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Slowly, a little sadly, this shadow upon them, they went down the stairs to the ground floor. There were lights here shining out from the dining room. From outside came the sound of men's voices, the tramp of feet on the driveway; and from still farther away came shouts, and once, muffled by the distance, the report of a revolver shot.
They reached the door of the dining room—but on the threshold they halted suddenly as though of one accord, and for a moment stood motionless, staring incredulously at the scene before them. Then, with a little cry that mingled wonder and joy, the Orchid darted from Stranway's side, and, running across the room, dropped upon her knees beside a stretcher that stood by the French window.
A mist seemed to form before Stranway's eyes—a great happiness to overflow his heart. On the stretcher lay Charlebois. Like a man in a dream then, Stranway walked slowly forward. The little old gentleman was patting the bowed brown head beside him tenderly.
"Ah, little Highness," said Charlebois, a hint of mischievousness creeping into the world of affection that was in his voice, "you must not kneel to any man, you know! And you, my boy"—he raised his hand from her head, and held it out to Stranway—"need I tell you what it means to me to find you both safe? I think, from what I know has happened here, that to-night must have brought you very close together, though I trust, sir"—the steel-blue eyes twinkled, and his voice grew quizzically stern—"that you have not presumed so far as to be guilty of the crime of lese-majesty against Her Highness the Princess Myril of Karnavia."
"Highness! Princess!" stammered Stranway—and something cold seemed to clutch suddenly at his heart.
The brown head lifted quickly; and the dark eyes, full of happy tears, but with a half startled, half frightened look in them now, searched the face of one and then the other.
"Tut, tut!" said the little old gentleman, smiling at the dismay he had created. "You are conjuring up story-book fancies now, I am sure: that little Myril here is the reigning princess of a kingdom; that she must wed only royal blood; that her duty is to her subjects; that she must bid you a tearful adieu and go back to her country, her crown, and a loveless life! Well, it is nothing of the sort—nothing of the sort! Listen, then! As you may have already surmised, my boy, the manuscript I gave you to read was the story of the night, nineteen years ago, when I escaped in the boat with Myril, a baby of two years old then, and with that box containing the money and papers in a foreign language that you saw on my desk in the Red Room to-night; and I will leave it to you and our good friend Kyrloff there to supply Myril with the details of that part of her story a little later on, for I have many other things to say, and I must not talk any more than I can help."
Absorbed, with no thought but of Charlebois when he had entered, Stranway had taken no notice of any one else in the room. He turned now, following the direction of the little old gentleman's eyes. Back by the door in the opposite corner, Dr. Damon was bending over Hastvik, who lay upon the floor; and leaning against the wall, his arms folded, like some grim sentinel, stood Kyrloff—older looking now, as he must well be, but still recognisable as the short, stocky, dark-eyed man of Charlebois' manuscript.
Stranway's eyes swept the group, and, as Dr. Damon rose to his feet, held questioningly on the physician, while his head inclined in a significant little nod toward Charlebois.
Dr. Damon shrugged his shoulders.
"My orders did not take precedence at Dominic Court," he said bluntly. "It was the shock and the loss of blood more than anything else that affected him—a bad flesh wound. We stopped the flow, got him around, and——"
"Quite so," interposed Charlebois imperturbably. "I came—and the doctor professionally is an outraged man. Your other patient there, doctor—can he be taken back to town?"
"When I'm through with him," said Dr. Damon crossly.
Charlebois laughed.
"Well, take him into another room, then. Stranway, my boy, call somebody to help. There are plenty of our men around the house."
Stranway stepped to the window.
"Flint! Verot! Sewell!" he called. "Are any of you there?"
"Yes—Verot," answered a voice.
"Bring some one with you," ordered Stranway, "and carry this wounded man out of here."
"At once!" Verot replied—and a moment later, followed by another man, entered the room.
"Verot," demanded Stranway abruptly, "those other three men didn't get away, did they?"
"I'm afraid they did," Verot answered, with a muttered imprecation. "It's pitch black outside, you know, and they got among the trees before we were hardly out of the cars. But there's half-a-dozen of our men still after them."
Stranway uttered a sharp exclamation, and his fists clenched. It was a little different now, of course, since Charlebois had not been killed, but——
"It doesn't matter," said the little old gentleman quietly. "They were only tools, hired by that man there on the floor—professional thugs from the city's scum. I know them, and to-morrow or the next day we will get them as surely as though we had caught them to-night. You may go, Verot."
Verot and his companion picked Hastvik up, and, followed by Dr. Damon, left the room. Kyrloff, silently, his arms still folded, took a step after them.
"Wait, Kyrloff," Charlebois called. "You have not spoken to Myril here."
Kyrloff paused, and turned a white, set face, with twitching lips, toward them.
"I know—but not now," he said in a colourless voice. "I will atone for that to-morrow. Now, until he is safe in a prison cell, I stay with him."
A shadow of sadness stole over Charlebois' face and crept into his eyes, but he made no answer. The door closed behind Kyrloff, and they were alone.
"You must try to bring some brightness into Kyrloff's life, both of you," said the little old gentleman gravely, beckoning Stranway nearer; "for you both owe everything to him. Now listen, for I must be very brief. My side is paining me, and——"
"You shouldn't try to talk now at all," Stranway interposed quickly. "Wait until another time."
Charlebois shook his head.
"No," he said. "My mind will be relieved and I shall feel easier when I have told you. Karnavia, as you may or may not know, is a small semi-independent principality in Europe, where, as is indeed the custom of many of her greater neighbours, the title of prince or princess, though not uncommon among the nobility, infers no direct connection with the reigning family. That, Myril, is exactly your status. Your mother was one of the wealthiest women in the principality. Her only near kin and heir was a cousin—Prince Stolbek. Both were young—and Stolbek was as poor as your mother was rich. He did not love her. He was too utterly a scoundrel to know the meaning of love. It was her fortune he wanted. But his suave, polished plausibility did not deceive her. She hated him. But even she did not know the worst of him. He was dissolute, reckless, unscrupulous, extravagant, miserably in debt—a criminal."
Charlebois paused to rest for a moment.
"If I am a little disjointed," he resumed, with his gentle smile, "you must bear with me—it is only that I may compress what I have to say into as few sentences as possible. If we were in Karnavia to-night, I suppose I should whisper the name of Versel-Thega, and whisper it with the fear that even the walls had ears."
"Versel-Thega!" exclaimed Stranway. "What is that?"
"A band of thugs, murderers, blackmailers and thieves; a secret society of immense power that has been in existence there for many years, and that draws its membership from the degenerates of all classes," Charlebois answered, a sudden harshness creeping into his voice. "Hastvik, the man you saw lying there, is one of its leaders—and for nineteen years, little princess, he and those behind him have plotted and schemed to find you and take your life. You will understand now why, in later years, by giving you occasionally an active part in the organisation, I sought to school you to situations, sometimes wholly unexpected by you, which would demand from you in return cool, quick-witted action and resourcefulness, so that one day, if the worst befell, this training might stand you, a woman, in good stead; and you will understand now as well, since your life depended upon it, why even your name was kept secret, and, as an additional safeguard, kept secret even from you. It was known only to two people—Kyrloff and myself. As a child and in young girlhood, you could not have been trusted with it; and later, when that period was over, we felt that it would be the kinder thing not to inject unnecessary anxiety and dismay into your life, but to keep you still in ignorance during the few years that yet remained before the danger you were then in would, in the natural course of events, as you will presently see, be definitely and finally a thing of the past."
Again Charlebois paused. From outside, floating in through the windows, came the occasional low tones of some one or other of the men talking together; within the room the silence was tense.
"Prince Stolbek was a member of the Versel-Thega," said Charlebois softly, but with a grim smile that belied his tones. "His social position gave him immunity from suspicion, and was of incalculable value to the society. The advantage was mutual. He lived by his share of the proceeds made by that preying band of vultures. But—I am taking too long even for a long story. Stolbek kept pressing his attentions upon your mother, Myril—until your father married her instead. Your father was an American consulting engineer. His name was Thornton Havelock. For nearly a year after their marriage they travelled, and then returned to Karnavia. Just after your birth your mother made her will, leaving everything to you, though in trust until your twenty-first birthday. Kyrloff, then a young and prominent lawyer, himself but recently married, and a childhood friend of your mother's, drew the will. He and your father were the trustees."
Charlebois pulled the brown head down beside him, and held it protectingly against his cheek.
"The rest is hard to tell, little one—but you must know. I will hurry over it. Your mother died a few weeks after you were born. A year later your father was mysteriously killed—murdered. Kyrloff and his wife took you to their home. Twice in the next six months an attempt was made on your baby life. And then Kyrloff, stumbling upon the truth—he will tell you how some day himself—fled with you and his wife to America. For months they travelled here and there in an effort to throw their pursuers off the trail, and finally, disguised as settlers and peasants, they hired a little shack in the Adirondacks. It was there that they took me in one night when I was nearly dead from sickness, starvation and exposure—but I have already referred to that."
She was crying softly. Charlebois' own eyes were dim. Stranway knelt and put his arm around Myril's shoulders.
"There is not much more to tell," Charlebois went on. "Stolbeck and his vile society were back of the plan. All that they had to do was to put you out of the way. The fortune would then pass to Stolbek, and, by compact, he was to share it with the Versel-Thega. Hastvik, who had followed Kyrloff to America, eventually traced Kyrloff to the shack, and that night in the attack killed Kyrloff's wife, and, as I believed then, Kyrloff himself. The story now comes to myself. The documents in the box that I could not read, Myril, were your mother's will, her marriage certificate, your birth certificate, and many of her private papers. With plenty of money at my command for the moment—the money that was in the box—I secured accommodation in one of the houses where I escaped; but before I was physically able to leave there, to my intense joy and relief, for, as I have said, I had thought him dead, Kyrloff found me. I then learned your story. There was but one thing to do. Until you were twenty-one, until, to be precise, twelve o'clock to-night, your life would be in constant peril. After that your fortune was in your own hands to will where you pleased, and your enemies were beaten. So——"
"To-night!" cried Stranway. "Why, then, this is——"
"Her birthday, yes—or will be as soon as it is midnight," Charlebois smiled. "And may there be many, very many more, and—there, there! Let me finish!"
Stranway had swept Myril to her feet, and now, her eyes lowered shyly, she was holding out her hands to him.
The little old gentleman coughed teasingly.
"Let me finish," he repeated. "I said there was only one thing to do. Kyrloff was known to Hastvik; I was not—then. So in a sense, from that day, Myril, I became your guardian. We dared not leave you too long in one place, so, under an assumed name which, likewise, we were obliged to change from time to time, you were brought up by a great many different people—but always in the most cultured surroundings we could obtain. Meanwhile Kyrloff, who now had resumed more or less his normal life and habits, was dogged constantly by Hastvik; but Hastvik was unable to obtain any clue to Myril's whereabouts until a year ago, when he had the ill or good luck, whichever you choose to call it, to intercept a letter written by me to Kyrloff, and through which my connection with the affair was discovered. Happily though, Kyrloff was expecting the letter, and, anxious because of its non-arrival—he was then in Karnavia—cabled me at once." The little old gentleman turned suddenly to Stranway. "A year ago! The date is significant, is it not, my boy?" he smiled. "Yes, I imagine it is! A year ago, to your great chagrin, and, I am afraid, ill-concealed impatience, and certainly to your utter consternation and bewilderment, the Orchid disappeared—and for a year, until to-night, you have not seen her. The reason is now, of course, obvious to you. The moment I received Kyrloff's cable I sent Myril away from New York, and during all this past year she has been safely hidden in a little town in northern Canada."
"Yes," said Stranway slowly. "Yes, I understand that now. But there is another point that I do not quite understand. You knew this fellow Hastvik, and you had the power—why didn't you settle with the brute and give him the short shrift he deserved?"
"My boy," replied the little old gentleman, with his quizzical smile, "though you may have an ace in your hand, it is not always wise to lead it. If we had put Hastvik, whom we knew, out of the road, another whom we did not know, would have taken his place, the tables would have been turned, and we would have been the ones who were fighting in the dark. And you must remember, that even up to to-night, Hastvik believed I did not know him personally, and that I would not recognise him even if I saw him—a belief, I might say, that, though entirely erroneous as you will see in a moment, I have taken the greatest care to foster, for, as I had Myril in my keeping, the advantage was all with me. And now we come to to-night. Two years ago, I bought this place, and——"
"Two years?" Stranway interrupted. "Why I heard Hastvik say——"
"Last week, no doubt," interposed Charlebois quietly. "Quite so! But wait, my boy! The plans for to-night, for this little girl's birthday, were laid long ago. The property was bought under another name than mine, the house furnished, redecorated, and the estate put in order; and last week I bought it—from myself. Hastvik, as he believed, and as I intended him to believe, got wind of the transaction quite through his own cleverness; and, in exactly the same way, he discovered that I required the services of a butler. He applied, presenting references, which, if they had not been forged, would have been unimpeachable. I engaged him, and supplied him with money. I told him that I proposed to give a little birthday dinner here to-night as a surprise, and that he was on no account to let it become known. I impressed upon him the fact that no one knew I had bought the house, and that I wished the whole affair to be entirely a surprise—even to my own guests. I left all the arrangements in his hands, told him to hire what servants he required, and to get a good chef—and I gave him the keys to the house. The rest,"—Charlebois smiled grimly—"you can pretty well guess for yourselves. Hastvik naturally had very valid reasons of his own with which to account for this desire on my part for so much secrecy. The date was significant—it was Myril's birthday! The game was in his hands. What could be more suitable than a house in the country that had no near neighbours, and that was not even known to be occupied! Myril would be in his power with still a few hours to spare on the last night of grace—and the servants he hired were the thugs associated with him. He intended to make an end of us all—and I intended to bring him at last to an account which would send him to the electric chair! I did not intend that, when the time arrived that rendered it useless for him to make any further attempt on Myril's life, he should merely pack up his belongings and leave the country. That was why I made such enticing arrangements for him here to-night. We were playing at very pretty cross-purposes, you see. Everything went as I had planned, until in some way, Myril, they must have caught you down there at the little hotel, to which, as I had instructed you before you left Canada, you were to go directly on your return to the States this morning without stopping or communicating with anybody in New York. I did not have a chance for more than a word with Kyrloff before you came in, but he told me that when he went for you a little while ago to bring you here as we had arranged, you had disappeared, and so, fearful that something had happened, he rushed up here. What did happen, Myril?"
"It was just after dark, not more than half-past seven," she said slowly. "I was down by the water when I was seized, and, I believe, chloroformed, for I do not remember anything else until I found myself tied and gagged upstairs there in that room."
Charlebois' kindly old face wrinkled into a frown.
"It seemed so safe a plan, so safe a place, and so convenient," he said soberly. "It was only two miles from here, and, as I said, Kyrloff was to call for you and bring you here at the pre-arranged hour to-night. But, perhaps, it was too convenient—too near this house. Yes, that was it! I erred there. Some one at the hotel, in spite of the fact that we had, as we believed, made so sure everything was safe for you there, and that you would be carefully guarded, must have, either deliberately or inadvertently, betrayed our trust, for, if Hastvik had simply stumbled upon you by chance, he would not in that way alone have known who you were as he had not seen you since you were a baby. I do not know what happened at the hotel, I do not know how your identity came to be established to Hastvik's satisfaction, I do not know who the guilty one is, but"—his hand clenched tightly—"we will not be long in finding out! In any case, when I first regained consciousness after I was shot, I was sure that in some way they had succeeded in trapping you, Myril, for, unless that were so, it would have been suicide to Hastvik's plans to make any attack on me. But"—his face cleared, and he smiled brightly—"we will not dwell on that phase of it any more. It is over now, and there was another and a happier reason for coming to this house to-night. I had not expected to make the presentation under quite these circumstances, but——" He ended his sentence, in lieu of words, with an expressive little wave of his hand.
"Presentation?" inquired Stranway, wonderingly.
"Of course," said Charlebois, and suddenly into the steel-blue eyes there came a merry twinkle. "Don't young couples have to set up housekeeping any more these days? It's yours, my boy."
"Mine!" In amazement, the colour sweeping to his face, Stranway leaned forward. "Mine—you——"
"Now don't make a fuss!" said the little old gentleman, with sudden tartness. "You know how I dislike thanks. It upsets me! Makes me nervous! And I'm in no condition to be upset to-night. I won't listen to a word—not a word! I told you to-night that you were my heir, my boy, and this is just——"
He stopped abruptly as the door opened.
Dr. Damon stepped into the room.
"I've got that man ready to be moved," announced the doctor gruffly. "What are you going to do? Stay here—or go back?"
The twinkle came again to the steel-blue eyes.
"Why, whatever you think best, doctor," said the little old gentleman with suspicious meekness. "I'm under your orders, you know."
For a moment the doctor scowled—and then he laughed.
"Very well," he said, "then back you go! Our improvised ambulance is large enough, and I'll take that other chap along too, so as to watch you both. But first, we'll have a look at those dressings."
"Just as you say," said Charlebois, with the same twinkle and the same meekness; then, with a smile, holding out his hands to Myril and Stranway: "You'll have to run along now and let the doctor do his fussing. Flint has got his car fixed again, so don't wait for me—the doctor isn't likely to break any speed laws going in. Come and see me early in the morning."
Myril knelt again and buried her face on the little old gentleman's shoulder; and Stranway, because there was a strange choking in his throat, and because no words would come, silently grasped the other's outstretched hand—and then they passed out through the French window to the lawn.
But now, Stranway, with a whispered word, led the way a little to one side into the shadows and the darkness, where there was none to see. And here, presently, Myril drew back from him a little breathlessly, struggling with her disordered hair.
"Have you forgotten your warning, sir," she demanded, with dainty, mock severity. "The crime of lese-majesty is a very grave crime, I would have you know—and I am the Princess Myril."
"Princess? Myril? No!" Stranway cried—and caught her into his arms again. "To me you will always be—the Orchid!"
THE END
Ewen Stranway slid his knife blade into the paper, and cut from the "personals" of the evening edition of the Times-Press the few lines at which he had been staring with startled eyes. And then, as though to focus the words and convince himself that it was not some astounding hallucination, he held the clipping nearer to him to read it again:
"If Ewen Stranway, son of the late John J. and Mary Stranway, of Kenora, Midland County, Pennsylvania, will communicate by mail with C,305, care of this paper, enclosing his photograph, he will hear from one who is in his debt."
What did it mean? A stranger in the city, and arrived but a few hours before, there was not a soul in New York he knew—none who knew him! What did it mean? What was it? A game? A plant? Debt? There was certainly no one in his debt, worse luck! It was quite the other way around! A photograph! Why a photograph? What did it mean?
Stranway frowned as he got up from his chair, and walking to the window stood looking out on that section of Sixteenth Street, just west of Eighth Avenue, where he had taken a room that afternoon on his arrival. Only one thing was certain. The author of the "personal" was not jumping in the dark. Whoever had written it had, to a certain extent at least, an intimate knowledge of his, Stranway's, recent family affairs. Events in the last two weeks had surged upon him with blinding force: the telegram that had summoned him home from college; his parents' death in a motor accident; his father's estate found to be deeply involved, and, in consequence, himself, at twenty-four, reduced from affluence to sudden penury—and now, as a climax, this mysterious advertisement greeting him before he had literally had time to unpack his trunk and settle himself in the new surroundings that he had chosen as promising most in opportunity for the future.
What did it mean? There was something that seemed almost uncanny about it. One person, and one only knew that he was in New York—Redell, the old family lawyer. But he had left Redell in Kenora only that morning. Redell was out of the question. Who, then?
Stranway turned abruptly from the window and began to pace up and down the room, his brows furrowed, his strong, firm jaws a little out-flung, his broad, athletic shoulders squared back with a hint of aggressiveness. Suddenly, a new thought struck him. He swung quickly to the door, opened it, went down the stairs and passed out into the street. He walked rapidly to the avenue, purchased a copy of every evening paper on the news-stand and returned to his room.
He spent ten minutes over these, and then, in spite of himself, laughed a little nervously. Each and every one of them contained the same advertisement word for word. Certainly, whoever had written it was leaving nothing to chance; certainly, whoever had written it was in grim earnest.
The laugh died away and his lips tightened. He crossed the room and lifted the lid of his trunk.
"I don't know what it means," he muttered; "but I'll find out, or know the reason why!"
After a little search he found a photograph of himself; then, scribbling a short note, he made a mailing package of the two, and addressed it, according to directions, to C,305, Times-Press. This done, he went out and posted it—and pending developments, tried to shake the matter from his mind.
But it would not "shake." It clung like an obsession, obtruding itself again and again at odd moments throughout that evening—and in the morning every paper again faithfully reproduced the "personal!"
C,305! Who was C,305? What, in Heaven's name, was at the bottom of it?
At one o clock, when Stranway returned to his boarding house for lunch—after a morning spent in an unsuccessful attempt to find anything in the way of a position that offered him more than a mere opening for the moment, for Stranway, with characteristic determination, had made up his mind to hold out, unless his resources became exhausted first and compelled him to do otherwise, for something that would afford both an opportunity for advancement and ultimate success—his first question was for a letter or message. There was nothing; and he smiled a little mirthlessly at himself for the hold he had allowed the thing, unexplainable though it was, to obtain on him. It was too soon, of course, to expect any reply!
After lunch he went out again. He made his way across town, reached Sixth Avenue, walked down two blocks, turned east into Fourteenth Street—and the next instant he had halted as though rooted to the ground, and was staring about him in all directions. The crowd was thick on every side: women, men, children, flower girls, lace vendors, a line of pedlars banking the curb. People pushed by him; some with ungracious haste, others flinging a curious look his way. Stranway, stock-still, continued to gaze, confounded, and it was a long minute before he realised the futility of it. Some one, with quick, deft fingers, had thrust an envelope into his hand—and was gone. The man in overalls, the messenger boy with jaunty cap, that well-gowned woman there—the act had been so sudden and adroit that, so far as Stranway could tell, it might have been done by any one of these, or any one of a score of others.
He glanced now at the envelope. It was plain, sealed, unaddressed. He made his way out of the press into the entrance of a building, and opened it. The sheet within contained but a single line, written in an angular, crabbed, masculine hand:
"Come at once to 2½ Dominic Court. C,305."
But now, apart from the amazing manner in which he had received it, the message caused Stranway no further surprise, as, from the moment he had felt the envelope thrust into his hand, he had sensed intuitively that it was a communication from the author of the "personal" in the papers. Nor did he now waste time in speculating over the peculiar and curious method of its delivery, for that was at least in keeping with what had gone before, and he had indulged in enough speculation already, too much of it, indeed, for his own peace of mind. Besides, the solution was obviously imminent now; and action, once there was something concrete to base it on, was Stranway's way of doing things.
He looked again at the paper to make sure of the address, folded the sheet, slipped it into his pocket, and walked back to the corner of Sixth Avenue. Here, he accosted an officer.
"Can you tell me where Dominic Court is?" he inquired.
The patrolman pointed down the avenue.
"Four blocks down, right-hand side," he answered tersely.
"Thank you," said Stranway, and crossing over the avenue, walked briskly in the direction indicated.
He walked four blocks, six—and reached the Jefferson Market. Either the officer had misdirected him, or he had passed Dominic Court without recognising it. He wheeled and retraced his steps slowly. Half-way back up the second block he paused before a lane, or passageway, that apparently led to the rear premises of the not over-inviting buildings that bordered it on both sides, and turned to a passer-by.
"Can you tell me if Dominic Court is anywhere about here?" he asked.
"Dominic Court?" repeated the other. "I don't know. I never heard of it."
"That's queer," said Stranway—but he was to learn in the days to come that Dominic Court, though well worth the knowing, was unknown to many others as well, very many others amongst whom were those who prided themselves on their intimate knowledge of New York's nooks and crannies, many others of those even who passed it daily in thousands going to and from their work.
With a courteous word of thanks to the man, Stranway, puzzled, stepped into a dingy little second-hand store in front of him, and for the third time since receiving the message repeated his question.
The proprietor, who had hastened unctuously from the rear upon Stranway's entrance, grunted in dissatisfaction on learning his visitor's business, and grudgingly directed him to the lane.
"H'm!" Stranway muttered facetiously to himself, as he stepped out on the street and turned into the passageway. "So this is it, eh? Well, I can't say it looks very promising for a debtor's abode! I—hello!" His lips pursed into a low whistle of astonishment, and he halted abruptly.
He had come to the end of the passageway, a bare twenty-five yards from the street—and the transition was utter and complete. It was as though he had been suddenly transported from the whirl and bustle of modern metropolitan life with its high-strung, nervous tension, its endless, jarring roar of traffic, to some quiet, sequestered section of a quaint old foreign town. True, at his right, making the north side of the court and continuing the line of the lane, the ugly red brick walls, windowless, of a building rose high in air; but apart——
"By Jove!" Stranway exclaimed in amazement.
A board walk at his left circled up to a row of small, old-fashioned wooden houses set back on the west side of the court. They were built in old Dutch style, were indeed relics, probably, of the old Dutch settlers themselves, two stories high, with slanting roofs, half curved, pierced with a series of diminutive dormer windows like a row of little turrets. Over all, ivy climbed in profusion, cool and green and refreshing. The court itself was grass-covered, neatly kept, and a driveway leading from the lane made a circuit around it. Fences, ivy-clothed like the dwellings, enclosed the court on the other two sides, shutting out the rear of the abutting buildings.
Stranway started forward along the walk.
The first house was numbered 1; the next, 1½. There were four in the row. No. 2½, therefore, would be the one at the far end.
And now, for the first time, as he passed close by the several front doors, an air of desertion about the place struck him unpleasantly. The court, in the early afternoon sun, was in shadow, but every blind in every window was closed, and not a soul was to be seen anywhere.
A sudden feeling of misgiving came over him. Before, where the quiet and peace of the place had appealed to him, it now seemed strangely unnatural and foreboding. For an instant Stranway hesitated, and then, with a shrug of his shoulders, he mounted the three steps to the stoop of No. 2½, which he had now reached, and lifting the heavy brass knocker, banged loudly several times upon the door.
Stranway's knock was answered almost on the moment. The door swung back seemingly of its own volition, and a dim, narrow hallway was revealed. Stranway stepped inside—and the door closed behind him. Startled, he smiled the next instant. It was simple enough, the door was operated by a cord attachment, that was all.
"This way! This way!" a man's voice called to him from an open door just down the hall.
Stranway moved forward, turned into the room—and came to an abrupt stop barely across the threshold.
Before him, in the centre of the room, stood a clean-shaven little old man in a red velvet smoking jacket, his feet encased in red leather slippers, his scanty fringe of hair surmounted by a red skull-cap with bobbing tassel.
"What," demanded this personage sharply, as he fixed Stranway with bright, steel-blue eyes, "what is your favourite colour—h'm?"
Stranway drew suddenly back. So this was it! This was what was behind it all—a madman!
"No," said the little old man quickly. "No; you are quite wrong. I am not at all mad. It is a question I always ask. I see you have not studied the significance of colour. I recommend it to you as both instructive and of great value. There is no surer guide to the temperament than colour. For instance, blue is a cold colour, whereas orange is warm."
"Oh!" said Stranway; and then, with a whimsical smile at the red slippers, the red jacket, and the red skull-cap: "And red—what is red?"
"Red?" replied the little old man instantly. "Red is neither warm nor cold."
Stranway, again taken aback, stared for an instant, nonplussed, at the other; then, mechanically, his eyes swept around the room. It was as curious as its occupant—and here, too, red was everywhere predominant. The heavy silken portière, that hid what was, presumably, another door opposite to the one by which he had entered; the carpet, a rich fabric of the Orient; the curtains which were drawn back from the single window that evidently gave upon the rear, since the shutters there were swung wide open to admit the light; the bookshelves, that filled in the spaces beneath and around the window as also the entire length and breadth of one side of the room; the huge safe in one corner; the upholstery of the chairs—all were red. It was very strange! A disordered pile of books on the floor, and the sliding ladder before the shelves suggested the student; a ponderous, large and very modern filing cabinet, together with the two telephones upon the desk suggested the busy man of affairs; the desk itself suggested the dilettante—it was of very old mahogany, with slender curving legs, and wondrously inlaid with mother-of-pearl.
The little old man came abruptly nearer and gazed into Stranway's face.
"Yes, yes," he said; "the photograph had the Stranway features; your father's mouth, your mother's nose. You are the original of the photograph. I am perfectly satisfied. You are Ewen Stranway. Sit down, sit down in that chair." He pointed to one facing the desk chair, which latter he took himself.
"And you," suggested Stranway bluntly, as he seated himself, "would you mind introducing yourself? I suppose you are C,305. But that, you will admit, is a trifle vague and unsatisfactory."
"Yes, I am C,305." The little old man chuckled dryly. "My name, however, is Charlebois, Henri Raoul Charlebois, descendant"—he drew himself up with a quaint air of pride—"of the Norman Counts of Charlebois."
"You speak like an American," commented Stranway.
"I should"—the blue eyes twinkled—"for I am an American, as was also my father before me."
Stranway now settled easily back in his chair. In spite of the bizarre nature of his surroundings, the bizarre appearance of this Henri Raoul Charlebois himself, there was something about the old fellow that appealed to him and attracted him strongly.
"Ah! You feel, too, that we shall get along together!" The assertion came swiftly, instantly pertinent to Stranway's thoughts.
Keen and alert of brain himself, Stranway shot a curious, appreciative glance at the other; but when he spoke it was with quiet irrelevancy.
"You seem to know a good deal about me, a good deal that I don't understand. That advertisement, the note—how did you know I was in New York, how was I recognised on the street, and what is this debt you speak of? What does it mean?"
A hard, almost flint-like expression had crept into Charlebois' face.
"It means," he replied, a sudden harshness in his voice, "that for once I have failed—and I do not often fail. I did not know that your father was in difficulties. I believed him to be rich and prosperous."
Stranway stared in wonder.
"I don't understand," he said. "I don't understand what you mean, nor how, no matter how close you might have been to my father, though I never heard him speak of you, you could have believed anything else. Everybody thought he was wealthy. Even I, his son, never dreamed that——"
"Nevertheless," broke in Charlebois, "I should have known. It was my business to know."
"But," protested Stranway in amazement, "how——"
"Wait!" Again Charlebois interrupted him. "Wait! There is no mystery about it. Listen! The true state of affairs only reached me by wire on the morning you left Kenora—yesterday morning. Your destination was New York; your address was unknown—hence the notice in the papers on your arrival If I had failed with the father, there still remained the heir. The note you received is simply explained. My messenger knew you by your photograph. He was waiting outside your boarding house when you left there after lunch. Not wishing to become known either to you personally or to those you might question at the house, for reasons that you will come in due time to understand if you accept the proposition I am going to make to you, the messenger followed you until, in the midst of a crowd, he was able to deliver the note to you without disclosing his own identity. Is that quite clear to you?"
"Yes," said Stranway slowly. "Yes; that is clear—but why? My father, his circumstances, the debt—were you his friend?"
The tassel on Charlebois' skull-cap bobbed around in semi-circles, as he shook his head soberly.
"He was my friend—once. My friend—when I needed a friend. You are quite right, he never spoke of me. How should he? He did not know me."
Stranway, frankly bewildered, flung out his arm in an impotent gesture, but the words on his lips were checked by Charlebois' upraised hand.
"You are puzzled," said Charlebois, with an indulgent smile. "It is natural, quite natural. But have patience. You shall see. Tell me first of yourself, your position. You are no longer independent? Your funds are not abundant?"
Stranway smiled grimly.
"I have a hundred or so, that's all, to tide me over till I find something to do."
Charlebois nodded his head acquiescently.
"Just so, just so," he agreed. "Perhaps then after all, it as well the debt was not cancelled before. It will stand you in good stead now. I will show you the account, and I trust you will consider the offer I shall make you equitable, and a full and just quittance of the debt. In any case we will not haggle—you shall be satisfied."
Stranway swung impulsively to his feet.
"That's very honourable, very generous of you, Mr. Charlebois," he began. "I do not quite know what to say. I—I——" He fumbled for his words and stopped.
Charlebois regarded him with a kindly smile.
"It is neither one nor the other," he said. "It is simple justice. But see—here is the account."
He turned as he spoke, walked to the safe, dropped on his knees before it and began to spin the dial backward and forward. An instant later, the steel door swung open, and Charlebois returned to the desk carrying in his arms a massive book, covered in red morocco leather, the edges bound with heavy brass and locked together by three strong hasps. He set the volume on the desk, returned again to the safe and from a drawer in an inner compartment took out a key. With this he unlocked the book, opened it and motioned Stranway to approach.
Stranway, full of nervous excitement now, moved quickly to Charlebois' side, and bending over the old man's shoulder watched the other's movements intently.
The volume was indexed. Charlebois turned to the letter "S" and ran a long, lean forefinger down the column of names.
"Stranway—Stranway," he muttered. "Stran—ah—page two hundred and forty-three!" He turned the pages deftly, stepped suddenly back, and the book lay wide open on the desk.
Stranway, bending quickly forward, read the words on the page at a glance. He read them again—and now, as they seemed to leap back at him in mockery, his look of incredulous dismay became an angry flush. He had been right at first, the man was mad—or was making a fool of him. The great red book was a ledger, and on the page open before him were scarcely a half dozen words. His father's name was at the top; beneath was a date, and, opposite the date, was a credit entry consisting of the two words: "One Dime." The debit side of the ledger was a blank.
Without a word, just a short, savage laugh, Stranway wheeled abruptly for the door—and, as abruptly, spun around again. With a grip, surprising in its strength for one of his age, Charlebois had caught him by the arm and faced him about.
"My boy," he demanded gravely, "have I offered you ten cents? You are too impulsive, too emotional. Have you still to learn that value is not calculated by rule of mathematics? Listen! This book is the record of a period of my life when I was homeless, destitute, and physically unable to earn my bread because my lungs were seriously affected and I was too ill and weak either to secure or do enough work to support me. It is a large book, is it not? Well, it would need be, for many debts, very many debts, were incurred in that period. I was careful then not to forget them, for I knew the day was to come when I should repay. You are beginning to understand—to understand what ten cents that your father gave me once might mean? That day, the beginning of repayment came years ago now, when wealth with a sudden flood poured upon me—but of that at some other time! You are interested now in yourself and why I sent for you. There are many names in this book, many accounts still unbalanced. In that filing case yonder are almost daily records of the lives of those men and women whose names are written here. It has grown to be a stupendous work. It has called into being a far-reaching and highly trained organisation. And now the time is here when I need some one very close to me, a confidant, one upon whom I can implicitly rely. This is what I hope to offer you—first, for your father's sake; second, because I believe I shall find in you the one I have been seeking. Should I prove to be right in my opinion of you, and should you then accept the offer, it is but fair I should tell you that I shall demand much—but also I will give much. I would demand absolute, unquestioning obedience; invulnerable loyalty; your sworn oath of secrecy under any circumstances that might arise."
A whim? A vagary? No; it was more than that. There was no feebleness of brain behind the steady eyes that played on Stranway and seemed to read him through to his soul. Resolve, purpose, inflexible will, and a grim something he could not quite define were written on the other's face.
"And also," added Charlebois quietly, "it would be equally unfair before we go farther to disguise from you the fact that, should you associate yourself with me, you face the possibility of grave danger, of perhaps even death."
Death! Danger! The words struck Stranway with a cold shock, just as it seemed he was beginning to understand a little something of this quaint character before him.
"Death? Danger?" he echoed in a bewildered way.
The hard, flint-like expression was back in Charlebois' features.
"Even so—death and danger," he repeated. "You have only seen one entry in the ledger, and that was on the credit side. There are debit entries there as well. Debit entries, as surely debts as the others; as surely to be settled, to be balanced as the others—and with the same impartial justice. Should I forget the one and not the other? I have forgotten neither. They are all there—all!" His clenched hand fell suddenly upon the Red Ledger. "And all are paid—at maturity. Powerful men to-day are amongst those names on the debit side, men who strike in the black of night, who fight with unbuttoned foils, who turn like rats at bay to save themselves; and from these, their craft and resources, comes the danger I have warned——"
Charlebois stopped abruptly. One of the two telephones on the desk—one of a style and manufacture generally used for connecting up different parts of an establishment—rang sharply. Stranway had not noticed the difference in the instruments before, and now he did so with a curious sense of surprise. The house was very small for such an installation; there were, he judged, perhaps four rooms in all, there could hardly be more.
His eyes, from the instrument, lifted to Charlebois' face—and he stepped back involuntarily. It seemed as though it were another man who now stood before him. Old before, Charlebois' face appeared aged almost beyond recognition; the hand that held the receiver to his ear was trembling violently; the other hand, still on top of the Red Ledger, opened and shut, opened and shut spasmodically; the man's stature seemed absolutely to shrink, and his whole frame shook as with the ague. Spellbound, dumb with amazement, Stranway stared. The receiver clattered from a nerveless hand to the desk. Charlebois tottered, recovered himself, and with a wild, hunted look around the room, turned to Stranway.
"Wait! Wait!" The words came stammering through twitching lips, and the next instant Charlebois had darted behind the red silken portière and was gone from the room.
For perhaps a minute, Stranway stood there motionless, confused, his mind in turmoil—and then, suddenly, like a galvanic shock, clearing his brain, stirring him to action, a wild scream rang through the room.
It came again—from behind the portière—full of terror, agony, despair—a woman's