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Gladiator

<h2>XVIII</h2> In the next four weeks Hugo knew the pangs of hunger frequently. He found odd jobs, but none of them lasted. Once he helped to remove a late snowstorm from the streets. He worked for five days on a subway excavation. His clothes became shabby, he began to carry his razor in his overcoat pocket and to sleep in hotels that demanded only twenty-five cents for a night's lodging. When he considered the tens of thousands of men in his predicament, he was not surprised at or ashamed of himself. When, however, he dwelt on his own peculiar capacities, he was both astonished and ashamed to meander along the dreary pavements. Hunger did curious things to him. He had moments of fury, of imagined violence, and other moments of fantasy when he dreamed of a rich and noble life. Sometimes he meditated the wisdom of devouring one prodigious meal and fleeing through the dead of night to the warm south. Occasionally he considered going back to his family in Colorado. His most bitter hours were spent in thinking of Mr. Shayne and of accepting a position in one of Mr. Shayne's banks. In his maculate, threadbare clothes, with his dark, aquiline face matured by the war he was a sharp contrast of facts and possibilities. It never occurred to him that he was young, that his dissatisfaction, his idealism, his Weltschmertz were integral to the life-cycle of every man. At the end of four weeks, with hunger gnawing so avidly at his core that he could not pass a restaurant without twitching muscles and quivering nerves, he turned abruptly from the street into a cigar store and telephoned to Mr. Shayne. The banker was full of sound counsel and ready charity. Hugo regretted the call as soon as he heard Mr. Shayne's voice; he regretted it when he was ravishing a luxurious dinner at Mr. Shayne's expense. It was the weakest thing he had done in his life. Nevertheless he accepted the position offered by Mr. Shayne. That same evening he rented a small apartment, and, lying on his bed, a clean bed, he wondered if he really cared about anything or about anyone. In the morning he took a shower and stood for a long time in front of the mirror on the bathroom door, staring at his nude body as if it were a rune he might learn to read, an enigma he might solve by concentration. Then he went to work. His affiliation with the Down Town Savings Bank lasted into the spring and was terminated by one of the oddest incidents of his career. Until the day of that incident his incumbency was in no way unusual. He was one of the bank's young men, receiving fifty dollars weekly to learn the banking business. They moved him from department to department, giving him mentally menial tasks which afforded him in each case a glimpse of a new facet of financial technique. It was fairly interesting. He made no friends and he worked diligently. One day in April when he had returned from lunch and a stroll in the environs of the Battery—returned to a list of securities and a strip from an adding machine, which he checked item by item—he was conscious of a stirring in his vicinity. A woman employee on the opposite side of a wire wicket was talking shrilly. A vice-president rose from his desk and hastened down the corridor, his usually composed face suddenly white and disconcerted. The tension was cumulative. Work stopped and clusters of people began to chatter. Hugo joined one of them. "Yeah," a boy was saying, "it's happened before. A couple o' times." "How do they know he's there?" "They got a telephone goin' inside and they're talkin' to him." "I'll be damned." The boy nodded rapidly. "Yeah—some talk! Tellin' him what to try next." "Poor devil!" "What's the matter?" Hugo asked. The boy was glad of a new and uninformed listener. "Aw, some dumb vault clerk got himself locked in, an' the locks jammed an' they can't get him out." "Which vault? The big one?" "Naw. The big one's got pipes for that kinda trouble. The little one they moved from the old building." "It's not so darn little at that," someone said. Another person, a man, chuckled. "Not so darn. But there isn't air in there to last three hours. Caughlin said so." "Honest to God?" "Honest. An' he's been there more than an hour already." "Jeest!" There was a pregnant, pictorial silence. Someone looked at Hugo. "What's eatin' you, Danner? Scared?" His face was tense and his hands were opening and closing convulsively. "No," he answered. "Guess I'll go down and have a look." He rang for an elevator in the corridor and was carried to the basement. In the small room on which the vault opened were five or six people, among them a woman who seemed to command the situation. The men were all smoking; their attitudes were relaxed, their voices hushed. One repeated nervously: "Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ." "That won't help, Mr. Quail. I've sent for the expert and he will probably have the safe open in a short time." "Blowtorches?" the swearing man asked abruptly. "Absurd. He would cook before he was out. And three feet of steel and then two feet more." "Nitroglycerin?" "And make jelly out of him?" The woman tapped her finger-nails with her glasses. Another arrival, who carried a small satchel, talked with her in an undertone and then took off his coat. He went first to a telephone on the wall and said: "Gi' me the inside of the vault. Hello.... Hello? You there? Are you all right?... Try that combination again." The safe-expert held the wire and waited. Not even the faintest sounds of the attempt were audible in the front room. "Hello? You tried it?... Well, see if those numbers are in this order." He repeated a series of complicated directions. Finally he hung up. "Says it's getting pretty stuffy in there. Says he's lying down on the floor." People came and went. The president himself walked in calmly and occupied a chair. He lit a cigar, puffed on it, and stared with ruminative eyes at the shiny mechanism on the front of the safe. "We are doing everything possible," the woman said to him crisply. "Of course," he nodded. "I called up the insurance company. We're amply covered." A pause. "Mrs. Robinson, post one of the guards to keep people from running in and out of here. There are enough around already." No one had given Hugo any attention. He stood quietly in the background. The expert worked and all eyes were on him. Occasionally he muttered to himself. The hands of an electric clock moved along in audible jerks. Nearly an hour passed and the room had become hazy with tobacco smoke. The man working on the safe was moist with perspiration. His blue shirt was a darker blue around the armpits. He lit a cigarette, set it down, whirled the dials again, lit another cigarette while the first one burned a chair arm, and threw a crumpled, empty package on the floor. At last he went to the phone again. He waited for some time before it was answered, and he was compelled to make the man inside repeat frequently. The new series of stratagems was without result. Before he went again to his labours, he addressed the group. "Air getting pretty bad, I guess." "Is it dark?" one of them asked tremulously. "No." Fifteen minutes more. The expert glanced at the bank's president, hesitated, struggled frenziedly for a while, and then sighed. "I'm afraid I can't get him out, sir. The combination is jammed and the time-lock is all off." The president considered. "Do you know of anyone else who could do this?" The man shook his head. "No. I'm supposed to be the best. I've been called out for this—maybe six times. I never missed before. You see, we make this safe—or we used to make it. And I'm a specialist. It looks serious." The president took his cigar from his mouth. "Well, go ahead anyway—until it's too late." Hugo stepped away from the wall. "I think I can get him out." They turned toward him. The president looked at him coldly. "And who are you?" Mrs. Robinson answered. "He's the new man Mr. Shayne recommended so highly." "Ah. And how do you propose to get him out, young man?" Hugo stood pensively for a moment. "By methods known only to me. I am certain I can do it—but I will undertake it only if you will all leave the room." "Ridiculous!" Mrs. Robinson said. The president's mouth worked. He looked more sharply at Hugo. Then he rose. "Come on, everybody." He spoke quietly to Hugo. "You have a nerve. How much time do you want?" "Five minutes." "Only five minutes," the president murmured as he walked from the chamber. Hugo did not move until they had all gone. Then he locked the door behind them. He walked to the safe and rapped on it tentatively with his knuckles. He removed his coat and vest. He planted his feet against the steel sill under the door. He caught hold of the two handles, fidgeted with his elbows, drew a deep breath, and pulled. There was a resonant, metallic sound. Something gave. The edge of the seven-foot door moved outward and a miasma steamed through the aperture. Hugo changed his stance and took the door itself in his hands. His back bent. He pulled again. With a reverberating clang and a falling of broken steel it swung out. Hugo dragged the man who lay on the floor to a window that gave on a grated pit. He broke the glass with his fist. The clerk's chest heaved violently; he panted, opened his eyes, and closed them tremblingly. Hugo put on his coat and vest and unlocked the door. The people outside all moved toward him. "It's all right," Hugo said. "He's out." Mrs. Robinson glanced at the clerk and walked to the safe. "He's ruined it!" she said in a shrill voice. The president was behind her. He looked at the handles of the vault, which had been bent like hair-pins, and he stooped to examine the shattered bolts. Then his eyes travelled to Hugo. There was a profoundly startled expression in them. The clerk was sobbing. Presently he stopped. "Who got me out?" They indicated Hugo and he crossed the floor on tottering feet. "Thanks, mister," he said piteously. "Oh, my God, what a wonderful thing to do! I—I just passed out when I saw your fingers reaching around—" "Never mind," Hugo interrupted. "It's all right, buddy." The president touched his shoulder. "Come up to my office." A doctor arrived. Several people left. Others stood around the demolished door. The president was alone when Hugo entered and sat down. He was cold and he eyed Hugo coldly. "How did you do that?" Hugo shrugged. "That's my secret, Mr. Mills." "Pretty clever, I'd say." "Not when you know how." Hugo was puzzled. His ancient reticence about himself was acting together with a natural modesty. "Some new explosive?" "Not exactly." "Electricity? Magnetism? Thought-waves?" Hugo chuckled. "No. All wrong." "Could you do it on a modern safe?" "I don't know." President Mills rubbed his fingers on the mahogany desk. "I presume you were planning that for other purposes?" "What!" Hugo said. "Very well done. Very well acted. I will play up to you, Mr.—" "Danner." "Danner. I'll play up to this assumption of innocence. You have saved a man's life. You are, of course, blushingly modest. But you have shown your hand rather clearly. Hmmm." He smiled sardonically. "I read a book about a safe-cracker who opened a safe to get a child out—at the expense of his liberty and position—or at the hazard of them, anyhow. Maybe you have read the same book." "Maybe," Hugo answered icily. "Safe-crackers—blasters, light fingers educated to the dials, and ears attuned to the tumblers—we can cope with those things, Mr.—" "Danner." "But this new stunt of yours. Well, until we find out what it is, we can't let you go. This is business, Mr. Danner. It involves money, millions, the security of American finance, of the very nation. You will understand. Society cannot afford to permit a man like you to go at large until it has a thoroughly effective defence against you. Society must disregard your momentary sacrifice, momentary nobleness. Your process, unknown by us, constitutes a great social danger. I do not dare overlook it. I cannot disregard it even after the service you have done—even if I thought you never intended to put it to malicious use." Hugo's thoughts were far away—to the fort he had built when he was a child in Colorado, to the wagon he had lifted up, to the long, discouraging gauntlet of hard hearts and frightened eyes that his miracles had met with. His voice was wistful when, at last, he addressed the banker. "What do you propose to do?" "I shan't bandy words, Danner. I propose to hang on to you until I get that secret. And I shall be absolutely without mercy. That is frank, is it not?" "Quite." "You comprehend the significance of the third degree?" "Not clearly." "You will learn about it—unless you are reasonable." Hugo bowed sadly. The president pressed a button. Two policemen came into the room. "McClaren has my instructions," he said. "Come on." Hugo rose and stood between them. He realized that the whole pantomime of his arrest was in earnest. For one brief instant the president was given a glimpse of a smile, a smile that worried him for a long time. He was so worried that he called McClaren on the telephone and added to his already abundant instructions. A handful of bystanders collected to watch Hugo cross from the bank to the steel patrol wagon. It moved forward and its bell sounded. The policemen had searched Hugo and now they sat dumbly beside him. He was handcuffed to both of them. Once he looked down at the nickel bonds and up at the dull faces. His eyebrows lifted a fraction of an inch. Captain McClaren received Hugo in a bare room shadowed by bars. He was a thick-shouldered, red-haired man with a flabby mouth from which protruded a moist and chewed toothpick. His eyes were blue and bland. He made Hugo strip nude and gave him a suit of soiled clothes. Hugo remained alone in that room for thirty hours without food or water. The strain of that ordeal was greater than his jailers could have conceived, but he bore it with absolute stoicism. Early in the evening of the second day the lights in the room were put out, a glaring automobile lamp was set up on a table, he was seated in front of it, and men behind the table began to question him in voices that strove to be terrible. They asked several questions and ultimately boiled them down to one: "How did you get that safe open?" which was bawled at him and whispered hoarsely at him from the darkness behind the light until his mind rang with the words, until he was waiting frantically for each new issue of the words, until sweat glistened on his brow and he grew weak and nauseated. His head ached splittingly and his heart pounded. They desisted at dawn, gave him a glass of water, which he gulped, and a dose of castor oil, which he allowed them to force into his mouth. A few hours later they began again. It was night before they gave up. The remnant of Hugo's clenched sanity was dumbfounded at what followed after that. They beat his face with fists that shot from the blackness. They threw him to the floor and kicked him. When his skin did not burst and he did not bleed, they beat and kicked more viciously. They lashed him with rubber hoses. They twisted his arms as far as they could—until the bones of an ordinary man would have become dislocated. Except for thirst and hunger and the discomfort caused by the castor oil, Hugo did not suffer. They refined their torture slowly. They tried to drive a splinter under his nails; they turned on the lights and drank water copiously in his presence; they finally brought a blowtorch and prepared to brand him. Hugo perceived that his invulnerability was to stand him in stead no longer. His tongue was swollen, but he could still talk. Sitting placidly in his bonds, he watched the soldering iron grow white in the softly roaring flame. When, in the full light that shone on the bare and hideous room, they took up the iron and approached him, Hugo spoke. "Wait. I'll tell you." McClaren put the iron back. "You will, eh?" "No." "Oh, you won't." "I shan't tell you, McClaren; I'll show you. And may God have mercy on your filthy soul." There were six men in the room. Hugo looked from one to another. He could tolerate nothing more; he had followed the course of President Mills's social theory far enough to be surfeited with it. There was decision in his attitude, and not one of the six men who had worked his torment in relays could have failed to feel the chill of that decision. They stood still. McClaren's voice rang out: "Cover him, boys." Hugo stretched. His bonds burst; the chair on which he sat splintered to kindling. Six revolvers spat simultaneously. Hugo felt the sting of the bullets. Six chambers were emptied. The room eddied smoke. There was a harsh silence. "Now," Hugo said gently, "I will demonstrate how I opened that safe." "Christ save us," one of the men whispered, crossing himself. McClaren was frozen still. Hugo walked to the wall of the jail and stabbed his fist through it. Brick and mortar burst out on the other side and fell into the cinder yard. Hugo kicked and lashed with his fists. A large hole opened. Then he turned to the men. They broke toward the door, but he caught them one by one—and one by one he knocked them unconscious. That much was for his own soul. Only McClaren was left. He carried McClaren to the hole and dropped him into the yard. He wrenched open the iron gate and walked out on the street, holding the policeman by the arm. McClaren fainted twice and Hugo had to keep him upright by clinging to his collar. It was dark. He hailed a cab and lifted the man in. "Just drive out of town," Hugo said. McClaren came to. They bumped along for miles and he did not dare to speak. The apartment buildings thinned. Street lights disappeared. They traversed a stretch of woodland and then rumbled through a small town. "Who are you?" McClaren said. "I'm just a man, McClaren—a man who is going to teach you a lesson." The taxi was on a smooth turnpike. It made swift time. Twice Hugo satisfied the driver that the direction was all right. At last, on a deserted stretch, Hugo called to the driver to stop. McClaren thought that he was going to die. He did not plead. Hugo still held him by the arm and helped him from the cab. "Got any money on you?" Hugo asked. "About twenty dollars." "Give me five." With trembling fingers McClaren produced the bill. He put the remainder of his money back in his pocket automatically. The taxi-driver was watching, but Hugo ignored him. "McClaren," he said soberly, "here's your lesson. I just happen to be the strongest man in the world. Never tell anybody that. And don't tell anyone where I took you to-night—wherever it is. I shan't be here anyway. If you tell either of those two things, I'll eat you. Actually. There was a poor devil smothering in that safe and I yanked it open and dragged him out. As a reward you and your dirty scavengers were put to work on me. If I weren't as merciful as God Himself, you'd all be dead. Now, that's your lesson. Keep your mouth shut. Here is the final parable." Still holding the policeman's arm, he walked to the taxi and, to the astonishment of the driver, gripped the axle in one hand, lifted up the front end like a derrick, and turned the entire car around. He put McClaren in the back seat. "Don't forget, McClaren." To the driver: "Back to where you picked us up. The bird in the back seat will be glad to pay." The red lamp of the cab vanished. Hugo turned in the other direction and began to run in great leaps. He slowed when he came to a town. A light was burning in an all-night restaurant. Hugo produced the five-dollar bill. "Give me a bucket of water—and put on about five steaks. Five." <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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