The Sign at Six

by Stewart Edward White

  CHAPTER XX

  THE PLAGUE OF COLD

  Without pause, and three steps at a time, Darrow ran down three flights ofstairs. Then, recovering from his initial excitement somewhat, he caughtthe elevator and shot to the street. There he walked rapidly to thesubway, which he took as far as City Hall Square. On emerging from thesubway station he started across for the _Despatch_ office as fast as hecould walk. By the entrance to the City Hall, however, he came to anabrupt halt. From the open doorway rushed his friend, Officer Burns, ofthe City Hall Station. The policeman's face was chalky white; his eyeswere staring, his cap was over one side, he staggered uncertainly. As hecaught sight of Darrow he stumbled to the young man and clung to his neck,muttering incoherently. People passing in and out looked at him curiouslyand smiled.

  "My God!" gasped Burns, his eyes roving. "I says to him, 'Mike, I don'twonder you've got cold feet.' And there he was, and the mayor--Heavensave--and his secretary! My God!"

  Darrow shook his shoulder.

  "Here," he said decisively, "what are you talking about? Get yourselftogether! Remember you're an officer; don't lose your nerve this way!"

  At the touch to his pride Burns did pull himself together somewhat, butwent on under evident strong excitement.

  "I went in just now to the mayor's office a minute," said he, "and saw myfriend Mike Mallory, the doorkeeper, settin' in his chair, as usual. Itwas cold-like, and I went up to him and says, 'Mike, no wonder you getcold feet down here,' just by way of a joke; and when he didn't answer, Iwent up to him, and he was dead, there in his chair!"

  "Well, you've seen dead men before. There's no occasion to lose yournerve, even if you did know him," said Darrow.

  The brutality of the speech had its intended effect. Burns straightened.

  "That's all very well," said he more collectively. "_But the man wasfroze_!"

  "Frozen!" muttered Darrow, and whistled.

  "Yes, and what's more, his little dog, setting by the chair, was froze,too; so when I stepped back sudden and hit against him, he tumbled over_bang_, like a cast-iron dog! That got my goat! I ran!"

  "Come with me," ordered Darrow decisively.

  They entered the building and ran up the single flight of stairs to thesecond-story room which the mayor of that term had fitted up as a sort ofprivate office of his own. A sharp chill hung in the hallways; thisincreased as they neared the executive's office. Outside the door sat thedoorkeeper in his armchair. Beside him was a dog, in the attitude of ananimal seated on its haunches, but lying on its side, one fore legsticking straight out. Darrow touched the man and stooped over to peer inhis face. The attitude was most lifelike; the color was good. A deadlychill ran from Darrow's finger tips up his arm.

  He pushed open the door cautiously and looked in.

  "All right, Burns," said he. "The atmosphere has become gaseous again. Wecan go in." With which strange remark he entered the room, followedclosely, but uncertainly by the officer.

  The private office possessed the atmosphere of a cold-storage vault. Fourmen occupied it. At the desk was seated the mayor, leaning forward in anattitude of attention, his triple chin on one clenched fist, his heavyface scowling in concentration. Opposite him lounged two men, one leaningagainst the table, the other against the wall. One had his hand raised inargument, and his mouth open. The other was watching, an expression ofalertness on his sharp countenance. At a typewriter lolled the clerk, hishand fumbling among some papers.

  The group was exceedingly lifelike, more so, Darrow thought, than any waxfigures the Eden Musee had ever placed for the mystification of itscountry visitors. Indeed, the only indication that the men had not merelysuspended action on the entrance of the visitors was a fine white rimefrost that sparkled across the burly countenance of the mayor. Darrowremembered that, summer and winter, that dignitary had always perspired!

  Burns stood by the door, rooted to the spot, his jaw dropped, his eyestaring. Darrow quite calmly walked to the desk. He picked up the inkstandand gazed curiously at its solidified contents, touched the nearest man,gazed curiously at the papers on the desk, and addressed Burns.

  "These seem to be frozen, too," he remarked almost sleepily, "and abouttime, too. This is a sweet gang to be getting together on this sort of ajob!"

  Quite calmly he gathered the papers on the desk and stuffed them into hispocket. He picked up the desk telephone, giving a number. "Ouch, thisreceiver's cold," he remarked to Burns. "Hello, _Despatch_. Is Hallowellin the office? Just in? Send him over right quick, keen jump, City Hall,mayor's second-story office. No, right now. Tell him it's Darrow."

  He hung up the receiver.

  "Curious phenomenon," he remarked to Burns, who still stood rooted to thespot. "You see, their bodies were naturally almost in equilibrium, and, asthey were frozen immediately, that equilibrium was maintained. And thecolor. I suppose the blood was congealed in the smaller veins, and didnot, as in more gradual freezing, recede to the larger blood-vessels. I'mgetting frost bitten myself in here. Let's get outside."

  But Officer Burns heard none of this. As Darrow moved toward the door hecrossed himself and bolted. Darrow heard his heels clattering on thecement of the corridors. He smiled.

  "And now the deluge!" he remarked.

  The crowds, terrified, inquisitive, sceptical, and speculative, gathered.Officials swept them out and took possession. Hallowell and Darrowconferred earnestly together.

  "He has the power to stop heat vibrations, you see," Darrow said. "Thatmakes him really dangerous. His activities here are in line with his otherwarnings; but he is not ready to go to extremes yet. The city is yetsafe."

  "Why?" asked Hallowell.

  "I know it. But he has the power. If he gets dangerous we must stop him."

  "You are sure you can do it?"

  "Sure."

  "Then, for God's sake, do it! Don't you realize what will happen when newsof this gets out, and people understand what it means? Don't you feel yourguilt at those men's deaths?" He struck his hand in the direction of theCity Hall.

  "The people will buy a lot of experience, at cost of a little fright andannoyance," replied Percy Darrow carelessly. "It'll do them good. Whenit's over, they'll come back again and be good. As for that bunch inthere--when you look over those papers I think you'll be inclined to agreewith what the religious fanatics will say--that it was a visitation ofGod."

  "But the old, the sick--there'll be deaths among them--the responsibilityis something fearful--"

  "Never knew a battle fought yet without some loss," observed Darrow.

  Hallowell was staring at him.

  "I don't understand you," said the reporter. "You have no heart. You areas bad as this Monsieur X, and between you you hold a city in yourpower--one way or the other!"

  "Well, I rather like being a little god," remarked Darrow.

  Hallowell started once more to plead, but Darrow cut him short.

  "You are thinking of the present," he said. "I am thinking of the future.It's a good thing for people to find out that there's something biggerthan they are, or than anything they can make. That fact is the basis ofthe idea of a God. These are getting to be a godless people." He turned onHallowell, his sleepy eyes lighting up. "I should be very sorry if I hadnot intellect enough and imagination enough to see what this may mean tomy fellow people; and I should despise myself if I should let anunrestrained compassion lose to four million people the rare opportunityvouchsafed them."

  He spoke very solemnly. Hallowell looked at him puzzled.

  "Besides," said Darrow whimsically, "I like to devil Eldridge."

  He dove into the subway. Hallowell gazed after him.

  "There goes either a great man or a crazy fool," he remarked to an Englishsparrow. He turned over rapidly the papers Darrow had found on the mayor'sdesk, and smiled grimly. "Of all the barefaced, bald-headed steals!" hesaid.

  Darrow soon mounted once more the elevator of the Atlas Building. He foundJack and Helen still waiting. Before entering the wireless
office Darrowcast a scrutinizing glance along the empty hall.

  "It's all right," he said. "I'm surer than ever. Everything fits exactly.Now, Helen," he said, "I want you to go home, and I want you to staythere. No matter what happens, do not move from the house. This town isgoing to have the biggest scare thrown into it that any town ever hadsince Sodom and Gomorrah got their little jolt. In the language of theWestern prophet, 'Hell will soon be popping.' Let her pop. Sit tight; tellyour friends to sit tight. If necessary, tell them Monsieur X is captured,and all his works. Tell them I said so."

  His air of languid indifference had fallen from him. His eye was bright,and he spoke with authority and vigor.

  "You take her home, Jack," he commanded, "and return here at once. Don'tforget that nice new-blued pop-gun of yours; we're coming to the time whenwe may need it."

  Jack rose instantly to his mood.

  "Correct, General!" he saluted. "Where'd you collect the plunder?" heasked, pointing to a square black bag of some size that Darrow had broughtback with him.

  "That," said Darrow, "is the first fruit of my larcenous tendencies. Istole that from the mayor's office in the City Hall."

  "What is it?"

  "That," said Darrow, "I do not know."

  He deposited the bag carefully by his chair, and turned, smiling, toHelen.

  "Good-by," said he. "Sleep tight."

  They went out. Darrow seated himself in his chair, drew his hat over hiseyes, and fell into a doze. In the meantime, outside, all through thecity, hell was getting ready to pop.