George Allan England

“ It is one thing to contemplate, from a safe distance, breaking into a conspirators’ den with the aid of a chisel; another thing to execute that coup.
How could he tell what situation might face him there? How know the number of plotters in the house, masked by the laundry in front? How hope anything but this—that at the first suspicious sound that door across the room would burst open and death leap on him in the guise of steel or lead?
“G-g-gosh!” chattered Darrow weakly in the face of such contingencies. ”

“ As a man will, when trying to readjust his mental processes, Darrow clasped his hands behind him, bent his head, and strolled along a little way, oblivious to all about him. Little he knew that, half a block behind, a husky individual in a gray suit and Panama, with bristly, close-cropped yellow mustache, had slacked his pace at the same moment, and now with sudden interest was studying the shop-window signs, as though looking for some very special place. ”

“ Eyes gleaming with excitement, lips compressed to a tight, thin line, two pink spots beginning to burn on his hollow cheeks, Darrow worked on and on.
“Come on, now! Come on!” he breathed eagerly to himself, as though he had been beside a race-track, encouraging his choice. And with intense eagerness he scrutinized the large scale-map of the harbor. His pencil traced lines here and there, paused, darted, and made black jabs.
“‘Ua’?” he exclaimed. “That might mean anything! “There’s a little million of ’em, there! ”

“ A slide had been opened in the door. A round, white beam of light spouted out upon the caller’s face. Darrow knew a pocket electric flash-lamp was being directed through the hole.
Only an instant the light lasted; yet in that instant the young clerk got sight of a bristly, close-cropped yellow mustache and a beefy face surmounted by a Panama. Then darkness fell again, blacker than ever by contrast with the light.
A voice from within: “Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Any trouble?”
“No, sir. No fight in him. Weak! Harmless!” ”

“ And, giving a great leap, his heart began to thrash with the excitement of a chase all but completed, with the foreknowledge that, in the next few minutes, destiny was making, life and death were being weighed, the balances of fate about to tip! ”

“ Assault, he might encounter; perhaps murder! He began to tremble violently. Down he crouched in the dark corner where the porch joined the house. He held his breath. The pounding of his heart seemed certain to betray him. There in an abject, cringing heap he obliterated himself.
None too soon, for already the unknown person was cautiously coming down the walk. Darrow could hear his breathing; the wheeze of it indicated a bulky individual. At the bottom of the steps the man paused an instant. Against the pallid dark of the sky, Darrow perceived a black blotch, which was the newcomer’s head. ”

“ Off to the left, half-glimpsed through the park trees, glimmered a brace of lights, red and green, like a liner head-on. Darrow bore a straight course for those beacons. The prospect of a drug-store was infinitely comforting.
With diffidence he approached. But, save for a mild stare, the drug clerk showed no very great concern. Drug clerks get used to everything. That a man should be wet and muddy cannot excite them. ”

“ Even to have your name breathed in connection with an affair like this, now—an affair such as you claim to have grounds for suspecting is shaping up in your department—”
“Pardon me, sir, I never said it was in my department. I named no one.”
“No, but I can read you better than you know. In your department, I repeat. Even to be an innocent participant in such an affair may be fatal. High treason with a war impending is no joke. It’s—it’s death.”
His voice sank almost to a whisper. Straight in Darrow’s blinking eyes he peered. The young clerk felt a deadly, sinking sensation. ”

“ At the next corner he crossed the street, then came back along the sidewalk that led directly past the laundry. Loitering, he drew near. His heart thumped disagreeably, and he noticed a shortage of breath as he came abreast of the Globe. But he kept on.
Now he was right in front of it.
In he peered, staring eagerly through those round, black-rimmed goggles of his.
“Bah!” thought he. “Nothing doing!”
For, after all his hopes, nothing could be seen—nothing of the slightest moment. The interior was absolutely innocent-appearing. In the window, bundles of washing. ”

“ At first, seeming to feel that every passer-by, white or black, must fathom and divine his secret. he presently gained self-confidence once more. Even a pride, a sense of power now began to grow in him.
That he, just one of the army of underlings in a minor office, should by chance hold in his hands—skilled only to the typewriter and the reporter’s pencil—secrets of state, perhaps, matters of life, death, national fate, the destiny of nations, thrilled him with a sudden flare of joy. ”

“ You'd better not, that’s all I say to you. Remember! Even so, if this proves false, this suspicion of yours; if you have chosen in mere idle curiosity to spy and peek and magnify these trifles; if you have vainly sought to question the integrity of some superior as yet unidentified—then, sir, you will regret it. Mark my words. You will regret it, if you can’t prove it.”
At Darrow he shook a menacing finger as he sat down ponderously at the great desk. The clerk paled still more.
“You—you mean, sir,” he began, “that I’ve got to—to furnish absolute proof? To identify the suspect?” ”

“ For instead of tubs, clothes-horses, shelves full of washing-powder, and a stove, Darrow beheld a comfortably furnished apartment with a revolving book-case, a Morris chair, and other chairs well upholstered, a smoking-table whereon lay débris of cigars, and—most important of all—a broad desk with a typewriter.
Unable to believe his senses, Darrow for a moment felt that he must be in error. Perhaps, after all, this room was not a part of the laundry. Perhaps it belonged to the adjoining house. Darrow visualized this possibility very distinctly ”

“ Vanished, now, the originally high patriotic motives which had at first inspired him to report his suspicions to the secretary. Vanished all altruism. In their place, a very human, personal fear of losing his job; anger at all the labor and abuse he had already endured as a result of his quest; a burning desire to get even with somebody, he knew not whom—to make good—to batter down, in spite of all his weakness, the vast powers which seemed to have been set in motion to crush him. ”

“ Then came a voice, surly, suspicious:
“All-a close’ for-a business!”
Darrow’s only answer was to rattle the catch more vigorously than ever. The proprietor, after a moment’s silence, came forward heavily. A key turned. The door opened.
“Well, w’at-a you want?” demanded P. Buccamano & Co., compounded of fat and curls, a greasy mustache, an odor of garlic, and a general shirt-sleeve effect. From the rear room Darrow heard an infant’s wail, then the tones of a woman soothing it with the “La-la-la-la!” which speaks a universal tongue. ”

“ If you want to bury your work and double-cross it from the go-off, get one. Otherwise, nix! If there was any demand for it, don’t you s’pose we’d list it? ’Stead o’ that, nobody in town will even handle the darn thing. Come off! Get wise, kid; get wise!”
“Nobody in town handles ’em?” queried Darrow, as he once more pocketed his sample. A sudden sinking oppressed his heart. He felt as though the staging of all his plans had instantly been kicked away, leaving them to crumble into ruin. Had not the shop been so dark, Haskins must have noticed his expression ”

“ Then he washed and bandaged his scalp wound, got into pajamas and dressing-gown, polished up his goggles, flung the ruck of dirty clothes into a closet—after having first hauled out the typewriter-ribbon and laid it on his table—and lighted his student-lamp.
“Now,” he said at last, getting down his tripod microscope from the shelf—“now, here’s where I grow busy!”
In a fresh, well-inked ribbon the metal types as they strike leave an impression which sometimes you can make out with the naked eye. Under the microscope it becomes quite clear. ”

“ Two minutes I give you to tell me where that other machine is, or by thunder, I’ll make it hot for you! Just ’round the corner, yonder,” he jerked his thumb over his shoulder, “I’ve got two plain-clothes men waiting. Want ’em in here? In my pocket I’ve got a warrant!” This was perfectly true; only it was a warrant for payment of an oil-bill. “Want me to serve it on you? Now, come across!”
Buccamano started back. His yellow complexion became a pale olive. Darrow had taken a long chance; but the shaft had struck home. The Italian weakened instantly before the minatory gaze of the young clerk. ”

“ For a moment he paused at one of the half-open windows to catch his breath, a little to compose himself, before returning to his office.
A glint of gray-green from the Potomac, shimmering under the late afternoon sun, caught his eye. The tall, accusing finger of the monument set him shuddering.
“Can’t I get away from it anywhere?” he rebelled. “Must everything remind me of lighthouses, and—and that? Good Heavens, what a fool I’ve been! ”

“ Bughouse, you? If you want an A1 machine, now, up to the minute, and a lallapalooza every way, I’m your huckleberry. But for the love o’ Lou, cut out the coke-talk, the punk brands, and all such—”
“Good-by; see you later!” interrupted Darrow, glancing ostentatiously at his watch. “Got just five minutes to get my car, or have to wait half an hour. We’ll have it out to-morrow. Ta-ta!”
And, leaving Haskins big-eyed with wonder, he vanished from the shop.
“Sure nutty!” muttered the repair-man, picking up his screwdriver again. “With a big, big N! Story-writin’?! On a Redmond! ”

“ To the right, Darrow could vaguely distinguish two windows, tight-shuttered.
“What next?” wondered he, pausing at the foot of the steps. Now that he was actually on the field of action, nothing very definite occurred to him. To make a plan, at a distance, is a very different thing from executing it in detail. ”

“ Mighty particular piece of work. Got to have a good machine. Let me look at ’em—all!”
Buccamano & Co., grumbling, struck a match and lighted a flaring jet. Though it was still daytime outside, yet through the dusty, musty pane seeped only a dim light.
As the jet blazed, and Buccamano started down the shop to bring a machine, the gray-suited man with the Panama slid into a doorway across the street.
The Italian deposited the Redmond in front of Darrow, on a rough bench covered with a disorder of paper and fly-specked stationer’s supplies. ”

“ Buccamano grew respectful.
“Yes,” continued Darrow, “I’m an inspector. If these machines look good to me, you never can tell what mightn’t happen. Trot out the others.”
Buccamano needed no second bidding. He hardly more than half believed his customer; yet, on the other hand, it might be true, after all. “Better be on the safe side,” thought he, hauling down the remaining two machines of the desired make. ”

“ Then, to a clerk who was just covering a machine with a rubber cloth: “Is Haskins here yet?”
“Hallo! That you, Jim?” sounded a voice from the repair-room, at the back. “Come on in!”
Darrow tramped into the back room. There sat Haskins in his shirt-sleeves at the bench. On his hands lay coats of grease, some of which had been transferred to his nose. Never minding it, Darrow shook with him.
“Where you been, this month o’ Sundays?” he exclaimed. “Haven’t seen you since that I. W. W. ball. Dead? Married? What?” ”

“ These letters, typewritten with blue ink and in a script font, seemed to spell nothing but the most baffling nonsense.
Several of the fragments of words were not even English in appearance. But Darrow seemed to guess a little of their significance. And quickly he placed them in what he judged to have been something like their original position, before the sheet on which they had been written had been torn to bits, and—so it seemed—flung into a fire of some sort.
“Lots of open fireplaces in all these buildings,” mused Darrow, as he worked. “That proves nothing. ”

“ Cable?” thought he. “To-night! All over but that? My Heaven! What am I up against!”
Almost on the point of creeping toward the gate in retreat was he. But, as he stirred, he felt the chisel in his pocket. ”

“ But when the stale egg, dripping grease from between the soggy rolls, and the strong, muddy coffee were slapped down on the shiny counter, he found no appetite, He could not force himself to take more than a single bite and drink half the anemic coffee. ”

“ You'll get it, blast you, every penny!”
“Please get back a little—so, that’s right,” directed Darrow. Under the sheet his hand moved, as he kept the muzzle of the automatic trained on his caller. “No, I’m sorry, but there’s nothing doing. Your whole biz has gone to smash. Burke's cleared. It’s all off. Too late. That ribbon did it,” and he nodded at the table, where still lay the coils of blue. ”

“ For, much as he should have liked to remain, well he knew the danger of exciting Dan’s suspicions. The old negro, garrulous like all his kind, might in a moment wreck all Darrow’s plans. Much depended on a semblance of casuality.
So, gathering up some papers and slamming them into drawers, the clerk acted the part of finishing an unusually long day’s work, The vital paper, however, the white sheet with the three fragments gummed to it, he did not leave. ”