XXI. THE RECKONING
It was the Adventurer who spoke first.
"Both of you! What charming luck!" he murmured whimsically. "You'llforgive the intrusion won't you? A friend of mine, the Sparrow byname--I think you are acquainted with him, Danglar--was good enoughto open the door for me, and lock it again on the outside. You see, Ididn't wish to cause you any alarm through a premature suspicion thatyou might have a guest!" His voice hardened suddenly as he rose from thecot, and, though he limped badly, stepped quickly toward them. "Don'tmove, Danglar--or you, Mrs. Danglar!" he ordered sharply--and with alightning movement of his hand felt for, and whipped Danglar's revolverfrom the latter's pocket. "Pardon me!" he said--and his hand was in andout of Rhoda Gray's pocket. He tossed the two weapons coolly over ontothe cot. "Well, Danglar," he smiled grimly, "there's quite a change inthe last few hours, isn't there?"
Danglar made no answer. His face was ashen; his little black eyes, likethose of a cornered rat, and as though searching for some avenue ofescape, were darting hunted glances all around the garret.
Rhoda Gray, the first shock of surprise gone, leaned back against thewashstand with an air of composure that she did not altogether feel.What was the Adventurer going to do? True, she need have no fear ofpersonal violence--she had only to disclose herself. But--but there wereother considerations. She saw that reckoning of her own with Danglar atan end, though--yes!--perhaps the Adventurer would become her ally inthat matter. But, then, there was something else. The Adventurer wasa thief, and she could not let him get away with those packages ofbanknotes up there behind the trap-door in the ceiling, if she couldhelp it. That was perhaps what he had come for, and--and--Her mindseemed to tumble into chaos. She did not know what to do. She stared atthe Adventurer. He was still dressed as the Pug, though the eye-patchwas gone, and there was no longer any sign of the artificial facialdisfigurements.
The Adventurer spoke again.
"Won't you sit down--Mrs. Danglar?" He pushed the single chair thegarret possessed toward her--and shrugged his shoulders as sheremained motionless. "You'll pardon me, then, if I sit down myself."He appropriated the chair, and faced them, his revolver danglingwith ominous carelessness in his hand. "I've had a rather upsettingexperience this evening, and I am afraid I am still a little the worsefor it--as perhaps you know, Danglar?"
"You damned traitor!" Danglar burst out wildly. "I--I--"
"Quite so!" said the Adventurer smoothly. "But we'll get to that in aminute. Do you mind if I inflict a little story on you? I promise youit won't take long. It's a little personal history which I think willbe interesting to you both; but, in any case, as my hosts, I am sure youwill be polite enough to listen. It concerns the murder of a man namedDeemer; but in order that you may understand my interest in the matter,I must go back quite a little further. Perhaps I even ought to introducemyself. My name, my real name, you know, is David Holt. My father wasin the American Consular service in India when I was about ten. Heeventually left it and went into business there through the advice of avery warm friend of his, a certain very rich and very powerful rajahin the State of Chota Nagpur in the Province of Bengal, where we thenlived. I became an equally intimate friend of the rajah's son, and--do Ibore you, Danglar?"
Danglar was like a crouched animal, his head drawn into his shoulders,his hands behind him with fingers twisting and gripping at the edge ofthe washstand.
"What's your proposition?" he snarled. "Curse you, name your price, andhave done with it! You're as big a crook as I am!"
"You are impatient!" The Adventurer's shoulders went up again. "In duetime the rajah decided that a trip through Europe and back home throughAmerica would round out his son's education, and broaden and fit him forhis future duties in a way that nothing else would. It was also decided,I need hardly say to my intense delight, that I should accompany him.We come now to our journey through the United States--you see, Danglar,that I am omitting everything but the essential details. In a certaincity in the Middle West--I think you will remember it well, Danglar--theyoung rajah met with an accident. He was out riding in the outskirts ofthe city. His horse took fright and dashed for the river-bank. He was anexcellent horseman, but, pitched from his seat, his foot became tangledin the stirrup, and as he hung there head down, a blow from he horse'shoof rendered him unconscious, and he was being dragged along, whena man by the name of Deemer, at the risk of his own life, saved therajah's son. The horse plunged over the bank and into the water withboth of them. They were both nearly drowned. Deemer, let me say inpassing, did one of the bravest things that any man ever did. Submerged,half drowned himself, he stayed with the maddened animal until he hadsucceeded in freeing the unconscious man. All this was some two yearsago."
The Adventurer paused.
Rhoda Gray, hanging on his words, was leaning tensely forward--it seemedas though some great, dawning wonderment was lifting her out of herself,making her even unconscious of her surroundings.
"The rajah's son remained at the hotel there for several days torecuperate," continued the Adventurer deliberately; "and during thattime he saw a great deal of Deemer, and, naturally, so did I. And,incidentally, Danglar, though I thought nothing much of it then, I sawsomething of you; and something of Mrs. Danglar there, too, though--ifshe will permit me to say it--in a more becoming costume than she is nowwearing!" Once more he shrugged his shoulders as Danglar snarled. "Yes,yes; I will hurry. I am almost through. While it was not made publicthroughout the country, inasmuch as the rajah's son was more or less anofficial guest of the government, the details of the accident were ofcourse known locally, as also was the fact that the young rajah in tokenof his gratitude had presented Deemer with a collection of jewels ofalmost priceless worth. We resumed our journey; Deemer, who was a man invery moderate circumstances, and who had probably never had any meansin his life before, went to New York, presumably to have his first realholiday, and, as it turned out, to dispose of the stones, or at leasta portion of them. When we reached the coast we received two advicescontaining very ill news. The first was an urgent message to returninstantly to India on account of the old rajah's serious illness; thesecond was to the effect that Deemer had been murdered by a woman in NewYork, and that the jewels had been stolen."
Again the Adventurer paused, and, eying Danglar, smiled--not pleasantly.
"I will not attempt to explain to you," he went on, "the young rajah'sfeelings when he heard that the gift he had given Deemer in return forhis own life had cost Deemer his. Nor will I attempt to explain theracial characteristics of the people of whom the young rajah wasone, and who do not lightly forget or forgive. But an eye for an eye,Danglar--you will understand that. If it cost all he had, there shouldbe justice. He could not stay himself; and so I stayed-because he mademe swear I would, and because he made me swear that I would never allowthe chase to lag until the murderers were found.
"And so I came East again. I remembered you, Danglar--that on severaloccasions when I had come upon Deemer unawares, you, sometimesaccompanied by a woman, and sometimes not, had been lurking in thebackground. I went to Cloran, the house detective at the hotel here inNew York where Deemer was murdered. He described the woman. She was thesame woman that had been with you. I went to the authorities and showedmy credentials, with which the young rajah had seen to it I was suppliedfrom very high sources indeed. I did not wish to interfere with theauthorities in their handling of the case; but, on the other hand, I hadno wish to sit down idly and watch them, and it was necessary thereforethat I should protect myself in anything I did. I also made myselfknown to one of New York's assistant district attorneys, who was an oldfriend of my father's. And then, Danglar, I started out after you.
"I discovered you after about a month; then I wormed myself into yourgang as the Pug. That took about a year. I was almost another year withyou as an accepted member of the gang. You know what happenedduring that period. A little while ago I found out that the woman wewanted--with you, Danglar--was your wife, living in hiding in thisgarret
as Gypsy Nan. But the jewels themselves were still missing.To-night they are not. A--a friend of mine, one very much misjudgedpublicly, I might say, has them, and has told me they would be handed tothe police.
"And so, Danglar, after coming here to-night, I sent the Sparrow outto gather together a few of the authorities who are interested in thecase--my friend the assistant district attorney; Cloran, the housedetective; Rough Rorke of headquarters, who on one occasion was verymuch interested in Gypsy Nan; and enough men to make the round ofarrests. They should be conveniently hidden across the road now, andwaiting for my signal. My idea, you see, was to allow Mrs. Danglar toenter here without having her suspicions aroused, and to see thatshe did not get away again if she arrived before those who are dulyqualified--which I am not--to arrest her did; also, in view of whattranspired earlier this evening, I must confess I was a little anxiousabout those several years' accumulation of stolen funds up there in theceiling. As I said at the beginning, I hardly expected the luck to getyou both at the same time; though we should have got you, Danglar, andevery one of the rest of the gang before morning, and--"
"You," Rhoda Gray whispered, "you--are not a thief!" Brain and soulseemed on fire. It seemed as though she had striven to voice thosewords a dozen times since he had been speaking, but that she had beenafraid--afraid that this was not true, this great, wonderful thing, thatit could not be true. "You--you are not a--a thief!"
The Adventurer's face lost its immobility. He half rose from his chair,staring at her in a startled way--but it was Danglar now who spoke.
"It's a lie!" he screamed out. "It's a lie!" The man's reason appearedto be almost unhinged; a mad terror seemed to possess him. "It's all alie! I never heard of this rajah bunk before in my life! I never heardof Deemer, or any jewels before. You lie! I tell you, you lie! You can'tprove it; you can't--"
"But I can," said Rhoda Gray in a low voice. The shawl fell from hershoulders; from her blouse she took the package of jewels and held themout to the Adventurer. "Here are the stones. I got them from where youhad put them in old Luertz's room. I was hidden there all the time lastnight." She was removing her spectacles and her wig of tangled gray hairas she spoke, and now she turned her face full upon Danglar. "I heardyou discuss Deemer's murder with your brother last night, and plan toget rid of Cloran, who you thought was the only existing witness youneed fear, and--"
"Great God!" The Adventurer cried out. "You--Rhoda! The White Moll! I--Idon't understand, though I can see you are not the woman who originallymasqueraded as Gypsy Nan, for I knew her, as I said, by sight."
He was on his feet now, his face aflame with a great light. He took astep toward her.
"Wait!" she said hurriedly. She glanced at Danglar. The man's face wasblanched, his body seemed to have shriveled up, and there was a lightin his eyes as they held upon her that was near to the borderland ofinsanity. "That night at Skarbolov's!" she said, and tried to hold hervoice in control. "Gypsy Nan, this man's wife, died that night in thehospital. I had found her here sick, and I had promised not to divulgeher secret. I helped her get to the hospital. She was dying; she waspenitent in a way; she wanted to prevent a crime that she said was to beperpetrated that night, but she would not inform on her accomplices. Shebegged me to forestall them, and return the money anonymously the nextday. That was the choice I had--either to allow the crime to be carriedout, or else swear to act alone in return for the information that wouldenable me to keep the money away from the thieves without bringing thepolice into it. I--I was caught. You--you saved me from Rough Rorke, buthe followed me. I put on Gypsy Nan's clothes, and managed to outwithim. I had had no opportunity to return the money, which would have beenproof of my innocence; the only way I could prove it, then, was to tryand find the authors of the crime myself. I--I have lived since then asGypsy Nan, fighting this hideous gang of Danglar's here to try and savemyself, and--and to-night I thought I could see my way clear. I--I knewenough at last about this man to make him give me a written statementthat it was a pre-arranged plan to rob Skarbolov. That wouldsubstantiate my story. And"--she looked again at Danglar; the manwas still crouched there, eying her with that same mad light in hiseyes--"and he must be made to--to do it now for--"
"But why didn't you ask me?" cried the Adventurer. "You knew me as thePug, and therefore must have believed that I, too, know all about it."
"Yes," she said, and turned her head away to hide the color she felt wasmounting to her cheeks. "I--I thought of that. But I thought you were athief, and--and your testimony wouldn't have been much good unless, withit, I could have handed you, too, over to the police, as I intended todo with Danglar; and--and--I--I couldn't do that, and--Oh, don't yousee?" she ended desperately.
"Rhoda! Rhoda!" There was a glad, buoyant note in the Adventurer'svoice. "Yes, I see! Well, I can prove it for you now without any ofthose fears on my behalf to worry you! I went to Skarbolov's myself,knowing their plans, to do exactly what you did. I did not know youthen, and, as Rough Rorke, who was there because, as I heard later,his suspicions had been aroused through seeing some of the gang lurkingaround the back door in the lane the night before, had taken the actualmoney from you, I contrived to let you get away, because I was afraidthat you were some new factor in the game, some member of the gang thatI did not know about, and that I must watch, too! Don't you understand?The jewels were still missing. I had not got the general warning thatwas sent out to the gang that night to lay low, for at the last momentit seems that Danglar here found out that Rough Rorke had suspicionsabout Skarbolov's place." He came close to her--and with the muzzle ofhis revolver he pushed Danglar's huddled figure back a little furtheragainst the washstand. "Rhoda--you are clear. The assistant districtattorney who had your case is the one I spoke of a few minutes ago. Thatnight at Hayden-Bond's, though I did not understand fully, I knewthat you were the bravest, truest little woman into whom God had everbreathed the breath of life. I told him the next day there was somemistake, something strange behind it all. I told him what happened atHayden-Bond's. He agreed with me. You have never been indicted. Yourcase has never come before the grand jury. And it never will now! Rhoda!Rhoda! Thank God for you! Thank God it has all come out right, and--"
A peal of laughter, mad, insane, horrible in its perverted mirth, rangthrough the garret. Danglar's hands were creeping queerly up to histemples. And then, oblivious evidently in his frenzy of the revolver inthe Adventurer's hand, and his eye catching the weapons that lay uponthe cot, he made a sudden dash in that direction--and Rhoda Gray,divining his intention, sprang for the cot, too, at the same time. ButDanglar never reached his objective. As Rhoda Gray caught up the weaponsand thrust them into her pocket, she heard Danglar's furious snarl,and whirling around, she saw the two men locked and struggling in eachother's embrace.
The Adventurer's voice reached her, quick, imperative:
"Show the candle at the window, Rhoda! The Sparrow is waiting for it inthe yard below. Then open the door for them."
A sudden terror and fear seized her. The Adventurer was not fit, afterwhat he had been through to-night to cope with Danglar. He had beenlimping badly even a few minutes ago. It seemed to her, as she rushedacross the garret and snatched up the candle, that Danglar was gettingthe best of it even now. And the Adventurer could have shot him down,and been warranted in doing it! She reached the window, waved the candlefrantically several times across the pane, then setting the candle downon the window ledge, she ran for the door.
She looked back again, as she turned the key in the lock. With a crash,pitching over the chair, both men went to the floor--and the Adventurerwas underneath. She cried out in alarm, and wrenched the door open--andstood for an instant there on the threshold in a startled way.
They couldn't be coming already! The Sparrow hadn't had time even toget out of the yard. But there were footsteps in the hall below, many ofthem. She stepped out on the landing; it was too dark to see, but...
A sudden yell as she showed even in the faint light of the open garretdoor, t
he quicker rush of feet, reached her from below.
"The White Moll! That's her! The White Moll!" She flung herself flatdown, wrenching both the automatic and the revolver from her pocket. Sheunderstood now! That was Pinkie Bonn's voice. It was the gang arrivingto divide up the spoils, not the Sparrow and the police. Her mind wasracing now with lightning speed. If they got her, they would get theAdventurer in there, too, before the police could intervene. Shemust hold this little landing where she lay now, hold those short,ladder-like steps that the oncoming footsteps from below there hadalmost reached.
She fired once--twice--again; but high, over their heads, to check therush.
Yells answered her. A vicious tongue-flame from a revolver, anotherand another, leaped out at her from the black below; the spat, spat ofbullets sounded from behind her as they struck the walls.
Again she fired. They were at least more cautious now in their rush--noone seemed anxious to be first upon the stairs. She cast a wild glancethrough the open door into the garret at her side. The two forms inthere, on their feet again, were spinning around and around withthe strange, lurching gyrations of automatons--and then she saw theAdventurer whip a terrific blow to Danglar's face--and Danglar fall andlie still--and the Adventurer come leaping toward her.
But faces were showing now above the level of the floor, and there wassuddenly an increased uproar from further back in the rear until itseemed that pandemonium itself were loosed.
"It's the police! The police behind us!" she heard Shluker's voiceshriek out.
She jumped to her feet. Two of the gang had reached the landing and weresmashing at the Adventurer. There seemed to be a swirling mob in riotthere below. The Adventurer was fighting like a madman. It was hand tohand now.
"Quick! Quick!" she cried to the Adventurer. "Jump back through thedoor."
"Oh, no, you don't!" It was Skeeny--she could see the man's brutal facenow. "Oh, no, you don't, you she-devil!" he shouted, and, over-reachingthe Adventurer's guard, struck at her furiously with his clubbedrevolver.
It struck her a glancing blow on the head, and she reeled and staggered,but recovered herself. And now it seemed as though it were anotherbattle that she fought--and one more desperate; a battle to fight backa horrible giddiness from overpowering her, and with which her brain wasswimming, to fight it back for just a second, the fraction of a secondthat was needed until--until--"Jump!" she cried again, and staggeredover the threshold, and, as the Adventurer leaped backward beside her,she slammed the door, and locked it--and slid limply to the floor.
When she regained consciousness she was lying on the cot. It seemed verystill, very quiet in the garret. She opened her eyes. It--it must beall right, for that was the Sparrow standing there watching her, andshifting nervously from foot to foot, wasn't it? He couldn't be there,otherwise. She held out her hand.
"Marty," she said, and smiled with trembling lips, "we--we owe you agreat deal."
The Sparrow gulped.
"Gee, you're all right again! They said it wasn't nothin', but you hadme scared worse'n down at the iron plant when I had to do the rough actwith that gent friend of yours to stop him from crawlin' after you andfightin' it out, and queerin' the whole works. You don't owe me nothin',Miss Gray; and, besides, I'm gettin' a lot more than is comm' to me,'cause that same gent friend of yours there says I'm goin' to horn inon the rewards, and I guess that's goin' some, for they got the wholeoutfit from Danglar down, and the stuff up in the ceiling there, too."
She turned her head. The Adventurer was coming toward the cot.
"Better?" he called cheerily.
"Yes," she said. "Quite! Only I--I'd like to get away from here, fromthis--this horrible place at once, and back to--to my flat if they'lllet me. Are--are they all gone?"
The Adventurer's gray eyes lighted with a whimsical smile.
"Nearly all!" he said softly. "And--er--Sparrow, suppose you go and finda taxi!"
"Me? Sure! Of course! Sure!" said the Sparrow hurriedly, and retreatedthrough the door.
She felt the blood flood her face, and she tried to avert it.
He bent his head close to hers.
"Rhoda," his voice was low, passionate, "I--"
"Wait!" she said. "Your friend--the assistant district attorney--did hecome?"
"Yes," said the Adventurer. "But I shooed them all out, as soon aswe found you were not seriously hurt. I thought you had had enoughexcitement for one night. He wants to see you in the morning."
"To see me"--she rose up anxiously on her elbow--"in the morning?"
He was smiling at her. His hands reached out and took her face betweenthem, and made her look at him.
"Rhoda," he said gently, "I knew to-night in the iron plant that youcared. I told him so. What he wants to see you for is to tell you thathe thinks I am the luckiest man in all the world. You are clear, dear.Even Rough Rorke is singing your praises; he says you are the only womanwho ever put one over on him."
She did not answer for a moment; and then with a little sob of gladsurrender she buried her face on his shoulder.
"It--it is very wonderful," she said brokenly, "for--for even we, youand I, each thought the other a--a thief."
"And so we were, thank God!" he whispered--and lifted her head until nowhis lips met hers. "We were both thieves, Rhoda, weren't we? And, pleaseGod, we will be all our lives--for we have stolen each other's heart."
The White Moll Page 21