. A deaf man on a dark night 
 would know those notes are missing." 
 
 "Don't play so fast," I remonstrated. "I 
 have only one arm to your two. Who is trailing 
 Bronson? Did you try to get Johnson?" 
 
 "I asked for him, but he had some work on 
 hand." 
 
 "The murder's evidently a dead io&tie," I 
 reflected. "No, I'm not joking. The wreck
 
 FADED ROSES 133 
 
 destroyed all the evidence. But I'm firmly con 
 vinced those notes will be offered, either to us 
 
 or to Bronson very soon. Johnson's a black- 
 | 
 guard, but he's a good detective. He could 
 
 make his fortune as a game dog. What's he 
 doing?" 
 
 McKnight put down his cards, and rising, 
 went to the window. !A.s he held the curtain back 
 his customary grin looked a little forced. 
 
 "To tell you the truth, Lollie," he said, "for 
 the last two days he has been watching a well- 
 known Washington attorney named Lawrence 
 Blakeley. He's across the street now." 
 
 It took a moment for me to grasp what he 
 meant. 
 
 "Why, it's ridiculous," I asserted. "What 
 would they trail me for ? Go over and tell John 
 son to get out of there, or I'll pot at him with 
 
 my revolver." 
 
 \ 
 
 "You can tell him that yourself." McKnight 
 paused and bent forward. "Hello, here's a vis 
 itor ; little man with string halt." 
 
 "I won't see him," I said firmly. "I've been 
 bothered enough with reporters."
 
 134 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 We listened together to Mrs. Klopton's ex 
 postulating tones in the lower hall and the creak 
 of the boards as she came heavily up the stairs. 
 She had a piece of paper in her hand torn from i 
 a pocket account-book, and on it was the name, 
 "Mr. Wilson Budd Hotchkiss. Important busi 
 ness." 
 
 "Oh, well, show him up," I said resignedly. 
 "You'd better put those cards away, Richey. I 
 fancy it's the rector of the church around the 
 corner." 
 
 But when the door opened to admit a curi 
 ously alert little man, adjusting his glasses with 
 nervous fingers, my face must have shown my 
 dismay. 
 
 It was the amateur detective of the Ontario! 
 
 I shook hands without enthusiasm. Here was 
 the one survivor of the wrecked car who could 
 do me any amount of harm. There was no hope 
 that he had forgotten any of the incriminating 
 details. In fact, he held in his hand the very 
 note-book which contained them. 
 
 His manner was restrained, but it was evident 
 he was highly excited. I introduced him to Mo-
 
 FADED ROSES 135 
 
 Knight, who has the imagination I lack, and who 
 placed him at once, mentally. 
 
 "I only learned yesterday that you had been 
 ' er saved," he said rapidly. "Terrible acci 
 dent unspeakable. Dream about it all night 
 and think about it all day. Broken arm?" 
 
 "No. He just wears the splint to be different 
 from other people," McKnight drawled lazily. 
 I glared at him : there was nothing to be gained 
 by antagonizing the little man. 
 
 "Yes, a fractured humerus, which isn't as 
 funny as it sounds." 
 
 "Humerus humorous! Pretty good," he 
 cackled. "I must say you keep up your spirits 
 pretty well, considering everything." 
 
 "You seem to have escaped injury," I parried. 
 He was fumbling for something in his pockets. 
 
 "Yes, I escaped," he replied abstractedly. 
 "Remarkable thing, too. I haven't a doubt I 
 would have broken my neck, but I landed on 
 you'll never guess what! I landed head first on 
 the very pillow which was under inspection at 
 the time of the wreck. You remember, don't 
 you? Where did I put that package?"
 
 136 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 He found it finally and opened it on a table, 
 displaying 1 with some theatricalism a rectangular 
 piece of muslin and a similar patch of striped 
 ticking. 
 
 "You recognize it?" he said. "The stains, 
 you see, and the hole made by the dirk. I tried 
 to bring away the entire pillow, but they 
 thought I was stealing it, and made me give it 
 up." 
 
 Richey touched the pieces gingerly. "By 
 George," he said, "and you carry that around 
 in your pocket! What if you should mistake 
 it for your handkerchief?" 
 
 But Mr. Hotchkiss was not listening. He 
 stood bent somewhat forward, leaning over the 
 table, and fixed me with his ferret-like eyes. 
 
 "Have you seen the evening papers, Mr. 
 Blakeley?" he inquired. 
 
 I glanced to where they lay unopened, and 
 shook my head. 
 
 "Then I have a disagreeable task," he said 
 with evident relish. "Of course, you had con 
 sidered the matter of the man Harrington's 
 death closed, after the wreck. I did myself.
 
 FADED ROSES 137 
 
 As far as I was concerned, I meant to 
 let it remain so. There were no other survivors, 
 at least none that I knew of, and in spite of cir 
 cumstances, there were a number of points in 
 your favor." 
 
 "Thank you," I put in with a sarcasm that 
 was lost on him. 
 
 "I verified your identity, for instance, as soon 
 as I recovered from the shock. Also I found 
 on inquiring of your tailor that you invariably 
 wore dark clothing." 
 
 McKnight came forward threateningly. "Who 
 are you, anyhow?" he demanded. "And how is 
 this any business of yours?" Mr. Hotchkiss 
 was entirely unruffled. 
 
 "I have a minor position here," he said, reach 
 ing for a visiting card. "I am a very small 
 patch on the seat of government, sir." 
 
 McKnight muttered something about certain 
 offensive designs against the said patch and re 
 tired grumbling to the window. Our visitor was 
 opening the paper with a tremendous expendi 
 ture of energy. 
 
 "Here it is. Listen." He read rapidly aloud :
 
 "The Pittsburg police have sent to Baltimore 
 two detectives who are looking up the survivors 
 of the ill-fated Washington Flier. It has 
 transpired that Simon Harrington, the Wood 
 Street merchant of that city, was not killed in 
 the wreck, but was murdered in his berth the 
 night preceding the accident. Shortly before 
 the collision, John Flanders, the conductor of 
 the Flier, sent this telegram to the chief of po 
 lice: 
 
 " 'Body of Simon Harrington found stabbed 
 in his berth, lower ten, Ontario, at six-thirty 
 this morning. JOHN FLANDERS, Conductor.' 
 
 "It is hoped that the survivors of the wrecked 
 car Ontario will be found, to tell what they know 
 of the discovery of the crime. 
 
 "Mr. John Gilmore, head of the steel company 
 for which Mr. Harrington was purchasing 
 agent, has signified his intention of sifting the 
 matter to the bottom." 
 
 "So you see,** Hotchkiss concluded, "there's 
 trouble brewing. You and I are the only sur 
 vivors of that unfortunate car."
 
 FADED ROSES 13f 
 
 I did not contradict him, but I knew of two 
 others, at least: Alison West, and the woman 
 we had left beside the road that morning, bab 
 bling incoherently, her black hair tumbling overf 
 her white face. 
 
 "Unless we can find the man who occupied 
 lower seven," I suggested. 
 
 "I have already tried and failed. To find 
 him would not clear you, of course, unless we 
 could establish some connection between him and 
 the murdered man. It is the only thing I see, 
 however. I have learned this much," Hotchkiss 
 concluded: "Lower seven was reserved from 
 Cresson." 
 
 Cresson ! Where Alison West and Mrs. Cur 
 tis had taken the train ! 
 
 McKnight came forward and suddenly held 
 out his hand. "Mr. Hotchkiss," he said, "I 
 I'm sorry if I have been offensive. I thought 
 when you came in, that, like the Irishman and ( 
 the government, you were 'forninst' us. If you 
 will put those cheerful relics out of sight some 
 where, I should be glad to have you dine with 
 me at the Incubator." (His name for his backe-
 
 140 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 lor apartment.) "Compared with Johnson, you 
 are the great original protoplasm." 
 
 The strength of this was lost on Hotchkiss, 
 | but the invitation was clear. They went out to 
 gether, and from my window I watched them get 
 into McKnight's car. It was raining, and at 
 the corner the Cannonball skidded. Across the 
 street my detective, Johnson, looked after them 
 with his crooked smile. As he turned up his 
 collar he saw me, and lifted his hat. 
 
 I left the window and sat down in the growing 
 dusk. So the occupant of lower seven had got 
 on the car at Cresson, probably with Alison 
 West and her companion. There was some one 
 she cared about enough to shield. I went ir 
 ritably to the door and summoned Mrs. Klopton. 
 
 "You may throw out those roses," I said, 
 without looking at her. "They are quite dead." 
 
 "They have been quite dead for three days," 
 she retorted spitefully. "Euphemia said you 
 threatened to dismiss her if she touched thenx"
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE TKAP-DOOR 
 
 BY Sunday evening, a week after the wreck, 
 ray forced inaction had goaded me to fren 
 zy. The very sight of Johnson across the street 
 or lurking, always within sight of the house, 
 kept me constantly exasperated. It was on that 
 iday that things began to come to a focus, a 
 burning-glass of events that seemed to center on 
 me. 
 
 I dined alone that evening in no cheerful 
 frame of mind. There had been a polo game the 
 iday before and I had lent a pony, which is al 
 ways a bad thing to do. And she had wrenched 
 her shoulder, besides helping to lose the game.. 
 There was no one in town : the temperature was 
 ninety and climbing, and my left hand per 
 sistently cramped under its bandage.
 
 149 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 Mrs. Klopton herself saw me served, my bread 
 buttered and cut in tidbits, my meat ready for 
 my fork. She hovered around me maternally, 
 obviously trying to cheer me. 
 
 "The paper says still warmer," she ventured. 
 A The thermometer is ninety-two now." 
 
 "And this coffee is two hundred and fifty," I 
 aid, putting down my cup. "Where is Eu- 
 phemia? I haven't seen her around, or heard 
 a dish smash all day." 
 
 "Euphemia is in bed," Mrs. Klopton said 
 gravely. "Is your meat cut small enough, Mr. 
 Lawrence?" Mrs. Klopton can throw more mys 
 tery into an ordinary sentence than any one I 
 know. She can say, "Are your sheets damp, 
 sir?" And I can tell from her tone that the 
 house across the street has been robbed, or that 
 my left hand neighbor has appendicitis. So now 
 I looked up and asked the question she was wait 
 ing for. 
 
 "What's the matter with Euphemia?" I in 
 quired idly. 
 
 "Frightened into her bed," Mrs. Klopton said 
 in a stage whisper. "She's had three hot water
 
 THE TRAP-BOOK 14* 
 
 fcottles and she hasn't done a thing all day but 
 moan." 
 
 "She oughtn't to take hot water bottles," I 
 said in my severest tone. "One would make me 
 moan. You need not wait, I'll ring if I need 
 anything." 
 
 Mrs. Klopton sailed to the door, where she 
 stopped and wheeled indignantly. "I only hope 
 you won't laugh on the wrong side of your face 
 some morning, Mr. Lawrence," she declared, 
 with Christian fortitude. "But I warn you, I 
 am going to have the police watch that house 
 next door." 
 
 I was half inclined to tell her that both it and 
 we were under police surveillance at that mo 
 ment. But I like Mrs. Klopton, in spite of the 
 fact that I make her life a torment for her, so 
 I refrained. 
 
 "Last night, when the paper said it was go-, 
 ing to storm, I sent Euphemia to the roof to 
 bring the rugs in. Eliza had slipped out, al 
 though it was her evening in. Euphemia went 
 up to the roof it was eleven o'clock and soon 
 I heard her running down-stairs crying. When
 
 144. THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 she got to my room she just folded up on the 
 floor. She said there was a black figure sitting 
 on the parapet of the house next door the 
 empty house and that when she appeared it 
 rose and waved long black arms at her and spit 
 like a cat." 
 
 I had finished my dinner and was lighting a 
 cigarette. "If there was any one up there, 
 which I doubt, they probably sneezed," I sug 
 gested. "But if you feel uneasy, I'll take a look 
 around the roof to-night before I turn in. As 
 far as Euphemia goes, I wouldn't be uneasy 
 about her doesn't she always have an attack 
 of some sort when Eliza rings in an extra even 
 ing on her?" 
 
 So I made a superficial examination of the 
 window locks that night, visiting parts of the 
 house that I had not seen since I bought it. 
 Then I went to the roof. Evidently it had not 
 been intended for any purpose save to cover the 
 house, for unlike the houses around, there was 
 no staircase. A ladder and a trap-door led to 
 it, and it required some nice balancing on my 
 part to get up with my useless arm. I made it,
 
 THE TRAP-DOOR 145 
 
 however, and found this unexplored part of my 
 domain rather attractive. It was cooler than 
 down-stairs, and I sat on the brick parapet and 
 
 [smoked my final cigarette. The roof of the 
 empty house adjoined mine along the back wing, 
 but investigation showed that the trap-door 
 across the low dividing wall was bolted under 
 neath. 
 
 There was nothing out of the ordinary any 
 where, and so I assured Mrs. Klopton. Need 
 less to say, I did not tell her that I had left the 
 trap-door open, to see if it would improve the 
 temperature of the house. I went to bed at 
 midnight, merely because there was nothing else 
 to do. I turned on the night lamp at the head 
 of my bed, and picked up a volume of Shaw at 
 random (it was Arms and the Man, and I re 
 member thinking grimly that I was a good bit 
 of a chocolate cream soldier myself), and pre- 
 
 ' pared to go to sleep. Shaw always puts me to 
 sleep. I have no apologies to make for what 
 occurred that night, and not even an explana 
 tion that I am sure of. I did a foolish thing 
 under impulse, and I have not been sorry.
 
 146 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 It was something after two when the door 
 bell rang. It rang quickly, twice. I got up 
 drowsily, for the maids and Mrs. Klopton al 
 ways lock themselves beyond reach of the belli 
 at night, and put on a dressing-gown. The 
 bell rang again on my way down-stairs. I lit 
 the hall light and opened the door. I was wide 
 awake now, and I saw that it was Johnson. His 
 bald head shone in the light his crooked mouth 
 was twisted in a smile. 
 
 "Good Heavens, man," I said irritably. 
 "Don't you ever go home and go to bed?" 
 
 He closed the vestibule door behind him and 
 cavalierly turned out the light. Our dialogue 
 was sharp, staccato. 
 
 "Have you a key to the empty house next 
 door?" he demanded. "Somebody's in there, 
 and the latch is caught." 
 
 "The houses are alike. The key to this door 
 may fit. Did you see them go in ?" 
 
 "No. There's a light moving up from room 
 to room. I saw something like it last night, and 
 I have been watching. The patrolman reported 
 queer doings there a week or so ago."
 
 THE TRAP-DOOR 147 
 
 *A light P* I exclaimed. "Do you mean that 
 you " 
 
 "Very likely," he said grimly. "Have you a 
 revolver ?" 
 
 "All kinds in the gun rack," I replied, and 
 going into the den, I came back with a Smith 
 and Wesson. "I'm not much use," I explained, 
 "with this arm, but I'll do what I can. There 
 maj' be somebody there. The servants here have 
 been uneasy." 
 
 Johnson planned the campaign. He sug 
 gested on account of my familiarity with the 
 roof, that I go there and cut off escape in that 
 direction. "I have Robison out there now the 
 patrolman on the beat," he said. "He'll watch 
 below and you above, while I search the house. 
 Be as quiet as possible." 
 
 I was rather amused. I put on some clothes 
 and felt my way carefully up the stairs, the 
 revolver swinging free in my pocket, my hand 
 on the rail. At the foot of the ladder I stopped 
 and looked up. Above me there was a gray 
 rectangle of sky dotted with stars. It oc 
 curred to me that with my one serviceable hand
 
 148 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 holding the ladder, I was hardly in a position 
 to defend myself, that I was about to hoist a 
 body that I am rather careful of into a danger 
 I couldn't see and wasn't particularly keen about 
 anyhow. I don't mind saying that the seconds 
 it took me to scramble up the ladder were among 
 the most unpleasant that I recall. 
 
 I got to the top, however, without incident. 
 I could see fairly well after the darkness of the 
 house beneath, but there was nothing suspicious 
 in sight. The roofs, separated by two feet 
 of brick wall, stretched around me, unbroken 
 save by an occasional chimney. I went very 
 softly over to the other trap, the one belonging 
 to the suspected house. It was closed, but I 
 imagined I could hear Johnson's footsteps 
 ascending heavily. Then even that was gone. 
 A near-by clock struck three as I stood waiting. 
 I examined my revolver then, for the first time, 
 and found it was empty ! 
 
 I had been rather skeptical until now. I had 
 had the usual tolerant attitude of the man who is 
 summoned from his bed to search for burglars, 
 combined with the artificial courage of firearms.
 
 THE TRAP-DOOR 149 
 
 With the discovery of my empty gun, I felt 
 like a man on the top of a volcano in lively erup 
 tion. Suddenly I found myself staring incredu 
 lously at the trap-door at my feet. I had 
 examined it early in the evening and found it 
 bolted. Did I imagine it, or had it raised about 
 an inch? Wasn't it moving slowly as I looked? 
 No, I am not a hero: I was startled almost into 
 a panic. I had one arm, and whoever was rais 
 ing that trap-door had two. My knees had a 
 queer inclination to bend the wrong way. 
 
 Johnson's footsteps were distinct enough, but 
 he was evidently far below. The trap, raised 
 perhaps two inches now, remained stationary. 
 There was no sound from beneath it: once I 
 thought I heard two or three gasping respira 
 tions: I am not sure they were not my own. I 
 wanted desperately to stand on one leg at a time 
 and hold the other up out of focus of a possible 
 ' revolver. 
 
 I did not see the hand appear. There was 
 nothing there, and then it was there, clutching 
 the frame of the trap. I did the only thing I 
 could think of ; I put my foot on it !
 
 150 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 There was not a sound from beneath. The 
 next moment I was kneeling and had clutched 
 the wrist just above the hand. After a second's 
 struggle, the arm was still. With something, 
 real to face, I was myself again. 
 
 "Don't move, or I'll stand on the trap and 
 break your arm," I panted. What else could I 
 threaten? I couldn't shoot, I couldn't even 
 ght. "Johnson!" I called. 
 
 And then I realized the thing that stayed with 
 me for a month, the thing I can not think of 
 even now without a shudder. The hand lay ice 
 cold, strangely quiescent. Under my fingers, 
 an artery was beating feebly. The wrist was as 
 
 slender as 1 held the hand to the light. Then 
 
 I let it drop. 
 
 "Good Lord," I muttered, and remained on 
 my knees, staring at the spot where the hand 
 had been. It was gone now: there was a faint,j 
 rustle in the darkness below, and then silence. 
 
 I held up my own hand in the starlight and 
 stared at a long scratch in the palm. *'A 
 woman!" I said to myself stupidly. "By aH 
 that's ridiculous, a woman !"
 
 THE TRAP-DOOR 
 
 Johnson was striking matches below and 
 swearing softly to himself. "How the devil do 
 you get to the roof?" he called. "I think I've 
 broken my nose!" 
 
 He found the ladder after a short search and 
 stood at the bottom, looking up at me. "Well, 
 I suppose you haven't seen him?" he inquired. 
 "There rre enough darned cubbyholes in thia 
 house to hide a patrol wagon load of thieves." 
 He lighted a fresh match. "Hello, here's an 
 other door !" 
 
 By the sound of his diminishing footsteps I 
 supposed it was a rear staircase. He came up 
 again in ten minutes or so, this time with the 
 policeman. 
 
 "He's gone, all right," he said ruefully. "If 
 you'd been attending to your business, Robison, 
 you'd have watched the back door." 
 
 "I'm not twins." Robison was surly. 
 
 "Well," I broke in, as cheerfully as I could, 
 "if you are through with this jolly little affair, 
 and can get down my ladder without having my 
 housekeeper ring the burglar alarm, I have some 
 good Monongahela whisky eh ?"
 
 152 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 They came without a second invitation across 
 the roof, and with them safely away from the 
 house I breathed more freely. Down in the den 
 
 I fulfilled my promise, which Johnson drank to 
 
 * 
 
 the toast, "Coming through the rye." He ex 
 amined my gun rack with the eye of a connois 
 seur, and even when he was about to go he cast 
 a loving eye back at the weapons. 
 
 "Ever been in the army ?" he inquired. 
 
 "No," I said with a bitterness that he noticed 
 but failed to comprehend. "I'm a chocolate 
 cream soldier you don't read Shaw, I suppose. 
 Johnson ?" 
 
 "Never heard of him," the detective said in 
 differently. "Well, good night, Mr. Blakeley. 
 Much obliged." At the door he hesitated and 
 coughed. 
 
 "I suppose you understand, Mr. Blakeley," 
 he said awkwardly, "that this er surveillance 
 is all in the day's work. I don't like it, but it's 
 duty. Every man to his duty, sir." 
 
 "Sometime when you are in an open mood? 
 Johnson," I returned, "you can explain why I 
 am being watched at all."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE CINEMATOGRAPH. 
 
 ON Monday I went out for the first time. I 
 did not go to the office. I wanted to walk. 
 I thought fresh air and exercise would drive 
 away the blue devils that had me by the throat. 
 McKnight insisted on a long day in his car, but 
 I refused. 
 
 "I don't know why not," he said sulkily. <C I 
 can't walk. I haven't walked two consecutive 
 blocks in three years. Automobiles have made 
 legs mere ornaments and some not even that. 
 We could have Johnson out there chasing us 
 over the country at five dollars an hour !" 
 
 "He can chase us just as well at five miles an 
 hour," I said. "But what gets me, McKnight, 
 is why I am under surveillance at all. How do 
 the police know / was accused of that thing?" 
 153
 
 154 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "The young lady who sent the flowers she 
 isn't likely to talk, is she ?" 
 
 "No. That is, I didn't say it was a lady." I 
 groaned as I tried to get my splinted arm into a 
 coat. "Anyhow, she didn't tell," I finished with 
 conviction, and McKnight laughed. 
 
 It had rained in the early morning, and Mrs. 
 Klopton predicted more showers. In fact, so firm 
 was her belief and so determined her eye that I 
 took the umbrella she proffered me. 
 
 "Never mind," I said. "We can leave it next 
 door ; I have a story to tell you, Richey, and it 
 requires proper setting." 
 
 McKnight was puzzled, but he followed nre 
 obediently around to the kitchen entrance of the 
 empty house. It was unlocked, as I had ex 
 pected. While we climbed to the upper floor I 
 retailed the events of the previous night. 
 
 "It's the finest thing I ever heard of," Mc 
 Knight said, staring up at the ladder and the 
 trap. "What a vaudeville skit it would make! 
 Only you ought not to have put your foot on her 
 hand. They don't do it in the best circles.**
 
 THE CINEMATOGRAPH 15i 
 
 I wheeled on him impatiently. 
 
 "You don't understand the situation at all, 
 Richey !" I exclaimed. "What would you say if 
 I tell you it was the hand of a lady? It was 
 covered with rings." 
 
 "A lady !" he repeated. "Why, I'd say it was 
 a darned compromising situation, and that the 
 less you say of it the better. Look here, Law 
 rence, I think you dreamed it. You've been in 
 the house too much. I take it all back: you do 
 need exercise." 
 
 "She escaped through this door, I suppose," 
 I said as patiently as I could. "Evidently down 
 the back staircase. We might as well go down 
 that way." 
 
 "According to the best precedents in these 
 affairs, we should find a glove about here," he 
 said as we started down. But he was more im 
 pressed than he cared to own. He examined the 
 dusty steps carefully, and once, when a bit of, 
 loose plaster fell just behind him, he started like 
 a nervous woman. 
 
 "What I don't understand is why you let her
 
 go," he said, stopping once, puzzled. "You're 
 not usually quixotic." 
 
 "When we get out into the country, Richey," 
 I replied gravely, "I am going to tell you an 
 other story, and if you don't tell me I'm a fool 
 and a craven, on the strength of it, you are no 
 friend of mine." 
 
 We stumbled through the twilight of the stair 
 case into the blackness of the shuttered kitchen. 
 The house had the moldy smell of closed build 
 ings: even on that warm September morning it 
 was damp and chilly. As we stepped into the 
 sunshine McKnight gave a shiver. 
 
 "Now that we are out," he said, "I don't mind 
 telling you that I have been there before. Do 
 you remember the night you left, and the face at 
 the window ?" 
 
 "When you speak of it yes." 
 
 "Well, I was curious about that thing," he 
 went on, as we started up the street, "and I went 
 back. The street door was unlocked, and I ex 
 amined every room. I was Mrs. Klopton's ghost 
 that carried a light, and clumb." 
 
 "Did you find anything?"
 
 THE CINEMATOGRAPH 157 
 
 "Only a clean place rubbed on the window 
 opposite your dressing-room. Splendid view of 
 an untidy interior. If that house is ever occu 
 pied, you'd better put stained glass in that 
 window of yours." 
 
 As we turned the corner I glanced back. Half 
 a block behind us Johnson was moving our way 
 slowly. When he saw me he stopped and pro 
 ceeded with great deliberation to light a cigar. 
 By hurrying, however, he caught the car that 
 we took, and stood unobtrusively on the rear 
 platform. He looked fagged, and absent- 
 mindedly paid our fares, to McKnight's de- 
 light. 
 
 "We will give him a run for his moneys" he 
 declared, as the car moved countryward. "Con 
 ductor, let us off at the muddiest lane you can 
 find." 
 
 At one o'clock, after a six-mile ramble, we 
 entered a small country hotel. We had seen 
 nothing of Johnson for a half hour. At that 
 time he was a quarter of a mile behind us, and 
 losing rapidly. Before we had finished our 
 luncheon he staggered into the inn. One of his
 
 158 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 boots was under his arm, and his whole appear 
 ance was deplorable. He was coated with mud, 
 streaked with perspiration, and he limped as he 
 walked. He chose a table not far from us and 
 ordered Scotch. Beyond touching his hat he 
 paid no attention to us. 
 
 "I'm just getting my second wind," McKnight 
 declared. "How do you feel, Mr. Johnson ? Six 
 or eight miles more and we'll all enjoy our din 
 ners." Johnson put down the glass he had raised 
 to his lips without replying. 
 
 The fact was, however, that I was like John 
 son. I was soft from my week's inaction, and I 
 was pretty well done up. McKnight, who was 
 a well spring of vitality and high spirits, ordered 
 a strange concoction, made of nearly everything 
 in the ba r , and sent it over to the detective, bui 
 JohnsoR refused it. 
 
 "I hate that kind of person," McKnight 
 said pettishly. "Kind of a fellow that thinks 
 you're going to poison his dog if you offer him 
 a bone." 
 
 When we got back to the car line, with John 
 son a draggled and drooping tail to the kite, I
 
 THE CINEMATOGRAPH 159 
 
 was in better spirits. I had told McKnight the 
 story of the three hours just after the wreck; I 
 had not named the girl, of course; she had my 
 promise of secrecy. But I told him everything 
 else. It was a relief to have a fresh mind on it : I 
 had puzzled so much over the incident at the 
 farm-house, and the necklace in the gold bag, 
 that I had lost perspective. 
 
 He had been interested, but inclined to be 
 amused, until I came to the broken chain. Then 
 he had whistled softly. 
 
 "But there are tons of fine gold chains made 
 every year," he said. "Why in the world do you 
 think that the er smeary piece came from 
 that necklace ?" 
 
 I had looked around. Johnson was far be 
 hind, scraping the mud off his feet with a piece 
 of stick. 
 
 "I have the short end of the chain in the seal 
 skin bag," I reminded him. "When I couldn't | 
 sleep this morning I thought I would settle it, 
 one way or the other. It was hell to go along 
 the way I had been doing. And there's no 
 idoubt about it, Rich. It's the same chain."
 
 160 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 We walked along in silence until we caught 
 the car back to town. 
 
 "Well," he said finally, "you know the girl, 
 of course, and I don't. But if you like her and 
 I think myself you're rather hard hit, old man 
 I wouldn't give a whoop about the chain in the 
 gold purse. It's just one of the little coinci 
 dences that hang people now and then. And as 
 for last night if she's the kind of a girl you 
 say she is, and you think she had anything to do 
 with that, you you're addled, that's all. You 
 can depend on it, the lady of the empty house 
 last week is the lady of last night. And yet your 
 train acquaintance was in Altoona at that time." 
 
 Just before we got off the car, I reverted to 
 the subject again. It was never far back in my 
 mind. 
 
 "About the young lady of the train, Rich," 
 I said, with what I suppose was elaborate care 
 lessness, "I don't want you to get a wrong im 
 pression. I am rather unlikely to see her again, 
 but even if I do, I I believe she is already 'be 
 spoke,' or next thing to it." 
 
 He made no reply, but as I opened the door
 
 THE CINEMATOGRAPH 161 
 
 with my latch-key he stood looking up at me 
 from the pavement with his quizzical smile. 
 
 "Love is like the measles," he orated. "The 
 1 older you get it, the worse the attack." 
 
 Johnson did not appear again that day. A 
 small man in a raincoat took his place. The next 
 morning I made my initial trip to the office, the 
 raincoat still on hand. I had a short conference 
 with Miller, the district attorney, at eleven. 
 Bronson was under surveillance, he said, and any 
 attempt to sell the notes to him would probably 
 result in their recovery. In the meantime, as I 
 knew, the Commonwealth had continued the case, 
 in hope of such contingency. 
 
 At noon I left the office and took a veterinarian 
 to see Candida, the injured pony. By one o'clock 
 my first day's duties were performed, and a long 
 Sahara of hot afternoon stretched ahead. Mc- 
 Knight, always glad to escape from the grind, 
 ^suggested a vaudeville, and in sheer ennui I con 
 sented. I could neither ride, drive nor golf, and 
 my own company bored me to distraction. 
 
 "Coolest place in town these days," he de 
 clared. "Electric fans, breezy songs, airy cos-
 
 168 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 tumes. And there's Johnson just behind the 
 coldest proposition in Washington." 
 
 He gravely bought three tickets and presented 
 the detective with one. Then we went in. Hav-if 
 ing lived a normal, busy life, the theater in the 
 afternoon is to me about on a par with ice-cream 
 for breakfast. Up on the stage a very stout 
 woman in short pink skirts, with a smile that 
 McKnight declared looked like a slash in a roll 
 of butter, was singing nasally, with a laborious 
 kick at the end of each verse. Johnson, two 
 rows ahead, went to sleep. McKnight prodded 
 me with his elbow. 
 
 "Look at the first box to the right," he said, in 
 a stage whisper. "I want you to come over at the 
 end of this act." 
 
 It was the first time I had seen her since I put 
 her in the cab at Baltimore. Outwardly I pre 
 sume I was calm, for no one turned to stare at 
 me, but every atom of me cried out at the sight 
 of her. She was leaning, bent forward, lips 
 slightly parted, gazing raptly at the Japanese 
 conjurer who had replaced what McKnight dis 
 respectfully called the Columns of Hercule*.
 
 THE CINEMATOGRAPH 163 
 
 Compared with the draggled lady of the farmr 
 fcouse, she was radiant. 
 
 For that first moment there was nothing but 
 joy at the sight of her. McKnight's touch oa 
 my arm brought me back to reality. 
 
 "Come over and meet them," he said. "That's 
 the cousin Miss West is visiting, Mrs. Dallas." 
 
 But I would not go. After he went I sat there 
 alone, painfully conscious that I was being 
 pointed out and stared at from the box. The 
 abominable Japanese gave way to yet more atro 
 cious performing dogs. 
 
 "How many offers of marriage will the young 
 lady in the box have ?" The dog stopped sagely 
 at 'none', and then pulled out a card that said 
 eight. Wild shouts of glee by the audience. 
 "The fools," I muttered. 
 
 After a little I glanced over. Mrs. Dallas was 
 talking to McKnight, but She was looking 
 straight at me. She was flushed, but more calm 
 than I, and she did not bow. I fumbled for my 
 hat, but the next moment I saw that they were 
 going, and I sat still. When McKnight came 
 Wck he was triumphant.
 
 164 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "I've made an engagement for you," he said. 
 ''Mrs. Dallas asked me to bring you to dinner 
 to-night, and I said I knew you would fall all 
 over yourself to go. You are requested to bring 
 along the broken arm, and any other souvenirs 
 of the wreck that you may possess." 
 
 "I'll do nothing of the sort," I declared, strug 
 gling against my inclination. "I can't even tie 
 my necktie, and I have to have my food cut for 
 me." 
 
 "Oh, that's all right," he said easily. "I'll 
 send Stogie over to fix you up, and Mrs. Dal 
 knows all about the arm. I told her." 
 
 (Stogie is his Japanese factotum, so called 
 because he is lean, a yellowish brown in color, 
 and because he claims to have been shipped into 
 this country in a box. ) 
 
 The Cinematograph was finishing the pro 
 gram. The house was dark and the music had 
 stopped, as it does in the circus just before some 
 body risks his neck at so much a neck in the Dip 
 of Death, or the hundred-foot dive. Then, witH 
 a sort of shock, I saw on the white curtain the 
 announcement :
 
 THE CINEMATOGRAPH 165 
 
 THE NEXT PICTURE 
 
 IS THE DOOMED WASHINGTON FLIER, TAKEN 
 A SHORT DISTANCE FROM THE SCENE OF THE 
 WRECK ON THE FATAL MORNING OF SEP 
 TEMBER TENTH. TWO MILES FARTHER ON 
 IT MET WITH ALMOST COMPLETE ANNIHI 
 LATION. 
 
 I confess to a return of some of the sickening 
 sensations of the wreck ; people around me were 
 leaning forward with tense faces. Then the 
 letters were gone, and I saw a long level stretch 
 of track, even the broken stone between the ties 
 standing out distinctly. Far off under a cloud 
 of smoke a small object was rushing toward us 
 and growing larger as it came. 
 
 Now it was on us, a mammoth in size, with 
 huge drivers and a colossal tender. The engine 
 leaped aside, as if just in time to save us from 
 destruction, with a glimpse of a stooping fireman 
 and a grimy engineer. The long train of sleep 
 ers followed. From a forward vestibule a porter 
 in a white coat waved his hand. The rest of the 
 cars seemed still wrapped in slumber. Withi
 
 166 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 mixed sensations I saw my own car, Ontario, fly 
 past, and then I rose to my feet and gripped 
 McKnight's shoulder. 
 
 On the lowest step of the last car, one foot 
 hanging free, was a man. His black derby hat 
 was pulled well down to keep it from blowing 
 away, and his coat was flying open in the wind. 
 He was swung well out from the car, his free 
 hand gripping a small valise, every muscle tense 
 for a jump. 
 
 "Good God, that's my man !" I said hoarsely, 
 as the audience broke into applause. McKnight 
 half rose: in his seat ahead Johnson stifled a 
 yawn and turned to eye me. 
 
 I dropped into my chair limply, and tried to 
 control my excitement. "The man on the last 
 platform of the train," I said. "He was just 
 about to leap ; I'll swear that was my bag." 
 
 "Could you see his face?" McKnight asked in 
 an undertone. "Would you know him again ?" 
 
 "No. His hat was pulled down and his head 
 was bent. I'm going back to find out where that 
 picture was taken. They say two miles, but if? 
 may have been forty."
 
 THE CINEMATOGRAPH 16T 
 
 The audience, busy with its wraps, had not 
 noticed. Mrs. Dallas and Alison West had gone. 
 In front of us Johnson had dropped his hat and 
 was stooping for it. 
 
 "This way," I motioned to McKnight, and we 
 wheeled into the narrow passage beside us, back 
 of the boxes. At the end there was a door lead 
 ing into the wings, and as we went boldly 
 through I turned the key. 
 
 The final set was being struck, and no one 
 paid any attention to us. Luckily they were 
 similarly indifferent to a banging at the door I 
 had locked, a banging which, I judged, signified 
 Johnson. 
 
 "I guess we've broken up his interference," 
 McKnight chuckled. 
 
 Stage hands were hurrying in every direction; 
 pieces of the side wall of the last drawing-room 
 menaced us ; a switchboard behind us was singing 
 like a tea-kettle. Everywhere we stepped we 
 were in somebody's way. At last we were across, 
 confronting a man in his shirt sleeves, who by 
 dots and dashes of profanity seemed to be direct 
 ing the chaos.
 
 168 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Well ?" he said, wheeling on us. ''What can 
 I do for you?" 
 
 "I would like to ask," I replied, "if you have 
 any idea just where the last cinematograph pic-| 
 ture was taken." 
 
 "Broken board picnickers lake ?" 
 
 "No. The Washington Flier." 
 
 He glanced at my bandaged arm. 
 
 "The announcement says two miles," Mc- 
 Knight put in, "but we should like to know 
 whether it is railroad miles, automobile miles, or 
 policeman miles." 
 
 "I am sorry I can't tell you," he replied, more 
 civilly. "We get those pictures by contract. 
 We don't take them ourselves." 
 
 "Where are the company's offices ?" 
 
 "New York." He stepped forward and 
 grasped a super by the shoulder. "What in 
 blazes are you doing with that gold chair in a 
 kitchen set? Take that piece of pink plush there 
 and throw it over a soap box, if you haven't got 
 a kitchen chair." 
 
 I had not realized the extent of the shock, but 
 now I dropped into a chair and wiped my fore-
 
 THE CINEMATOGRAPH 169 
 
 head. The unexpected glimpse of Alison West, 
 followed almost immediately by the revelation of 
 the picture, had left me limp and unnerved. Mc- 
 Knight was looking at his watch. 
 
 "He says the moving picture people have an 
 office down-town. We can make it if we go now." 
 
 So he called a cab, and we started at a gallop. 
 There was no sign of the detective. "Upon my 
 word," Richey said, "I feel lonely without him." 
 
 The people at the down-town office of the cine 
 matograph company were very obliging. The 
 
 picture had been taken, they said, at M , 
 
 just two miles beyond the scene of the wreck. It 
 was not much, but it was something to work on. 
 I decided not to go home, but to send McKnight's 
 Jap for my clothes, and to dress at the Incu 
 bator. I was determined, if possible, to make 
 my next day's investigations without Johnson. 
 In the meantime, even if it was for the last time, 
 I would see Her that night. I gave Stogie a 
 note for Mrs. Klopton, and with my dinner 
 clothes there came back the gold bag, wrapped 
 in tissue paper.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE SHADOW OF A GIUI. 
 
 CERTAIN things about the dinner at the 
 Dallas house will always be obscure to me. 
 Dallas was something in the Fish Commission, 
 and I remember his reeling off fish eggs in bil 
 lions while we ate our caviar. He had some 
 particular stunt he had been urging the govern 
 ment to for years something about forbidding 
 the establishment of mills and factories on river- 
 banks it seems they kill the fish, either the 
 smoke, or the noise, or something they pour into 
 the water. 
 
 Mrs. Dallas was there, I think. Of course, I 
 suppose she must have been; and there was a 
 .woman in yellow: I took her in to dinner, and I 
 remember she loosened my clams for me so I 
 could get them. But the only real person at the 
 table was a girl across in white, a sublimated 
 young woman who was as brilliant as I was 
 170
 
 THB SHADOW OP A GIRL 17J 
 
 stupid, who never by any chance looked directly 
 at me, and who appeared and disappeared across 
 the candles and orchids in a sort of halo of 
 radiance. 
 
 When the dinner had progressed from salmon 
 to roast, and the conversation had done the same 
 thing from fish to scandal the yellow gown 
 turned to me. 
 
 "We have been awfully good, haven't we, Mr. 
 Blakeley ?" she asked. "Although I am crazy to 
 hear, I have not said 'wreck' once. I'm sure you 
 must feel like the survivor of Waterloo, or some 
 thing of the sort." 
 
 "If you want me to tell you about the wreck," 
 I said, glancing across the table, "I'm sorry to 
 be disappointing, but I don't remember any 
 thing." 
 
 "You are fortunate to be able to forget it.*' 
 It was the first word Miss West had spoken di 
 rectly to me, and it went to my head. 
 
 "There are some things I have not forgotten," 
 I said, over the candles. "I recall coming to 
 myself some time after, and that a girl, a beau 
 tiful girl"
 
 178 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Ah !" said the lady in yellow, leaning forward 
 breathlessly. Miss West was staring at me 
 coldly, but, once started, I had to stumble on. 
 
 "That a girl was trying to rouse me, and that 
 she told me I had been on fire twice already." A 
 shudder went around the table. 
 
 "But surely that isn't the end of the story,'* 
 Mrs. Dallas put in aggrievedly. "Why, that's 
 the most tantalizing thing I ever heard." 
 
 "I'm afraid that's all," I said. "She went her 
 way and I went mine. If she recalls me at all, 
 she probably thinks of me as a weak-kneed indi 
 vidual who faints like a woman when everything 
 is over." 
 
 "What did I tell you?" Mrs. Dallas asserted 
 triumphantly. "He fainted, did you hear? 
 when everything was over ! He hasn't begun to 
 tell it." 
 
 I would have given a lot by that time if I had 
 .not mentioned the girl. But McKnight took it 
 up there and carried it on. 
 
 "Blakeley is a regular geyser," he said. "He 
 never spouts until he reaches the boiling point. 
 !A.nd by that same token, although he hasn't said
 
 THE SHADOW OF A GIRL 173 
 
 much about the Lady of the Wreck, I think he is 
 ciazy about her. In fact, I am sure of it. He 
 thinks he has locked his secret in the caves of his 
 soul, but I call you to witness that he has it 
 nailed to his face. Look at him !" 
 
 I squirmed miserably and tried to avoid the 
 startled eyes of the girl across the table. I 
 wanted to choke McKnight and murder the rest 
 of the party. 
 
 "It isn't fair," I said as coolly as I could. "I 
 have my fingers crossed; you are five against 
 one." 
 
 "And to think that there was a murder on that 
 very train," broke in the lady in yellow. "It 
 was a perfect crescendo of horrors, wasn't it? 
 And what became of the murdered man, Mr. 
 Blakeley?" 
 
 McKnight had the sense to jump into the con 
 versation and save my reply. 
 
 "They say good Pittsburgers go to Atlantic' 
 City when they die," he said. "So we are rea 
 sonably certain the gentleman did not go to the 
 seashore." 
 
 The meal was over at last, and once in the
 
 drawing-room it was clear we hung heavy on the 
 hostess' hands. "It is so hard to get people for 
 bridge in September," she wailed. "There is 
 ubsolutely nobody in town. Six is a dreadful 
 number." 
 
 "It's a good poker number," her husband sug 
 gested. 
 
 The matter settled itself, however. I was hope 
 less, save as a dummy ; Miss West said it was too 
 hot for cards, and went out on a balcony that 
 overlooked the Mall. With obvious relief Mrs. 
 Dallas had the card-table brought, and I was 
 face to face with the minute I had dreaded and 
 hoped for for a week. 
 
 Now it had come, it was more difficult than I 
 had anticipated. I do not know if there was a 
 moon, but there was the urban substitute for it 
 the arc light. It threw the shadow of the bal 
 cony railing in long black bars against her white 
 gown, and as it swung sometimes her face was in 
 the light. I drew a chair close so that I could 
 watch her. 
 
 "Do you know," I said, when she made no 
 ffort at speech, "that you are a much more
 
 THE SHADOW OF A GIRL ITS 
 
 formidable person to-night, in that gown, than 
 you were the last time I saw you?" 
 
 The light swung on her face ; she was smiling 
 faintly. 
 
 "The hat with the green ribbons!" she said. 
 *1 must take it back ; I had almost forgotten." 
 
 "I have not forgotten anything." I pulled 
 myself up short. This was hardly loyalty to 
 Richey. His voice came through the window- 
 just then, and perhaps I was wrong, but I 
 thought she raised her head to listen. 
 
 "Look at this hand," he was saying. "Regu 
 lar pianola : you could play it with your feet." 
 
 "He's a dear, isn't he?" Alison said unex 
 pectedly. "No matter how depressed and down 
 hearted I am, I always cheer up when I see 
 Richey." 
 
 "He's more than that," I returned warmly. 
 R He is the most honorable fellow I know. If he 
 wasn't so much that way, he would have a career 
 before him. He wanted to put on the doors of 
 our offices, Blakeley and McKnight, P. B. H., 
 which is Poor But Honest." 
 
 From my comparative poverty to the wealtK
 
 176 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 of the girl beside me was a single mental leap. 
 From that wealth to the grandfather who was 
 .responsible for it was another. 
 
 "I wonder if you know that I had been to 
 Pittsburg to see your grandfather when I met 
 you ?" I said. 
 
 "You !" She was surprised. 
 
 "Yes. And you remember the alligator bag 
 that I told you was exchanged for the one you 
 cut off my arm?" She nodded expectantly. 
 "Well, in that valise were the forged Andy Bron- 
 son notes, and Mr. Gilmore's deposition that 
 they were forged." 
 
 She was on her feet in an instant. "In that 
 bag!" she cried. "Oh, why didn't you tell me 
 that before? Oh, it's so ridiculous, so so hope 
 less. Why, I could " 
 
 She stopped suddenly and sat down again. "I 
 do not know that I am sorry, after all," she said 
 after a pause. "Mr. Bronson was a friend of 
 my father's. I I suppose it was a bad thing 
 for you, losing the papers ?" 
 
 "Well, it was not a good thing," I conceded. 
 ''While we are on the subject of losing tilings, do
 
 THE SHADOW OF A GIRL 177 
 
 you remember do you know that I still have 
 your gold purse?" 
 
 She did not reply at once. The shadow of a 
 column was over her face, but I guessed that she 
 was staring at me. 
 
 "You have it !" She almost whispered. 
 
 "I picked it up in the street car," I said, with 
 a cheerfulness I did not feel. "It looks like a 
 very opulent little purse." 
 
 Why didn't she speak about the necklace? 
 For just a careless word to make me sane again! 
 
 "You!" she repeated, horror-stricken. And 
 then I produced the purse and held it out on my 
 palm. 
 
 "I should have sent it to you before, I sup 
 pose, but, as you know, I have been laid up since 
 the wreck." 
 
 We both saw McKnight at the same moment. 
 He had pulled the curtains aside and was stand 
 ing looking out at us. The tableau of give and 
 take was unmistakable; the gold purse, her 
 outstretched hand, my own attitude. It was over 
 in a second ; then he came out and lounged on the 
 balcony railing.
 
 178 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "They're mad at me in there," he said airily, 
 "so I came out. I suppose the reason they call 
 it bridge is because so many people get cross 
 over it." 
 
 The heat broke up the card group soon after, 
 and they all came out for the night breeze. I 
 had no more words alone with Alison. 
 
 I went back to the Incubator for the night. 
 We said almost nothing on the way home ; there 
 was a constraint between us for the first time 
 that I could remember. It was too early for bed, 
 and so we smoked in the living-room and tried 
 to talk of trivial things. After a time even those 
 failed, and we sat silent. It was McKnight who 
 finally broached the subject. 
 
 "And so she wasn't at Seal Harbor at all." 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Do you know where she was, Lollie?" 
 
 "Somewhere near Cresson." 
 
 "And that was the purse her purse witli 
 the broken necklace in it ?" 
 
 "Yes, it was. You understand, don't you, 
 Rich, that, having given her my word, I couldn't 
 tell you?"
 
 THE SHADOW OF A GIRL 1Y9 
 
 "I understand a lot of things," he said, with 
 out bitterness. 
 
 We sat for some time and smoked. Then 
 Richey got up and stretched himself. "I'm off 
 to bed, old man," he said. "Need any help with 
 that game arm of yours ?" 
 
 "No, thanks," I returned. 
 
 I heard him go into his room and lock the 
 door. It was a bad hour for me. The first 
 hadow between us, and the shadow of a girl S 
 flu*
 
 CHAPTER XVH 
 
 AT THE FARM-HOUSE AGAIN 
 
 MC KNIGHT is always a sympathizer with 
 the early worm. It was late when he ap 
 peared. Perhaps, like myself, he had not slept 
 well. But he was apparently cheerful enough, 
 and he made a better breakfast than I did. It 
 was one o'clock before we got to Baltimore. 
 After a half hour's wait we took a local for 
 M , the station near which the cinemato 
 graph picture had been taken. 
 
 We passed the scene of the wreck, McKnight 
 with curiosity, I with a sickening sense of horror. 
 Back in the fields was the little farm-house where 
 Alison West and I had intended getting coffee, 
 and winding away from the track, maple trees 
 shading it on each side, was the lane where we 
 had stopped to rest, and where I had it seemed 
 presumption beyond belief now where I had 
 tried to comfort her by patting her hand. 
 180
 
 AT THE FARM-HOUSE AGAIN 181 
 
 We got out at M , a small place with two 
 
 or i-hree houses and a general store. The station 
 was a one-roomed affair, with a railed-off place 
 at the end, where a scale, a telegraph instrument 
 and a chair constituted the entire furnishing. 
 
 The station agent was a young man with a 
 shrewd face. He stopped hammering a piece of 
 wood over a hole in the floor to ask where we 
 wanted to go. 
 
 "We're not going," said McKnight, "we're 
 coming. Have a cigar ?" 
 
 The agent took it with an inquiring glance, 
 first at it and then at us. 
 
 "We want to ask you a few questions," began 
 McKnight, perching himself on the railing and 
 kicking the chair forward for me. "Or, rather, 
 this gentleman does." 
 
 "Wait a minute," said the agent, glancing 
 through the window. "There's a hen in that 
 crate choking herself to death." 
 
 He was back in a minute, and took up his po 
 sition near a sawdust-filled box that did duty as 
 a cuspidor. 
 
 "Now fire away," he said.
 
 182 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "In the first place," I began, "do you remem 
 ber the day the Washington Flier was wrecked 
 below here ?" 
 
 "Do I!" he said. "Did Jonah remember the 
 whale?" 
 
 "Were you on the platform here when the first 
 section passed?" 
 
 "I was." 
 
 "Do you recall seeing a man hanging to the 
 platform of the last car?" 
 
 "There was no one hanging there when she 
 passed here," he said with conviction. "I 
 watched her out of sight." 
 
 "Did you see anything that morning of a man 
 about my size, carrying a small grip, and wear 
 ing dark clothes and a derby hat?" I asked 
 eagerly. 
 
 McKnight was trying to look unconcerned, 
 but I was frankly anxious. It was clear that the 
 man had jumped somewhere in the mile of track 
 just beyond. 
 
 "Well, yes, I did." The agent cleared hii 
 throat. "When the smash came the operator at 
 MX sent word along the wire, both ways. I got
 
 AT THE FARM-HOUSE AGAIN 188 
 
 it here, and I was pretty near crazy, though I 
 knew it wasn't any fault of mine. 
 
 "I was standing on the track looking down, 
 for I couldn't leave the office, when a young fel 
 low with light hair limped up to me and asked ma 
 what that smoke was over there. 
 
 "'That's what's left of the WashingtoH 
 Flier,' I said, 'and I guess there's souls going up 
 in tliat smoke.' 
 
 " 'Do you mean the first section?' he said, getr 
 ting kind of greenish-yellow. 
 
 " 'That's what I mean,' I said ; 'split to kin 
 dling wood because Rafferty, on the second sec* 
 tion, didn't want to be late.' 
 
 "He put his hand out in front of him, and the 
 satchel fell with a bang. 
 
 " 'My God !' he said, and dropped right on the 
 track in a heap. 
 
 "I got him into the station and he came 
 around, but he kept on groaning something 
 awful. He'd sprained his ankle, and when he got 
 a little better I drove him over in Carter's milk 
 wagon to the Carter place, and I reckon be 
 stayed there a spell."
 
 "That's all, is it?" I asked. 
 
 "That's all or, no, there's something else. 
 About noon that day one of the Carter twins 
 came down with a note from him asking me to 
 send a long-distance message to some one in 
 Washington." 
 
 "To whom?" I asked eagerly. 
 
 "I reckon I've forgot the name, but the mes 
 sage was that this fellow Sullivan was his 
 name was at M , and if the man had es 
 caped from the wreck would he come to see him." 
 
 "He wouldn't have sent that message to me," 
 I said to McKnight, rather crestfallen. "He'd 
 have every object in keeping out of my way." 
 
 "There might be reasons," McKnight ob 
 served judicially. "He might not have found 
 the papers then." 
 
 "Was the name Blakeley ?" I asked. 
 
 "It might have been I can't say. But the 
 man wasn't there, and there was a lot of noise. 
 I couldn't hear well. Then in half an hour down 
 came the other twin to say the gentleman was 
 taking on awful and didn't want the message 
 sent."
 
 AT THE FARM-HOUSE AGAIN 185 
 
 "He's gone, of course?" 
 
 "Yes. Limped down here in about three days 
 and took the noon train for the city." 
 
 It seemed a certainty now that our man, hav 
 ing hurt himself somewhat in his jump, had 
 stayed quietly in the farm-house until he was 
 able to travel. But, to be positive, we decided to 
 visit the Carter place. 
 
 I gave the station agent a five-dollar bill, 
 which he rolled up with a couple of others and 
 stuck in his pocket. I turned as we got to a 
 bend in the road, and he was looking curiously 
 after us. 
 
 It was not until we had climbed the hill and 
 turned onto the road to the Carter place that I 
 realized where we were going. Although we ap 
 proached it from another direction, I knew the 
 farm-house at once. It was the one where Alison 
 West and I had breakfasted nine days before. 
 With the new restraint between us, I did not tell 
 McKnight. I wondered afterward if he had 
 suspected it. I saw him looking hard at the 
 gate-post which had figured in one of our mys 
 teries, but he asked no questions. Afterward
 
 186 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 he grew almost taciturn, for him, and let me do 
 most of the talking. 
 
 We opened the front gate of the Carter place 
 and went slowly up the walk. Two ragged 
 youngsters, alike even to freckles and squints, 
 were playing in the yard. 
 
 "Is your mother around?" I asked. 
 
 "In the front room. Walk in," they answered 
 in identical tones. 
 
 As we got to the porch we heard voices, and 
 stopped. I knocked, but the people within, en 
 gaged in animated, rather one-sided conversa 
 tion, did not answer. 
 
 " 'In the front room. Walk in,' " quoted Mc- 
 Knight, and did so. 
 
 In the stuffy farm parlor two people were 
 sitting. One, a pleasant-faced woman with a 
 checked apron, rose, somewhat embarrassed, to 
 meet us. She did not know me, and I was thank 
 ful. But our attention was riveted on a little 
 man who was sitting before a table, writing 
 busily. It was Hotchkiss : 
 
 He got up when he saw us, and had the grace 
 to look uncomfortable.
 
 AT THE FARM-HOUSE AGAIN 187 
 
 "Such an interesting case," he said nervously, 
 "I took the liberty" 
 
 "Look here," said McKnight suddenly, "did 
 you make any inquiries at the station?" 
 
 "A few," he confessed. " I went to the the 
 ater last night I felt the need of a little relaxa 
 tion and the sight of a picture there, a cine 
 matograph affair, started a new line of thought. 
 Probably the same clue brought you gentlemen. 
 I learned a good bit from the station agent." 
 
 "The son-of-a-gun," said McKnight. "And 
 you paid him, I suppose?" 
 
 "I gave him five dollars," was the apologeti* 
 answer. 
 
 Mrs. Carter, hearing sounds of strife in the 
 yard, went out, and Hotchkiss folded up his 
 papers. 
 
 "I think the identity of the man is estab 
 lished," he said. "What number of hat do you 
 wear, Mr. Blakeley?" 
 
 "Seven and a quarter," I replied. 
 
 "Well, it's only piling up evidence," he said 
 cheerfully. "On the night of the murder you 
 wore light gray silk underclothing, with the
 
 188 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 second button of the shirt missing. Your hat 
 had *L. B.' in gilt letters inside, and there was 
 a very minute hole in the toe of one black sock." 
 
 "Hush," McKnight protested. "If word gets 
 to Mrs. Klopton that Mr. Blakeley was wrecked, 
 or robbed, or whatever it was, with a button 
 missing and a hole in one sock, she'll retire to 
 the Old Ladies' Home. I've heard her threaten 
 it." 
 
 Mr. Hotchkiss was without a sense of humor. 
 He regarded McKnight gravely and went on : 
 
 "I've been up in the room where the man laj 
 while he was unable to get away, and there is 
 nothing there. But I found what may be a pos 
 sible clue in the dust heap. 
 
 "Mrs. Carter tells me that in unpacking his 
 grip the other day she shook out of the coat of 
 the pajamas some pieces of a telegram. As I 
 figure it, the pajamas were his own. He prob 
 ably had them on when he effected the ex 
 change." 
 
 I nodded assent. All I had retained of my 
 own clothing was the suit of pajamas I was 
 wearing and my bath-robe.
 
 AT THE FARM-HOUSE AGAIN 189 
 
 "Therefore the telegram was his, not yours. 
 I have pieces here, but some are missing. I am 
 not discouraged, however." 
 
 He spread out some bits of yellow paper, and 
 we bent over them, curiously. It was something 
 like this : 
 
 Man with p Get 
 Br 
 
 We spelled it out slowly. 
 
 "Now," Hotchkiss announced, "I make it 
 something like this : The 'p ' is one of two 
 things, pistol you remember the little pearl- 
 handled affair belonging to the murdered man 
 or it is pocket-book. I am inclined to the latter 
 view, as the pocket-book had been disturbed and 
 the pistol had not." 
 
 I took the piece of paper from the table and 
 scrawled four words on it. 
 
 "Now," I said, rearranging them, "it hap-, 
 pens, Mr. Hotchkiss, that I found one of these 
 pieces of the telegram on the train. I thought 
 it had been dropped by some one else, you see, 
 but that's immaterial. Arranged this way it
 
 T90 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 almost makes sense. Fill out that *p ' with 
 the rest of the word, as I imagine it, and it 
 makes 'papers,' and add this scrap and you 
 have: 
 
 " 'Man with papers (in) lower ten, car seven. 
 Get (them).'" 
 
 McKnight slapped Hotchkiss on the back. 
 
 "You're a trump," he said. "Br is Bron- 
 son, of course. It's almost too easy. You see, 
 Mr. Blakeley here engaged lower ten, but found 
 it occupied by the man who was later murdered 
 there. The man who did the thing was a friend 
 of Bronson's, evidently, and in trying to get the 
 papers we have the motive for the crime." 
 
 "There are still some things to be explained." 
 Mr. Hotchkiss wiped his glasses and put them 
 on. "For one thing, Mr. Blakeley, I am puz 
 zled by that bit of chain." 
 
 I did not glance at McKnight. I felt that the 
 hands with which I was gathering up the bits of 
 torn paper were shaking. It seemed to me that 
 this astute little man was going to drag in the 
 girl in spite of me.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 A NEW WORLD 
 
 Y T OTCHKISS jotted down the bits of tele- 
 JL A gram and rose. 
 
 "Well," he said, "we've done something. 
 We've found where the murderer left the train, 
 we know what day he went to Baltimore, and, 
 most important of all, we have a motive for the 
 crime." 
 
 "It seems the irony of fate," said McKnight, 
 getting up, "that a man should kill another 
 man for certain papers he is supposed to be car 
 rying, find he hasn't got them after all, decide 
 to throw suspicion on another man by changing 
 berths and getting out, bag and baggage, and 
 then, by the merest fluke of chance, take with 
 him, in the valise he changed for his own, the 
 very notes he was after. It was a bit of luck 
 for him." 
 
 "Then why," put in Hotchkiss doubtfully, 
 191
 
 192 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "why did he collapse when he heard of the 
 wreck? And what about the telephone message 
 the station agent sent? You remember thej 
 Hried to countermand it, and with some excite 
 ment." 
 
 "We will ask him those questions when we get 
 him," McKnight said. We were on the unrailed 
 front porch by that time, and Hotchkiss had put 
 away his note-book. The mother of the twint 
 followed us to the steps. 
 
 "Dear me," she exlaimed volubly, "and to 
 think I was forgetting to tell you! I put the 
 young man to bed with a spice poultice on his 
 ankle: my mother always was a firm believer in 
 spice poultices. It's wonderful what they will do 
 in croup ! And then I took the children and went 
 down to see the wreck. It was Sunday, and the 
 mister had gone to church ; hasn't missed a day 
 since he took the pledge nine years ago. And 
 , on the way I met two people, a man and a 
 woman. They looked half dead, so I sent them 
 right here for breakfast and some soap and wa 
 ter. I always say soap is better than liquor 
 after a shock."
 
 A NEW WORLD 193 
 
 Hotchkiss was listening absently: McKnight 
 iras whistling under his breath, staring down 
 across the field to where a break in the woods 
 showed a half dozen telegraph poles, the line of 
 the railroad. 
 
 "It must have been twelve o'clock when we 
 got back; I wanted the children to see every 
 thing, because it isn't likely they'll ever see an 
 other wreck like that. Rows of " 
 
 "About twelve o'clock," I broke in, "and what 
 then?" 
 
 "The young man up-stairs was awake," she 
 went on, "and hammering at his door like all 
 possessed. And it was locked on the outside!" 
 She paused to enjoy her sensation. 
 
 "I would like to see that lock," Hotchkiss 
 said promptly, but for some reason the woman 
 demurred. "I will bring the key down," she 
 said and disappeared. When she returned she 
 held out an ordinary door key of the cheapest 
 variety. 
 
 "We had to break the lock," she volunteered, 
 "and the key didn't turn up for two days. Then 
 one of the twins found the turkey gobbler try-
 
 194 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 ing to swallow it. It has been washed since,'* 
 she hastened to assure Hotchkiss, who showed 
 an inclination to drop it. 
 
 "You don't think he locked the door himself 
 and threw the key out of the window?" the little 
 man asked. 
 
 "The windows are covered with mosquito net 
 ting, nailed on. The mister blamed it on the 
 children, and it might have been Obadiah. He's 
 the quiet kind, and you never know what he's 
 about." 
 
 "He's about to strangle, isn't he," McKnight 
 remarked lazily, "or is that Obadiah?" 
 
 Mrs. Carter picked the boy up and inverted 
 him, talking amiably all the time. "He's always 
 doing it," she said, giving him a shake. "When 
 ever we miss anything we look to see if Oba- 
 diah's black in the face." She gave another 
 shake, and the quarter I had given him shot out 
 as if blown from a gun. Then we prepared to 
 go back to the station. 
 
 From where I stood I could look into the 
 cheery farm kitchen, where Alison West and I 
 had eaten our al fresco breakfast. I looked at
 
 A NEW WORLD 195 
 
 the table with mixed emotions, and then, gradu 
 ally, the meaning of something on it penetrated 
 my mind. Still in its papers, evidently just 
 opened, was a hat box, and protruding over the 
 edge of the box was a streamer of vivid green 
 ribbon. 
 
 On the plea that I wished to ask Mrs. Carter 
 a few more questions. I let the others go on. I 
 watched them down the flagstone walk ; saw Mc- 
 Knight stop and examine the gate-posts and 
 saw, too, the quick glance he threw back at the 
 house. Then I turned to Mrs. Carter. 
 
 "I would like to speak to the young lady up 
 stairs," I said. 
 
 She threw up her hands with a quick gesture 
 of surrender. "I've done all I could," she ex 
 claimed. "She won't like it very well, but she's 
 in the room over the parlor." 
 
 I went eagerly up the ladder-like stairs, to 
 ithe rag-carpeted hall. Two doors were open, 
 showing interiors of four poster beds and high 
 bureaus. The door of the room over the parlor 
 was almost closed. I hesitated in the hallway: 
 after all, what right had I to intrude on her?
 
 196 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 But she settled my difficulty by throwing open 
 the door and facing me. 
 
 "I I beg your pardon, Miss West," I stam 
 mered. "It has just occurred to me that I am 
 unpardonably rude. I saw the hat down-stairs 
 and I I guessed " 
 
 "The hat !" she said. "I might have known. 
 Does Richey know I am here?" 
 
 "I don't think so." I turned to go down the 
 stairs again. Then I halted. "The fact is," I 
 said, in an attempt at justification, "I'm in 
 rather a mess these days, and I'm apt to do irre 
 sponsible things. It is not impossible that I shall 
 be arrested, in a day or so, for the murder of 
 Simon Harrington." 
 
 She drew her breath in sharply. "Murder!" 
 she echoed. "Then they have found you aftei 
 all!" 
 
 "I don't regard it as anything more than 
 er inconvenient," I lied. "They can't convict 
 me, you know. Almost all the witnesses are 
 dead." 
 
 She was not deceived for a moment. She came 
 over to me and stood, both hands on the rail of
 
 A NEW WORLD 197 
 
 the stair. "I know just how grave it is," she 
 said quietly. My grandfather will not leave one 
 stone unturned, and he can be terrible terrible. 
 But" she looked directly into my eyes as I 
 stood below her on the stairs "the time may 
 come soon when I can help you. I'm afraid 
 I shall not want to ; I'm a dreadful coward, Mr. 
 Blakeley. But I will." She tried to smile. 
 
 "I wish you would let me help you" I said 
 unsteadily. "Let us make it a bargain: each 
 help the other!" 
 
 The girl shook her head with a sad little smile. 
 "I am only as unhappy as I deserve to be," she 
 said. And when I protested and took a step to 
 ward her she retreated, with her hands out be 
 fore her. 
 
 "Why don't you ask me all the questions you 
 are thinking ?" she demanded, with a catch in her 
 voice. "Oh, I know them. Or are you afraid 
 to ask?" 
 
 I looked at her, at the lines around her eyes, 
 t the drawn look about her mouth. Then I held 
 out my hand. "Afraid !" I said, as she gave me 
 hers. "There is nothing in God's green earth
 
 198 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 I am afraid of, save of trouble for you. To ask 
 questions would be to imply a lack of faith. I 
 ask you nothing. Some day, perhaps, you will 
 come to me yourself and let me help you." 
 
 The next moment I was out in the golden sun 
 shine: the birds were singing carols of joy: I 
 walked dizzily through rainbow-colored clouds, 
 past the twins, cherubs now, swinging on the 
 gate. It was a new world into which I stepped 
 from the Carter farm-house that morning, for 
 I had kissed her !
 
 AT THE TABLE NEXT 
 
 MC KNIGHT and Hotchkiss were saunter 
 ing slowly down the road as I caught up 
 with them. As usual, the little man was busy 
 with some abstruse mental problem. 
 
 "The idea is this," he was saying, his brows 
 knitted in thought, "if a left-handed man, stand 
 ing in the position of the man in the picture, 
 should jump from a car, would he be likely to 
 sprain his right ankle? When a right-handed 
 man prepares for a leap of that kind, my theory 
 is that he would hold on with his right hand, and 
 alight at the proper time, on his right foot. Of 
 course " 
 
 "I imagine, although I don't know," inter 
 rupted McKnight, "that a man either ambidex 
 trous or one-armed, jumping from the Washing 
 ton Flier, would be more likely to land on his 
 head." 
 
 199
 
 200 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Anyhow," I interposed, "what difference 
 3oes it make whether Sullivan used one hand or 
 the other? One pair of handcuffs will put both 
 hands out of commission." 
 
 As usual when one of his pet theories was at 
 tacked, Hotchkiss looked aggrieved. 
 
 "My dear sir," he expostulated, "don't you 
 understand what bearing this has on the case? 
 How was the murdered man lying when he was 
 found?" 
 
 "On his back," I said promptly, "head toward 
 the engine." 
 
 "Very well," he retorted, "and what then? 
 Your heart lies under your fifth intercostal 
 space, and to reach it a right-handed blow would 
 have struck either down or directly in. 
 
 "But, gentlemen, the point of entrance for 
 the stiletto was below the heart, striking up! 
 As Harrington lay with his head toward the en 
 gine, a person in the aisle must have used the t 
 left hand." 
 
 McKnight's eyes sought mine and he winked 
 at me solemnly as I unostentatiously transferred 
 the hat I was carrying to my right hand. Long
 
 AT THE TABLE NEXT 201 
 
 training has largely counterbalanced heredity in 
 my case, but I still pitch ball, play tennis and 
 carve with my left hand. But Hotchkiss was too 
 busy with his theories to notice me. 
 
 We were only just in time for our train back 
 to Baltimore, but McKnight took advantage of 
 a second's delay to shake the station agent 
 warmly by the hand. 
 
 "I want to express my admiration for you," 
 he said beamingly. "Ability of your order is 
 thrown away here. You should have been a city 
 policeman, my friend." 
 
 The agent looked a trifle uncertain. 
 
 "The young lady was the one who told me to 
 keep still," he said. 
 
 McKnight glanced at me, gave the agent's 
 hand a final shake, and climbed on board. But 
 I knew perfectly that he had guessed the reason 
 for my delay. 
 
 He was very silent on the way home. Hotch 
 kiss, too, had little to say. He was reading over 
 his notes intently, stopping now and then to 
 make a penciled addition. Just before we left 
 the train Richey turned to me. "I suppose it
 
 302 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 was the key to the door that she tied to thft 
 gate?" 
 
 "Probably. I did not ask her." 
 
 "Curious, her locking that fellow in," he re 
 flected. 
 
 "You may depend on it, there was a good rea 
 son for it all. And I wish you wouldn't be so 
 suspicious of motives, Rich," I said warmly. 
 
 "Only yesterday you were the suspicious one," 
 he retorted, and we lapsed into strained silence. 
 
 It was late when we got to Washington. 
 One of Mrs. Klopton's small tyrannies was ex 
 acting punctuality at meals, and, like several 
 other things, I respected it. There are always 
 Some concessions that should be made in return 
 for faithful service. 
 
 So, as my dinner hour of seven was long past, 
 McKnight and I went to a little restaurant down 
 town where they have a very decent way of fix 
 ing chicken a la King. Hotchkiss had departed, 
 economically bent, for a small hotel where he 
 lived on the American plan. 
 
 "I want to think some things over," he said 
 in response to my invitation to dinner, "and, any-
 
 AT THE TABLE NEX'E 203 
 
 how, there's no use dining out when I pay the 
 same, dinner or no dinner, where I am stopping." 
 
 The day had been hot, and the first floor din 
 ing-room was sultry in spite of the palms and 
 fans which attempted to simulate the verdure 
 and breezes of the country. 
 
 It was crowded, too, with a typical summer 
 night crowd, and, after sitting for a few min 
 utes in a sweltering corner, we got up and went 
 to the smaller dining-room up-stairs. Here it 
 was not so warm, and we settled ourselves comr 
 fortably by a window. 
 
 Over in a corner half a dozen boys on their 
 way back to school were ragging a perspiring 
 waiter, a proceeding so exactly to McKnight's 
 taste that he insisted on going over to join 
 them. But their table was full, and somehow 
 that kind of fun had lost its point for me. 
 
 Not far from us a very stout, middle-aged 
 man, apoplectic with the heat, was elephantinely 
 jolly for the benefit of a bored-looking girl 
 across the table from him, and at the next table 
 a newspaper woman ate alone, the last edition 
 propped against the water-bottle before her, her
 
 804 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 hat, for coolness, on the corner of the table. It 
 was a motley Bohemian crowd. 
 
 I looked over the room casually, while Mc- 
 Knight ordered the meal. Then my attention 
 was attracted to the table next to ours. Two 
 people were sitting there, so deep in conversation 
 that they did not notice us. The woman's face 
 was hidden under her hat, as she traced the pat 
 tern of the cloth mechanically with her fork. 
 But the man's features stood out clear in the 
 light of the candles on the table. It was Bron- 
 son! 
 
 "He shows the strain, doesn't he?" McKnight 
 said, holding up the wine list as if he read from 
 it. "Who's the woman?" 
 
 "Search me," I replied, in the same way. 
 
 When the chicken came, I still found myself 
 gazing now and then at the abstracted couple 
 near me. Evidently the subject of conversation 
 j was unpleasant. Bronson was eating little, the 
 woman not at all. Finally he got up, pushed 
 his chair back noisily, thrust a bill at the waiter 
 and stalked out. 
 
 The woman sat still for a moment ; then, witt
 
 AT THE TABLE NEXT2 
 
 an apparent resolution to make the best of it, 
 she began slowly to eat the meal before her. 
 
 But the quarrel had taken away her appetite, 
 for the mixture in our chafing-dish was hardly i 
 ready to serve before she pushed her chair back 
 a little and looked around the room. 
 
 I caught my first glimpse of her face then, 
 and I confess it startled me. It was the tall, 
 stately woman of the Ontario, the woman I had 
 last seen cowering beside the road, rolling peb 
 bles in her hand, blood streaming from a cut 
 over her eye. I could see the scar now, a little 
 affair, about an inch long, gleaming red through 
 its layers of powder. 
 
 And then, quite unexpectedly, she turned and 
 looked directly at me. After a minute's uncer 
 tainty, she bowed, letting her eyes rest on mine 
 with a calmly insolent stare. She glanced at 
 McKnight for a moment, then back to me. 
 When she looked away again I breathed easier. 
 
 "Who is it?" asked McKnight under his 
 breath. 
 
 "Ontario." I formed it with my lips rather 
 titan said it. McKnight's eyebrows went up and
 
 806 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 he looked with increased interest at the biacS> 
 gowned figure. 
 
 I ate little after that. The situation vrai 
 rather bad for me, I began to see. Here was a 
 woman who could, if she wished, and had anj 
 motive for so doing, put me in jail under a 
 capital charge. A word from her to the police, 
 and polite surveillance would become active in 
 terference. 
 
 Then, too, she could say that she had seen me, 
 just after the wreck, with a young woman from 
 the murdered man's car, and thus probablj 
 bring Alison West into the case. 
 
 It is not surprising, then, that I ate little. 
 The woman across seemed in no hurry to go. 
 She loitered over a demi-tasse, and that finished, 
 sat with her elbow on the table, her chin in her 
 hand, looking darkly at the changing groups in 
 the room. 
 
 The fun at the table where the college boys 
 sat began to grow a little noisy; the fat man, 
 now a purplish shade, ambled away behind his 
 lim companion; the newspaper woman pinned
 
 20T? 
 
 on her business-like hat and stalked out* Still 
 the woman at the next table waited. 
 
 It was a relief when the meal was over. We 
 got our hats and were about to leave the room,* 
 when a waiter touched me on the arm. 
 
 "I beg your pardon, sir," he said, "but the 
 lady at the table near the window, the lady In 
 black, sir, would like to speak to you." 
 
 I looked down between the rows of tables to 
 where the woman sat alone, her chin still resting 
 on her hand, her black eyes still insolently star 
 ing, this time at me. 
 
 "I'll have to go," I said to McKnight hur 
 riedly. "She knows all about that affair and 
 she'd be a bad enemy." 
 
 "I don't like her lamps," McKnight observed, 
 after a glance at her. "Better jolly her a little. 
 Good-by."
 
 THE NOTES AND A BABGAIN 
 
 I WENT back slowly to where the woman sat 
 alone. She smiled rather oddly as I drew 
 near, and pointed to the chair Bronson had va 
 cated. 
 
 "Sit down, Mr. Blakeley," she said, "I am go 
 ing to take a few minutes of your valuable time." 
 
 "Certainly." I sat down opposite her and 
 glanced at a cuckoo clock on the wall. "I am 
 sorry, but I have only a few minutes. If you " 
 She laughed a little, not very pleasantly, and 
 opening a small black fan covered with span 
 gles, waved it slowly. 
 
 "The fact is," she said, "I think we are about 
 lo make a bargain." 
 
 "'A bargain?" I asked incredulously. "You 
 have a second advantage of me. You know my 
 name" I paused suggestively and she took the 
 cue. 
 
 208
 
 THE NOTES AND A BARGAIN 209 
 
 "I am Mrs. Conway," she said, and flicked a 
 crumb off the table with an over-manicured fin 
 ger. 
 
 The name was scarcely a surprise. I had al 
 ready surmised that this might be the woman 
 whom rumor credited as being Bronson's com 
 mon-law wife. Rumor, I remembered, had said 
 other things even less pleasant, things which 
 had been brought out at Bronson's arrest for 
 forgery. 
 
 "We met last under less fortunate circum 
 stances," she was saying. "I have been fit for 
 nothing since that terrible day. And you you 
 had a broken arm, I think." 
 
 "I still have it," I said, with a lame attempt 
 at jocularity; "but to have escaped at all was a 
 miracle. We have much, indeed, to be thankful 
 for." 
 
 "I suppose we have," she said carelessly, "al 
 though sometimes I doubt it." She was looking 
 somberly toward the door through which her late 
 companion had made his exit. 
 
 "You sent for me " I said. 
 
 "Yes, I sent for you." She roused herself
 
 210 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 and sat erect. "Now, Mr. Blakelej, have you 
 found those papers ?" 
 
 "The papers? What papers?" I parried. 1 
 needed time to think. 
 
 "Mr. Blakeley," she said quietly, " I think 
 we can lay aside all subterfuge. In the first 
 place let me refresh your mind about a few 
 things. The Pittsburg police are looking for 
 the survivors of the car Ontario ; there are three 
 that I know of yourself, the young woman 
 with whom you left the scene of the wreck, and 
 myself. The wreck, you will admit, was a for 
 tunate one for you." 
 
 I nodded without speaking. 
 
 "At the time of the collision you were in 
 rather a hole," she went on, looking at me with 
 a disagreeable smile. "You were, if I remember, 
 accused of a rather atrocious crime. There was 
 a lot of corroborative evidence, was there not? I 
 seem to remember a dirk and the murdered man's 
 pocket-book in your possession, and a few other 
 things that were well, rather unpleasant." 
 
 I was thrown a bit off my guard. 
 
 "You remember also," I said quickly, "that a
 
 THE NOTES AND A BARGAIN 211 
 
 man disappeared from the car, taking my 
 clothes, papers and everything." 
 
 "I remember that you said so." Her tone waa 
 quietly insulting, and I bit my lip at having 
 been caught. It was no time to make a defense. 
 
 "You have missed one calculation," I said 
 coldly, "and that is, the discovery of the maB 
 who left the train." 
 
 "You have found him?" She bent forward, 
 and again I regretted my hasty speech. "I knew 
 it ; I said so." 
 
 "We are going to find him," I asserted, with' 
 a confidence I did not feel. "We can produce 
 at any time proof that a man left the Flier a 
 few miles beyond the wreck. And we can find 
 him, I am positive." 
 
 "But you have not found him yet?" She was 
 clearly disappointed. "Well, so be it. Now for 
 our bargain. You will admit that I am no fool." 
 
 I made no such admission, and she smiled 
 mockingly. 
 
 "How flattering you are!" she said. "Very 
 well. Now for the premises. You take to Pitts- 
 burg four notes held by the Mechanics' National
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 Bank, to have Mr. Gilmore, who is ill, declare hi* 
 indorsement of them forged. 
 
 "On the journey back to Pittsburg two things 
 happen to you : you lose your clothing, your va 
 lise and your papers, including the notes, and 
 you are accused of murder. In fact, Mr. Blake- 
 ley, the circumstances were most singular, and 
 the evidence well, almost conclusive." 
 
 I was completely at her mercy, but I gnawed 
 my lip with irritation. 
 
 "Now for the bargain." She leaned over and 
 lowered her voice. "A fair exchange, you know. 
 The minute you put those four notes in my hand 
 that minute the blow to my head has caused 
 complete forgetfulness as to the events of that 
 awful morning. I am the only witness, and I will 
 be silent. Do you understand? They will call off 
 their dogs." 
 
 My head was buzzing with the strangeness of 
 the idea. 
 
 "But," I said, striving to gain time, "I 
 haven't the notes. I can't give you what I 
 haven't got." 
 
 "You have had the case continued," she said
 
 THE NOTES AND 'A BARGAIN 
 
 sharply. "You expect to find them. Another 
 thing," she added slowly, watching my face, "if 
 you don't get them soon, Bronson will have them. 
 They have been offered to him already, but at a 
 prohibitive price." 
 
 "But," I said, bewildered, "what is your ob 
 ject in coming to me? If Bronson will get them 
 anyhow " 
 
 She shut her fan with a click and her face 
 was not particularly pleasant to look at. 
 
 "You are dense," she said insolently. "I want 
 those papers for myself, not for Andy Bron 
 son." 
 
 "Then the idea is," I said, ignoring her tone, 
 "that you think you have me in a hole, and that 
 if I find those papers and give them to you you 
 will let me out. As I understand it, our friend 
 Bronson, under those circumstances, will also be 
 in a hole." 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "The notes would be of no use to you for a 
 limited length of time," I went on, watching her 
 narrowly. "If they are not turned over to the 
 state's attorney within a reasonable time there
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 will have to be a nolle pros that is, the case wiH 
 imply be dropped for lack of evidence." 
 
 "A week would answer, I think," she said, 
 slowly. "You will do it, then ?" 
 
 I laughed, although I was not especiallj 
 cheerful. 
 
 "No, I'll not do it. I expect to come across 
 the notes any time now, and I expect just aa 
 certainly to turn them over to the state's attor 
 ney when I get them." 
 
 She got up suddenly, pushing her chair back 
 with a noisy grating sound that turned manj 
 eyes toward us. 
 
 "You're more of a fool than I thought you," 
 she sneered, and left me at the table.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 MC KNIGHT'S THEORY 
 
 I CONFESS I was staggered. The peopk *t 
 the surrounding tables, after glancing curi 
 ously in my direction, looked away again. 
 
 I got my hat and went out in a very uncom 
 fortable frame of mind. That she would inform 
 the police at once of what she knew I never 
 doubted, unless possibly she would give a day or 
 two's grace in the hope that I would change my 
 mind. 
 
 I reviewed the situation as I waited for a car. 
 Two passed me going in the opposite direction, 
 and on the first one I saw Bronson, his hat over 
 ! his eyes, his arms folded, looking moodily ahead. 
 Was it imagination ? or was the small man hud 
 dled in the corner of the rear seat Hotchkiss ? 
 As the car rolled on I found myself smiling. 
 215
 
 216 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 The alert little man was for all the world like a 
 terrier, ever on the scent, and scouring about in 
 every direction. 
 
 I found McKnight at the Incubator, with his 
 coat off, working with enthusiasm and a mani 
 cure file over the horn of his auto. 
 
 "It's the worst horn I ever ran across," he 
 groaned, without looking up, as I came in. "The 
 blankety-blank thing won't blow." 
 
 He punched it savagely, finally eliciting a 
 faint throaty croak. 
 
 "Sounds like croup," I suggested. "My sis 
 ter-in-law uses camphor and goose greese for it ; 
 or how about a spice poultice?" 
 
 But McKnight never sees any jokes but his 
 own. He flung the horn clattering into a corner, 
 and collapsed sulkily into a chair. 
 
 "Now," I said, "if you're through manicuring 
 that horn, I'll tell you about my talk with the 
 lady in black." 
 
 "What's wrong?" asked McKnight languidly. 
 "Police watching her, too ?" 
 
 "Not exactly. The fact is. Rich, there's the 
 mischief to pay."
 
 MCKNIGHT'S THEORY 31T 
 
 Stogie came In, bringing a few* additions to 
 our comfort. When he went out I told my story. 
 
 "You must remember," I said, "that I had 
 seen this woman before the morning of the wreck. 
 She was buying her Pullman ticket when I did. 
 Then the next morning, when the murder was 
 discovered, she grew hysterical, and I gave her 
 some whisky. The third and last time I saw her, 
 until to-night, was when she crouched beside the 
 road, after the wreck." 
 
 McKnight slid down in his chair until his 
 weight rested on the small of his back, and put 
 his feet on the big reading table. 
 
 "It is rather a facer," he said. "It's really 
 too good a situation for a commonplace lawyer. 
 It ought to be dramatized. You can't agree, of 
 course; and by refusing you run the chance of 
 jail, at least, and of having Alison brought into 
 publicity, which is out of the question. You 
 say she was at the Pullman window when you 
 were?" 
 
 "Yes ; I bought her ticket for her. Gave her 
 lower eleven." 
 
 "And you took ten?"
 
 218 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Lower ten." 
 
 McKnight straightened up and looked at me. 
 
 "Then she thought you were in lower ten." 
 
 "I suppose she did, if she thought at all." 
 
 "But listen, man." McKnight was growing 1 
 excited. "What do you figure out of this ? The 
 Conway woman knows you have taken the notes 
 to Pittsburg. The probabilities are that she fol 
 lows you there, on the chance of an opportunity 
 to get them, either for Bronson or herself. 
 
 "Nothing doing during the trip over or dur 
 ing the day in Pittsburg ; but she learns the num 
 ber of your berth as you buy it at the Pullman 
 ticket office in Pittsburg, and she thinks she sees 
 her chance. No one could have foreseen that 
 that drunken fellow would have crawled into 
 your berth. 
 
 "Now, I figure it out this way: She wanted 
 N those notes desperately does still not for 
 Bronson, but to hold over his head for some pur 
 pose. In the night, when everything is quiet, she 
 slips behind the curtains of lower ten, where the 
 man's breathing shows he is asleep. Didn't you 
 say he snored?"
 
 McKNIGHT'S THEORY 819 
 
 "He did," I affirmed. "But I tell you " 
 
 ""Now keep still and listen. She gropes cau 
 tiously around in the darkness, finally discover 
 ing the wallet under the pillow. Can't you see it 
 yourself?" 
 
 He was leaning forward, excitedly, and I could 
 almost see the gruesome tragedy he was depict 
 ing. 
 
 "She draws out the wallet. Then, perhaps she 
 remembers the alligator bag, and on the possi 
 bility that the notes are there, instead of in the 
 pocket-book, she gropes around for it. Sud 
 denly, the man awakes and clutches at the near 
 est object, perhaps her neck chain, which breaks. 
 She drops the pocket-book and tries to escape, 
 but he has caught her right hand. 
 
 "It is all in silence ; the man is still stupidly 
 drunk. But he holds her in a tight grip. Then 
 the tragedy. She must get away; in a minute, 
 the car will be aroused. Such a woman, on suchj 
 an errand, does not go without some sort of a 
 weapon, in this case a dagger, which, unlike a 
 revolver, is noiseless. 
 
 "With a quick thrust she's a big woman and
 
 220 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 a bold one she strikes. Possibly Hotchkiss is 
 right about the left-hand blow. Harrington may 
 have held her right hand, or perhaps she held 
 the dirk in her left hand as she groped with her 
 right. Then, as the man falls back, and his grasp 
 relaxes, she straightens and attempts to get 
 away. The swaying of the car throws her al 
 most into your berth, and, trembling with ter~ 
 ror, she crouches behind the curtains of lower ten 
 until everything is still. Then she goes noise 
 lessly back to her berth." 
 
 I nodded. 
 
 "It seems to fit partly, at least," I said. "In 
 the morning when she found that the crime had 
 been not only fruitless, but that she had searched 
 the wrong berth and killed the wrong man ; when 
 she saw me emerge, unhurt, just as she was 
 bracing herself for the discovery of my dead 
 body, then she went into hysterics. You remem 
 ber, I gave her some whisky. 
 
 "It really seems a tenable theory. But, like the 
 Sullivan theory, there are one or two things that 
 don't agree with the rest. For one thing, how did
 
 MCKNIGHT'S THEORY 221 
 
 the remainder of that chain get into Alison 
 West's possession?" 
 
 "She may have picked it up on the floor." 
 
 "We'll admit that," I said; "and I'm sure I 
 hope so. Then how did the murdered man's pock 
 et-book get into the sealskin bag? And the dirk, 
 how account for that, and the blood-stains?" 
 
 "Now what's the use," asked McKnight ag- 
 grievedlj, "of my building up beautiful theories 
 for you to pull down ? We'll take it to Hotchkiss. 
 Maybe he can tell from the blood-stains if the 
 murderer's finger nails were square or pointed." 
 
 "Hotchkiss is no fool," I said warmly. "Un 
 der all his theories there's a good hard layer of 
 common sense. And we must remember, Rich, 
 that neither of our theories includes the woman 
 at Doctor Van Kirk's hospital, that the charming 
 picture you have just drawn does not account for 
 Alison West's connection with the case, or for 
 the bits of telegram in the Sullivan fellow's 
 pajamas pocket. You are like the man who put 
 the clock together ; you've got half of the works 
 left over."
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Oh, go home," said McKnight disgustedly. 
 "I'm no Edgar Allan Poe. What's the use of 
 coming here and asking me things if you're so 
 particular?" 
 
 With one of his quick changes of mood, he 
 picked up his guitar. 
 
 "Listen to this," he said. "It is a Hawaiian 
 song about a fat lady, oh, ignorant one ! and how 
 she fell off her mule." 
 
 But for all the lightness of the words, the 
 voice that followed me down the stairs was any 
 thing but cheery. 
 
 "There was a Kanaka in Balu did dwell, 
 Who had for his daughter a monstrous fat 
 girl" 
 
 he sang in his clear tenor. I paused on the lower 
 floor and listened. He had stopped singing as 
 . abruptly as he had begun.
 
 CHAPTER XXH 
 
 \ 
 
 AT THE BOAEDING-HOUSE 
 
 I HAD not been home for thirty-six hours, 
 since the morning of the preceding day. 
 Johnson was not in sight, and I let myself in 
 quietly with my latch-key. It was almost mid 
 night, and I had hardly settled myself in the li 
 brary when the bell rang and I was surprised to 
 find Hotchkiss, much out of breath, in the vesti 
 bule. 
 
 "Why, come in, Mr. Hotchkiss," I said. "I 
 thought you were going home to go to bed." 
 
 "So I was, so I was." He dropped into a chair 
 beside my reading lamp and mopped his face. 
 "And here it is almost midnight, and I'm wider 
 awake than ever. I've seen Sullivan, Mr. Blake- ; 
 ley." 
 
 "You have!" 
 
 **I have," he said impressively. 
 223
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "You were following Bronson at eight o'clock. 
 Was that when it happened?" 
 
 "Something of the sort. When I left you at 
 the door of the restaurant, I turned and almost 
 ran into a plain clothes man f rone the central of 
 fice. I know him pretty well; once or twice he 
 has taken me with him on interesting bits of 
 work. He knows my hobby. 
 
 "You know him, too, probably. It was the 
 man Arnold, the detective whom the state's at 
 torney has had watching Bronson." 
 
 Johnson being otherwise occupied, I had asked 
 for Arnold myself. 
 
 I nodded. 
 
 "Well, he stopped me at once ; said he'd been 
 on the fellow's tracks since early morning and 
 had had no time for luncheon. Bronson, it seems, 
 isn't eating much these days. I at once jotted 
 down the fact, because it argued that he was be- 
 f ing bothered by the man with the notes." 
 
 "It might point to other tilings," I suggested. 
 ("Indigestion, you know." 
 
 Hotchkiss ignored me. "Well, Arnold had 
 some reason for thinking that Bronson would
 
 try to give him the slip that night, so he asked 
 me to stay around the private entrance there 
 while he ran across the street and got something 
 to eat. It seemed a fair presumption that, as he 
 had gone there with a lady, they would dine lei 
 surely, and Arnold would have plenty of time to 
 get back." 
 
 "What about your own dinner?" I asked curi 
 ously. 
 
 "Sir," he said pompously, "I have given you 
 a wrong estimate of Wilson Budd Hotchkiss 
 if you think that a question of dinner would even 
 obtrude itself on his mind at such a time as this." 
 
 He was a frail little man, and to-night he 
 looked pale with heat and over-exertion. 
 
 "Did you have any luncheon?" I asked. 
 
 He was somewhat embarrassed at that. 
 
 "I really, Mr. Blakeley, the events of the 
 day were so engrossing " 
 
 "Well," I said, "I'm not going to see you 
 drop on the floor from exhaustion. Just wait a 
 minute." 
 
 I went back to the pantry, only to be con 
 fronted with rows of locked doors and emptj
 
 226 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 dishes. Down-stairs, in the basement kitchen, 
 however, I found two unattractive looking cold 
 chops, some dry bread and a piece of cake, 
 wrapped in a napkin, and from its surreptitious I 
 and generally hang-dog appearance, destined 
 for the coachman in the stable at the rear. Trays 
 there were none everything but the chairs and 
 tables seemed under lock and key, and there was 
 neither napkin, knife nor fork to be found. 
 
 The luncheon was not attractive in appear 
 ance, but Hotchkiss ate his cold chops and 
 gnawed at his crusts as though he had been fam 
 ished, while he told his story. 
 
 "I had been there only a few minutes," he 
 said, with a chop in one hand and the cake in the 
 other, "when Bronson rushed out and cut across 
 the street. He's a tall man, Mr. Blakeley, and I 
 had hard work keeping close. It was a relief 
 when he jumped on a passing car, although be 
 ing well behind, it was a hard run for me to 
 catch him. He had left the lady. 
 
 "Once on the car, we simply rode from one 
 end of the line to the other and back again. I 
 suppose he was passing the time, for he looked
 
 AT THE BOARDING-HOUSE 227 
 
 at his watch now and then, and when I did once 
 get a look at his face it made me er uncom 
 fortable. He could have crushed me like a fly, 
 sir." 
 
 I had brought Mr. Hotchkiss a glass of wine, 
 and he was looking better. He stopped to finish 
 it, declining with a wave of his hand to have it 
 refilled, and continued: 
 
 "About nine o'clock or a little later he got off 
 somewhere near Washington Circle. He went 
 along one of the residence streets there, turned to 
 his left a square or two, and rang a bell. He 
 had been admitted when I got there, but I 
 guessed from the appearance of the place that it 
 was a boarding-house. 
 
 "I waited a few minutes and rang the bell. 
 When a maid answered it, I asked for Mr. Sul 
 livan. Of course there was no Mr. Sullivan 
 there. 
 
 "I said I was sorry ; that the man I was look 
 ing for was a new boarder. She was sure there 
 was no such boarder in the house ; the only new 
 arrival was a man on the third floor- she 
 thought his name was Stuart.
 
 228 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 " 'My friend has a cousin by that name,' I 
 said. 'I'll just go up and see.' 
 
 "She wanted to show me up, but I said it was 
 unnecessary. So after telling me it was the bed 
 room and sitting-room on the third floor front, I 
 went up. 
 
 "I met a couple of men on the stairs, but nei 
 ther of them paid any attention to me. A board 
 ing-house is the easiest place in the world to 
 enter." 
 
 "They're not always so easy to leave," I put 
 in, to his evident irritation. 
 
 "When I got to the third story, I took out a 
 bunch of keys and posted myself by a door near 
 the ones the girl had indicated. I could hear 
 voices in one of the front rooms, but could not 
 understand what they said. 
 
 "There was no violent dispute, but a steady 
 hum. Then Bronson jerked the door open. If he 
 had stepped into the hall he would have seen me 
 fitting a key into the door before me. But he 
 spoke before he came out. 
 
 " 'You're acting like a maniac,' h f aid. 'You 
 fonow I can get those things gome way ; I'm not
 
 AT THE BOARDING-HOUSE 
 
 going to threaten you. It isn't necessary. You 
 know me.' 
 
 " 'It would be no use,' the other man said. 1 
 tell you, I haven't seen the notes for ten days.' 
 
 " 'But you will,' Bronson said savagely. 
 Tou're standing in your own way, that's all. If 
 you're holding out expecting me to raise my fig 
 ure, you're making a mistake. It's my last 
 offer.' 
 
 " 'I couldn't take it if it was for a million,' 
 said the man inside the room. 'I'd do it, I ex 
 pect, if I could. The best of us have our price.' 
 
 "Bronson slammed the door then, and flung 
 past me down the hall. 
 
 "After a couple of minutes I knocked at the 
 door, and a tall man about your size, Mr. Blake- 
 ley, opened it. He was very blond, with a 
 smooth face and blue eyes what I think you 
 would call a handsome man. 
 
 " 'I beg your pardon for disturbing you,' I 
 said. 'Can you tell me which is Mr. Johnson's 
 room? Mr. Francis Johnson?' 
 
 " 'I can not say,' he replied civilly. I've only 
 been here a few days.'
 
 830 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "I thanked him and left, but I had had a good 
 look at him, and I think I'd know him readily 
 any place." 
 
 I sat for a few minutes thinking it over. "But 
 what did he mean by saying he hadn't seen the 
 notes for ten days ? And why is Bronson making 
 the overtures?" 
 
 "I think he was lying," Hotchkiss reflected. 
 c *Bronson hasn't reached his figure." 
 
 "It's a big advance, Mr. Hotchkiss, and I ap 
 preciate what you have done more than I can tell 
 you," I said. "And now, if you can locate any 
 of my property in this fellow's room, we'll send 
 him up for larceny, and at least have him where 
 we can get at him, I'm going to Cresson to 
 morrow, to try to trace him a little from there. 
 But I'll be back in a couple of days, and we'll 
 begin to gather in these scattered threads." 
 
 Hotchkiss rubbed his hands together delight 
 edly. 
 
 "That's it," he said. "That's what we want 
 to do, Mr. Blakeley. We'll gather up the threads 
 ourselves ; if we let the police in too soon, they'll 
 tangle it up again. I'm not vindictive by na-
 
 AT THE BOARDING-HOUSE 
 
 ture; but when a fellow like Sullivan not only 
 commits a murder, but goes to all sorts of trou 
 ble to put the burden of guilt on an innocent 
 man I say hunt him down, sir !" 
 
 "You are convinced, of course, that Sullivan 
 did it?" 
 
 "Who else?" He looked over his glasses at me 
 with the air of a man whose mental attitude ia 
 unassailable. 
 
 "Well, listen to this," I said. 
 
 Then I told him at length of my encounter 
 with Bronson in the restaurant, of the bargain 
 proposed by Mrs. Conway, and finally of Mc- 
 Knight's new theory. But, although he was im 
 pressed, he was far from convinced. 
 
 "It's a very vivid piece of imagination," he 
 said drily ; "but while it fits the evidence as far 
 as it goes, it doesn't go far enough. How about 
 the stains in lower seven, the dirk, and the wal 
 let? Haven't we even got motive in that tele 
 gram from Bronson?" 
 
 "Yes," I admitted, "but that bit of chain" 
 
 "Pooh," he said shortly. "Perhaps, like your 
 self, Sullivan wore glasses with a chain. Our
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 not finding them does not prove they did not 
 exist." 
 
 And there I made an error; half confidences 
 are always mistakes. I could not tell of the' 
 broken chain in Alison West's gold purse. 
 
 It was one o'clock when Hotchkiss finally left. 
 We had by that time arranged a definite course 
 of action Hotchkiss to search Sullivan's rooms 
 and if possible find evidence to have him held 
 for larceny, while I went to Cresson. 
 
 Strangely enough, however, when I entered 
 the train the following morning, Hotchkiss was 
 already there. He had bought a new note-book, 
 and was sharpening a fresh pencil. 
 
 "I changed my plans, you see," he said, bus 
 tling his newspaper aside for me. "It is no dis 
 credit to your intelligence, Mr. Blakeley, but 
 you lack the professional eye, the analytical 
 mind. You legal gentlemen call a spade a spade, 
 although it may be a shovel." 
 
 " *A primrose by the river's brim 
 A yellow primrose was to him, 
 And nothing more !' ' 
 I quoted as the train pulled out.
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 A NIGHT AT THE LAURELS 
 
 I SLEPT most of the way to Cresson, to the 
 disgust of the little detective. Finally he 
 struck up an acquaintance with a kindly-faced 
 old priest on his way home to his convent school, 
 armed with a roll of dance music and surrepti 
 tious bundles that looked like boxes of candy. 
 From scraps of conversation I gleaned that 
 there had been mysterious occurrences at the 
 convent, ending in the theft of what the rev 
 erend father called vaguely, "a quantity of un- 
 dermuslins." I dropped asleep at that point, 
 and when I roused a few moments later, the con 
 versation had progressed. Hotchkiss had a dia 
 gram on an envelope. 
 
 "With this window bolted, and that one inac 
 cessible, and if, as you say, the er garments 
 were in a tub here at X, then, as you hold the 
 233
 
 234 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 key to the other door, I think you said the 
 convent dog did not raise any disturbance? 
 Pardon a personal question, but do you ever 
 walk in your sleep ?" 
 
 The priest looked bewildered. 
 
 "I'll tell you what to do," Hotchkiss said 
 cheerfully, leaning forward, "look around a lit 
 tle yourself before you call in the police. Som 
 nambulism is a queer thing. It's a question 
 whether we are most ourselves sleeping or wak 
 ing. Ever think of that? Live a saintly life 
 all day, prayers and matins and all that, and the 
 subconscious mind hikes you out of bed at night 
 to steal undermuslins ! Subliminal theft, so to 
 speak. Better examine the roof." 
 
 I dozed again. When I wakened Hotchkiss 
 sat alone, and the priest, from a corner, was 
 staring at him dazedly, over his breviary. 
 
 It was raining when we reached Cresson, a 
 ' wind-driven rain that had forced the agent at 
 the news-stand to close himself in, and that beat 
 back from the rails in parallel lines of white 
 spray. As he went up the main street, Hotch-, 
 kiss was cheerfully oblivious of the weather, of
 
 A NIGHT AT THE LAURELS 235 
 
 the threatening dusk, of our generally draggled 
 condition. My draggled condition, I should 
 say, for he improved every moment, his eyes 
 brighter, his ruddy face ruddier, his collar i 
 newer and glossier. Sometime, when it does not 
 encircle the little man's neck, I shall test that 
 collar with a match. 
 
 I was growing steadily more depressed: I 
 loathed my errand and its necessity. I had al 
 ways held that a man who played the spy on a 
 woman was beneath contempt. Then. I admit I 
 was afraid of what I might learn. For a time, 
 however, this promised to be a negligible quan 
 tity. The streets of the straggling little moun 
 tain town had been clean-washed of humanity by 
 the downpour. Windows and doors were inhos 
 pitably shut, and from around an occasional 
 drawn shade came narrow strips of light that 
 merely emphasized our gloom. When Hotch- 
 kiss' umbrella turned inside out, I stopped. 
 
 "I don't know where you are going," I 
 snarled, "and I don't care. But I'm going to 
 get under cover inside of ten seconds. I'm not 
 amphibious."
 
 286 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 I ducked into the next shelter, which happened 
 to be the yawning entrance to a livery stable, 
 and shook myself, dog fashion. Hotchkiss 
 wiped his collar with his handkerchief. It 
 emerged gleaming and unwilted. 
 
 "This will do as well as any place," he said, 
 raising his voice above the rattle of the rain. 
 "Got to make a beginning." 
 
 I sat down on the usual chair without a back, 
 just inside the door, and stared out at the dark 
 ening street. The whole affair had an air of un 
 reality. Now that I was there, I doubled the 
 necessity, or the value, of the journey. I was 
 wet and uncomfortable. Around me, with Cres- 
 son as a center, stretched an irregular ci.cum- 
 ference of mountain, with possibly a ten -mile 
 radius, and in it I was to find the resident of 
 a woman whose first name I did not know, and a 
 
 man who, so far, had been a purely chimerical 
 < 
 person. 
 
 Hotchkiss had penetrated the steaming in 
 terior of the care, and now his voice, punctu 
 ated by the occasional thud of horses' hoofs, 
 came to me.
 
 "Something light will do," he was saying. 
 **A runabout, perhaps." He came forward rub 
 bing his hands, followed by a thin man in over 
 alls. "Mr. Peck says," he began, "this is Mr.( 
 Peck of Peck and Peck, says that the place we 
 are looking for is about seven miles from the 
 town. It's clearing, isn't it ?" 
 
 "It is not," I returned savagely. ""And we 
 don't want a runabout, Mr. Peck. What we re 
 quire is an hermetically sealed diving suit. I 
 suppose there isn't a machine to be had?" Mr. 
 Peck gazed at me in silence: machine to him 
 meant other things than motors. "Automobile," 
 I supplemented. His face cleared. 
 
 "None but private affairs. I can give you a 
 good buggy with a rubber apron. Mike, is the 
 doctor's horse in?" 
 
 I am still uncertain as to whether the raw- 
 boned roan we took out that night over the 
 mountains was the doctor's horse or not. If it 
 was, the doctor may be a good doctor, but he 
 doesn't know anything about a horse. And fur 
 thermore, I hope he didn't need the beast that 
 miserablf; evening.
 
 238 THE MAN IN LOWEQ TEN 
 
 While they harnessed the horse, Hotchkisa 
 told me what he had learned. 
 
 "Six Curtises in the town and vicinity," he 
 [said. "Sort of family name around here. One 
 of them is telegraph operator at the station. 
 Person we are looking for is was a wealthy 
 widow with a brother named Sullivan! Both 
 supposed to have been killed on the Flier." 
 
 "Her brother," I repeated stupidly. 
 
 "You see," Hotchkiss went on, "three people, 
 in one party, took the train here that night, 
 Miss West, Mrs. Curtis and Sullivan. The two 
 women had the drawing-room, Sullivan had 
 lower seven. What we want to find out is just 
 who these people were, where they came from, 
 if Bronson knew them, and how Miss West be 
 came entangled with them. She may have mar 
 ried Sullivan, for one thing." 
 
 I fell into gloom after that. The roan was 
 led unwillingly into the weather, Hotchkiss and 
 I in eclipse behind the blanket. The liveryman 
 stood in the doorway and called directions to us. 
 "You can't miss it," he finished. "Got the name 
 over the gate anyhow, 'The Laurels.' The
 
 A NIGHT AT THE LAURELS 239 
 
 servants are still there: leastways, we didn't 
 bring them down." He even took a step into the 
 rain as Hotchkiss picked up the lines. "If 
 you're going to settle the estate," he bawled, 
 "don't forget us, Peck and Peck. A half -bushel 
 of name and a bushel of service." 
 
 Hotchkiss could not drive. Born a clerk, he 
 guided the roan much as he would drive a bad 
 pen. And the roan spattered through puddles 
 and splashed ink mud, that is until I was in 
 a frenzy of irritation. 
 
 "What are we going to say when we get 
 there?" I asked after I had finally taken the 
 reins in my one useful hand. "Get out there at 
 midnight and tell the servants we have come to 
 ask a few questions about the family? It's an 
 idiotic trip anyhow; I wish I had stayed at 
 home." 
 
 The roan fell just then, and we had to crawl 
 out and help him up. By the time we had 
 partly unharnessed him our matches were gone, 
 and the small bicycle lamp on the buggy was 
 wavering only too certainly. We were cov 
 ered with mud, panting with exertion, and even
 
 240 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 Hotchkiss showed a disposition to be surly. 17tfl 
 rain, which had lessened for a time, came QJJ 
 again, the lightning flashes doing more than 
 anything else to reveal our isolated position. 
 
 Another mile saw us, if possible, mare de 
 spondent. The water in our clothes had had 
 time to penetrate: the roan had sprained his 
 shoulder, and drew us along in a series of con 
 vulsive jerks. And then through the rain-spat 
 tered window of the blanket, I saw p. light. It 
 was a small light, rather yellow, and it lasted 
 perhaps thirty seconds. Hotchkiss missed it, 
 and was inclined to doubt me. But in a couple 
 of minutes the roan hobbled to the side of the 
 road and stopped, and I made out a break in the 
 pines and an arched gate. 
 
 It was a small gate, too narrow for the buggy. 
 I pulled the horse into as much shelter as possi 
 ble under the trees, and we got out. Hotchkiss 
 tied the beast and we left him there, head down 
 against the driving rain, drooping and d&- 
 jected. Then we went toward the house. 
 
 It was a long walk. The path bent an3 
 twisted, amd now and then we lost it. We were
 
 A NIGHTJ AT THE LAURELS 
 
 climbing as we went. Oddly there were no lighti 
 ahead, although it was only ten o'clock, not 
 later. Hotchkiss kept a little ahead of me, 
 knocking into trees now and then, but finding 
 the path in half the time I should have taken. 
 Once, as I felt my way around a tree in the 
 blackness, I put my hand unexpectedly on his 
 shoulder, and felt a shudder go down my back. 
 
 "What do you expect me to do ?" he protested, 
 when I remonstrated. "Hang out a red lan 
 tern? What was that? Listen." 
 
 We both stood peering into the gloom. The 
 sharp patter of the rain on leaves had ceased, 
 and from just ahead there came back to us the 
 stealthy padding of feet in wet soil. My hand 
 closed on Hotchkiss' shoulder, and we listened 
 together, warily. The steps were close by, un 
 mistakable. The next flash of lightning showed 
 nothing moving : the house was in full view now, 
 dark and uninviting, looming huge above a ter 
 race, with an Italian garden at the side. Then 
 the blackness again. Somebody's teeth were 
 chattering : I accused Hotchkiss but he denied ife. 
 
 "Although I'm not very comfortable, I'll ad-
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 mit," he confessed; "there was something 
 breathing right at my elbow here a moment 
 ago." 
 
 "Nonsense !" I took his elbow and steered 
 him in what I made out to be the direction of the 
 steps of the Italian garden. "I saw a deer just 
 ahead by the last flash ; that's what you heard. 
 By Jove, I hear wheels." 
 
 We paused to listen and Hotchkiss put his 
 hand on something close to us. "Here's your 
 deer," he said. "Bronze." 
 
 As we neared the house the sense of surveil 
 lance we had had in the park gradually left us. 
 Stumbling over flower beds, running afoul of a 
 sun-dial, groping our way savagely along 
 hedges and thorny banks, we reached the steps 
 finally and climbed the terrace. 
 
 It was then that Hotchkiss fell over one of 
 the two stone urns which, with tall boxwood trees 
 in them, mounted guard at each side of the door. 
 He didn't make any attempt to get up. He sat 
 in a puddle on the brick floor of the terrace and 
 clutched his leg and swore softly in Government 
 English.
 
 A NIGHT AT THE LAURELS 
 
 The occasional relief of the lightning was 
 gone. I could not see an outline of the house be 
 fore me. We had no matches, and an instant's 
 investigation showed that the windows were 
 boarded and the house closed. Hotchkiss, still 
 recumbent, was ascertaining the damage, ten 
 derly peeling down his stocking. 
 
 "Upon my soul," he said finally, "I don't 
 know whether this moisture is blood or rain. I 
 think I've broken a bone." 
 
 "Blood is thicker than water," I suggested. 
 "Is it sticky? See if you can move your toes." 
 
 There was a pause: Hotchkiss moved his 
 toes. By that time I had found a knocker and 
 was making the night hideous. But there was 
 no response save the wind that blew sodden 
 leaves derisively in our faces. Once Hotchkiss 
 declared he heard a window-sash lifted, but re 
 newed violence with the knocker produced no 
 effect. 
 
 "There's only one thing to do," I said finally. 
 "I'll go back and try to bring the buggy up for 
 you. You can't walk, can you?" 
 
 Hotchkiss sat back in his puddle and said he
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 didn't think he could stir, but for me to go back 
 to town and leave him, that he didn't have any 
 family dependent on him, and that If he was 
 going to have pneumonia he had probably got it 
 already. I left him there, and started back to 
 get the horse. 
 
 If possible, it was worse than before. There 
 was no lightning, and only by a miracle did I 
 find the little gate again. I drew a long breath 
 of relief, followed by another, equally long, of 
 dismay. For I had found the hitching strap and 
 there was nothing at the end of it ! In a lull of 
 the wind I seemed to hear, far off, the eager thud 
 of stable-bound feet. So for the second time I 
 climbed the slope to the Laurels, and on the way 
 I thought of many things to say. 
 
 I struck the house at a new angle, for I foun3 
 a veranda, destitute of chairs and furnishings, 
 but dry and evidently roofed. It was better 
 than the terrace, and so, by groping along the 
 wall, I tried to make my way to Hotchkiss. That 
 was how I found the open window. I had passed 
 perhaps six, all closed, and to have my hand 
 grope for the next one, and to find instead the
 
 A NIGHT AT THE LAURELS 245 
 
 soft drapery of an inner curtain, was startling, 
 to say the least. 
 
 I found Hotchldss at last around an angle of 
 the stone wall, and told him that the horse was 
 gone. He was disconcerted, but not abased; 
 maintaining that it was a new kind* of knot that 
 couldn't slip and that the horse must have 
 chewed the halter through! He was less en 
 thusiastic than I had expected about the window. 
 
 *'It looks uncommonly like a trap," he said. 
 "I tell you there was some one in the park be 
 low when we were coming up. Man has a sixth 
 sense that scientists ignore a sense of the near 
 ness of things. And all the time you have been 
 gone, some one has been watching me." 
 
 "Couldn't see you," I maintained; "I can't 
 see you now. And your sense of contiguitj 
 didn't tell you about that flower crock." 
 
 In the end, of course, he consented to go with 
 I me. He was very lame, and I helped him around 
 to the open window. He was full of moral 
 courage, the little man : it was only the physical 
 in him that quailed. And as we groped along, 
 he insisted o* going through the window first.
 
 1*46 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "If it is a trap," he whispered, "I have two 
 arms to your one, and, besides, as I said before, 
 life holds much for you. As for me, the govern 
 ment would merely lose an indifferent employee." I 
 
 When he found I was going first he was 
 rather hurt, but I did not wait for his protests. 
 I swung my feet over the sill and dropped. I 
 made a clutch at the window-frame with my 
 good hand when I found no floor under my feet, 
 but I was too late. I dropped probably ten feet 
 and landed with a crash that seemed to split my 
 ear-drums. I was thoroughly shaken, but in 
 some miraculous way the bandaged arm had es 
 caped injury. 
 
 "For Heaven's sake," Hotchkiss was calling 
 from above, "have you broken your back?" 
 
 "No," I returned, as steadily as I could, 
 *'merely driven it up through my skull. This 
 is a staircase. I'm coming up to open another 
 window." 
 
 It was eerie work, but I accomplished it final 
 ly, discovering, not without mishap, a room 
 filled with more tables than I had ever dreamed 
 of, tables that seemed to waylay and strike al
 
 A NIGHT AT THE LAURELS 247 
 
 me. When I had got a window open, Hotchkiss 
 crawled through, and we were at last under 
 shelter. 
 
 Our first thought was for a light. The same 
 laborious investigation that had landed us where 
 we were, revealed that the house was lighted by 
 electricity, and that the plant was not in opera 
 tion. By accident I stumbled across a tabouret 
 with smoking materials, and found a half dozen 
 matches. The first one showed us the magnitude 
 of the room we stood in, and revealed also a brass 
 candle-stick by the open fireplace, a candle-stick 
 almost four feet high, supporting a candle of 
 similar colossal proportions. It was Hotchkiss 
 who discovered that it had been recently lighted. 
 He held the match to it and peered at it over his 
 glasses. 
 
 "Within ten minutes," he announced impres 
 sively, "this candle has been burning. Look at 
 ' the wax ! And the wick ! Both soft." 
 
 "Perhaps it's the damp weather," I ventured, 
 moving a little nearer to the circle of light. A 
 gust of wind came in just then, and the flame 
 turned over on its side and threatened demise.
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 The*t* was something almost ridiculous in the 
 haste with which we put down the window and 
 nursed the flicker to life. 
 
 The peculiarly ghost-like appearance of the 
 room added to the uncanniness of the situation. 
 The furniture was swathed in white covers for 
 the winter ; even the pictures wore shrouds. And 
 in a niche between two windows a bust on a ped 
 estal, {similarly wrapped, one arm extended under 
 Us winding sheet, made a most life-like ghost, if 
 any g-liost can be life-like. 
 
 In i'lie light of the candle we surveyed each 
 other, wnd we were objects for mirth. Hotchkiss 
 was taldng off his sodden shoes and preparing 
 to make himself comfortable, while I hung mj 
 muddy raincoat over the ghost in the corner. 
 Thus h/ibited, he presented a rakish but dis 
 tinctly more comfortable appearance. 
 
 "When these people built," Hotchkiss said, 
 surveying the huge dimensions of the room, 
 "they must have bought a mountain and built all 
 over it. What a room !" 
 
 It seemed to be a living-room, although 
 Hbtchkiss remarked that it was much more like
 
 A NIGHT AT THE LAURELS 249 
 
 a dead one. It was probably fifty feet long and 
 twenty-five feet wide. It was very high, too, 
 with a domed ceiling, and a gallery ran around 
 the entire room, about fifteen feet above the 
 floor. The candle light did not penetrate be 
 yond the dim outlines of the gallery rail, but 
 I fancied the wall there hung with smaller pic 
 tures. 
 
 Hotchkiss had discovered a fire laid in the 
 enormous fireplace, and in a few minutes we were 
 steaming before a cheerful blaze. Within the 
 radius of its light and heat, we were comfortable 
 again. But the brightness merely emphasized 
 the gloom of the ghostly corners. We talked 
 in subdued tones, and I smoked a box of Russian 
 cigarettes which I found in a table drawer. We 
 had decided to stay all night, there being noth 
 ing else to do. I suggested a game of double- 
 dummy bridge, but did not urge it when my 
 companion asked me if it resembled euchre. 
 Gradually, as the ecclesiastical candle paled in 
 the firelight, we grew drowsy. I drew a divan 
 into the cheerful area, and stretched myself out 
 for sleep. Hotchkiss, who said the pain in his
 
 S50 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 leg made him wakeful, sat wide-eyed by the fire, 
 smoking a pipe. 
 
 I have no idea how much time had passed 
 when something threw itself violently on mj 
 chest. I roused with a start and leaped to my 
 feet, and a large Angora cat fell with a thump 
 to the floor. The fire was still bright, and 
 there was an odor of scorched leather through 
 the room, from Hotchkiss' shoes. The little de 
 tective was sound asleep, his dead pipe in his 
 fingers. The cat sat back on its haunches and 
 wailed. 
 
 The curtain at the door into the hallway bel 
 lied slowly out into th. room and fell again. The 
 cat looked toward it and opened its mouth for 
 another howl. I thrust at it with my foot, but 
 it refused to move. Hotchkiss stirred uneasily, 
 and his pipe clattered to the floor. 
 
 The cat was standing at my feet, staring be 
 hind me. Apparently it was following with it 
 eyes, an object unseen to me, that moved behind 
 me. The tip of its tail waved threateningly, 
 but when I wheeled I saw nothing. 
 
 I took the candle and made a circuit of the
 
 room. Behind the curtain that had moved the 
 door was securely closed. The windows were 
 shut and locked, and everywhere the silence was 
 absolute. The cat followed me majestically. 1 
 stooped and stroked its head, but it persisted in 
 its uncanny watching of the corners of the 
 room. 
 
 When I went back to my divan, after putting 
 a fresh log on the fire, I was reassured. I took 
 the precaution, and smiled at myself for doing 
 it, to put the fire tongs within reach of my 
 hand. But the cat would not let me sleep. After 
 a time I decided that it wanted water, and I 
 started out in search of some, carrying the can 
 dle without the stand. I wandered through sev 
 eral rooms, all closed and dismantled, before I 
 found a small lavatory opening off a billiard 
 room. The cat lapped steadily, and I filled a 
 glass to take back with me. The candle flick 
 ered in a sickly fashion that threatened to leave 
 me there lost in the wanderings of the many hall 
 ways, and from somewhere there came an occa 
 sional violent puff of wind. The cat stuck by 
 my feet, with the hair on its back raised mena-
 
 252 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 cingly. I don't like cats; there is something 
 psychic about them. 
 
 Hotchkiss was still asleep when I got back to 
 the big room. I moved his boots back from the 
 fire, and trimmed the candle. Then, with sleep 
 gone from me, I lay back on my divan and re 
 flected on many things : on my idiocy in coming ; 
 on Alison West, and the fact that only a week 
 before she had been a guest in this very house ; 
 on Richey and the constraint that had come be 
 tween us. From that I drifted back to Alison, 
 and to the barrier my comparative poverty 
 would be. 
 
 The emptiness, the stillness were oppressive. 
 Once I heard footsteps coming, rhythmical steps 
 that neither hurried nor dragged, and seemed to 
 mount endless staircases without coming any 
 closer. I realized finally that I had not quite 
 turned off the tap, and that the lavatory, which 
 I had circled to reach, must be quite close. 
 
 The cat lay by the fire, its nose on its folded 
 paws, content in the warmth and companion 
 ship. I watched it idly. Now and then the 
 green wood hissed in the fire, but the cat never
 
 batted an eye. Through an unshuttered window 
 the lightning flashed. Suddenly the cat looked 
 up. It lifted its head and stared directly at the, 
 gallery above. Then it blinked, and stared 
 again. I was amused. Not until it had got 
 up on its feet, eyes still riveted on the balcony, 
 tail waving at the tip, the hair on its back a 
 bristling brush, did I glance casually over my 
 head. 
 
 From among the shadows a face gazed down 
 at me, a face that seemed a fitting tenant of the 
 ghostly room below. I saw it as plainly as I 
 might see my own face in a mirror. While I 
 stared at it with horrified eyes, the apparition 
 faded. The rail was there, the Bokhara rug 
 still swung from it, but the gallery was empty. 
 
 The cat threw back its head and wailed.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 HIS WIFE'S FATHER 
 
 1 JUMPED up and seized the fire tongs. The 
 cat's wail had roused Hotchkiss, who was 
 wide-awake at once. He took in my offensive 
 attitude, the tongs, the direction of my gaze, and 
 needed nothing more. As he picked up the can 
 dle and darted out into the hall, I followed him. 
 He made directly for the staircase, and part 
 way up he turned off to the right through a 
 small door. We were on the gallery itself; be- 
 iow us the fire gleamed cheerfully, the cat was 
 not in sight. There was no sign of my ghostly 
 visitant, but as we stood there the Bokhara rug, 
 without warning, slid over the railing and fell 
 to the floor below. 
 
 "Man or woman?" Hotchkiss inquired in his 
 most professional tone. 
 
 "Neither that is, I don't know. I didn't no- 
 254
 
 HIS WIFE'S FATHER 256 
 
 tice anything but the eyes," I muttered. "They 
 were looking a hole in me. If you'd seen that cat 
 you would realize my state of mind. That was a 
 traditional graveyard yowl." 
 
 "I don't think you saw anything at all," he 
 lied cheerfully. "You dozed off, and the rest is 
 the natural result of a meal on a buffet car." 
 
 Nevertheless, he examined the Bokhara care 
 fully when we went down, and when I finally went 
 to sleep he was reading the only book in sight 
 Elw/ell on Bridge. The first rays of daylight 
 were coming mistily into the room when he 
 roused me. He had his finger on his lips, and he 
 whispered sibilantly while I tried to draw on my 
 distorted boots. 
 
 "I think we have him," he said triumphantly. 
 "I've been looking around some, and I can tell 
 you this much. Just before we came in through 
 the window last night, another man came. Only 
 he did not drop, as you did. He swung over 
 to the stair railing, and then down. The rail is 
 scratched. He was long enough ahead of us to 
 go into the dining-room and get a decanter out 
 of the sideboard. He poured out the liquor into
 
 256 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 a glass, left the decanter there, and took the 
 whisky into the library across the hall. Then 
 he broke into a desk, using a paper knife for a 
 jimmy." 
 
 "Good Lord, Hotchkiss," I exclaimed; "why, 
 it may have been Sullivan himself! Confound 
 your theories he's getting farther away every 
 minute." 
 
 "It was Sullivan," Hotchkiss returned imper- 
 turbably. "And he has not gone. His boots are 
 by the library fire." 
 
 "He probably had a dozen pairs where he 
 could get them," I scoffed. "And while you and 
 I sat and slept, the very man we want to get our 
 hands on leered at us over that railing." 
 
 "Softly, softly, my friend," Hotchkiss said, 
 as I stamped into my other shoe. "I did not say 
 he was gone. Don't jump at conclusions. It is 
 fatal to reasoning. As a matter of fact, he didn't 
 relish a night on the mountains any more than 
 we did. After he had unintentionally frightened 
 you almost into paralysis, what would my gen 
 tleman naturally do? Go out in the storm again? 
 Not if I know the Alice-sit-by-the-fire type. He
 
 HIS WIFE'S FATHER 257 
 
 went up-stairs, well up near the roof, locked him 
 self in and went to bed." 
 
 "And he is there now?" 
 
 "He is there now." 
 
 We had no weapons. I am aware that the tra 
 ditional hero is always armed, and that Hotch- 
 kiss as the low comedian should have had a 
 revolver that missed fire. As a fact, we had 
 nothing of the sort. Hotchldss carried the fire 
 tongs, but my sense of humor was too strong 
 for me ; I declined the poker. 
 
 1 ~^~- 
 
 we want is a little peaceable conversation 
 him," I demurred. "We can't brain him 
 irst and converse with him afterward. And any 
 how, while I can't put my finger on the place, I 
 think your theory is weak. If he wouldn't run 
 a hundred miles through fire and water to get 
 away from us, then he is not the man we want." 
 Hotchkiss, however, was certain. He had 
 found the room and listened outside the door to 
 the sleeper's heavy breathing, and so we climbed 
 past luxurious suites, revealed in the deepening 
 daylight, past long vistas of hall and boudoir. 
 And we were both badly winded when we got
 
 258 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 there. It was a tower room, reached by narrow 
 stairs, and well above the roof level. Hotchkiss 
 was glowing. 
 
 "It is partly good luck, but not all," he pant-^ 
 ed in a whisper. "If we had persisted in the 
 search last night, he would have taken alarm and 
 fled. Now we have him. Are you ready?" 
 
 He gave a mighty rap at the door with the fire 
 tongs, and stood expectant. Certainly he was 
 right ; some one moved within. 
 
 "Hello! Hello there!" Hotchkiss bawled. 
 "You might as well come out. We won't hurt 
 you, if you'll come peaceably." 
 
 "Tell him we represent the law," I prompted. 
 "That's the customary thing, you know." 
 
 But at that moment a bullet came squarely 
 through the door and flattened itself with a 
 sharp pst against the wall of the tower staircase. 
 We ducked unanimously, dropped back out of 
 range, and Hotchkiss retaliated with a spirited 
 bang at the door with the tongs. This brought 
 another bullet. It was a ridiculous situation. 
 Under the circumstances, no doubt, we should 
 have retired, at least until we had armed our-
 
 HIS WIFE'S FATHER 259 
 
 selves, but Hotchkiss had no end of fighting 
 spirit, and as for me, my blood was up. 
 
 "Break the lock," I suggested, and Hotchkiss, 
 standing at the side, out of range, retaliated for 
 every bullet by a smashing blow with the tongs. 
 The shots ceased after a half dozen, and the 
 door was giving, slowly. One of us on each side 
 of the door, we were ready for almost any kind 
 of desperate resistance. As it swung open Hotch 
 kiss poised the tongs ; I stood, bent forward, my 
 arnydfawiTBack for a blow. * 
 
 /Nothing happened. 
 
 There was not a sound. Finally, at the rislc 
 of losing an eye which I justly value, I peered 
 around and into the room. There was no desper 
 ado there: only a fresh-faced, trembling-lipped 
 servant, sitting on the edge of her bed, with a 
 quilt around her shoulders and the empty re 
 volver at her feet. 
 
 We were victorious, but no conquered army 
 ever beat such a retreat as ours down the tower 
 stairs and into the refuge of the living-room. 
 There, with the door closed, sprawled on the 
 divan, I went from one spasm of mirth into an-
 
 260 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 other, becoming sane at intervals, and suffering 
 relapse again every time I saw Hotchkiss' dis 
 gruntled countenance. He was pacing the room, 
 the tongs still in his hand, his mouth pursed 
 with irritation. Finally he stopped in front of 
 me and compelled my attention. 
 
 "When you have finished cackling," he said 
 with dignity, "I wish to justify my position. Do 
 you think the er young woman up-stairs put 
 a pair of number eight boots to dry in the li 
 brary last night? Do you think she poured the 
 whisky out of that decanter ?" 
 
 "They have been known to do it," I put in, 
 but his eye silenced me. 
 
 "Moreover, if she had been the person who 
 peered at you over the gallery railing last night, 
 don't you suppose, with her er belligerent 
 disposition, she could have filled you as full of 
 lead as a window weight ?" 
 
 "I do," I assented. "It wasn't Alice-sit-by- 
 the-fire. I grant you that. Then who was it?" 
 
 Hotchkiss felt certain that it had been Sul 
 livan, but I was not so sure. Why would he have 
 crawled like a thief into his own house? If he
 
 HIS WIFE'S FATHER 
 
 had crossed the park, as seemed probable, when 
 we did, he had not made any attempt to use the 
 knocker. I gave it up finally, and made an ef 
 fort to conciliate the young woman in the tower. 
 
 We had heard no sound since our spectacular 
 entrance into her room. I was distinctly uncom 
 fortable as, alone this time, I climbed to the 
 tower staircase. Reasoning from before, she 
 would probably throw a chair at me. I stopped 
 at the fooi_othe staircase and called. 
 
 '^Hello up there," I said, in as debonnair a 
 manner as I could summon. "Good morning. 
 Wle geJit es bei ihnen?" 
 
 No reply. 
 
 "Bon jour, mademoiselle," I tried again. This 
 time there was a movement of some sort from 
 above, but nothing fell on me. 
 
 "I we want to apologize for rousing you so 
 er unexpectedly this morning," I went on. 
 "The fact is, we wanted to talk to you, and you 
 you were hard to waken. We are travelers, 
 lost in your mountains, and we crave a breakfast 
 and an audience." 
 
 She came to the door then. I could feel that
 
 262 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 she was investigating the top of my head from 
 above. "Is Mr. Sullivan with you?" she asked. 
 It was the first word from her, and she was not 
 sure of her voice. 
 
 "No. We are alone. If you will come down 
 and look at us you will find us two perfectly 
 harmless people, whose horse curses on him 
 departed without leave last night and left us at 
 your gate." 
 
 She relaxed somewhat then and came down a 
 step or two. "I was afraid I had killed some 
 body," she said. "The housekeeper left yester 
 day, and the other maids went with her." 
 
 When she saw that I was comparatively 
 young and lacked the earmarks of the highway 
 man, she was greatly relieved. She was inclined 
 to fight shy of Hotchkiss, however, for some 
 reason. She gave us a breakfast of a sort, for 
 there was little in the house, and afterward we 
 telephoned to the town for a vehicle. Whilel 
 Hotchkiss examined scratches and replaced the 
 Bokhara rug, I engaged Jennie in conversation. 
 
 "Can you tell me," I asked, "who is managing 
 the estate since Mrs. Curtis was killed?"
 
 HIS WIFE'S FATHER 263 
 
 "No one," she returned shortly. 
 
 "Has any member of the family been here 
 since the accident ?" 
 
 "No, sir. There was only the ty7C s and some 
 think Mr. Sullivan was killed as well as his sis 
 ter." 
 
 "You don't?" 
 
 "No," with conviction. 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 She wheeled on me with quick suspicion. 
 ar detective ?" she demanded. 
 
 You told him to say you represented the 
 law." 
 
 "I am a lawyer. Some of them misrepresent 
 the law, but I" 
 
 She broke in impatiently. 
 
 "A sheriff's officer?" 
 
 "No. Look here, Jennie; I am all that I 
 should be. You'll have to believe that. And 
 I'm in a bad position through no fault of my 
 own. I want you to answer some questions. If 
 you will help me, I will do what I can for you. 
 Do you live near here?"
 
 Her chin quivered. It was the first sign of 
 weakness she had shown. 
 
 "My home is in Pittsburg," she said, "and I 
 haven't enough money to get there. They hadn't 
 paid any wages for two months. They didn't 
 pay anybody." 
 
 "Very well," I returned. "I'll send you back 
 to Pittsburg, Pullman included, if you will tell 
 me some things I want to know." 
 
 She agreed eagerly. Outside the window 
 Hotchkiss was bending over, examining foot 
 prints in the drive. 
 
 "Now.," I began, "there has been a Miss West 
 staying here?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Mr. Sullivan was attentive to her?" 
 
 "Yes. She was the granddaughter of a 
 wealthy man in Pittsburg. My aunt has been 
 in his family for twenty years. Mrs. Curtis 
 wanted her brother to marry Miss West." 
 
 "Do you think he did marry her?" I could 
 not keep the excitement out of my voice. 
 
 "No. There were reasons" she stopped ab 
 ruptly.
 
 HIS WIFE'S FATHER 863 
 
 "Do you know anything of the family? Are 
 they were they New Yorkers ?" 
 
 "They came from somewhere In the south. I 
 have heard Mrs. Curtis say her mother was a 
 Cuban. I don't know much about them, but Mr. 
 Sullivan had a wicked temper, though he didn't 
 look it. Folks say big, light-haired people are 
 easy going, but I don't believe It, sir." 
 
 "How long, was Miss West here ?" 
 
 "Tvpoweeks." 
 
 I hesitated about further questioning. Criti 
 cal as my position was, I could not pry deeper 
 into lAlison West's affairs. If she had got into 
 the hands of adventurers, as Sullivan and his 
 sister appeared to have been, she was safely 
 away from them again. But something of the 
 situation in the car Ontario was forming itself 
 in my mind: the incident at the farm-house 
 lacked only motive to be complete. Was Sulli 
 van, after all, a rascal or a criminal? Was the 
 murderer Sullivan or Mrs. Conway? The lady 
 or the tiger again. 
 
 Jennie was speaking. 
 
 "I hope Miss West was not hurtP' she asked.
 
 266 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "We liked her, all of us. She was not like Mm 
 Curtis." 
 
 I wanted to say that she was not like anybody 
 in the world. Instead "She escaped with some 
 bruises," I said. 
 
 She glanced at my arm. "You were on the 
 train?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 She waited for more questions, but none com' 
 ing, she went to the door. Then she closed it 
 softly and came back. 
 
 "Mrs. Curtis is dead? You are sure of it?" 
 she asked. 
 
 "She was killed instantly, I believe. The body 
 was not recovered. But I have reasons for be 
 lieving that Mr. Sullivan is living." 
 
 "I knew it," she said. "I I think he was 
 here the night before last. That is why I went 
 to the tower room. I believe he would kill me if 
 he could." As nearly as her round and comely 
 face could express it, Jennie's expression was 
 tragic at that moment. I made a quick resolu 
 tion, and acted on it at once. 
 
 "You are not entirely frank with me, Jennie,"
 
 HIS WIFE'S FATHER 267 
 
 I protested. "And I am going to tell you more 
 than I have. We are talking at cross purposes. 
 
 "I was on the wrecked train, in the same car 
 with Mrs. Curtis, Miss West and Mr. Sullivan. 
 During the night there was a crime committed 
 In that car and Mr. Sullivan disappeared. But 
 he left behind him a chain of circumstantial evi 
 dence t}iat involved me completely, so that I 
 may/ at any time, be arrested." 
 
 Lpparently she did not comprehend for a mo- 
 mejit. Then, as if the meaning of my words 
 had just dawned on her, she looked up and 
 gasped : 
 
 "You mean Mr. Sullivan committed the 
 crime himself?" 
 
 "I think he did." 
 
 "What was it?" 
 
 "It was murder," I said deliberately. 
 
 Her hands clenched involuntarily, and she 
 shrank back. "A woman?" She could scarcely 
 form her words. 
 
 "No, a man; a Mr. Simon Harrington, of 
 Pittsburgh 
 
 Her effort to retain her self-control was piti-
 
 868 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 ful. Then she broke down and cried, her head 
 on the back of a tall chair. 
 
 "It was my fault," she said wretchedly, "my 
 fault. I should not have sent them the word." 
 
 After a few minutes she grew quiet. She 
 seemed to hesitate over something, and finally 
 determined to say it. 
 
 "You will understand better, sir, when I say 
 that I was raised in the Harrington family. 
 Mr. Harrington was Mr. Sullivan's wife's 
 father!"
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 
 
 AT THE STATION 
 
 SO it hadjbeen the tiger, not the lady ! Well, 
 I/liad held to that theory all through. Jen 
 nie suddenly became a valuable person ; if neces 
 sary \she could prove the connection between Sul 
 livan \and the murdered man, and show a motive 
 for the crime. I was triumphant when Hotch- 
 kiss came in. When the girl had produced a 
 photograph of Mrs. Sullivan, and I had recog 
 nized the bronze-haired girl of the train, we were 
 both well satisfied which goes to prove the 
 ephemeral nature of most human contentments. 
 Jennie either had nothing more to say, or 
 feared she had said too much. She was evi 
 dently uneasy before Hotchkiss. I told her that . 
 Mrs. Sullivan was recovering in a Baltimore hos 
 pital, but she already knew it, from some source, 
 and merely nodded. She made a few prepara- 
 269
 
 270 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 tions for leaving, while Hotchkiss and I com 
 pared notes, and then, with the cat in her arms, 
 she climbed into the trap from the town. I sat 
 with her, and on the way down she told me a 
 little, not much. 
 
 "If you see Mrs. Sullivan," she advised, "and 
 she 'is conscious, she probably thinks that both 
 her husband and her father were killed in the 
 wreck. She will be in a bad way, sir." 
 
 "You mean that she still cares about Her 
 husband?" 
 
 The cat crawled over on to my knee, and 
 rubbed its head against my hand invitingly. 
 Jennie stared at the undulating line of the 
 mountain crests, a colossal surf against a blue 
 ocean of sky. "Yes, she cares," she said softly. 
 "Women are made like that. They say they are 
 cats, but Peter there in your lap wouldn't come 
 ,back and lick your hand if you kicked him. If 
 if you have to tell her the truth, be as gentle 
 as you can, sir. She has been good to me 
 that's why I have played the spy here all sum 
 mer. It's a thankless thing, spying on people." 
 
 "It is that," I agreed soberly.
 
 AT THE STATION 271 
 
 Hotchkiss and I arrived in Washington late 
 that evening, and, rather than arouse the house 
 hold, I went to the club. I was at the office 
 early the next morning and admitted myself 
 McKnight rarely appeared before half after ten, 
 and our modest office force some time after nine. 
 I looked over my previous day's mail and waited, 
 with such patience as I possessed, for Mc 
 Knight. In the interval I called up Mrs. Klop- 
 tonxand announced that I would dine at home 
 that \mght. What my household subsists on 
 during my numerous absences I have never dis 
 covered. Tea, probably, and crackers. Dili 
 gent search when I have made a midnight ar 
 rival, never reveals anything more substantial. 
 Possibly I imagine it, but the announcement that 
 I am about to make a journey always seems to 
 create a general atmosphere of depression 
 throughout the house, as though Euphemia and 
 Eliza, and Thomas, the stableman, were already : 
 subsisting, in imagination, on Mrs. Klopton's 
 meager fare. 
 
 So I called her up and announced my arrival. 
 There was something unusual in her tone, as
 
 S73 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 though her throat was tense with indignation. 
 Always shrill, her elderly voice rasped my ear 
 painfully through the receiver. 
 
 "I have changed the butcher, Mr. Lawrence," 
 she announced portentously. "The last roast 
 was a pound short, and his mutton-chops any 
 self-respecting sheep would refuse to acknow 
 ledge them." 
 
 As I said before, I can always tell from the 
 voice in which Mrs. Klopton conveys the most 
 indifferent matters, if something of real sig 
 nificance has occurred. Also, through long habit, 
 I have learned how quickest to bring her to the 
 point. 
 
 "You are pessimistic this morning," I re 
 turned. "What's the matter, Mrs. Klopton? 
 You haven't used that tone since Euphemia 
 baked a pie for the iceman. What is it now? 
 Somebody poison the dog?" 
 
 She cleared her throat. 
 
 "The house has been broken into, Mr. Law 
 rence," she said. "I have lived in the best fami 
 lies, and never have I stood by and seen what I 
 saw yesterday every bureau drawer opened,
 
 AT THE STATION 273 
 
 and my my most sacred belongings " she 
 choked. 
 
 "Did you notify the police?" I asked sharply. 
 
 "Police !" she sniffed. "Police ! It was the 
 
 ,^ 
 
 police that did it two detectives with a search 
 warrant. I I wouldn't dare tell you over the 
 telephone what one of them said when he found 
 th/ whisky and rock candy for my cough." 
 
 vDid they take anything?" I demanded, every 
 nerve^ on edge. 
 
 "They took the cough medicine," she returned 
 indignantly, "and they said " 
 
 "Confound the cough medicine !" I was fran- 
 **c. "Did they take anything else? Were they 
 in my dressing-room?" 
 
 "Yes. I threatened to sue them, and I told 
 them what you would do when you came back. 
 But they wouldn't listen. They took away that 
 black sealskin bag you brought home from Pitts- 
 burg with you !" 
 
 I knew then that my hours of freedom were 
 numbered. To have found Sullivan and then, in 
 support of my case against him, to have pro 
 duced the bag, minus the bit of chain, had been
 
 274 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 my intention. But the police had the bag, and, 
 beyond knowing something of Sullivan's his 
 tory, I was practically no nearer his discovery 
 than before. Hotchkiss hoped he had his manf 
 in the house off Washington Circle, but on the 
 very night he had seen him Jennie claimed that 
 Sullivan had tried to enter the Laurels. Then 
 suppose we found Sullivan and proved the 
 satchel and its contents his? Since the police 
 had the bit of chain it might mean involving 
 Alison in the story. I sat down and buried my 
 face in my hands. There was no escape. I 
 figured it out despondingly. 
 
 Against me was the evidence of the survivors 
 of the Ontario that I had been accused of the 
 murder at the time. There had been blood-stains 
 on my pillow and a hidden dagger. Into the 
 bargain, in my possession had been found a 
 traveling-bag containing the dead man's pocket- 
 book. 
 
 In my favor was McKnight's theory against 
 Mrs. Conway. She had a motive for wishing to 
 secure the notes, she believed I was in lower ten,
 
 AT THE STATION 275 
 
 and she had collapsed at the discovery of the 
 crime in the morning. 
 
 Against both of these theories, I accuse a 
 
 ,'; 
 
 f purely chimerical person named Sullivan, who 
 was not seen by any of the survivors save one, 
 Alison, whom I could not bring into the case. I 
 could/find a motive for his murdering his father- 
 in-Tiaw, whom he hated, but again I would have 
 tovdrag in the girl. 
 
 And not one of the theories explained the 
 telegram and the broken necklace. 
 
 Outside the office force was arriving. They 
 were comfortably ignorant of my presence, and 
 over the transom floated scraps of dialogue and 
 the stenographer's gurgling laugh. McKnight 
 had a relative, who was reading law with him, 
 in the intervals between calling up the young 
 women of his acquaintance. He came in sing 
 ing, and the office boy joined in with the uncer 
 tainty of voice of fifteen. I smiled grimly. I 
 was too busy with my own troubles to find any 
 joy in opening the door and startling them into 
 silence. I even heard, without resentment, Blobs
 
 276 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 of the uncertain voice inquire when "Blake" 
 would be back. 
 
 I hoped McKnight would arrive before the 
 arrest occurred. There were many things to 
 arrange. But when at last, impatient of his de 
 lay, I telephoned, I found he had been gone for 
 more than an hour. Clearly he was not coming 
 directly to the office, and with such resignation 
 as I could muster I paced the floor and waited. 
 
 I felt more alone than I have ever felt in my 
 life. "Born an orphan," as Richey said, I had 
 made my own way, carved out myself such suc 
 cess as had been mine. I had built up my house 
 of life on the props of law and order, and now 
 some unknown hand had withdrawn the sup 
 ports, and I stood among ruins. 
 
 I suppose it is the maternal in a woman that 
 makes a man turn to her when everything else 
 fails. The eternal boy in him goes to have his 
 wounded pride bandaged, his tattered self- 
 respect repaired. If he loves the woman, he 
 wants her to kiss the hurt. 
 
 The longing to see Alison, always with me, 
 was stronger than I was that morning. It might
 
 AT THE STATION 277 
 
 be that I would not see her again. I had noth 
 ing to say to her save one thing, and that, under 
 the cloud that hung over me, I did not dare to 
 say. But I wanted to see her, to touch her hand 
 as only a lonely man can crave it, I wanted 
 the comfert of her, the peace that lay in her 
 presence. And so, with every step outside the 
 door a threat, I telephoned to her. 
 
 She was gone! The disappointment was 
 greav for my need was great. In a fury of 
 revolt against the scheme of things, I heard that 
 she had started home to Richmond but that 
 she might still be caught at the station. 
 
 To see her had by that time become an obses 
 sion. I picked up my hat, threw open the door, 
 and, oblivious of the shock to the office force of 
 my presence, followed so immediately by my 
 exit, I dashed out to the elevator. As I went 
 down in one cage I caught a glimpse of John 
 son and tWo other men going up in the next. I 
 hardly gave them a thought. There was no 
 hansom in sight, and I jumped on a passing car. 
 Let come what might, arrest, prison, disgrace, 
 I was going to see Alison.
 
 278 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 I saw her. I flung into the station, saw that 
 it was empty empty, for she was not there. 
 Then I hurried back to the gates. She was 
 there, a familiar figure in blue, the very gown 
 in which I always thought of her, the one she 
 had worn when, Heaven help me I had kissed 
 her, at the Carter farm. And she was not alone. 
 Bending over her, talking earnestly, with all his 
 boyish heart in his face, was Richey. 
 
 They did not see me, and I was glad of it. 
 After all, it had been McKnight's game first. 
 I turned on my heel and made my way blindly 
 out of the station. Before I lost them I turned 
 once and looked toward them, standing apart 
 from the crowd, absorbed in each other. They 
 were the only two people on earth that I cared 
 about, and I left them there together. Then I 
 went back miserably to the office and awaited 
 arrest.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 ON TO RICHMOND 
 
 TJJANGELY enough, I was not disturbed 
 that day. McKnight did not appear at all. 
 at my desk and transacted routine business 
 all Afternoon, working with feverish energy. 
 Like a man on the verge of a critical illness or 
 a hazardous journey, I cleared up my corre 
 spondence, paid bills until I had writer's cramp 
 from signing checks, read over my will, and 
 paid up my life insurance, made to the benefit of 
 an elderly sister of my mother's. 
 
 I no longer dreaded arrest. After that morn 
 ing in the station, I felt that anything would be 
 a relief from the tension. I went home with per 
 fect openness, courting the warrant that I knew 
 was waiting, but I was not molested. The delay 
 puzzled me. The early part of the evening was 
 uneventful. I read until late, with occasional 
 279
 
 280 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 lapses, when my book lay at my elbow, and I 
 smoked and thought. Mrs. Klopton closed the 
 house with ostentatious caution, about eleven, 
 and hung around waiting to enlarge on the out- 
 rageousness of the police search. I did not en 
 courage her. 
 
 "One would think," she concluded pompously, 
 one foot in the hall, "that you were something 
 you oughtn't to be, Mr. Lawrence. They acted 
 as though you had committed a crime." 
 
 "I'm not sure that I didn't, Mrs. Klopton ; " 
 I said wearily. "Somebody did, and the general 
 verdict seems to point my way." 
 
 She stared at me in speechless indignation. 
 Then she flounced out. She came back once to 
 say that the paper predicted cooler weather, and 
 that she had put a blanket on my bed, but, to 
 her disappointment, I refused to reopen the sub 
 ject. 
 
 At half past eleven McKnight and Hotchkiss 
 came in. Richey has a habit of stopping his 
 car in front of the house and honking until some 
 one comes out. He has a code of signals with 
 the horn, which I never remember. Two long
 
 ON TO RICHMOND 281 
 
 and a short blast mean, I believe, "Send out a 
 box of cigarettes," and six short blasts, which 
 sound like a police call, mean "Can you lend me 
 some money?" To-night I knew something was' 
 up, for he got out and rang the door-bell like a 
 Christian. 
 
 They/-cS.me into the library, and Hotchkiss 
 wiped his collar until it gleamed. McKnight 
 was I aggressively cheerful. 
 
 )t pinched yet !" he exclaimed. "What do 
 you think of that for luck ! You always were a 
 fortunate devil, Lawrence." 
 
 "Yes," I assented, with some bitterness, "I 
 hardly know how to contain myself for joy 
 sometimes. I suppose you know" to Hotch 
 kiss "that the police were here while we were 
 at Cresson, and that they found the bag that I 
 brought from the wreck?" 
 
 "Things are coming to a head," he said 
 thoughtfully, "unless a little plan that I have in 
 mind " he hesitated. 
 
 "I hope so; I am pretty nearly desperate," I 
 said doggedly. "I've got a mental toothache, 
 and the sooner it's pulled the better."
 
 282 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Tut, tut," said McKnight, "think of the 
 disgrace to the firm if its senior member goes 
 up for life, or " he twisted his handkerchief 
 into a noose, and went through an elaborate pan 
 tomime. 
 
 "Although jail isn't so bad, anyhow," he fin 
 ished, "there are fellows that get the habit and 
 keep going back and going back." He looked 
 at his watch, and I fancied his cheerfulness was 
 strained. Hotchkiss was nervously fumbling my 
 book. 
 
 "Did you ever read The Purloined Letter, 
 Mr. Blakeley? 5 ' he inquired. 
 
 "Probably, years ago," I said. "Poe, isn't 
 it?" 
 
 He was choked at my indifference. "It is a 
 masterpiece," he said, with enthusiasm. "I re 
 read it to-day." 
 
 "And what happened?" 
 
 "Then I inspected the rooms in the house off 
 Washington Circle. I I made some discoveries, 
 Mr. Blakeley. For one thing, our man there is 
 left-handed." He looked around for our ap 
 proval. "There was a small cushion on the
 
 ON TO RICHMOND 283 
 
 dresser, and the scarf pins in it had been stuck 
 in with the left hand." 
 
 "Somebody may have twisted the cushion," I 
 objected, but he looked hurt, and I desisted. 
 
 "There is only one discrepancy," he admitted, 
 "but it troubles me. According to Mrs. Carter, 
 at the/farm-house, our man wore gaudy pa 
 jamas, while I found here only the most severely 
 plain night-shirts." 
 
 "Any buttons off?" McKnight inquired, look 
 ing again at his watch. 
 
 "The buttons were there," the amateur de 
 tective answered gravely, "but the buttonhole 
 next the top one was torn through." 
 
 McKnight winked at me furtively. 
 
 "I am convinced of one thing," Hotchkiss 
 went on, clearing his throat, "the papers are not 
 in that room. Either he carries them with him, 
 or he has sold them." 
 
 A sound on the street made both my visitors 
 listen sharply. Whatever it was it passed on, 
 however. I was growing curious and the re 
 straint was telling on McKnight. He has no 
 talent for secrecy. In the interval we discussed
 
 284 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 the strange occurrence at Cresson, which lost 
 nothing by Hotchkiss' dry narration. 
 
 "And so," he concluded, "the woman in the 
 Baltimore hospital is the wife of Henry Sulli 
 van and the daughter of the man he murdered. 
 No wonder he collapsed when he heard of the 
 wreck." 
 
 "Joy, probably," McKnight put in. "Is that 
 clock right, Lawrence? Never mind, it doesn't 
 matter. By the way, Mrs. Conway dropped in 
 the office yesterday, while you were away." 
 
 "What !" I sprang from my chair. 
 
 "Sure thing. Said she had heard great things 
 of us, and wanted us to handle her case against 
 the railroad." 
 
 "I would like to know what she is driving at," 
 I reflected. "Is she trying to reach me through 
 you?" 
 
 Richey's flippancy is often a cloak for deeper 
 feeling. He dropped it now. "Yes," he said, 
 "she's after the notes, of course. And I'll tell 
 you I felt like a poltroon whatever that may 
 be when I turned her down. She stood by the 
 door with her face white, and told me contemptu-
 
 ON TO RICHMOND 285 
 
 ously that I could save you from a murder 
 charge and wouldn't do it. She made me feel 
 like a cur. I was just as guilty as if I could 
 have obliged her. She hinted that there were 
 reasons and she laid my attitude to beastly mo 
 tives." 
 
 "Nofisense," I said, as easily as I could. 
 Hotehkiss had gone to the window. "She was 
 excitfed. There are no 'reasons,' whatever she 
 means.' 
 
 Richey put his hand on my shoulder. "We've 
 been together too long to let any 'reasons' or 
 *unreasons' come between us, old man," he said, 
 not very steadily. 
 
 Hotchkis??, who had been silent, here came for 
 ward in his most impressive manner. He put 
 his hands under his coat-tails and coughed. 
 
 "Mr. Blakeley," he began, "by Mr. Mc- 
 Knight's advice we have arranged a little inter 
 view here to-night. If all has gone as I planned, ( 
 Mr. Henry Pinckney Sullivan is by this time 
 under arrest. Within a very few minutes he 
 will be here." 
 
 "I wanted to talk to him before he was locked
 
 286 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 up," Richey explained. "He's clever enough to 
 be worth knowing, and, besides, I'm not so cock 
 sure of his guilt as our friend the Patch on the 
 Seat of Government. No murderer worthy of 
 the name needs six different motives for the same 
 crime, beginning with robbery, and ending with 
 an unpleasant father-in-law." 
 
 We were all silent for a while. McKnight 
 stationed himself at a window, and Hotchkiss 
 paced the floor expectantly. "It's a great day 
 for modern detective methods," he chirruped. 
 "While the police have been guarding houses 
 and standing with their mouths open waiting 
 for clues to fall in and choke them, we have 
 pieced together, bit by bit, a fabric " 
 
 The door-bell rang, followed immediately by 
 sounds of footsteps in the hall. McKnight 
 threw the door open, and Hotchkiss, raised on 
 his toes, flung out his arm in a gesture of su 
 perb eloquence. 
 
 "Behold your man!" he declaimed. 
 
 Through the open doorway came a tall, blond 
 fellow, clad in light gray, wearing tan shoes, 
 and followed closely by an officer.
 
 ON TO RICHMOND 287 
 
 "I brought him here as you suggested, Mr. 
 McKnight," said the constable. 
 
 But McKnight was doubled over the library 
 table in silent convulsions of mirth, and I was* 
 almost as bad. Little Hotchkiss stood up, his 
 important attitude finally changing to one of 
 chagrin, while the blond man ceased to look 
 angjry, and became sheepish. 
 
 ItN^as Stuart, our confidential clerk for the 
 last half-dozen years ! 
 
 McKnight sat up and wiped his eyes. 
 
 "Stuart," he said sternly, "there are two very 
 serious things we have learned about you. First, 
 you jab your scarf pins into your cushion with 
 your left hand, which is most reprehensible; 
 second, you wear er night-shirts, instead of 
 pajamas. Worse than that, perhaps, we find 
 that one of them has a buttonhole torn out at the 
 neck." 
 
 Stuart was bewildered. He looked from Mc 
 Knight to me, and then at the crestfallen Hotch 
 kiss. 
 
 "I haven't any idea what it's all about," he 
 said. "I was arrested as I reached my boarding-
 
 288 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 house to-night, after the theater, and brought 
 directly here. I told the officer it was a rais- 
 ,take." 
 
 Poor Hotchkiss tried bravely to justify the 
 fiasco. 
 
 "You can not deny," he contended, "that Mr. 
 Andrew Bronson followed you to your rooms 
 last Monday evening." 
 
 Stuart looked at us and flushed. 
 
 "No, I don't deny it," he said, "but there was 
 nothing criminal about it, on my part, at least. 
 Mr. Bronson has been trying to induce me to 
 secure the forged notes for him. But I did not 
 even know where they were." 
 
 "And you were not on the wrecked Washing 
 ton Flier?" persisted Hotchkiss. But Mc- 
 Knight interfered. 
 
 "There is no use trying to put the other man's 
 identity on Stuart, Mr. Hotchkiss," he protest 
 ed. "He has been our confidential clerk for six 
 years, and has not been away from the office a 
 day for a year. I am afraid that the beautiful 
 fabric we have pieced out of all these scraps is 
 going to be a crazy quilt." His tone was face-
 
 ON TO RICHMOND S89 
 
 tious, but I could detect the undercurrent of 
 real disappointment. 
 
 I paid the constable for his trouble, and he 
 departed. Stuart, still indignant, left to go 
 back to Washington Circle. He shook hands 
 with Mcknight and myself magnanimously, but 
 he Kurled a look of utter hatred at Hotchkiss, 
 sunlt crestfallen in his chair. 
 
 as I can see," said McKnight dryly, 
 we're exactly as far along as we were the day 
 we met at the Carter place. We're not a step 
 nearer to finding our man/' 
 
 "We have one thing that may be of value," I 
 suggested. "He is the husband of a bronze- 
 haired woman at Van Kirk's hospital, and it is 
 just possible we may trace him through her. I 
 hope we are not going to lose your valuable co 
 operation, Mr. Hotchkiss ?" I asked. 
 
 He roused at that to feeble interest. "I oh, 
 of course not, if you still care to have me, I I 
 was wondering about the man who just went 
 out, Stuart, you say? I told his landlady to 
 night that he wouldn't need the room again. I 
 hope she hasn't rented it to somebody else."
 
 290 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 We cheered him as best we could, and I sug 
 gested that we go to Baltimore the next day and 
 try to find the real Sullivan through his wife. 
 He left sometime after midnight, and Riche}' 
 and I were alone. 
 
 He drew a chair near the lamp and lighted a 
 cigarette, and for a time we were silent. I was 
 in the shadow, and I sat back and watched him. 
 It was not surprising, I thought, that she cared 
 for him : women had always loved him, perhaps 
 because he always loved them. There was no 
 disloyalty in the thought: it was the lad's na 
 ture to give and crave affection. Only I was 
 different. I had never really cared about a girl 
 before, and my life had been singularly love 
 less. I had fought a lonely battle always. Once 
 before, in college, we had both laid ourselves and 
 our callow devotions at the feet of the same girl. 
 Her name was Dorothy I had forgotten the 
 rest but I remembered the sequel. In a spirit 
 of quixotic youth I had relinquished my claim 
 in favor of Richey and had gone cheerfully on 
 my way, elevated by my heroic sacrifice to a 
 somber, white-hot martyrdom. As is often the
 
 ON TO RICHMOND 291 
 
 nse, McKnight's first words showed our paral 
 lel lines of thought. 
 
 "I say, Lollie," he asked, "do you remember 
 'Dorothy Browne?" Browne, that was it! 
 
 "Dorothy Browne?" I repeated. "Oh why 
 yes, I .recall her now. Why ?" 
 
 "Nothing," he said. "I was thinking about 
 her.l That's all. You remember you were crazy 
 about 4ier, and dropped back because she pre 
 ferred me?" 
 
 "I got out," I said with dignity, "because 
 you declared you would shoot yourself if she 
 didn't go with you to something or other!" 
 
 "Oh, why yes, I recall now!" he mimicked. 
 He tossed his cigarette in the general direction 
 of the hearth and got up. We were both a little 
 conscious, and he stood with his back to me, 
 fingering a Japanese vase on the mantel. 
 
 "I was thinking," he began, turning the vase 
 around, "that, if you feel pretty well again, and 
 and ready to take hold, that I should like to 
 go away for a week or so. Things are fairly 
 well cleaned up at the office." 
 
 "Do you mean you are going to RicK-
 
 292 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 mond?" I asked, after a scarcely perceptible 
 pause. He turned and faced me, with his hands 
 thrust in his pockets. 
 
 "No. That's off, Lollie. The Seiberts are 
 going for a week's cruise along the coast. I 
 the hot weather has played hob with me and the 
 cruise means seven days' breeze and bridge." 
 
 I lighted a cigarette and offered him the box, 
 but he refused. He was looking haggard and 
 suddenly tired. I could not think of anything 
 to say, and neither could he, evidently. The mat 
 ter between us lay too deep for speech. 
 
 "How's Candida?" he asked. 
 
 '"Martin says a month, and she will be all 
 right," I returned, in the same tone. He picked 
 up his hat, but he had something more to say. 
 He blurted it out, finally, half way to the door. 
 
 "The Seiberts are not going for a couple of 
 <3ays," he said, "and if you want a day or so 
 off to go down to Richmond yourself " 
 
 "Perhaps I shall," I returned, as indifferently 
 as I could. "Not going yet, are you ?" 
 
 "Yes. It is late." He drew in his breath as 
 if he had something more to say, but the im-
 
 ON TO RICHMOND 293 
 
 pulse passed. "Well, good night," he said from 
 the doorway. 
 
 "Good night, old man." 
 
 The next moment the outer door slammed and 
 I heard the engine of the Cannonball throbbing 
 in the street. Then the quiet settled down 
 around me again, and there in the lamplight I 
 dreaWd dreams. I was going to see her. 
 
 Suddenly- the idea of being shut away, even 
 temporarily, from so great and wonderful a 
 worlrl became intolerable. The possibility of ar 
 rest before I could get to Richmond was hideous, 
 the night without end. 
 
 I made my escape the next, morning through 
 the stable back of the house, and then, by de 
 vious dark and winding ways, to the office. 
 There, after a conference with Blobs, whose 
 features fairly jerked with excitement, I double- 
 locked the door of my private office and finished 
 off some imperative work. By ten o'clock I 
 was free, and for the twentieth time I consulted 
 my train schedule. At five minutes after ten, 
 with McKnight not yet in sight, Blobs knocked 
 at the door, the double rap we had agreed upon,
 
 294 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 and on being admitted slipped in and quietly 
 closed the door behind him. His eyes were 
 glistening with excitement, and a purple dab of 
 typewriter ink gave him a peculiarly villainous 
 and stealthy expression. 
 
 "They're here," he said, "two of 'em, and that 
 crazy Stuart wasn't on, and said you were some 
 where in the building." 
 
 A door slammed outside, followed by steps on 
 the uncarpeted outer office. 
 
 "This way," said Blobs, in a husky undertone, 
 and, darting into a lavatory, threw open a door 
 that I had always supposed locked. Thence 
 into a back hall piled high with boxes and past 
 the presses of a bookbindery to the freight ele 
 vator. 
 
 Greatly to Blobs' disappointment, there was 
 no pursuit. I was exhilarated but out of breatK 
 when we emerged into an alleyway, and the sharp 
 daylight shone on Blobs' excited face. 
 
 "Great sport, isn't it?" I panted, dropping a 
 (dollar into his palm, inked to correspond with 
 his face. "Regular walk-away 5n the hundred- 
 yard dash."
 
 ON TO RICHMOND 29* 
 
 "Gimme two dollars more and I'll drop 'em 
 down the elevator shaft," he suggested fero 
 ciously. I left him there with his blood-thirsty 
 schemes, and started for the station. I had a 
 tendency to look behind me now and then, but 
 I readied the station unnoticed. The afternoon 
 was hot, the train rolled slowly along, stopping 
 to pant at sweltering stations, from whose roofs 
 the healKTose in waves. But I noticed these 
 things objectively, not subjectively, for at the 
 end of the j ourney was a girl with blue eyes and 
 dark brown hair, hair that could had I not seen 
 it? hang loose in bewitching tangles or be 
 twisted into little coils of delight.
 
 CHAPTER XXVH 
 
 THE SEA, THE SAND, THE STABS 
 
 I TELEPHONED as soon as I reached my 
 hotel, and I had not known how much I had 
 hoped from seeing her until I learned that she 
 was out of town. I hung up the receiver, al 
 most dizzy with disappointment, and it was 
 fully five minutes before I thought of calling up 
 again and asking if she was within telephone 
 reach. It seemed she was down on the bay stay 
 ing with the Samuel Forbeses. 
 
 Sammy Forbes! It was a name to conjure 
 with just then. In the old days at college I had 
 rather flouted him, but now I was ready to take 
 him to my heart. I remembered that he had al 
 ways meant well, anyhow, and that he was ex 
 plosively generous. I called him up. 
 
 "By the fumes of gasoline!" he said, when I 
 told him who I was. "Blakeley, the Fount of 
 296
 
 THE SEA, THE SAND, THE STARS 297 
 
 Wisdom against Woman! Blakeley, the Great 
 Unkissed ! Welcome to our city !" 
 
 Whereupon he proceeded to urge me to come 
 down to the Shack, and to say that I was an 
 agreeable surprise, because four times in two 
 hou^s youths had called up to ask if Alison 
 Westvwas stopping with him, and to suggest 
 that they-Jmd a vacant day or two. 
 
 "Oh Miss West !" I shouted politely, there 
 was a buzzing on the line. "Is she there?" 
 
 Sam had no suspicions. Was not I in his 
 mind always the Great Unkissed? which sounds 
 like the Great Unwashed and is even more of a 
 reproach. He asked me down promptly, as I 
 had hoped, and thrust aside my objections. 
 
 "Nonsense," he said. "Bring yourself. The 
 lady that keeps my boarding-house is calling to 
 me to insist. You remember Dorothy, don't 
 you, Dorothy Browne? She says unless you 
 have lost your figure you can wear my clothes \ 
 all right. All you need here is a bathing suit 
 for daytime and a dinner coat for evening." 
 
 "It sounds cool," I temporized. "If you are 
 sure I won't put you out very well, Sam, since
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 you and your wife are good enough. I have a 
 couple of days free. Give my love to Dorothy 
 jmtil I can do it myself." 
 
 Sam met me himself and drove me out to the 
 Shack, which proved to be a substantial house 
 overlooking the water. On the way he con 
 fided to me that lots of married men thought 
 they were contented when they were merely re 
 signed, but that it was the only life, and that 
 Sam, Junior, could swim like a duck. Inci 
 dentally, he said that Alison was his wife's 
 cousin, their respective grandmothers having, at 
 proper intervals, married the same man, and that 
 Alison would lose her good looks if she was not 
 careful. 
 
 "I say she's worried, and I stick to it," he 
 said, as he threw the lines to a groom and pre 
 pared to get out. "You know her, and she's 
 the kind of girl you think you can read like a 
 ^book. But you can't ; don't tool yourself. Take 
 a good look at her at dinner, Blake; you won't 
 lose your head like the other fellows and then 
 tell me what's wrong with her. We're mighty 
 fond of Allie."
 
 THE SEA, THE SAND, THE STARS 299 
 
 He went ponderously up the steps, for Sam 
 had put on weight since I knew him. At the 
 door he turned around. "Do you happen to 
 know the MacLure's at Seal Harbor?" he asked 
 irrelevantly, but Mrs. Sam came into the hall 
 just then, both hands out to greet me, and, 
 whatevexForbes had meant to say, he did not 
 pick up the subject again. 
 
 "We are having tea in here," Dorothy said 
 gaily, indicating the door behind her. "Tea by 
 courtesy, because I think tea is the only bever 
 age that isn't represented. And then we must 
 dress, for this is hop night at the club." 
 
 "Which is as great a misnomer as the tea," 
 Sam put in, ponderously struggling out of his 
 linen driving coat. "It's bridge night, and the 
 only hops are in the beer." 
 
 He was still gurgling over this as he took me 
 up-stairs. He showed me my room himself, and 
 then began the fruitless search for evening rai 
 ment that kept me home that night from the 
 club. For I couldn't wear Sam's clothes. That 
 was clear, after a perspiring seance of a half 
 hour.
 
 300 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "I won't do it, Sam," I said, when I had 
 draped his dress-coat on me toga fashion. 
 "Who am I to have clothing to spare, like this, 
 when many a poor chap hasn't even a cellar door 
 to cover him. I won't do it ; I'm selfish, but not 
 that selfish." 
 
 "Lord," he said, wiping his face, "how you've 
 kept your figure ! I can't wear a belt any more ; 
 got to have suspenders." 
 
 He reflected over his grievance for some time, 
 sitting on the side of the bed. "You could go 
 as you are," he said finally. "We do it all the 
 time, only to-night happens to be the annual 
 something or other, and " he trailed off into 
 silence, trying to buckle my belt around him. 
 "A good six inches," he sighed. "I never get 
 into a hansom cab any more that I don't expect 
 to see the horse fly up in the air. Well, Allie 
 , isn't going either. She turned down Granger 
 this afternoon, the Annapolis fellow you met on 
 the stairs, pigeon-breasted chap and she al 
 ways gets a headache on those occasions." 
 
 He got up heavily and went to the door. 
 "Granger is leaving," he said, "I may be able to
 
 THE SEA, THE SAND, THE STARS 301 
 
 get his dinner coat for you. How well do you 
 know her?" he asked, with his hand on the knob. 
 
 "If you mean Dolly ?" 
 
 "Alison." 
 
 "Fairly well," I said cautiously. "Not as 
 well as\T would like to. I dined with her last 
 week in Washington. And I knew her before 
 that." 
 
 Forbes touched a bell instead of going out, 
 and told the servant who answered to see if Mr. 
 Granger's suit-case had gone. If not, to bring 
 it across the hall. Then he came back to his 
 former position on the bed. 
 
 "You see, we feel responsible for Allie near 
 relation and all that," he began pompously. 
 "And we can't talk to the people here at the 
 house all the men are in love with her, and all 
 the women are jealous. Then there's a lot of 
 money, too, or will be." 
 
 "Confound the money!" I muttered. "That 
 is nothing. Razor slipped." 
 
 "I can tell you," he went on, "because you 
 don't lose your head over every pretty face 
 although Allie is more than that, of course. But
 
 S02 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 about a month ago she went away to Seal Hai?" 
 bor, to visit Janet MacLure. Know her?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "She came home to Richmond yesterday, and 
 then came down here Allie, I mean. And yes 
 terday afternoon Dolly had a letter from Janet 
 something about a second man and saying 
 she was disappointed not to have had Alison 
 there, that she had promised them a two weeks' 
 visit! What do you make of th\t? And that 
 isn't the worst. Allie herself wasn't in the room, 
 but there were eight other women, and because 
 Dolly had put belladonna in her eyes the night 
 before to see how she would look, and as a result 
 couldn't see anything nearer than across the 
 room, some one read the letter aloud to her, and 
 the whole story is out. One of the cats told 
 Granger and the boy proposed to Allie to-day, 
 to show her he didn't care a tinker's dam where 
 she had been." 
 
 "Good boy !" I said, with enthusiasm. I liked 
 the Granger fellow since he was out of the 
 running. But Sam was looking at me with sus 
 picion*
 
 THE SEA, THE SAND, THE STARS 303 
 
 "Blake," he said, if I didn't know you for 
 what you are, I'd say you were interested there 
 
 yourself." 
 
 I 
 
 Being so near her, under the same roof, with 
 
 i 
 
 even the tie of a dubious secret between us, was 
 making Vejieady. I pushed Forbes toward the 
 doer. 
 
 "I interested !" I retorted, holding him by the 
 shoulders. "There isn't a word in your vocabu 
 lary to fit my condition. I am an island in a 
 sunlit sea of emotion, Sam, a an empty place 
 surrounded by longing a " 
 
 "An empty place surrounded by longing!" 
 he retorted. "You want your dinner, that's 
 what's the matter with you " 
 
 I shut the door on him then. He seemed sud 
 denly sordid. Dinner, I thought! Although, as 
 a matter of fact, I made a very fair meal when, 
 Granger's suit-case not having gone, in his coat 
 and some other man's trousers, I was finally fit 
 for the amenities. Alison did not come down to 
 dinner, so it was clear she would not go over to 
 the club-house dance. I pled my injured arm, 
 and a fictitious, vaguely located sprain from tho
 
 304 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 wreck, as an excuse for remaining at home. 
 Sam regaled the table with accounts of my dis 
 trust of women, my one love affair with Doro 
 thy ; to which I responded, as was expected, that 
 only my failure there had kept me single all 
 these years, and that if Sam should be mys 
 teriously missing during the bathing hour to 
 morrow, and so on. 
 
 And when the endless meal was over, and 
 yards of white veils had been tied over pounds 
 of hair or is it, too, bought by the yard? 
 and some eight ensembles with their abject com 
 plements had been packed into three automo 
 biles and a trap, I drew a long breath and faced 
 about. I had just then only one object in life 
 to find Alison, to assure her of my absolute 
 faith and confidence in her, and to offer my help 
 and my poor self, if she would let me, in her 
 service. 
 
 She was not easy to find. I searched the lower 
 floor, the verandas and the grounds, circum 
 spectly. Then I ran into a little English girl 
 who turned out to be her maid, and who also 
 was searching. She was concerned because her
 
 THE SEA, THE SAND, THE STARS SOS 
 
 mistress had had no dinner, and because the 
 tray of food she carried would soon be cold. I 
 took th</ tray from her, on the glimpse of some 
 thing white on the shore, and that was how I 
 met the Girl again. 
 
 She was sitting" on an over-turned boat, her 
 chin in her hands, staring out to sea. The soft 
 tide of the bay lapped almost at her feet, and 
 the draperies of her white gown melted hazily 
 into the sands. She looked like a wraith, a de 
 spondent phantom of the sea, although the ad 
 jective is redundant. Nobody ever thinks of a 
 cheerful phantom. Strangely enough, consider 
 ing her evident sadness, she was whistling softly 
 to herself, over and over, some dreary little 
 minor air that sounded like a Bohemian dirge. 
 She glanced up quickly when I made a misstep 
 and my dishes jingled. All considered, the tray 
 was out of the picture: the sea, the misty star 
 light, the girl, with her beauty even the sad 
 little whistle that stopped now and then to go 
 bravely on again, as though it fought against 
 the odds of a trembling lip. And then I came, 
 accompanied by a tray of little silver dishes that
 
 306 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 jingled and an unmistakable odor of broiled 
 chicken ! 
 
 "Oh!" she said quickly; and then, "Oh! I 
 thought you were Jenkins." 
 
 "Timeo Danaos what's the rest of it?" I 
 asked, tendering my offering. "You didn't 
 have any dinner, you know." I sat down beside 
 her. "See, I'll be the table. What was the old 
 fairy tale? 'Little goat bleat: little table ap 
 pear!' I'm perfectly willing to be the goat, 
 too." 
 
 She was laughing rather tremulously. 
 
 "We never do meet like other people, do we?" 
 she asked. "We really ought to shake hands 
 and say how are you." 
 
 "I don't want to meet you like other people, 
 and I suppose you always think of me as wear 
 ing the other fellow's clothes," I returned 
 meekly. "I'm doing it again : I don't seem to be 
 able to help it. These are Granger's that I have 
 on now." 
 
 She threw back her head and laughed again, 
 joyously, this time. 
 
 "Oh, it's so ridiculous," she said, "and you
 
 THE SEA, THE SAND, THE STARS 
 
 have never seen me when I was not eatipg ! Jt'i 
 too prosaic !" 
 
 "Which reminds me that the chicleen is get- 
 tin^cold, ahd the ice warm," I sugg^ted. "At 
 the time, I thought there could be no place bet 
 ter than the farm-house kitchen b;j,t this is. I 
 ordered all this for something I want to say to 
 jou the sea, the sand, the stars." 
 
 "How alliterative you are!" she aaid, trying 
 to be flippant. "You are not to sty -anything 
 until I have had my supper. Look how the 
 things are spilled around!" 
 
 But she ate nothing, after all, and pretty 
 soon I put the tray down in the sand. I said 
 little; there was no hurry. We were together, 
 and time meant nothing against that age-long 
 wash of the sea. The air blew her hair in small 
 damp curls against her face, and little by little 
 the tide retreated, leaving our boat an oasis in 
 a waste of gray sand. 
 
 "If seven maids with seven mops swept it foi 
 
 half a year 
 Do you suppose, the walrus said, that they ^ 
 
 get it clear?"
 
 308 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 she threw at me once when she must have known 
 I was going to speak. I held her hand, and as 
 long as I merely held it she let it lie warm in 
 mine. But when I raised it to my lips, and 
 kissed the soft, open palm, she drew it away 
 without displeasure. 
 
 "Not that, please," she protested, and fell to 
 whistling softly again, her chin in her hanis. 
 "I can't sing," she said, to break an awkward 
 pause, "and so, when I'm fidgety, or have some 
 thing on my mind, I whistle. I hope you don't 
 dislike it?" 
 
 "I love it," I asserted warmly. I did; when 
 she pursed her lips like that I was mad to kiss 
 them. 
 
 "I saw you at the station," she said sud 
 denly. "You you were in a hurry to go." I 
 did not say anything, and alter a pause she 
 drew a long breath. "Men are queer, aren't 
 they ?" she said, and fell to whistling again. 
 
 After a while she sat up as if she had made a 
 resolution. "I am going to confess something," 
 she announced suddenly. "You said, you know, 
 that you had ordered all this for something you
 
 THE SEA, THE SAND, THE STARS 309 
 
 you wantectto say to me. But the fact is, I 
 fixed it/all came here, I mean, because I knew 
 ould come, and I had something to tell 
 you. It was such a miserable thing I needed 
 the accessories to help me out." 
 
 "I don't want to hear anything that dis 
 tresses you to tell," I assured her. "I didn't 
 come here to force your confidence, Alison. I 
 came because I couldn't help it." She did not 
 object to my use of her name. 
 
 "Have you found the your papers?" she 
 asked, looking directly at me for almost the first 
 time. 
 
 "Not yet. We hope to." 
 
 "The police have not interfered with you?" 
 
 "They haven't had any opportunity," I 
 equivocated. "You needn't distress yourself 
 about that, anyhow." 
 
 "But I do. I wonder why you still believe in 
 me? Nobody else does." 
 
 "I wonder," I repeated, "why I do !" 
 
 "If you produce Harry Sullivan," she was 
 saying, partly to herself, "and if you could 
 connect him with Mr. Bronson, and get a full
 
 310 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 account of *,rhy he was on the train, and all that, 
 it it would help, wouldn't it?" 
 
 I acknowledged that it would. Now that the 
 whole truth was almost in my possession, I was 
 stricken with the old cowardice. I did not want 
 to know what she might tell me. The yellow 
 line on the horizon, where the moon was coming 
 up, was a broken bit of golden chain: my heel 
 in the sand was again pressed on a woman's 
 yielding fingers: I pulled myself together with 
 a jerk. 
 
 "In order that what you tell me may help me, 
 if it will," I said constrainedly, "it would be 
 necessary, perhaps, that you tell it to the police. 
 Since they have found the end of the neck 
 lace" 
 
 "The end of the necklace!" she repeated 
 slowly. "What about the end of the necklace ?" 
 
 I stared at her. "Don't you remember" I 
 leaned forward "the end of the cameo neck 
 lace, the part that was broken off, and was found 
 in the black sealskin bag, stained with with 
 blood?" 
 
 "Blood," she said dully. "You mean that
 
 you found the broken end? And then you had 
 my old pocket-book, and you saw the necklace 
 in it, aii(3 you must have thought " 
 
 "I didn't think anything," I hastened to as 
 sure her. "I tell you, Alison, I never thought 
 of anything but that you were unhappy, and 
 that I had no right to help you. God knows, I 
 thought you didn't want me to help you." 
 
 She held out her hand to me and I took it be 
 tween both of mine. No word of love had passed 
 between us, but I felt that she knew and under 
 stood. It was one of the moments that come 
 seldom in a lifetime, and then only in great 
 crises, a moment of perfect understanding and 
 trust. 
 
 Then she drew her hand away and sat, erect 
 and determined, her fingers laced in her lap. As 
 she talked the moon came up slowly and threw 
 its bright pathway across the water. Back of 
 us, in the trees beyond the sea wall, a sleepy bird 
 chirruped drowsily, and a wave, larger and 
 bolder than its brothers, sped up the sand, 
 bringing the moon's silver to our \ery feet. I 
 bent toward the girl.
 
 812 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "I am going to ask just one question." 
 
 "Anything you like." Her voice was almost 
 dreary. 
 
 "Was it because of anything you are going 
 to tell me that you refused Richey?" 
 
 She drew her breath in sharply. 
 
 "No," she said, without looking at me. "No. 
 That was not the reason."
 
 SHE told her story evenly, with her eyes on 
 the water, only now and then, when I, too, 
 sat looking seaward, I thought she glanced at 
 me furtively. And once, in the middle of it, sha 
 etopped altogether. 
 
 "You don't realize it, probably," she pro 
 tested, "but you look like a a war god. Your 
 face is horrible.'* 
 
 "I will turn my back, if it will help any," I 
 said stormily, "but if you expect me to look 
 anything but murderous, why, you don't know 
 what I am going through with. That's all." 
 
 The story of her meeting with the Curtis 
 woman was brief enough. They had met ir> 
 Rome first, where Alison and her mother had 
 taken a villa for a year. Mrs. Curtis had hov 
 ered on the ragged edges of society there, 
 313
 
 814 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 pleading the poverty of the south since the war 
 as a reason for not going out more. There was 
 talk of a brother, but Alison had not seen him, 
 and after a scandal which implicated Mrs. Cur 
 tis and a young attache of the Austrian em 
 bassy, Alison had been forbidden to see the 
 woman. 
 
 "The women had never liked her, anyhow," 
 she said. "She did unconventional things, and 
 they are very conventional there. And they said 
 she did not always pay her her gambling debts. 
 I didn't like them. I thought they didn't like her 
 because she was poor and popular. Then we 
 came home, and I almost forgot her, but last 
 spring, when mother was not well she had taken 
 grandfather to the Riviera, and it always uses 
 her up we went to Virginia Hot Springs, and 
 we met them there, the brother, too, this time. His 
 name was Sullivan, Harry Pinckney Sullivan." 
 
 "I know. Go on." 
 
 "Mother had a nurse, and I was alone a great 
 deal, and they were very kind to me. I I saw 
 a lot of them. The brother rather attracted 
 me, partly partly because he did not make love
 
 .v 
 
 ALISON'S STOR 
 
 to me. He even seemed to avoid me, and I was 
 piqued. I had been spoiled, I suppose. Most 
 of the other men I knew had had " 
 
 "I know that, too," I said bitterly, and moved 
 away from her a trifle. I was brutal, but the 
 whole story was a long torture. I think she 
 knew what I was suffering, for she showed no re 
 sentment. 
 
 "It was early and there were few people 
 around none that I cared about. And mother 
 and the nurse played cribbage eternally, until 
 I felt as though the little pegs were driven 
 into my brain. And when Mrs. Curtis arranged 
 drives and picnics, I I slipped away and went. 
 I suppose you won't believe me, but I had never 
 done that kind of thing before, and I well, I 
 have paid up, I think." 
 
 "What sort of looking chap was Sullivan?" 
 I demanded. I had got up and was pacing back 
 and forward on the sand. I remember kicking 
 savagely at a bit of water-soaked board that lay 
 in my way. 
 
 "Very handsome as large as you are, but 
 fair, and even more erect."
 
 816 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 I drevr my shoulders up sharply. I am 
 straight enough, but I was fairly sagging with 
 jealous rage. 
 
 "When mother began to get around, some 
 body told her that I had been going about with 
 Mrs. Curtis and her brother, and we had a dread 
 ful time. I was dragged home like a bad child. 
 Did anybody ever do that to you ?" 
 
 "Nobody ever cared. I was born an orphan," 
 I said, with a cheerless attempt at levity. "Go 
 on." 
 
 "If Mrs. Curtis knew, she never said any 
 thing. She wrote me charming letters, and in 
 the summer, when they went to Cresson, she 
 asked me to visit her there. I was too proud to 
 let her know that I could not go where I wished, 
 and so I sent Polly, my maid, to her aunt's 
 in the country, pretended to go to Seal Harbor, 
 and really went to Cresson. You see I warned 
 you it would be an unpleasant story." 
 
 I went over and stood in front of her. All the 
 accumulated jealousy of the last few weeks had 
 been fired by what she told me. If Sullivan 
 had come across the sands just then, I think I
 
 ALISON'S STORY 817 
 
 would have strangled him with my hands, out of 
 pure hate. 
 
 "Did you marry him?" I demanded. My voice 
 sounded hoarse and strange in my ears. "That's 
 all I want to know. Did you marry him?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 I drew a long breath, 
 
 "You cared about him?" 
 
 She hesitated. 
 
 "No," she said finally. "I did not care about 
 him." 
 
 I sat down on the edge of the boat and 
 mopped my hot face. I was heartily ashamed 
 of myself, and mingled with my abasement was 
 a gre+ relief. If she had not married him, and 
 had not cared for him, nothing else was of any 
 importance. 
 
 "I was sorry, of course, the moment the train 
 had started, but I had wired I was coming, and 
 I could not go back, and then when I got there, 
 the place was charming. There were no neigh 
 bors, but we fished and rode and motored, and 
 it was moonlight, like this." 
 
 I put my hand over both of hers, clasped in
 
 her lap. "I know," I acknowledged repent 
 antly, "and people do queer things when it is 
 moonlight. The moon has got me to-night, 
 Alison. If I am a boor, remember that, won't 
 you?" 
 
 Her fingers lay quiet under mine. "And so," 
 she went on with a little sigh, "I began to 
 think perhaps I cared. But all the time I felt 
 that there was something not quite right. Now 
 and then Mrs. Curtis would say or do something 
 that gave me a queer start, as if she had 
 dropped a mask for a moment. And there was 
 trouble with the servants; they were almost in 
 solent. I couldn't understand. I don't know 
 when it dawned on me that the old Baron Caval- 
 canti had been right when he said they were not 
 my kind of people. But I wanted to get away, 
 wanted it desperately." 
 
 "Of course, they were not your kind," I cried. 
 "The man was married! The girl Jennie, a 
 housemaid, was a spy in Mrs. Sullivan's em 
 ploy. If he had pretended to marry you I would 
 have killed him! Not only that, but the man 
 he murdered, Harrington, was his wife's father.
 
 ALISON'S STORY 319 
 
 And I'll see him hang by the neck yet if it takes 
 every energy and every penny I possess." 
 
 I could have told her so much more gently, 
 have broken the shock for her; I have never^ 
 been proud of that evening on the sand. I was 
 alternately a boor and a ruffian like a hurt 
 youngster who passes the blow that has hurt 
 him on to his playmate, that both may bawl to 
 gether. And now Alison sat, white and cold, 
 without speech. 
 
 "Married!" she said finally, in a small voice. 
 "Why, I don't think it is possible, is it? I I 
 was on my way to Baltimore to marry him my 
 self, when the wreck came." 
 
 "But you said you didn't care for him!" I 
 protested, my heavy masculine mind unable to 
 jump the gaps in her story. And then, without 
 the slightest warning, I realized that she was 
 crying. She shook off my hand and fumbled 
 for her handkerchief, and failing to find it, she 
 accepted the one I thrust into her wet fingers. 
 
 Then, little by little, she told me from the 
 handkerchief, a sordid story of a motor trip in 
 the mountains without Mrs. Curtis, of a lost
 
 320 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 road and a broken car, and a rainy night when 
 they she and Sullivan, tramped eternally and 
 did not get home. And of Mrs. Curtis, when 
 they got home at dawn, suddenly grown con 
 ventional and deeply shocked. Of her own 
 proud, half-disdainful consent to make possible 
 the hackneyed compromising situation by marry 
 ing the rascal, and then of his disappearance 
 from the train. It was so terrible to her, such 
 a Heaven-sent relief to me, in spite of my rage 
 against Sullivan, that I laughed aloud. A% 
 which she looked at me over the handkerchief. 
 
 "I know it's funny," she said, with a catch in 
 her breath. "When I think that I nearly mar 
 ried a murderer and didn't I cry for sheer 
 joy." Then she buried her face and cried again. 
 
 "Please don't," I protested unsteadily. "I 
 won't be responsible if you keep on crying like 
 that. I may forget that I have a capital 
 charge hanging over my head, and that I may 
 be arrested at any moment." 
 
 That brought her out of the handkerchief at 
 once. "I meant to be so helpful," she said, "and 
 I've thought of nothing but myself 1 There
 
 ALISON'S STORY 
 
 were some things I meant to tell you. If Jennie 
 
 was what you say, then I understand why she 
 
 ^came to me just before I left. She had been 
 
 [packing my things and she must have seen what 
 
 condition I was in, for she came over to me when 
 
 I was getting my wraps on, to leave, and said, 
 
 'Don't do it, Miss West, I beg you won't do it ; 
 
 you'll be sorry ever after.' And just then Mrs. 
 
 Curtis came in and Jennie slipped out." 
 
 "That was all?" 
 
 "No. As we went through the station the 
 telegraph operator gave Har Mr. Sullivan a 
 message. He read it on the platform, and it 
 excited him terribly. He took his sister aside 
 and they talked together. He was white with 
 either fear or anger I don't know which. 
 Then, when we boarded the train, a woman in 
 black, with beautiful hair, who was standing 
 on the car platform, touched him on the arm and 
 then drew back. He looked at her and glanced 
 away again, but she reeled as if he had struck 
 her." 
 
 "Then what?" The situation was growing 
 clearer.
 
 822 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Mrs. Curtis and I had the drawing-room, 
 I had a dreadful night, just sleeping a little no^i 
 and then. I dreaded to see dawn come. It was 
 to be my wedding-day. When we found Harry 
 had disappeared in the night, Mrs. Curtis was 
 in a frenzy. Then I saw his cigarette case in 
 your hand. I had given it to him. You wore 
 his clothes. The murder was discovered and 
 you were accused of it ! What could I do ? And 
 then, afterward, when I saw him asleep at the 
 farm-house, I I was panic-stricken. I locked 
 him in and ran. I didn't know why he did it, 
 but he had killed a man." 
 
 Some one was calling Alison through a mega 
 phone, from the veranda. It sounded like Sam. 
 "All-ee," he called. "All-eel I'm going to have 
 some anchovies on toast ! All-eel" Neither of us 
 heard. 
 
 "I wonder," I reflected, "if you would bo 
 willing to repeat a part of that story justj 
 from the telegram on to a couple of detectives, 
 ay on Monday. If you would tell that, and 
 how the end of your necklace got into the seal- 
 akin bag "
 
 ALISON'S STORY 323 
 
 "My necklace!" she repeated. "But it isn't 
 mine. I picked it up in the car." 
 
 "All-ee!" Sam again. "I see you down there. 
 .I'm making a julep!" 
 
 Alison turned and called through her hands. , 
 "Coming in a moment, Sam," she said, and rose. 
 "It must be very late: Sam is home. We would 
 better go back to the house." 
 
 "Don't," I begged her. "Anchovies and ju 
 leps and Sam will go on for ever, and I have you 
 such a little time. I suppose I am only one of 
 a dozen or so, but you are the only girl in the 
 world. You know I love you, don't you, dear?" 
 
 Sam was whistling, an irritating bird call, 
 over and over. She pursed her red lips and an 
 swered him in kind. It was more than I could 
 endure. 
 
 "Sam or no Sam," I said firmly, "I am going 
 to kiss you !" 
 
 But Sam's voice came strident through the 
 megaphone, "Be good, you two," he bellowed, 
 "I've got the binoculars!" And so, under fire, 
 we walked sedately back to the house. My pulses 
 were throbbing the little swish of her dress be-
 
 824. THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 side me on the grass was pain and ecstasy. 1 
 had but to put out my hand to touch her, and 
 I dared not. 
 
 Sam, armed with a megaphone and field 
 glasses, bent over the rail and watched us with 
 gleeful malignity. 
 
 "Home early, aren't you?" Alison called, when 
 we reached the steps. 
 
 "Led a club when my partner had doubled no- 
 trumps, and she fainted. Damn the heart con 
 vention!" he said cheerfully. "The others are 
 not here yet." 
 
 Three hours later I went up to bed. I had 
 not seen Alison alone again. The noise was at 
 its height below, and I glanced down into the 
 garden, still bright in the moonlight. Leaning 
 against a tree, and staring interestedly into the 
 billiard room, was Johnson.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 IN THE DINING-ROOM 
 
 THAT was Saturday night, two weeks after 
 the wreck. The previous five days had 
 been full of swift-following events the woman 
 in the house next door, the picture in the theater 
 of a man about to leap from, the doomed train, 
 the dinner at the Dallases, and Richey's discov 
 ery that Alison was the girl in the case. In 
 quick succession had come our visit to the Carter 
 place, the finding of the rest of the telegram, my 
 seeing Alison there, and the strange interview 
 with Mrs. Conway. The Cresson trip stood out 
 in my memory for its serio-comic horrors and its 
 one real thrill. Then the discovery by the 
 police of the sealskin bag and the bit of chain; 
 Hotchkiss producing triumphantly Stuart for 
 Sullivan and his subsequent discomfiture; Mc- 
 Knight at the station with Alison, and later 
 the confession that he was out of the running. 
 325
 
 '826 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 And yet, when I thought it all over, the entire 
 week and its events were two sides of a triangle 
 that was narrowing rapidly to an apex, a point. 
 And the said apex was at that moment in the 
 drive below my window, resting his long legs by 
 sitting on a carriage block, and smoking a pipe 
 that made the night hideous. The sense of the 
 ridiculous is very close to the sense of tragedy. 
 I opened my screen and whistled, and Johnson 
 looked up and grinned. We said nothing. I held 
 up a handful of cigars, he extended his hat, and 
 when I finally went to sleep, it was to a soothing 
 breeze that wafted in salt air and a faint aroma 
 of good tobacco. I was thoroughly tired, but I 
 slept restlessly, dreaming of two detectives with 
 Pittsburg warrants being held up by Hotchkiss 
 at the point of a splint, while Alison fastened 
 their hands with a chain that was broken and 
 much too short. I was roused about dawn by a 
 light rap at the door, and, opening it, I found j 
 Forbes, in a pair of trousers and a pa jama coat. 
 He was as pleasant as most fleshy people are 
 when they have to get up at night, and he said 
 the telephone had been ringing for an hour, and
 
 IN THE DINING-ROOM 827 
 
 he didn't know why somebody else in the blank- 
 ety-blank Louse couldn't have heard it. He 
 wouldn't get to sleep until noon. 
 
 As he was palpably asleep on his feet, I left 
 him grumbling and went to the telephone. It 
 proved to be Richey, who had found me by the 
 simple expedient of tracing Alison, and he was 
 jubilant. 
 
 "You'll have to come back," he said. "Got a 
 railroad schedule there ?" 
 
 "I don't sleep with one in my pocket," I re 
 torted, "but if you'll hold the line I'll call out the 
 window to Johnson. He's probably got one." 
 
 "Johnson !" I could hear the laugh with 
 which McKnight comprehended the situation. 
 He was still chuckling when I came back. 
 
 "Train to Richmond at six-thirty A. M.," I 
 said. "What time is it now ?" 
 
 "Four. Listen, Lollie. We've got him. Do 
 you hear? Through the woman at Baltimore. 
 Then the other woman, the lady of the restau 
 rant" he was obviously avoiding names "she 
 is playing our cards for us. No I don't know 
 why, and I don't care. But you be at the Incu-
 
 328 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 bator to-night at eight o'clock. If you can't 
 shake Johnson, bring him, bless him." 
 
 To this day I believe the Sam Forbeses have 
 not recovered from the surprise of my unexpect- , 
 ed arrival, nry one appearance at dinner in Gran 
 ger's clothes, and the note on my dresser which 
 informed them the next morning that I had 
 folded my tents like the Arabs and silently stolen 
 away. For at half after five Johnson and I, the 
 former as uninquisitive as ever, were on our way 
 through the dust to the station, three miles away, 
 and by four that afternoon we were in Washing 
 ton. The journey had been uneventful. John 
 son relaxed under the influence of my tobacco, 
 and spoke at some length on the latest improve 
 ments in gallows, dilating on the absurdity of 
 cutting out the former free passes to see the 
 affair in operation. I remember, too, that he 
 mentioned the curious anomaly that permits a 
 man about to be hanged to eat a hearty meal. I 
 did not enjoy my dinner that night. 
 
 Before we got into Washington I had made 
 an arrangement with Johnson to surrender my 
 self at two the following afternoon. Also, I
 
 IN THE DINING-ROOM 329 
 
 had wired to Alison, asking her if she would 
 carry out the contract she had made. The de 
 tective saw me home, and left me there. 
 
 Mrs. Klopton received me with dignified re-j 
 serve. The very tone in which she asked me 
 when I would dine told me that something was 
 wrong. 
 
 "Now what is it, Mrs. Klopton?" I demand 
 ed finally, when she had informed me, in a patient 
 and long-suffering tone, that she felt worn out 
 and thought she needed a rest. 
 
 "When I lived with Mr. Justice Springer," she 
 began acidly, her mending-basket in her hands, 
 "it was an orderly, well-conducted household. 
 You can ask any of the neighbors. Meals were 
 cooked and, what's more, they were eaten; there 
 was none of this 'here one day and gone the next* 
 business." 
 
 "Nonsense," I observed. "You're tired, that's 
 all, Mrs. Klopton. And I wish you would go 
 out ; I want to bathe." 
 
 "That's not all," she said with dignity, 'from 
 the doorway. "Women coming and going here, 
 women whose shoes I am not fit I mean, women
 
 who are not fit to touch my shoes coming here 
 as insolent as you please, and asking for you." 
 
 "Good heavens !" I exclaimed. "What did you 
 tell them her, whichever it was ?" 
 
 "Told her you were sick in a hospital and 
 wouldn't be out for a year !" she said triumph 
 antly. "And when she said she thought she'd 
 come in and wait for you, I slammed the door on 
 her." 
 
 "What time was she here ?" 
 
 "Late last night. And she had a light-haired 
 man across the street. If she thought I didn't 
 see him, she don't know me." Then she closed 
 the door and left me to my bath and my reflec 
 tions. 
 
 At five minutes before eight I was at the Incu 
 bator, where I found Hotchkiss and McKnighL 
 They were bending over a table, on which lay 
 McKnight's total armament a pair of pistols, 
 ,an elephant gun and an old cavalry saber. 
 
 "Draw up a chair and help yourself to pie," 
 he said, pointing to the arsenal. "This is for the 
 benefit of our friend Hotchkiss here, who says he 
 ie a small man and fond of life."
 
 IN THE DINING-ROOM 881 
 
 Hotchkiss, who had been trying to get; the 
 end of a cartridge into the barrel of one 
 of the revolvers, straightened himself and 
 mopped his face. 
 
 "We have desperate people to handle," he said 
 pompously, "and we may need desperate means." 
 
 "Hotchkiss is like the small boy whose one am 
 bition was to have people grow ashen and tremble 
 at the mention of his name," McKnight jibed. 
 But they were serious enough, both of them, 
 under it all, and when they had told me what 
 they planned, I was serious, too. 
 
 "You're compounding a felony," I remon 
 strated, when they had explained. "I'm not 
 eager to be locked away, but, by Jove, to offer 
 her the stolen notes in exchange for Sullivan !" 
 
 "We haven't got either of them, you know," 
 McKnight remonstrated, "and we won't have, if 
 we don't start. Come along, Fido," to Hotch 
 kiss. 
 
 The plan was simplicity itself. 'According to 
 Hotchkiss, Sullivan was to meet Bronson at Mrs. 
 Conway's apartment, at eight-thirty that night, 
 with the notes. He was to be paid there and the
 
 papers destroyed. "But just before that inter 
 esting finale," McKnight ended, "we will walk in, 
 take the notes, grab Sullivan, and give the police* 
 a jolt that will put them out of the count." 
 
 I suppose not one of us, slewing around cor 
 ners in the machine that night, had the faintest 
 doubt that we were on the right track, or that 
 Fate, scurvy enough before, was playing into 
 our hands at last. Little Hotchkiss was in a 
 state of fever; he alternately twitched and ex 
 amined the revolver, and a fear that the two 
 movements might be synchronous kept me un 
 easy. He produced and dilated on the scrap of 
 pillow slip from the wreck, and showed me the 
 stiletto, with its point in cotton batting for 
 safekeeping. And in the intervals he implored 
 Richey not to make such fine calculations at the 
 corners. 
 
 We were all grave enough and very quiet, 
 jhowever, when we reached the large building 
 where Mrs. Conway had her apartment. Mc 
 Knight left the power on, in case we might want 
 to make a quick get-away, and Hotchkiss gave 
 a final look at the revolver. I had no weapon.
 
 IN THE DINING-ROOM 3,33 
 
 Somehow it all seemed melodramatic to the verge 
 of farce. In the doorway Hotchkiss was a half 
 dozen feet ahead; Richey fell back beside me. 
 He dropped his affectation of gayety, and I 
 thought he looked tired. "Same old Sam, I sup 
 pose ?" he asked. 
 
 "Same, only more of him." 
 
 "I suppose Alison was there? How is she?" 
 he inquired irrelevantly. 
 
 "Very well. I did not see her this morning." 
 Hotchkiss was waiting near the elevator. Mc- 
 Knight put his hand on my arm. "Now, look 
 here, old man," he said, "I've got two arms and a 
 revolver, and you've got one arm and a splint. 
 If Hotchkiss is right, and there is a row, you 
 crawl under a table." 
 
 "The deuce I will !" I declared scornfully. 
 
 We crowded out of the elevator at the fourth 
 floor, and found ourselves in a rather theatrical 
 hallway of draperies and armor. It was very^ 
 quiet; we stood uncertainly after the car had 
 gone, and looked at the two or three doors in 
 sight. They were heavy, covered with metal, and 
 sound proof. From somewhere above came the
 
 834 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 metallic accuracy of a player-piano, and 
 through the open window we could hear or feel 
 the throb of the Cannonball's engine. 
 
 "Well, Sherlock," McKnight said, "what's the 
 next move in the game? Is it our jump, or 
 theirs ? You brought us here." 
 
 None of us knew just what to do next. No 
 sound of conversation penetrated the heavy 
 doors. We waited uneasily for some minutes, 
 and Hotchkiss looked at his watch. Then he put 
 it to his ear. 
 
 "Good gracious!" he exclaimed, his head 
 cocked on one side, "I believe it has stopped. I'm 
 afraid we are late." 
 
 We were late. My watch and Hotchkiss' 
 agreed at nine o'clock, and, with the discovery 
 that our man might have come and gone, our 
 zest in the adventure began to flag. McKnight 
 motioned us away from the door and rang the 
 bell. There was no response, no sound within. 
 He rang it twice, the last time long and vigor 
 ously, without result. Then he turned and looked 
 at us. 
 
 "I don't half like this," he said. "That
 
 IN THE DINING-ROOM 333 
 
 woman is in ; you heard me ask the elevator boj. 
 For two cents I'd " 
 
 I had seen it when he did. The door was ajar 
 about an inch, and a narrow wedge of rose-; 
 colored light showed beyond. I pushed the door 
 a little and listened. Then, with both men at 
 my heels, I stepped into the private corridor of 
 the apartment and looked around. It was a 
 square reception hall, with rugs on the floor, a 
 tall mahogany rack for hats, and a couple of 
 chairs. A lantern of rose-colored glass and a 
 desk light over a writing-table across made the 
 room bright and cheerful. It was empty. 
 
 None of us was comfortable. The place was 
 full of feminine trifles that made us feel the 
 weakness of our position. Some such instinct 
 made McKnight suggest division. 
 
 "We look like an invading army," he said. 
 "If she's here alone, we will startle her into a 
 spasm. One of us could take a look aroundj 
 and" 
 
 "What was that? Didn't you hear some 
 thing?" 
 
 The sound, whatever it had been, wa not re-
 
 336 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 peated. We went awkwardly out into the hall, 
 very uncomfortable, all of us, and flipped a 
 coin. The choice fell to me, which was right 
 Jenough, for the affair was mine, primarily. 
 
 "Wait just inside the door," I directed, "and 
 if Sullivan comes, or anybody that answers his 
 description, grab him without ceremony and ask 
 him questions afterwards." 
 
 The apartment, save in the hallway, was un- 
 lighted. By one of those freaks of arrangement 
 possible only in the modern flat, I found the 
 kitchen first, and was struck a smart and unex 
 pected blow by a swinging door. I carried a 
 handful of matches, and by the time I had passed 
 through a butler's pantry and a refrigerator 
 room I was completely lost in the darkness. 
 Until then the situation had been merely uncom 
 fortable ; suddenly it became grisly. From some 
 where near came a long-sustained groan, fol 
 lowed almost instantly by the crash of some 
 thing glass or china on the floor. 
 
 I struck a fresh match, and fo'_;id myself in 
 a narrow rear hallway. Behind me was the door 
 by which I must have come; with a keen desire
 
 IN THE DINING-ROOM 337 
 
 to get back to the place I had started from, I 
 opened the door and attempted to cross the room. 
 I thought I had kept my sense of direction, but 
 I crashed without warning into what, from the 
 resulting jangle, was the dining-table, probably 
 laid for dinner. I cursed my stupidity in get 
 ting into such a situation, and I cursed my 
 nerves for making my hand shake when I tried 
 to strike a match. The groan had not been 
 repeated. 
 
 I braced myself against the table and struck 
 the match sharply against the sole of my shoe. 
 It flickered faintly and went out. And then, 
 without the slightest warning, another dish went 
 off the table. It fell with a thousand splinter- 
 ings; the very air seemed broken into crashing 
 waves of sound. I stood still, braced against the 
 table, holding the red end of the dying match, 
 and listened. I had not long to wait ; the groan 
 came again, and I recognized it, the cry of a dog 
 in straits. I breathed again. 
 
 "Come, old fellow," I said. "Come on, old 
 man. Let's have a look at you." 
 
 I could hear the thud of his tail on the floor,
 
 338 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 but he did not move. He only whimpered 
 There is something companionable in the pres 
 ence of a dog, and I fancied this dog in trouble. 
 Slowly I began to work my way around the table 
 toward him. 
 
 "Good boy," I said, as he whimpered. "We'll 
 find the light, which ought to be somewhere o 
 other around here, and then 
 
 I stumbled over something, and I drew back 
 my foot almost instantly. "Did I step on you, 
 old man?" I exclaimed, and bent to pat him. I 
 remember straightening suddenly and hearing 
 the dog pad softly toward me around the table. 
 I recall even that I had put the matches down and 
 could not find them. Then, with a bursting 
 horror of the room and its contents, of the gib 
 bering dark around me, I turned and made foa 
 the door by which I had entered. 
 
 I could not find it. I felt along the endless 
 wainscoting, past miles of wall. The dog was 
 beside me, I think, but he was part and parcel 
 now, to my excited mind, with the Thing under 
 the table. And when, after aeons of search, 1 
 found a knob and stumbled into the reception
 
 IN THE DINING-ROOM 339 
 
 hall, I was as nearly in a panic as any man 
 could be. 
 
 I was myself again in a second, and by the 
 flight from the hall I led the way back to the 
 tragedy I had stumbled on. Bronson still sat 
 at the table, his elbows propped on it, his cigar 
 ette still lighted, burning a hole in the cloth. 
 Partly under the table lay Mrs. Conway, face 
 down. The dog stood over her and wagged his 
 tail. 
 
 McKnight pointed silently to a large copper 
 ash-tray, filled with ashes and charred bits of 
 paper. 
 
 "The notes, probably," he said ruefully. "He 
 got them after all, and burned them before her. 
 It was more than she could stand. Stabbed him 
 first and then herself." 
 
 Hotchkiss got up and took off his hat. "They 
 are dead," he announced solemnly, and took his 
 
 note-book out of his hatband. 
 
 
 
 McKnight and I did the only thing we could 
 think of drove Hotchkiss and the dog out of 
 the room, and closed and locked the door. "It's 
 a matter for the police," McKnight asserted
 
 340 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "I suppose you've got an officer tied to you soipe- 
 where, Lawrence ? You usually have." 
 
 We left Hotchldss in charge and went down 
 stairs. It was McKnight who first saw Johnson, 
 leaning against a park railing across the street, 
 and called him over. We told him in a few words 
 what we had found, and he grinned at me cheer- 
 fully. 
 
 "After while, in a few weeks or months, Mr. 
 Blakeley," he said, "when you get tired of 
 monkeying around with the blood-stain and fin 
 ger-print specialist up-stairs, you come to me. 
 I've had that fellow you want under surveillance 
 for ten days !"
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 FINER DETAILS 
 
 AT ten minutes before two the following day, 
 Monday, I arrived at my office. I had 
 spent the morning putting my affairs in shape, 
 and in a trip to the stable. The afternoon would 
 see me either a free man or a prisoner for an in 
 definite length of time, and, in spite of John 
 son's promise to produce Sullivan, I was more 
 prepared for the latter than the former. 
 
 Blobs was watching for me outside the door, 
 and it was clear that he was in a state of excite 
 ment bordering on delirium. He did nothing, 
 however, save to tip me a wink that meant "As 
 man to man, I'm for you." I was too much en 
 grossed either to reprove him or return the 
 courtesy, but I heard him follow me down the 
 hall to the small room where we keep outgrown 
 law books, typewriter supplies and, incidentally, 
 341
 
 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 our wraps. I was wondering vaguely if I would 
 ever hang my hat on its nail again, when the 
 door closed behind me. It shut firmly, without 
 any particular amount of sound, and I was leffe 
 in the dark. I groped my way to it, irritably, 
 to find it locked on the outside. I shook it fran 
 tically, and was rewarded by a sibilant whisper 
 through the keyhole. 
 
 "Keep quiet," Blobs was saying huskily. 
 "You're in deadly peril. The police are waiting 
 in your office, three of 'em. I'm goin* to lock the 
 whole bunch in and throw the key out of the 
 window." 
 
 "Come back here, you imp of Satan !" I called 
 furiously, but I could hear him speeding down 
 the corridor, and the slam of the outer office door 
 by which he always announced his presence. 
 And so I stood there in that ridiculous cupboard, 
 hot with the heat of a steaming September day, 
 musty with the smell of old leather bindings, 
 littered with broken overshoes and handleless 
 umbrellas. I was apoplectic with rage one min 
 ute, and choked with laughter the next. It 
 seemed an hour before Blobs came back.
 
 FINER DETAILS 343 
 
 He came without haste, strutting with new 
 dignity, and paused outside my prbon door. 
 
 "Well, I guess that will hold \ hem for a while," 
 he remarked comfortably, and proceeded to turn 
 the key. "I've got 'em fastened up lit',- sardines 
 in a can !" he explained, working TV;C)I the lock. 
 "Gee whiz ! you'd ought to hear 'en { i" When he 
 got his breath after the shaking I gave him, he 
 began to splutter. "How'd I know?" he de 
 manded sulkily. "You nearly broke your neck 
 gettin' away the other time. And I haven't got 
 the old key. It's lost." 
 
 "Where's it lost?" I demanded, with another 
 gesture toward his coat collar. 
 
 "Down the elevator shaft." There was a 
 gleam of indignant satisfaction through his tears 
 of rage and humiliation. 
 
 And so, while he hunted the key in the debris 
 at the bottom of the shaft, I quieted his prisoners 
 with the assurance that the lock had slipped, and 
 that they would be free as lords as soon as we 
 could find the janitor with a pass-key. Stuart 
 went down finally and discovered Blobs, with the 
 key in his pocket, telling the engineer how he
 
 344 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 had tried to save me from arrest and failed. 
 When Stuart came up he was almost cheerful, 
 but Blobs did not appear again that day. 
 
 Simultaneous with the finding of the key came 
 Hotchkiss, and we went in together. I shook 
 hands with two men who, with Hotchkiss, made 
 a not very animated group. The taller one, an 
 oldish man, lean and hard, announced his errand 
 at once. 
 
 "A Pittsburg warrant?" I inquired, unlock 
 ing my cigar drawer. 
 
 "Yes. Allegheny County has assumed juris 
 diction, the exact locality where the crime was 
 committed being in doubt." He seemed to be 
 the spokesman. The other, shorter and rotund, 
 kept an amiable silence. "We hope you will see 
 the wisdom of waiving extradition," he went on. 
 "It will save time." 
 
 "I'll come, of course," I agreed. "The sooner 
 the better. But I want you to give me an hour 
 here, gentlemen. I think we can interest you. 
 Have a cigar?" 
 
 The lean man took a cigar; the rotund man 
 took three, putting two in his pocket.
 
 FINER DETAILS 
 
 "How about the catch of that door?" he in 
 quired jovially. "Any danger of it going off 
 again?" Really, considering the circumstances, 
 they were remarkably cheerful. Hotchkiss, how 
 ever, was not. He paced the floor uneasily, his 
 hands under his coat-tails. The arrival of Mc- 
 Knight created a diversion; he carried a long 
 package and a corkscrew, and shook hands with 
 the police and opened the bottle with a single 
 gesture. 
 
 "I always want something to cheer on these 
 occasions," he said. "Where's the water, Blake- 
 ley? Everybody ready?" Then in French he 
 toasted the two detectives. 
 
 "To your eternal discomfiture," he said, bow 
 ing ceremoniously. "May you go home and 
 never come back ! If you take Monsieur Blake- 
 ley with you, I hope you choke." 
 
 The lean man nodded gravely. "Prosit," he 
 said. But the fat one leaned back and laughed] 
 consumedly. 
 
 Hotchkiss finished a mental synopsis of his 
 position, and put down his glass. "Gentlemen," 
 he said pompously, "within five minutes the man
 
 846 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 you want will be here, a murderer caught in a 
 net of evidence so fine that a mosquito could not 
 , -jet through." 
 
 The detectives glanced at each other solemnly. 
 Had they not in their possession a sealskin bag 
 containing a wallet and a bit of gold chain, 
 which, by putting the crime on me, would leave 
 a gap big enough for Sullivan himself to crawl 
 through ? 
 
 "Why don't you say your little speech before 
 Johnson brings the other man, Lawrence?" Mc- 
 Knight inquired. "They won't believe you, but 
 it will help them to understand what is coming." 
 
 "You understand, of course," the lean man put 
 in gravely, "that what you say may be used 
 against you." 
 
 "I'll take the risk," I answered impatiently. 
 
 It took some time to tell the story of my worse 
 than useless trip to Pittsburg, and its sequel. 
 , They listened gravely, without interruption. 
 
 "Mr. Hotchkiss here," I finished, "believes 
 that the man Sullivan, whom we are momentarily 
 expecting, committed the crime. Mr. McKnight 
 is inclined to implicate Mrs. Conway, who
 
 FINER DETAILS 347 
 
 stabbed Bronson and then herself last night. As 
 for myself, I am open to conviction." 
 
 "I hope not," said the stout detective quiz 
 zically. And then Alison was announced. My 
 impulse to go out and meet her was forestalled 
 by the detectives, who rose when I did. Mc- 
 Knight, therefore, brought her in, and I met her 
 at the door. 
 
 "I have put you to a great deal of trouble," I 
 said contritely, when I saw her glance around 
 the room. "I wish I had not " 
 
 "It is only right that I should come," she re 
 plied, looking up at me. "I am the unconscious 
 cause of most of it, I am afraid. Mrs. Dallas is 
 going to wait in the outer office." 
 
 I presented Hotchkiss and the two detectives, 
 who eyed her with interest. In her poise, her 
 beauty, even in her gown, I fancy she represent 
 ed a new type to them. They remained standing 
 until she sat down. 
 
 "I have brought the necklace," she began, 
 holding out a white-wrapped box, "as you asked 
 me to." 
 
 I passed it, unopened, to the detectives. "The
 
 848 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN! 
 
 necklace from which was broken the fragment 
 you found in the sealskin bag," I explained 
 
 "Miss West found it on the floor of the car, near 
 
 i 
 
 lower ten." 
 
 "When did you find it?" asked the lean de 
 tective, bending forward. 
 
 "In the morning, not long before the wreck." 
 
 "Did you ever see it before ?" 
 
 "I am not certain," she replied. "I have seen 
 one very much like it." Her tone was troubled. 
 She glanced at me as if for help, but I was pow 
 erless. 
 
 "Where?" The detective was watching her 
 closely. 
 
 At that moment there came an interruption. 
 The door opened without ceremony, and Johnson 
 ushered in a tall, blond man, a stranger to all of 
 us. I glanced at Alison ; she was pale, but com 
 posed and scornful. She met the new-comer's 
 eyes full, and, caught unawares, he took a hasty; 
 backward step. 
 
 "Sit down, Mr. Sullivan," McKnight beamed 
 cordially. "Have a cigar? I beg your pardon, 
 [Alison, do you mind this smoke?"
 
 'FINER DETAILS 849 
 
 ''Not at all," she said composedly. Sullivan 
 had had a second to sound his bearings. 
 
 "No no, thanks," he mumbled. "If you will 
 be good enough to explain " 
 
 "But that's what you're to do," McKnight 
 said cheerfully, pulling up a chair. "You've got 
 the most attentive audience you could ask. These 
 two gentlemen are detectives from Pittsburg, 
 and we are all curious to know the finer details 
 of what happened on the car Ontario two weeks 
 ago, the night your father-in-law was mur 
 dered." Sullivan gripped the arms of his chair. 
 "We are not prejudiced, either. The gentlemen 
 from Pittsburg are betting on Mr. Blakeley, 
 over there. Mr. Hotchkiss, the gentleman by 
 the radiator, is ready to place ten to one odds on 
 you. And some of us have still other theories." 
 
 "Gentlemen," Sullivan said slowly, "I give you 
 my word of honor that I did not kill Simon Har 
 rington, and that I do not know who did." 
 
 "Fiddlededee !" cried Hotchkiss, bustling for 
 ward. "Why, I can tell you " But McKnight 
 pushed him firmly into a chair and held him 
 there.
 
 850 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "I am ready to plead guilty to the larceny," 
 Sullivan went on. "I took Mr. Blakeley's 
 clothes, I admit. If I can reimburse him in any 
 way for the inconvenience " 
 
 The stout detective was listening with his 
 mouth open. "Do you mean to say," he de 
 manded, "that you got into Mr. Blakeley's berth, 
 as he contends, took his clothes and forged notes, 
 and left the train before the wreck ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "The notes, then?" 
 
 "I gave them to Bronson yesterday. Much 
 good they did him !" bitterly. We were all silent 
 for a moment. The two detectives were adjust 
 ing themselves with difficulty to a new point of 
 view; Sullivan was looking dejectedly at the 
 floor, his hands hanging loose between his knees. 
 I was watching Alison ; from where I stood, be 
 hind her, I could almost touch the soft hair 
 I behind her ear. 
 
 "I have no intention of pressing any charge 
 against you," I said with forced civility, for my 
 hands were itching to get at him, "if you will
 
 FINER DETAILS 351 
 
 give us a clear account of what happened on the 
 Ontario that night." 
 
 Sullivan raised his handsome, haggard head 
 and looked around at me. "I've seen you before, 
 haven't I?" he asked. "Weren't you an unin 
 vited guest at the Laurels a few days or nights 
 ago? The cat, you remember, and the rug 
 that slipped?" 
 
 "I remember," I said shortly. He glanced 
 from me to Alison and quickly away. 
 
 "The truth can't hurt me," he said, "but it's 
 devilish unpleasant. Alison, you know all this. 
 You would better go out." 
 
 His use of her name crazed me. I stepped in 
 front of her and stood over him. "You will not 
 bring Miss West into the conversation," I 
 threatened, "and she will stay if she wishes." 
 
 "Oh, very well," he said with assumed indif 
 ference. 
 
 Hotchkiss just then escaped from Richey'fc, 
 grasp and crossed the room. 
 
 "Did you ever wear glasses?" he asked 
 eagerly.
 
 352 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Never." Sullivan glanced with some con 
 tempt at mine. 
 
 "I'd better begin by going back a little," he 
 j went on sullenly. "I suppose you know I was 
 married to Ida Harrington about five years ago. 
 She was a good girl, and I thought a lot of her. 
 But her father opposed the marriage he'd 
 never liked me, and he refused to make any sort 
 of settlement. 
 
 "I had thought, of course, that there would 
 be money, and it was a bad day when I found out 
 I'd made a mistake. My sister was wild with 
 disappointment. We were pretty hard up, my 
 sister and I." 
 
 I was watching Alison. Her hands were 
 tightly clasped in her lap, and she was staring 
 out of the window at the cheerless roof below. 
 She had set her lips a little, but that was all. 
 
 "You understand, of course, that I'm not de- 
 (f ending myself," went on the sullen voice. "The 
 day came when old Harrington put us both out 
 of the house at the point of a revolver, and I 
 threatened I suppose you know that, too I 
 threatened to kill him.
 
 FINER DETAILS 853 
 
 "My sister and I had hard times after that. 
 We lived on the continent for a while. I was at 
 Monte Carlo and she was in Italy. She met a 
 young lady there, the granddaughter of a steel 
 manufacturer and an heiress, and she sent for 
 me. When I got to Rome the girl was gone. 
 Last winter I was all in social secretary to an 
 Englishman, a wholesale grocer with a new title, 
 but we had a row, and I came home. I went out 
 to the Heaton boys' ranch in Wyoming, and met 
 Bronson there. He lent me money, and I've been 
 doing his dirty work ever since." 
 
 Sullivan got up then and walked slowly for 
 ward and back as he talked, his eyes on the faded 
 pattern of the office rug. 
 
 "If you want to live in hell," he said savagely, 
 "put yourself in another man's power. Bronson 
 got into trouble, forging John Gilmore's name 
 to those notes, and in some way he learned that 
 a man was bringing the papers back to Wash 
 ington on the Flier. He even learned the num 
 ber of his berth, and the night before the wreck, 
 just as I was boarding the train, I got a tele 
 gram,"
 
 354 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 Hotchkiss stepped forward once more im 
 portantly. 
 
 "Which read, I think: 'Man with papers in 
 lower ten, car seven. Get them.' ' 
 
 Sullivan looked at the little man with sulky 
 blue eyes. 
 
 "It was something like that, anyhow. But it 
 was a nasty business, and it made matters worse 
 that he didn't care that a telegram which must 
 pass through a half dozen hands was more or 
 less incriminating to me. 
 
 "Then, to add to the unpleasantness of my 
 position, just after we boarded the train I was 
 accompanying my sister and this young lady, 
 Miss West a woman touched me on the sleeve, 
 and I turned to face my wife ! 
 
 "That took away my last bit of nerve. I told 
 my sister, and you can understand she was in a 
 bad way, too. We knew what it meant. Ida had 
 heard that I was going " 
 
 He stopped and glanced uneasily at Alison. 
 
 "Go on," she said coldly. "It is too late to 
 me. The time to have done that was when 
 
 M_S your guest."
 
 FINER DETAILS 855 
 
 <c Well," he went on, his eyes turned carefully 
 away from my face, which must have presented 
 certainly anything but a pleasant sight. "Miss 
 West was going to do me the honor to marry me, 
 and" 
 
 "You scoundrel!" I burst forth, thrusting 
 past Alison West's chair. "You you infernal 
 cur!" 
 
 One of the detectives got up and stood be 
 tween us. 
 
 "You must remember, Mr. Blakeley, that you 
 are forcing this story from this man. These 
 details are unpleasant, but important. You were 
 going to marry this young lady," he said, turn 
 ing to Sullivan, "although you already had a 
 wife living?" 
 
 "It was my sister's plan, and I was in a bad 
 
 way for money. If I could marry, secretly, a 
 
 wealthy girl and go to Europe, it was unlikely 
 
 .that Ida^-that is, Mrs. Sullivan would hear 
 
 of it. 
 
 "So it was more than a shock to see my wife 
 on the train, and to realize from her face that 
 she knew what was going on. I don't know yet,
 
 356 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 unless some of the servants well, never mind 
 that. 
 
 "It meant that the whole thing had gone up. 
 Old Harrington had carried a gun for me for 
 years, and the same train wouldn't hold both of 
 us. Of course, I thought that he was in the 
 coach just behind ours." 
 
 Hotchkiss was leaning forward now, his eyes 
 narrowed, his thin lips drawn to a line. 
 
 "Are you left-handed, Mr. Sullivan?" he 
 asked. 
 
 Sullivan stopped in surprise. 
 
 "No," he said gruffly. "Can't do anything 
 with my left hand." Hotchkiss subsided, crest 
 fallen but alert. "I tore up that cursed tele 
 gram, but I was afraid to throw the scraps away. 
 Then I looked around for lower ten. It was 
 almost exactly across my berth was lower 
 seven, and it was, of course, a bit of exceptional 
 luck for me that the car was number seven." 
 
 "Did you tell your sister of the telegram from 
 Bronson?" I, asked. 
 
 "No. It would do no good, and she was in ft 
 bad way without that to make her worse."
 
 FINER DETAILS 35T 
 
 "Your sister was killed, I think." The shorter 
 detective took a small package from his pocket 
 and held it in his hand, snapping the rubber 
 band which held it. 
 
 "Yes, she was killed," Sullivan said soberly. 
 "What I say now can do her no harm." 
 
 He stopped to push back the heavy hair which! 
 dropped over his forehead, and went on more 
 connectedly. 
 
 "It was late, after midnight, and we went at 
 once to our berths. I undressed, and then I lay 
 there for an hour, wondering how I was going 
 to get the notes. Some one in lower nine was 
 restless and wide awake, but finally became quiet. v 
 
 "The man in ten was sleeping heavily. I 
 could hear his breathing, and it seemed to be 
 only a question of getting across and behind the 
 curtains of his berth without being seen. After 
 that, it was a mere matter of quiet searching. 
 
 "The car became very still. I was about to try 
 for the other berth, when some one brushed softlj 
 past, and I lay back again. 
 
 "Finally, however, when things had been quiet 
 for a time, I got up, and after looking along the
 
 358 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 aisle, I slipped behind the curtains of lower ten. 
 You understand, Mr. Blakeley, that I thought 
 you were in lower ten, with the notes." 
 
 I nodded curtly. 
 
 "I'm not trying to defend myself," he went 
 on. "I was ready to steal the notes I had to. 
 But murder !" 
 
 He wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. 
 
 "Well, I slipped across and behind the cur 
 tains. It was very still. The man in ten didn't 
 move, although my heart was thumping until I 
 thought he would hear it. 
 
 "I felt around cautiously. It was perfectly 
 dark, and I came across a bit of chain, about as 
 long as my finger. It seemed a queer thing to 
 find there, and it was sticky, too." 
 
 He shuddered, and I could see Alison's hands 
 clenching and unclenching with the strain. 
 
 "All at once it struck me that the man was 
 strangely silent, and I think I lost my nerve. 
 Anyhow, I drew the curtains open a little, and 
 let the light fall on my hands. They were red, 
 blood-red." 
 
 He leaned one hand on the back of the chair,
 
 FINER DETAILS 359 
 
 and was silent for a moment, as though he lived 
 over again the awful events of that more than 
 lawful night. 
 
 The stout detective had let his cigar go out; 
 he was still drawing at it nervously. Richey had 
 picked up a paper-weight and was tossing it 
 from hand to hand; when it slipped and fell to 
 the floor, a startled shudder passed through the 
 room. 
 
 "There was something glittering in there," 
 Sullivan resumed, "and on impulse I picked it 
 up. Then I dropped the curtains and stumbled 
 back to my own berth." 
 
 "Where you wiped your hands on the bed- 
 clothing and stuck the dirk into the pillow." 
 Hotchkiss was seeing his carefully built struc 
 ture crumbling to pieces, and he looked cha 
 grined. 
 
 "I suppose I did I'm not very clear about 
 what happened then. But when I rallied a little 
 I saw a Russia leather wallet lying in the aisle 
 almost at my feet, and, like a fool, I stuck it, 
 with the bit of chain, into my bag. 
 
 "I sat there, shivering, for what seemed
 
 360 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 hours. It was still perfectly quiet, except for 
 some one snoring. I thought that would drive 
 me crazy. 
 
 "The more I thought of it the worse things I 
 looked. The telegram was the first thing against 
 me it would put the police on my track at once, 
 when it was discovered that the man in lower ten 
 had been killed. 
 
 "Then I remembered the notes, and I took out 
 the wallet and opened it." 
 
 He stopped for a minute, as if the recalling of 
 the next occurrence was almost beyond him. 
 
 "I took out the wallet," he said simply, "and, 
 opening it, held it to the light. In gilt letters 
 was the name, Simon Harrington." 
 
 The detectives were leaning forward now, their 
 eyes on his face. 
 
 "Things seemed to whirl around for a while. 
 I sat there almost paralyzed, wondering what 
 this new development meant for me. 
 
 "My wife, I knew, would swear I had killed 
 her father ; nobody would be likely to believe the 
 truth. 
 
 "Do you believe me now?" He looked around
 
 FINER DETAILS 361 
 
 at us defiantly. "I am telling the absolute truth, 
 and not one of you believes me ! 
 
 "After a bit the man in lower nine got up and 
 walked along the aisle toward the smoking com- j 
 partment. I heard him go, and, leaning from 
 my berth, watched him out of sight. 
 
 "It was then I got the idea of changing berths 
 with him, getting into his clothes, and leaving 
 the train. I give you my word I had no idea of 
 throwing suspicion on him." 
 
 Alison looked scornfully incredulous, but I 
 felt that the man was telling the truth. 
 
 "I changed the numbers of the berths, and it 
 worked well. I got into the other man's berth^ 
 and he came back to mine. The rest was easy. 
 I dressed in his clothes luckily, they fitted 
 and jumped the train not far from Baltimore, 
 just before the wreck." 
 
 "There is something else you must clear up," 
 I said. "Why did you try to telephone me from 
 
 M , and why did you change your mind 
 
 about the message?" 
 
 He looked astounded. 
 
 "You knew I was at M ?" he stammered.
 
 362 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "Yes, we traced you. What about the mes 
 sage?" 
 
 "Well, it was this way: of course, I did not 
 know your name, Mr. Blakcley. The telegram 
 said, 'Man with papers in lower ten, car seven,' 
 and after I had made what I considered my es 
 cape, I began to think I had left the man in my 
 berth in a bad way. 
 
 "He would probably be accused of the crime. 
 So, although when the wreck occurred I sup 
 posed every one connected with the affair had 
 been killed, there was a chance that you had 
 survived. I've not been of much account, but I 
 didn't want a man to swing because I'd left him 
 in my place. Besides, I began to have a theory 
 of my own. 
 
 "As we entered the car a tall, dark woman 
 passed us, with a glass of water in her hand, and 
 I vaguely remembered her. She was amazingly 
 like Blanche Conway. 
 
 "If she, too, thought the man with the notes 
 was in lower ten, it explained a lot, including 
 that piece of a woman's necklace. She was a 
 jfury, Blanche Conway, capable of anything/'
 
 FINER DETAILS 868 
 
 z< Then why did you countermand that mes 
 sage ?" I asked curiously. 
 
 "When I got to the Carter house, and got to 
 bed I had sprained my ankle in the jump I 
 went through the alligator bag I had taken from 
 lower nine. When I found your name, I sent the 
 first message. Then, soon after, I came across 
 the notes. It seemed too good to be true, and I 
 was crazy for fear the message had gone. 
 
 "At first I was going to send them to Bron- 
 eon ; then I began to see what the possession of 
 the notes meant to me. It meant power over 
 Bronson, money, influence, everything. He was 
 a devil, that man." 
 
 "Well, he's at home now," said McKnight, and 
 we were glad to laugh and relieve the tension. 
 
 Alison put her hand over her eyes, as if to 
 shut out the sight of the man she had so nearly 
 married, and I furtively touched one of the soft, 
 little curls that nestled at the back of her neck. 
 
 "When I was able to walk," went on the sullen 
 voice, "I came at once to Washington. I tried 
 to sell the notes to Bronson, but he was almost 
 at the end of his rope. Not even my threat to
 
 364 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 send them back to you, Mr. Blakeley, could make 
 him meet my figure. He didn't have the money." 
 
 McKnight was triumphant. 
 
 "I think you gentlemen will see reason in my 
 theory now," he said. "Mrs. Conway wanted the 
 notes to force a legal marriage, I suppose ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 The detective with the small package carefully 
 rolled off the rubber band, and unwrapped it. I 
 held my breath as he took out, first, the Russia 
 leather wallet. 
 
 "These things, Mr. Blakeley, we found in the 
 sealskin bag Mr. Sullivan says he left you. 
 This wallet, Mr. Sullivan is this the one you 
 found on the floor of the car ?" 
 
 Sullivan opened it, and, glancing at the name 
 inside, "Simon Harrington," nodded affirma 
 tively. 
 
 "And this," went on the detective "this is a 
 1 piece of gold chain ?" 
 
 "It seems to be," said Sullivan, recoiling at the 
 blood-stained end. 
 
 "This, I believe, is the dagger." He held it 
 up, and Alison gave a faint cry of astonishment
 
 FINER DETAILS 365 
 
 and dismay. Sullivan's face grew ghastly, and 
 he sat down weakly on the nearest chair. 
 
 The detective looked at him shrewdly, then at 
 Alison's agitated face. 
 
 "Where have you seen this dagger before, 
 young lady ?" he asked, kindly enough. 
 
 "Oh, don't ask me!" she gasped breathlessly, 
 her eyes turned on Sullivan. "It's it's too terri 
 ble!" 
 
 "Tell him," I advised, leaning over to her. "It 
 will be found out later, anyhow." 
 
 "Ask him," she said, nodding toward Sullivan. 
 
 The detective unwrapped the small box Alison 
 had brought, disclosing the trampled necklace 
 and broken chain. With clumsy fingers he 
 spread it on the table and fitted into place the 
 .bit of chain. There could be no doubt that it 
 belonged there. 
 
 "Where did you find that chain?" Sullivan 
 asked hoarsely, looking for the first time at 
 Alison. 
 
 "On the floor, near the murdered man's berth." 
 
 "Now, Mr. Sullivan," said the detective civilly, 
 "I believe you can tell us, in the light of these
 
 two exhibits, who really did murder Simon Har 
 rington." 
 
 Sullivan looked again at the dagger, a sharp 
 
 ' little bit of steel with a Florentine handle. Then 
 
 he picked up the locket and pressed a hidden 
 
 spring under one of the cameos. Inside, very 
 
 neatly engraved, was the name and a date. 
 
 "Gentlemen," he said, his face ghastly, "it is 
 of no use for me to attempt a denial. The dag 
 ger and necklace belonged to my sister, Alice 
 Curtis!"
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 AND ONLY ONE AEM 
 
 HOTCHKISS was the first to break the 
 tension. 
 
 "Mr. Sullivan," he asked suddenly, "was your 
 sister left-handed?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 Hotchkiss put away his note-book and looked 
 around with an air of triumphant vindication. 
 It gave us a chance to smile and look relieved. 
 After all, Mrs. Curtis was dead. It was the 
 happiest solution of the unhappy affair. Mc- 
 Knight brought Sullivan some whisky, and he 
 braced up a little. 
 
 "I learned through the papers that my wife 
 was in a Baltimore hospital, and yesterday I 
 ventured there to see her. I felt if she would , 
 help me to keep straight, that now, with her 
 father and my sister both dead, we might be 
 happy together. 
 
 367
 
 5568 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 "I understand now what puzzled me then. It 
 seemed that my sister went into the next car and 
 tried to make my wife promise not to interfere. 
 But Ida Mrs. Sullivan was firm, of course. 
 She said her father had papers, certificates and 
 so on, that would stop the marriage at once. 
 
 "She said, also, that her father was in our car, 
 and that there would be the mischief to pay in 
 the morning. It was probably when my sister 
 tried to get the papers that he awakened, and 
 she had to do what she did." 
 
 It was over. Save for a technicality or two, 
 I was a free man. Alison rose quietly and pre 
 pared to go ; the men stood to let her pass, save 
 Sullivan who sat crouched in his chair, his face 
 buried in his hands. Hotchkiss, who had been 
 tapping the desk with his pencil, looked up 
 abruptly and pointed the pencil at me. 
 
 " If all this is true, and I believe it is, then 
 who was in the house next door, Blakeley, the 
 night you and Mr. Johnson searched? You re 
 member, you said it was a woman's hand at the 
 trap door." 
 
 I glanced hastily at Johnson, whose face wa
 
 AND ONLY ONE ARM 369 
 
 impassive. He had his hand on the knob of thn 
 door and he opened it before he spoke. 
 
 '* There were a number of scratches on Mrs. 
 Con way's right hand," he observed to the room 
 in general. "Her wrist was bandaged and 
 badly bruised.'* 
 
 He went out then, but he turned as he closed 
 the door and threw at me a glance of half- 
 amused, half-contemptuous tolerance. 
 
 McKnight saw Alison, with Mrs. Dallas, to 
 their carriage, and came back again. The gath 
 ering in the office was breaking up. Sullivan, 
 looking worn and old, was standing by the 
 window, staring at the broken necklace in his 
 hand. When he saw me watching him, he put 
 it on the desk and picked up his hat. 
 
 "If I can not do anything more " he hesi 
 tated. 
 
 "I think you have done about enough," I re 
 plied grimly, and he went out. 
 
 I believe that Richey and Hotchkiss led me 
 somewhere to dinner, and that, for fear I would 
 be lonely without him, they sent for Johnson. 
 And I recall a spirited discussion in which
 
 370 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 Hotchkiss told the detective that he could man 
 age certain cases, but that he lacked induction. 
 Richey and I were mainly silent. My thoughts 
 would slip ahead to that hour, later in the even 
 ing, when I should see Alison again. 
 
 I dressed in savage haste finally, and was so 
 particular about my tie that Mrs. Klopton gave 
 up in despair. 
 
 "I wish, until your arm is better, that you 
 would buy the kind that hooks on," she protested, 
 almost tearfully. "I'm sure they look very nice, 
 Mr. Lawrence. My late husband always " 
 
 "That's a lover's knot you've tied this time," 
 I snarled, and, jerking open the bow knot she 
 had so painfully executed, looked out the window 
 for Johnson until I recalled that he no longer 
 belonged in my perspective. I ended by driv 
 ing frantically to the club and getting George 
 to do it. 
 
 I was late, of course. The drawing-room and- 
 library at the Dallas home were empty. I could 
 hear billiard balls rolling somewhere, and I 
 turned the other way. I found Alison at last on 
 the balcony, sitting much as she had that night
 
 AND ONLY ONE ARM 371 
 
 on the beach, her chin in her hands, her eyei 
 fixed unseeingly on the trees and lights of the 
 square across. She was even whistling a little, 
 i softly. But this time the plaintiveness was gone. 
 It was a tender little tune. She did not move, as 
 I stood beside her, looking down. And now, when 
 the moment had come, all the thousand and one 
 things I had been waiting to say forsook me, 
 precipitately beat a retreat, and left me unsup 
 ported. The arc-moon sent little fugitive lights 
 over her hair, her eyes, her gown. 
 
 "Don't do that," I said unsteadily. "You 
 you know what I want to do when you whis 
 tle!" 
 
 She glanced up at me, and she did not stop. 
 She did not stop! She went on whistling softly, 
 a bit tremulously. And straightway I forgot 
 the street, the chance of passers-by, the voices 
 in the house behind us. "The world doesn't hold 
 any one but you," I said reverently. "It is our 
 world, sweetheart. I love you." 
 
 And I kissed her. 
 
 A boy was whistling on the pavement below.
 
 372 THE MAN IN LOWER TEN 
 
 I let her go reluctantly and sat back where I 
 could see her. 
 
 "I haven't done this the way I intended to at 
 all," I confessed. "In books they get things all 
 settled, and then kiss the lady." 
 
 "Settled?" she inquired. 
 
 "Oh, about getting married and that sort of 
 thing," I explained with elaborate carelessness. 
 "We we could go down to Bermuda or or 
 Jamaica, say in December." 
 
 She drew her hand away and faced me 
 squarely. 
 
 "I believe you are afraid!" she declared. "I 
 refuse to marry you unless you propose prop 
 erly. Everybody does it. And it is a woman's 
 privilege: she wants to have that to look back 
 to." 
 
 "Very well," I consented with an exaggerated 
 sigh. "If you will promise not to think I look 
 like an idiot, I shall do it, knee and all." 
 
 I had to pass her to close the door behind us, 
 but when I kissed her again she protested that we 
 were not really engaged. 
 
 I turned to look down at her. "It is a terrible
 
 AND ONLY ONE ARM 
 
 thing," I said exultantly, "to love a girl the way 
 I love you, and to have only one arm !" Then I 
 closed the door. 
 
 From across the street there came a sharp 
 crescendo whistle, and a vaguely familiar figure 
 separated itself from the park railing. 
 
 "Say," he called, in a hoarse whisper, "shall I 
 throw the key down the elevator shaft?" 
 
 THE END
 
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