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Black Bag, The

<h2 align="center">V</h2> <h3 align="center">THE MYSTERY OF A FOUR-WHEELER</h3> "What's that?" At the first alarm the girl had caught convulsively at Kirkwood's arm. Now, when a pause came in the growling of the knocker, she made him hear her voice; and it was broken and vibrant with a threat of hysteria. "Oh, what can it mean?" "I don't know." He laid a hand reassuringly over that which trembled on his forearm. "The police, possibly." "Police!" she iterated, aghast. "What makes you think&#8212?" "A man tried to stop me at the door," he answered quickly. "I got in before he could. When he tried the knocker, a bobby came along and stopped him. The latter may have been watching the house since then,&#8212it'd be only his duty to keep an eye on it; and Heaven knows we raised a racket, coming head-first down those stairs! Now we are up against it," he added brightly. But the girl was tugging at his hand. "Come!" she begged breathlessly. "Come! There is a way! Before they break in&#8212" "But this man&#8212?" Kirkwood hung back, troubled. "They&#8212the police are sure to find and care for him." "So they will." He chuckled, "And serve him right! He'd have choked me to death, with all the good will in the world!" "Oh, do hurry!" Turning, she sped light-footed down the staircase to the lower hall, he at her elbow. Here the uproar was loudest&#8212deep enough to drown whatever sounds might have been made by two pairs of flying feet. For all that they fled on tiptoe, stealthily, guilty shadows in the night; and at the newel-post swung back into the unbroken blackness which shrouded the fastnesses backward of the dwelling. A sudden access of fury on the part of the alarmist at the knocker, spurred them on with quaking hearts. In half a dozen strides, Kirkwood, guided only by instinct and the frou-frou of the girl's skirts as she ran invisible before him, stumbled on the uppermost steps of a steep staircase; only a hand-rail saved him, and that at the last moment. He stopped short, shocked into caution. From below came a contrite whisper: "I'm so sorry! I should have warned you." He pulled himself together, glaring wildly at nothing. "It's all right&#8212" "You're not hurt, truly? Oh, do come quickly." She waited for him at the bottom of the flight;&#8212happily for him, for he was all at sea. "Here&#8212your hand&#8212let me guide you. This darkness is dreadful ..." He found her hand, somehow, and tucked his into it, confidingly, and not without an uncertain thrill of satisfaction. "Come!" she panted. "Come! If they break in&#8212" Stifled by apprehension, her voice failed her. They went forward, now less impetuously, for it was very black; and the knocker had fallen still. "No fear of that," he remarked after a time. "They wouldn't dare break in." A fluttering whisper answered him: "I don't know. We dare risk nothing." They seemed to explore, to penetrate acres of labyrinthine chambers and passages, delving deep into the bowels of the earth, like rabbits burrowing in a warren, hounded by beagles. Above stairs the hush continued unbroken; as if the dumb Genius of the Place had cast a spell of silence on the knocker, or else, outraged, had smitten the noisy disturber with a palsy. The girl seemed to know her way; whether guided by familiarity or by intuition, she led on without hesitation, Kirkwood blundering in her wake, between confusion of impression, and dawning dismay conscious of but one tangible thing, to which he clung as to his hope of salvation: those firm, friendly fingers that clasped his own. It was as if they wandered on for an hour; probably from start to finish their flight took up three minutes, no more. Eventually the girl stopped, releasing his hand. He could hear her syncopated breathing before him, and gathered that something was wrong. He took a step forward. "What is it?" Her full voice broke out of the obscurity startlingly close, in his very ear. "The door&#8212the bolts&#8212I can't budge them." "Let me ..." He pressed forward, brushing her shoulder. She did not draw away, but willingly yielded place to his hands at the fastenings; and what had proved impossible to her, to his strong fingers was a matter of comparative ease. Yet, not entirely consciously, he was not quick. As he tugged at the bolts he was poignantly sensitive to the subtle warmth of her at his side; he could hear her soft dry sobs of excitement and suspense, punctuating the quiet; and was frightened, absolutely, by an impulse, too strong for ridicule, to take her in his arms and comfort her with the assurance that, whatever her trouble, he would stand by her and protect her.... It were futile to try to laugh it off; he gave over the endeavor. Even at this critical moment he found himself repeating over and over to his heart the question: "Can this be love? Can this be love? ..." Could it be love at an hour's acquaintance? Absurd! But he could not laugh&#8212nor render himself insensible to the suggestion. He found that he had drawn the bolts. The girl tugged and rattled at the knob. Reluctantly the door opened inwards. Beyond its threshold stretched ten feet or more of covered passageway, whose entrance framed an oblong glimmering with light. A draught of fresh air smote their faces. Behind them a door banged. "Where does this open?" "On the mews," she informed him. "The mews!" He stared in consternation at the pallid oval that stood for her face. "The mews! But you, in your evening gown, and I&#8212" "There's no other way. We must chance it. Are you afraid?" Afraid? ... He stepped aside. She slipped by him and on. He closed the door, carefully removing the key and locking it on the outside; then joined the girl at the entrance to the mews, where they paused perforce, she as much disconcerted as he, his primary objection momentarily waxing in force as they surveyed the conditions circumscribing their escape. Quadrant Mews was busily engaged in enjoying itself. Night had fallen sultry and humid, and the walls and doorsteps were well fringed and clustered with representatives of that class of London's population which infests mews through habit, taste, or force of circumstance. On the stoops men sprawled at easy length, discussing short, foul cutties loaded with that rank and odoriferous compound which, under the name and in the fame of tobacco, is widely retailed at tuppence the ounce. Their women-folk more commonly squatted on the thresholds, cheerfully squabbling; from opposing second-story windows, two leaned perilously forth, slanging one another across the square briskly in the purest billingsgate; and were impartially applauded from below by an audience whose appreciation seemed faintly tinged with envy. Squawking and yelling children swarmed over the flags and rude cobblestones that paved the ways. Like incense, heavy and pungent, the rich effluvia of stable-yards swirled in air made visible by its faint burden of mist. Over against the entrance wherein Kirkwood and the girl lurked, confounded by the problem of escaping undetected through this vivacious scene, a stable-door stood wide, exposing a dimly illumined interior. Before it waited a four-wheeler, horse already hitched in between the shafts, while its driver, a man of leisurely turn of mind, made lingering inspection of straps and buckles, and, while Kirkwood watched him, turned attention to the carriage lamps. The match which he raked spiritedly down his thigh, flared ruddily; the succeeding paler glow of the lamp threw into relief a heavy beefy mask, with shining bosses for cheeks and nose and chin; through narrow slits two cunning eyes glittered like dull gems. Kirkwood appraised him with attention, as one in whose gross carcass was embodied their only hope of unannoyed return to the streets and normal surroundings of their world. The difficulty lay in attracting the man's attention and engaging him without arousing his suspicions or bringing the population about their ears. Though he hesitated long, no favorable opportunity presented itself; and in time the Jehu approached the box with the ostensible purpose of mounting and driving off. In this critical situation the American, forced to recognize that boldness must mark his course, took the girl's fate and his own in his hands, and with a quick word to his companion, stepped out of hiding. The cabby had a foot upon the step when Kirkwood tapped his shoulder. "My man&#8212" "Lor, lumme!" cried the fellow in amaze, pivoting on his heel. Cupidity and quick understanding enlivened the eyes which in two glances looked Kirkwood up and down, comprehending at once both his badly rumpled hat and patent-leather shoes. "S'help me,"&#8212thickly,&#8212"where'd you drop from, guvner?" "That's my affair," said Kirkwood briskly. "Are you engaged?" "If you mykes yerself my fare," returned the cabby shrewdly, "I ham." "Ten shillings, then, if you get us out of here in one minute and to&#8212say&#8212Hyde Park Corner in fifteen." "Us?" demanded the fellow aggressively. Kirkwood motioned toward the passageway. "There's a lady with me&#8212there. Quick now!" Still the man did not move. "Ten bob," he bargained; "an' you runnin' awye with th' stuffy ol' gent's fair darter? Come now, guvner, is it gen'rous? Myke it a quid an'&#8212" "A pound then. Will you hurry?" By way of answer the fellow scrambled hastily up to the box and snatched at the reins. "Ck! Gee-e hup!" he cried sonorously. By now the mews had wakened to the fact of the presence of a "toff" in its midst. His light topcoat and silk hat-rendered him as conspicuous as a red Indian in war-paint would have been on Rotten Row. A cry of surprise was raised, and drowned in a volley of ribald inquiry and chaff. Fortunately, the cabby was instant to rein in skilfully before the passageway, and Kirkwood had the door open before the four-wheeler stopped. The girl, hugging her cloak about her, broke cover (whereat the hue and cry redoubled), and sprang into the body of the vehicle. Kirkwood followed, shutting the door. As the cab lurched forward he leaned over and drew down the window-shade, shielding the girl from half a hundred prying eyes. At the same time they gathered momentum, banging swiftly, if loudly out of the mews. An urchin, leaping on the step to spy in Kirkwood's window, fell off, yelping, as the driver's whiplash curled about his shanks. The gloom of the tunnel inclosed them briefly ere the lights of the Hog-in-the-Pound flashed by and the wheels began to roll more easily. Kirkwood drew back with a sigh of relief. "Thank God!" he said softly. The girl had no words. Worried by her silence, solicitous lest, the strain ended, she might be on the point of fainting, he let up the shade and lowered the window at her side. She seemed to have collapsed in her corner. Against the dark upholstery her hair shone like pale gold in the half-light; her eyes were closed and she held a handkerchief to her lips; the other hand lay limp. "Miss Calendar?" She started, and something bulky fell from the seat and thumped heavily on the floor. Kirkwood bent to pick it up, and so for the first time was made aware that she had brought with her a small black gladstone bag of considerable weight. As he placed it on the forward seat their eyes met. "I didn't know&#8212" he began. "It was to get that," she hastened to explain, "that my father sent me ..." "Yes," he assented in a tone indicating his complete comprehension. "I trust ..." he added vaguely, and neglected to complete the observation, losing himself in a maze of conjecture not wholly agreeable. This was a new phase of the adventure. He eyed the bag uneasily. What did it contain? How did he know ...? Hastily he abandoned that line of thought. He had no right to infer anything whatever, who had thrust himself uninvited into her concerns&#8212uninvited, that was to say, in the second instance, having been once definitely given his congé. Inevitably, however, a thousand unanswerable questions pestered him; just as, at each fresh facet of mystery disclosed by the sequence of the adventure, his bewilderment deepened. The girl stirred restlessly. "I have been thinking," she volunteered in a troubled tone, "that there is absolutely no way I know of, to thank you properly." "It is enough if I've been useful," he rose in gallantry to the emergency. "That," she commented, "was very prettily said. But then I have never known any one more kind and courteous and&#8212and considerate, than you." There was no savor of flattery in the simple and direct statement; indeed, she was looking away from him, out of the window, and her face was serious with thought; she seemed to be speaking of, rather than to, Kirkwood. "And I have been wondering," she continued with unaffected candor, "what you must be thinking of me." "I? ... What should I think of you, Miss Calendar?" With the air of a weary child she laid her head against the cushions again, face to him, and watched him through lowered lashes, unsmiling. "You might be thinking that an explanation is due you. Even the way we were brought together was extraordinary, Mr. Kirkwood. You must be very generous, as generous as you have shown yourself brave, not to require some sort of an explanation of me." "I don't see it that way." "I do ... You have made me like you very much, Mr. Kirkwood." He shot her a covert glance&#8212causelessly, for her naiveté was flawless. With a feeling of some slight awe he understood this&#8212a sensation of sincere reverence for the unspoiled, candid, child's heart and mind that were hers. "I'm glad," he said simply; "very glad, if that's the case, and presupposing I deserve it. Personally," he laughed, "I seem to myself to have been rather forward." "No; only kind and a gentleman." "But&#8212please!" he protested. "Oh, but I mean it, every word! Why shouldn't I? In a little while, ten minutes, half an hour, we shall have seen the last of each other. Why should I not tell you how I appreciate all that you have unselfishly done for me?" "If you put it that way,&#8212I'm sure I don't know; beyond that it embarrasses me horribly to have you overestimate me so. If any courage has been shown this night, it is yours ... But I'm forgetting again." He thought to divert her. "Where shall I tell the cabby to go this time, Miss Calendar?" "Craven Street, please," said the girl, and added a house number. "I am to meet my father there, with this,"&#8212indicating the gladstone bag. Kirkwood thrust head and shoulders out the window and instructed the cabby accordingly; but his ruse had been ineffectual, as he found when he sat back again. Quite composedly the girl took up the thread of conversation where it had been broken off. "It's rather hard to keep silence, when you've been so good. I don't want you to think me less generous than yourself, but, truly, I can tell you nothing." She sighed a trace resentfully; or so he thought. "There is little enough in this&#8212this wretched affair, that I understand myself; and that little, I may not tell ... I want you to know that." "I understand, Miss Calendar." "There's one thing I may say, however. I have done nothing wrong to-night, I believe," she added quickly. "I've never for an instant questioned that," he returned with a qualm of shame; for what he said was not true. "Thank you ..." The four-wheeler swung out of Oxford Street into Charing Cross Road. Kirkwood noted the fact with a feeling of some relief that their ride was to be so short; like many of his fellow-sufferers from "the artistic temperament," he was acutely disconcerted by spoken words of praise and gratitude; Miss Calendar, unintentionally enough, had succeeded only in rendering him self-conscious and ill at ease. Nor had she fully relieved her mind, nor voiced all that perturbed her. "There's one thing more," she said presently: "my father. I&#8212I hope you will think charitably of him." "Indeed, I've no reason or right to think otherwise." "I was afraid&#8212afraid his actions might have seemed peculiar, to-night ..." "There are lots of things I don't understand, Miss Calendar. Some day, perhaps, it will all clear up,&#8212this trouble of yours. At least, one supposes it is trouble, of some sort. And then you will tell me the whole story.... Won't you?" Kirkwood insisted. "I'm afraid not," she said, with a smile of shadowed sadness. "We are to say good night in a moment or two, and&#8212it will be good-by as well. It's unlikely that we shall ever meet again." "I refuse positively to take such a gloomy view of the case!" She shook her head, laughing with him, but with shy regret. "It's so, none the less. We are leaving London this very night, my father and I&#8212leaving England, for that matter." "Leaving England?" he echoed. "You're not by any chance bound for America, are you?" "I ... can't tell you." "But you can tell me this: are you booked on the Minneapolis?" "No&#8212o; it is a&#8212quite another boat." "Of course!" he commented savagely. "It wouldn't be me to have any sort of luck!" She made no reply beyond a low laugh. He stared gloomily out of his window, noting indifferently that they were passing the National Gallery. On their left Trafalgar Square stretched, broad and bare, a wilderness of sooty stone with an air of mutely tolerating its incongruous fountains. Through Charing Cross roared a tide-rip of motor-busses and hackney carriages. Glumly the young man foresaw the passing of his abbreviated romance; their destination was near at hand. Brentwick had been right, to some extent, at least; it was quite true that the curtain had been rung up that very night, upon Kirkwood's Romance; unhappily, as Brentwick had not foreseen, it was immediately to be rung down. The cab rolled soberly into the Strand. "Since we are to say good-by so very soon," suggested Kirkwood, "may I ask a parting favor, Miss Calendar?" She regarded him with friendly eyes. "You have every right," she affirmed gently. "Then please to tell me frankly: are you going into any further danger?" "And is that the only boon you crave at my hands, Mr. Kirkwood?" "Without impertinence ..." For a little time, waiting for him to conclude his vague phrase, she watched him in an expectant silence. But the man was diffident to a degree&#8212At length, somewhat unconsciously, "I think not," she answered. "No; there will be no danger awaiting me at Mrs. Hallam's. You need not fear for me any more&#8212Thank you." He lifted his brows at the unfamiliar name. "Mrs. Hallam&#8212?" "I am going to her house in Craven Street." "Your father is to meet you there?"&#8212 persistently. "He promised to." "But if he shouldn't?" "Why&#8212" Her eyes clouded; she pursed her lips over the conjectural annoyance. "Why, in that event, I suppose&#8212It would be very embarrassing. You see, I don't know Mrs. Hallam; I don't know that she expects me, unless my father is already there. They are old friends&#8212I could drive round for a while and come back, I suppose." But she made it plain that the prospect did not please her. "Won't you let me ask if Mr. Calender is there, before you get out, then? I don't like to be dismissed," he laughed; "and, you know, you shouldn't go wandering round all alone." The cab drew up. Kirkwood put a hand on the door and awaited her will. "It&#8212it would be very kind ... I hate to impose upon you." He turned the knob and got out. "If you'll wait one moment," he said superfluously, as he closed the door. Pausing only to verify the number, he sprang up the steps and found the bell-button. It was a modest little residence, in nothing more remarkable than its neighbors, unless it was for a certain air of extra grooming: the area railing was sleek with fresh black paint; the doorstep looked the better for vigorous stoning; the door itself was immaculate, its brasses shining lustrous against red-lacquered woodwork. A soft glow filled the fanlight. Overhead the drawing-room windows shone with a cozy, warm radiance. The door opened, framing the figure of a maid sketched broadly in masses of somber black and dead white. "Can you tell me, is Mr. Calendar here?" The servant's eyes left his face, looked past him at the waiting cab, and returned. "I'm not sure, sir. If you will please step in." Kirkwood hesitated briefly, then acceded. The maid closed the door. "What name shall I say, sir?" "Mr. Kirkwood." "If you will please to wait one moment, sir&#8212" He was left in the entry hall, the servant hurrying to the staircase and up. Three minutes elapsed; he was on the point of returning to the girl, when the maid reappeared. "Mrs. Hallam says, will you kindly step up-stairs, sir." Disgruntled, he followed her; at the head of the stairs she bowed him into the drawing-room and again left him to his own resources. Nervous, annoyed, he paced the floor from wall to wall, his footfalls silenced by heavy rugs. As the delay was prolonged he began to fume with impatience, wondering, half regretting that he had left the girl outside, definitely sorry that he had failed to name his errand more explicitly to the maid. At another time, in another mood, he might have accorded more appreciation to the charm of the apartment, which, betraying the feminine touch in every detail of arrangement and furnishing, was very handsome in an unconventional way. But he was quite heedless of externals. Wearied, he deposited himself sulkily in an armchair by the hearth. From a boudoir on the same floor there came murmurs of two voices, a man's and a woman's. The latter laughed prettily. "Oh, any time!" snorted the American. "Any time you're through with your confounded flirtation, Mr. George B. Calendar!" The voices rose, approaching. "Good night," said the woman gaily; "farewell and&#8212good luck go with you!" "Thank you. Good night," replied the man more conservatively. Kirkwood rose, expectant. There was a swish of draperies, and a moment later he was acknowledging the totally unlooked-for entrance of the mistress of the house. He had thought to see Calendar, presuming him to be the man closeted with Mrs. Hallam; but, whoever that had been, he did not accompany the woman. Indeed, as she advanced from the doorway, Kirkwood could hear the man's footsteps on the stairs. "This is Mr. Kirkwood?" The note of inquiry in the well-trained voice&#8212a very alluring voice and one pleasant to listen to, he thought&#8212made it seem as though she had asked, point-blank, "Who is Mr. Kirkwood?" He bowed, discovering himself in the presence of an extraordinarily handsome and interesting woman; a woman of years which as yet had not told upon her, of experience that had not availed to harden her, at least in so far as her exterior charm of personality was involved; a woman, in brief, who bore close inspection well, despite an elusive effect of maturity, not without its attraction for men. Kirkwood was impressed that it would be very easy to learn to like Mrs. Hallam more than well&#8212with her approval. Although he had not anticipated it, he was not at all surprised to recognize in her the woman who, if he were not mistaken, had slipped to Calendar that warning in the dining-room of the Pless. Kirkwood's state of mind had come to be such, through his experiences of the past few hours, that he would have accepted anything, however preposterous, as a commonplace happening. But for that matter there was nothing particularly astonishing in this rencontre. "I am Mrs. Hallam. You were asking for Mr. Calendar?" "He was to have been here at this hour, I believe," said Kirkwood. "Yes?" There was just the right inflection of surprise in her carefully controlled tone. He became aware of an undercurrent of feeling; that the woman was estimating him shrewdly with her fine direct eyes. He returned her regard with admiring interest; they were gray-green eyes, deep-set but large, a little shallow, a little changeable, calling to mind the sea on a windy, cloudy day. Below stairs a door slammed. "I am not a detective, Mrs. Hallam," announced the young man suddenly. "Mr. Calendar required a service of me this evening; I am here in natural consequence. If it was Mr. Calendar who left this house just now, I am wasting time." "It was not Mr. Calendar." The fine-lined brows arched in surprise, real or pretended, at his first blurted words, and relaxed; amused, the woman laughed deliciously. "But I am expecting him any moment; he was to have been here half an hour since.... Won't you wait?" She indicated, with a gracious gesture, a chair, and took for herself one end of a davenport. "I'm sure he won't be long, now." "Thank you, I will return, if I may." Kirkwood moved toward the door. "But there's no necessity&#8212" She seemed insistent on detaining him, possibly because she questioned his motive, possibly for her own divertisement. Kirkwood deprecated his refusal with a smile. "The truth is, Miss Calendar is waiting in a cab, outside. I&#8212" "Dorothy Calendar!" Mrs. Hallam rose alertly. "But why should she wait there? To be sure, we've never met; but I have known her father for many years." Her eyes held steadfast to his face; shallow, flawed by her every thought, like the sea by a cat's-paw he found them altogether inscrutable; yet received an impression that their owner was now unable to account for him. She swung about quickly, preceding him to the door and down the stairs. "I am sure Dorothy will come in to wait, if I ask her," she told Kirkwood in a high sweet voice. "I'm so anxious to know her. It's quite absurd, really, of her&#8212to stand on ceremony with me, when her father made an appointment here. I'll run out and ask&#8212" Mrs. Hallam's slim white fingers turned latch and knob, opening the street door, and her voice died away as she stepped out into the night. For a moment, to Kirkwood, tagging after her with an uncomfortable sense of having somehow done the wrong thing, her figure&#8212full fair shoulders and arms rising out of the glittering dinner gown&#8212cut a gorgeous silhouette against the darkness. Then, with a sudden, imperative gesture, she half turned towards him. "But," she exclaimed, perplexed, gazing to right and left, "but the cab, Mr. Kirkwood?" He was on the stoop a second later. Standing beside her, he stared blankly. To the left the Strand roared, the stream of its night-life in high spate; on the right lay the Embankment, comparatively silent and deserted, if brilliant with its high-swung lights. Between the two, quiet Craven Street ran, short and narrow, and wholly innocent of any form of equipage. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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