Chapter 2

"I am profoundly interested, mademoiselle, in any matter that concerns you--as well as in yourself. Who would not be interested in one so impulsive--and anything so important--as to call him on the telephone at two in the morning."

"And who on his part is so gracious--and wasn't asleep," she answered.

Harleston slowly winked at the transmitter and smiled.

He thought so. What puzzled him, however, was her idea in prolonging the talk. Maybe there was not any idea in it, just a feminine notion; yet something in the very alluring softness of her voice told him otherwise.

"You guessed it," he replied. "I was not asleep. Also I might guess something in regard to your business."

"What?"

"No, no, mademoiselle! It's impertinent to guess about what does not concern me--yet."

"Delete the word 'yet,' Mr. Harleston, and substitute the idea that it was--pardon me--rather gratuitous in you to meddle in the first place."

"I don't understand," said Harleston.

"Oh, yes you do!" she trilled. "However, I'll be specific--it's time to be specific, you would say; though I might respond that you've known all along what my business is with you."

"The name of an individual is a prerequisite to the transaction of business," he interposed.

"You do not know me, Mr. Harleston."

"Hence, your name?"

"When we meet, you'll know me by my voice."

"True, mademoiselle, for it's one in a million; but as yet we are not met, and you desire to talk business."

"And I'm going to talk business!" she laughed. "And I shall not give you my name--or, if you must, know me as Madame X. Are you satisfied?"

"If you are willing to be known as Madame X," he laughed back, "I haven't a word to say. Pray begin."

"Being assured now that you have never before heard my voice, and that you have it fixed sufficiently in your memory--all of which, Mr. Harleston, wasn't in the least necessary, for we shall meet today--we will proceed. Ready?"

"Ready, mademoiselle--I mean Madame X."

"What do you intend to do, sir, in regard to the incident of the deserted cab with the sleeping horse?" she asked.

"I have not determined. It depends on developments."

"You see, Mr. Harleston, you were not in the least surprised at my question."

"For a moment, a mere man may have had a clever woman's intuition," he replied.

And, I suppose, the woman will be expected to aid developments."

"Isn't that her present intention?"

"Not at all! Her present intention is to avoid developments so far as you are concerned, and to have matters take their intended course. It's to that end that I have ventured to call you."

"What do you wish me to do, Madame X?"

"As if you did not know!" she mocked.

"I'm very dense at times," he assured her.

"Dense!" she laughed. "Shades of Talleyrand, hear the man! However, as you desire to be told, I'll tell you. I wish you to forget that you saw anything unusual on your way home this morning, and to return the articles you took from the cab."

"To the cab?" Harleston inquired.

"No, to me."

"What were the articles?"

"A sealed envelope containing a message in cipher."

"Haven't you forgotten something?"

"Oh, you may keep the roses, Mr. Harleston, for your reward!" she laughed.

She had not missed the handkerchief, or else she thought it of no consequence.

"Assuming, for the moment, that I have the articles in question, how are they to be gotten to you?"

"By the messenger, I shall send."

"Will you send yourself?"

"What is that to you, sir?" she trilled.

"Simply that I shall not even consider surrendering the articles, assuming that I have them, to any one but you."

"You will surrender them to _me_?" she whispered.

"I won't surrender them to any one else."

"In other words, I have a chance to get them. No one else has a chance?"

"Precisely."

"Very well, I accept. Make the appointment, Mr. Harleston."

"Will five o'clock this afternoon be convenient?"

"Perfectly--if it can't be sooner," she replied, after a momentary pause. "And the place?"

"Where you will," he answered. He wanted her to fix it so that he could judge of her good faith.

And she understood.

"I'm not arranging to have you throttled!" she laughed. "Let us say the corridor of the Chateau--that is safe enough, isn't it?"

"Don't you know, Madame X, that Peacock Alley is one of the most dangerous places in town?"

"Not for you, Mr. Harleston," she replied. "However--"

"Oh, I'll chance it; though it's a perilous setting with one of your adorable voice--and the other things that simply must go with it."

"And lest the other things should not go with it," she added, "I'll wear three American Beauties on a black gown so that you may know me."

"Good! Peacock Alley at five," he replied and snapped up the receiver.

III

VISITORS

"The affair promises to be quite interesting," he confided to the paper-knife, with which he was spearing tiny holes in the blotter of the pad. "Peacock Alley at five--but there are a few matters that come first."

He went straight to the safe, unlocked it, took out the photograph, the cipher message, and the handkerchief, carried these to the table and placed them in a large envelope, which he sealed and addressed to himself. Then with it, and the three American Beauties, he passed quickly into the corridor and to an adjoining apartment. There he rang the bell vigorously and long.

He was still ringing when a dishevelled figure, in blue pajamas and a scowl, opened the door.

"What the devil do you--" the disturbed one growled.

"S-h-h!" said Harleston, his finger on his lips. "Keep these for me until tomorrow, Stuart."

And crowding the roses and the envelope in the astonished man's hands, he hurried away.

The pajamaed one glared at the flowers and the envelope; then he turned and flung them into a corner of the living-room.

"Hell!" he said in disgust. "Harleston's either crazy or in love: it's the same thing anyway."

He slammed the door and went back to bed.

Harleston, chuckling, returned to his quarters; retrieved from the floor a leaf and a petal and tossed them out of the window. Then, being assured by a careful inspection of the room that there were no further traces of the roses remaining, he went to bed.

Two minutes after his head touched the pillow, he was asleep.

Presently he awoke--listening!

Some one was on the fire-escape. The passage leading to it was just at the end of his suite; more than that, one could climb over the railing, and, by a little care, reach the sill of his bedroom window. This sill was wide and offered an easy footing. If the window were up, one could easily step inside; or, even if it were not, the catch could be slipped in a moment.

Harleston's window, however, was up--invitingly up; also the window on the passage; it was a warm night and any air was grateful.

He lay quite still and waited developments. They came from another quarter: the corridor on which his apartment opened. Someone was there.

Then the knob of his door turned; he could not distinguish it in the uncertain light, yet he knew it was turning by a peculiarly faint screech--almost so faint as to be indistinguishable. One would not notice it except at the dead of night.

The door hung a moment; then cautiously it swung back a little way, and two men entered. The moon, though now low, was sufficient to light the place faintly and to enable them to see and be seen.

For a brief interval they stood motionless. They came to life when Harleston, reaching up, pushed the electric button.

"What can I do for you, gentlemen?" he asked, blinking into their levelled revolvers.

They were medium-sized men and wore evening clothes; one was about forty-five and rather inclined to stoutness, the other was under forty and rather slender. They were not masked, and their faces, which were strange to Harleston, were the faces of men of breeding, accustomed to affairs.

"You startled us, Mr. Harleston," the elder replied; "and you blinded us momentarily by the rush of light."

"It was thoughtless of me," Harleston returned. He waved his hand toward the chairs. "Won't you be seated, messieurs--and pardon my not arising; I'm hardly in receiving costume. May I ask whom I am entertaining."

"Certainly, sir," the elder smiled. "This is Mr. Sparrow; I am Mr. Marston. We would not have you put yourself to the inconvenience, not to mention the hazard from drafts. You're much more comfortable in bed--and we can transact our business with you quite as well so; moreover if you will give us your word to lie quiet and not call or shoot, we shall not offer you the slightest violence."

"I'll do anything," Harleston smiled, "to be relieved of looking down those unattractive muzzles. Ah! thank you!--The chairs, gentlemen!" with a fine gesture of welcome.

"We haven't time to sit down, thank you," said Sparrow. "Time presses and we must away as quickly as possible. We shall, we sincerely hope, inconvenience you but a moment, Mr. Harleston."

"Pray take all the time you need," Harleston responded. "I've nothing to do until nine o'clock--except to sleep; and sleep is a mere incidental to me. I would much rather chat with visitors, especially those who pay me such a delightfully early morning call."

"Do you know what we came for?" Marston asked.

"I haven't the slightest idea. In fact, I don't seem to recall ever having met either of you. However--you'll find cigars and cigarettes on the table in the other room. I'll be greatly obliged, if one of you will pass me a cigarette and a match."

Both men laughed; Sparrow produced his case and offered it to Harleston, together with a match.

"Thank you, very much," said Harleston, as he struck the match and carefully passed the flame across the tip. "Now, sirs, I'm at your service. To what, or to whom, do I owe the honour of this visit?"

"We have ventured to intrude on you, Mr. Harleston," said Marston, "in regard to a little matter that happened on Eighteenth Street near Massachusetts Avenue shortly before one o'clock this morning."

Harleston looked his surprise.

"Yes!" he inflected. "How very interesting."

"I'm delighted that you find it so," was the answer. "It encourages me to go deeper into that matter."

"By all means!" said Harleston, pushing the pillow aside and sitting up. "Pray, proceed. I'm all attention."

"Then we'll go straight to the point. You found certain articles in the cab, Mr. Harleston--we have come for those articles."

"I am quite at a loss to understand," Harleston replied. "Cab--articles! Have they to do with your little matter of Eighteenth and Massachusetts Avenue several hours ago?"

"They are the crux of the matter," Marston said shortly. "And you will confer a great favour upon persons high in authority of a friendly power if you will return the articles in question."

"My dear sir," Harleston exclaimed, "I haven't the articles, whatever they may be; and pardon me, even if I had, I should not deliver them to you; I've never, to the best of my recollection, seen either of you gentlemen before this pleasant occasion."

"My dear Mr. Harleston," remarked Sparrow, "all your actions at the cab of the sleeping horse were observed and noted, so why protest?"

"I'm not protesting; I'm simply stating two pertinent facts!" Harleston laughed.

"We will grant the fact that you've never seen us," said Marston, "but that you have not got the articles in question, we," with apologizing gesture, "beg leave to doubt."

"You're at full liberty to search my apartment," Harleston answered. "I'm not sensitive early in the morning, whatever I may be at night."

"The letter is easy to conceal," was the reply, "and the safe yonder is an _impasse_ without your assistance."

"The safe is not locked," Harleston remarked. "I think I neglected to turn the knob. If you will--"

"Don't disturb yourself, I pray," was the quick reply, the revolver glinting in his hand; "we will gladly relieve you of the trouble."

"I was only about to say that if you try the door it will open for you," Harleston chuckled. "Go through it, sir," he remarked to the younger, "and don't, I beg of you, disturb the papers more than necessary. The key to the locked drawer is in the lower compartment on the right. Proceed, my elderly friend, to search the apartment; I'll not balk you. The thing's rather amusing--and entirely absurd. If it were not--if it didn't strike my funny-bone--I should probably put up some sort of a fight; as it is, you see I'm entirely acquiescent. Your tiny automatics didn't in the least intimidate me. I could have landed you both as you entered. I've got a gun of a much larger calibre right to my hand. See!" and he lifted the pillow and exposed a 38. "Want to borrow it?"

"Why didn't you land us?" Marston asked, as he took the 38.

"It wouldn't have been kind!" Harleston smiled. "When visitors come at such an hour, they deserve to be received with every attention and courtesy--particularly when they come on a mistaken impression and a fruitless quest."

The man looked at Harleston doubtfully. Just how much of this was bluff, he could not decide. Harleston's whole conduct was rather unusual--the open door, the open safe, the unemployed revolver, were not in accordance with the game they were playing. He should have made a fight, some sort of a fight, and not--

"The letter's not in the safe," Sparrow reported.

"I didn't think it was," said the other, "but we had to make search."

"You're very welcome to look elsewhere and anywhere," Harleston interjected. "I'll trust you not to pry into matters other than the letter. By the way, whose was the letter?"

"His Majesty of Abyssinia!" was the answer.

"Taken by wireless, I presume."

"Exactly!"

"Then, why so much bother, my friend?" Harleston asked. "If you do not find it, you can get others by the same quick route."

"The King of Abyssinia never duplicates a letter."

"When," supplemented Harleston, "it has been carelessly lost in a cab."

"Just so. Therefore--"

"I repeat that I have not got the articles," said Harleston, a bit wearily, "nor are they in my apartment. You have been misinformed. I find I am getting drowsy--this thing is not as absorbing as I had thought it would be. With your permission I'll drop off to sleep; you're welcome to continue the search. Make yourselves perfectly at home, sirs." He lay back and drew up the sheet. "Just pull the door shut when you depart, please," he said, and closed his eyes.

"You're a queer chap," remarked Sparrow, pausing in his search and surveying Harleston with a puzzled smile. "One would suppose you're used to receiving interruptions at such hours for such purposes."

"I try never to be surprised at anything however _outré_," Harleston explained. "Good-night."

The two men looked at the recumbent figure and then at each other and laughed.

"He acts the part," said the elder. "Have you found anything?"

"Nothing! It's not in the safe nor the writing-table--nor anywhere else that is reasonable. I've been through everything and there's nothing doing."

"You're not going?" Harleston remarked.

"You're asleep, Mr. Harleston!" Marston reminded. "The letter is here: we've simply got to find it."

"A letter is easy to conceal," the younger replied. "There's nothing but to overturn everything in the place--and so on; and that will require a day."

"So that you replace things, I've not the slightest objection," Harleston interjected. "Bang away, sirs, bang away! Anything to relieve me from suspicion."

"It prevents him from sleeping!" Sparrow laughed.

"Also yourselves," Harleston supplemented. "However, you for it, remembering that cock-crow comes earlier now than in December, and the people too are up betimes. You risk interruption, I fear, from my solicitous friends."

And even as he spoke the corridor door opened and a man stepped in.

From where he lay, Harleston could see him; the others could not.

"'Pon my soul, I'm popular this morning!" Harleston remarked, sitting up.

Instantly the new-comer covered him with his revolver.

"What did you say?" Sparrow inquired from the sitting-room, just as the stranger appeared around the corner.

Like a flash, the latter's revolver shifted to him.

"Easy there!" said he.

Sparrow sprang up--then he laughed.

"Easy yourself!" said he. "Marston, let this gentleman see your hand."

Marston came slowly forward until he stood a little behind but sufficiently in view to enable the stranger to see that he himself was covered by an automatic.

"For heaven's sake, Crenshaw," said Sparrow, "don't let us get to shooting here! If you wing me, Marston will wing you, and we'll only stir up a mess for ourselves."

"Then hand over the letter," said Crenshaw

"Do you fancy we would be hunting it if we had it?"

"I don't fancy--produce the goods!"

"We haven't the goods," Marston shrugged. "We can't find it."

Sparrow shook his head curtly.

"It's the truth," Harleston interjected. "They haven't found the goods for the very good reason that the goods are not here. Plunge in and aid in the search; I wish you would; it will relieve me of your triple intrusion in one third less time. I'm becoming very tired of it all; it has lost its novelty. I prefer to sleep."

"I want the letter!" Crenshaw exclaimed.

"I assumed as much from the vigour of your quest," Harleston shrugged. "The difficulty is that I haven't the letter. Neither is it in my apartment. But you'll facilitate the search if you'll depress your respective cannon from the angle of each other's anatomy and get to work. As I remarked before, I'm anxious to compose myself for sleep. You can hold your little dispute later on the sidewalk, or in jail, or wherever is most convenient."

"Mr. Harleston," said Marston, "do you give us your word that the letter is not in your apartment?"

"You already have it," Harleston replied wearily.

"Then, sir, we'll take your word and withdraw."

"Thank you," said Harleston.

"He has it somewhere!" Crenshaw declared, fingering his revolver.

"My dear fellow," Marston returned, "we are willing to accept Mr. Harleston's averment."

"He knows where it is--he took it--let him tell where it is hidden."

"What good will that subserve? We can't get it tonight, and tomorrow will be too late."

"And all because of you two meddlers."

"Three meddlers, Crenshaw!" Marston laughed. "You must not forget your sweet self. We've bungled the affair, I admit. We can't improve it now by murdering each other--"

"We can make it very uncomfortable for the fourth meddler," Crenshaw threatened, eyeing the figure on the bed.

"Haven't you made me uncomfortable enough by this untimely intrusion?" Harleston muttered sleepily.

"What is your idea in not offering any opposition?" Crenshaw demanded. "Is it a plant?"

"It was courtesy at first, and the novelty of the experience; but it's ceased to be novel, and courtesy is a bit supererogatory. By the way, which of you came up the fire-escape?"

The three shook their heads.

"I'm not a burglar," Crenshaw snapped.

"The burden is on you to prove it, my friend!" Harleston smiled. "However, it's no matter. Just drop cards before you leave so that I can return your call. Once more, good-night!"

"I'm off," said Marston. "Come along, Crenshaw, you can't do anything more here, and we'll all forget and forgive and start fresh in the morning."

"Start?" cried Crenshaw? "what for--home? I tell you the letter is here--he took it, didn't he? He was at the cab."

"Will you also give your word that you didn't take a letter from the cab?" Crenshaw demanded, turning upon Harleston.

"I'll give you nothing since you've asked me in that manner," Harleston replied sharply; "unless you want this." His hand came from under the sheet, and Crenshaw was looking into a levelled 38. Harleston had a pair of them.

"Beat it, my man!" Harleston snapped. "None of you are of much success as burglars; you're not familiar with the trade. You're novices, rank novices. Also myself. I'll give you until I count five, Crenshaw, to make your adieux. One ... two ... No need for you two to hurry away--the time limit applies only to Mr. Crenshaw."

"It's quite time we were going, Mr. Harleston," Marston answered. "Good-night, sir--and pleasant dreams. Come on, Crenshaw."

"Three ... four ..."

Crenshaw made a gesture of final threat.

"Meddler!" he exclaimed. Then he followed the other two.

IV

CRENSHAW

Harleston lay for a few minutes, brows drawn in thought; then he arose, crossed to the telephone, and took down the receiver.

"Good-morning, Miss Williams," he said. "Has it been a long night?"

"Pretty long, Mr. Harleston," the girl answered. "There hasn't been a thing doing for two hours."

"Haven't three gentlemen just left the building?"

"No one has passed in or out since you came in, Mr. Harleston."

"Then I must be mistaken."

"You certainly are. It's so lonely down here, Mr. Harleston, you can pick up chunks of it and carry off."

"Been asleep?"

"I don't think!" she laughed. "I'm not minded to lose my job. Suppose some peevish woman wanted a doctor and she couldn't raise me; do you think I'd last longer than the morning and the manager's arrival? Nay! Nay!"

"It's an unsympathetic world, isn't it, Miss Williams?"

"Only when you're down--otherwise it's not half bad. Say, maybe here's one of your men now; he's walking down. Shall I stop him?"

"No, no, let him go. When he's gone, tell me if he's slender, or stout, or has a moustache and imperial."

"Sure, I will."

Through the telephone Harleston could hear someone descend the stairs, cross the lobby, and the revolving doors swing around.

The next moment, the operator's voice came with a bit of laugh.

"Are you there, Mr. Harleston?"

"I'm here."

"Well, your man was a woman--and she was accidentally deliberately careful that I shouldn't see her face."

"H-u-m!" said Harleston. "Young or old?"

"She's got ripples enough on her gown to be sixty, and figure enough to be twenty."

"Slender?"

"Yes; a perfect peach!"

"How's her walk?"

"As if the ground was all hers."

"I see!" Harleston replied. "What would you, as a woman, make her age--being indifferent and strictly truthful?"

"Not over twenty-eight--probably less!" she laughed. "And I've a notion she's some to look at, Mr. Harleston."

"You mean she's a beauty?"

"Sure."

"Call me if she comes back; also if any of the men go out. They are strangers to the Collingwood so you will know them."

"Very good, Mr. Harleston."

He hung up the receiver and went back to bed.

If no one had come in and no one had left the Collingwood since his return, the men must have been in the building--unless they had come by another way than the main entrance; which was the only entrance open after midnight. If the former was the case, then someone on the outside must have communicated to them as to him.

With a muttered curse on his stupidity, he returned to the telephone.

"Miss Williams," said he, "there has been a queer occurrence in the building since two A.M., and I should like to know confidentially whether any one has communicated with an apartment since one thirty."

The girl knew that Harleston was on intimate terms with the State Department, and with the police, and she answered at once.

"Save only yours, not a single in or out call has been registered since twelve fifty-two when apartment No. 401 was connected for a short while."

"Who has No. 401?"

"A Mr. and Mrs. Chartrand. It's one of the transient apartments; and they have occupied it only a few days."

"You didn't by any chance overhear--"

"The conversation?" she laughed. "Sure, I heard it; anything to put in the time during the night. It was very brief, however; something about him being here, and to meet him at ten in the morning."

"Who were talking?"

"Mrs. Chartrand and a man--at least I took it to be Mrs. Chartrand; it was a woman's voice."

"Did they mention where they were to meet, or the name of the man?"