Henry C. Rowland

“ Léontine stamped her booted foot.
"Then it's not good enough for me," she cried, in a hot voice. "If you think that I am going to give you up like this, you are mistaken, Frank."
I did not answer. She looked at me and her eyes filled.
"You told me that night that you loved me," she whispered, "and my heart leaped to meet yours. I have never loved a man before, Frank. The minute that our hands touched and I looked into your cold, grey eyes I knew that I had found my mate and my master. You belong to me, Frank, and to my world. Society is our enemy. ”

“ Big men don't do petty things. I know my human nature, monsieur, and I place you as gentleman born, like myself, who, for reasons of his own, has taken up crime as a profession. But in your world you are known to be square and generous and laid out on large lines. When I was in the Santé you offered to back me with your fund and you would have done it, too. And then, when I get out, by a miracle, you turn around and steal from me something that I value a lot more than my liberty. Are you proud of that job, monsieur?"
Ivan pushed himself back in his chair and the colour went out of his face. ”

“ To my way of thinking the man who wants to be honest and then falls, in spite of himself, is not a thief. He is not worthy of the name of a thief. He is merely a weakling. To that class belong pilfering valets de chambre and absconding cashiers and the like. A professional thief would be ashamed to associate with that sort. He steals because he wants to, not because he can't help it. What I dwelt upon to Edith was the harm that might come to her husband and herself from receiving me into their household—and I put this even stronger than Léontine had done. ”

“ Behind Sœur Anne Marie came Rosalie; and as her eyes fell on my face she gave a gasp.
"Ma Mère!" she cried. "But look!"
And then I fell asleep.
My friend, did you ever die and float round for a while in that fleecy-clouded between-world, finally to be dragged back to your troubles by the slack of your angel pants? Most people have; and the fleecy-cloud part is what most liquorists and dope-drunkards aim at, but shoot low and light in the slimy ooze, which feels like fleecy clouds up to a certain stage of the astral flight. ”

“ Weakness will never be your fault. How old are you, Frank?"
"Thirty-two," I told her.
"Six years younger than John," she said, "but you look to be the same age."
"Nobody ever discovered the fountain of youth at Cayenne," said I; "a year there is worth five anywhere else."
Miss Dalghren had not said a word, but I felt her watching me closely. She was a beautiful girl, of the big, Diana sort, with a rather square face and blazing, blue eyes; the sort of woman that looks as if she was meant to be the mother of good fighting men. ”

“ So out we went, and John rapped at the door of a pretty little vine-covered building, placed well clear of the big trees. From inside a clear voice called: "Entrez."
My friend, I shall never forget that picture; not the one on the easel, but Edith as she turned to greet us. You know her, of course, and appreciate what a lovely creature she is, with her tall, queenly figure and wonderful great eyes. They are not woman's eyes; they are more the eyes of some splendid archangel guarding the gates of Paradise; clear and steadfast and deep as Heaven itself. ”

“ I carry a gun just for a bluff, if need be, but it is never loaded. I am a burglar, not an assassin, and if I can't carry off a job without killing somebody, then I'll get put away. To my mind," said I, "burglary is just as much an art as painting or music or literature or sculpture. I take pride in being a master-craftsman. It's the clumsy, awkward bungler, usually some ignorant tough, that goes charging around a house, waking everybody up, and relying on his gun to pull him through that brings discredit on the profession and makes it so hard for the rest of us when we get nipped. ”

“ We were to go to the Opera that night and at dinner Edith wore her magnificent pearl necklace, the one that Ivan had told me about. They were uncommon pearls, but it struck me that Miss Dalghren's were even finer. The girl noticed my eyes resting on them and asked, with a smile:
"Aren't they beauties?"
"Superb," I answered. "I doubt if I ever saw finer ones."
"Do they arouse your cupidity?"
"Not one bit," I answered. "No more than a stag in a man's park would arouse the cupidity of a sportsman." ”

“ Rosalie gave me a pensive look. You are a good deal of a savage, aren't you?" said she.
"My real nature is nearer the surface than most people's," I answered.
She nodded. "I know. I'm a bit that way myself. I could live a thousand years in a convent or work among the poor, or suffer, or enjoy, but I'd always be a bit of a savage. In spite of my convent training and Sœur Anne Marie's influence, it blazes out once in a while." ”

“ Chu-Chu seemed actually a little cowed. As for me, I could feel myself beginning to puff up until I was afraid the bushy ivy might fail to hide me. You can say what you like, a sincere worker is bound to take a certain pride in the thing he's been trained to—honest or dishonest. I'd chucked "graft" and asked nothing better than to live and work on the level; but somehow those words of Ivan's cheered me up inside and gave me a sort of homesick feeling. It was plain enough that he had a deal on, and Chu-Chu was standing out for the first squeeze of the press. ”

“ Léontine looked up quickly. "In what way, Ivan?" she asked. "If it is money don't forget that you have rich and influential friends."
He smiled and let his beautifully shaped hand rest for a moment on hers while he toyed with his spoon.
"Thank you, my dear. It is not altogether money. I have still a bone or two buried under the lilac-bush. But I have failed in my purpose, which was to live ruthlessly and consistently at the expense of a society which I despise. I have failed. I can no longer hold my organisation—the association which I myself created. Chu-Chu has ousted me. ”

“ Here was no acting, as one could plainly see; and, in fact, Ivan himself had solved the mystery in his last words.
Léontine seemed daft with grief and dismay. "Ivan!" she cried. "Oh, Ivan—my dear! Speak to me! Speak to me!" She stared back at me over her shoulder. "Frank! Frank!" she groaned. "Is there nothing we can do?"
"It is too late," I answered. "The man is dead. Chu-Chu poisoned the ice with prussic acid or some of its deadly combinations. He bribed or coerced Victor. You will never see the man again." ”

“ But, said Léontine, the leopard cannot change his spots. Once a thief, always a thief. Sooner or later the old instincts are bound to awaken. "As long as all goes smoothly with you," said she, "all right and good. But if ever you should be pressed; if you were to get in any sort of financial difficulty, as happens to all business people at times, you would find the temptation to take the easy way out irresistible. No, Frank," she wrote, "once a thief, always a thief." ”

“ I asked.
"No more than I can count on your help!" he snapped. "Mind you, I'm not going to order your assassination or anything of that sort; but, if you decline to take up the work and Chu-Chu decides to come to terms, I can't have him interfered with. Naturally I've got to protect my own man."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Just this, Monsieur Clamart," said Ivan, looking me squarely in the eyes. "If you want to prolong your life you will have to leave the country. So long as you leave Chu-Chu alone all right and good. I need him for my business." ”

“ When I told them how Léontine had insisted on coming with me for the sheer excitement of the thing, although not a professional thief herself, Miss Dalghren's blue eyes sparkled.
"I can understand that," she said. "Is she very beautiful, this woman?"
"Yes," I answered; "she's a big, gorgeous sort of tigress."
"She rather fancied you, eh?" said John.
"Such women have fierce, sudden fancies," I answered. "No doubt hers may have rested on me for the hour. I never saw her until that night. It was her gun that I had when you fired. I never carry a loaded gun myself when doing a piece of work." ”

“ I can't do my work when I don't know what minute I may get a knife under the shoulder-blade."
Here was high praise, let me tell you; Chu-Chu asking for help. That was more than I had hoped for; and, if it hadn't been for my promise to Sœur Anne Marie, let me tell you that his cry for help would have come too late. Did you ever see a bull-terrier crouching in front of a badger's cage watching, as silent and as still as a tombstone, barring only the fine shiver rippling through him every few minutes? That's the way I was watching Chu-Chu. ”

“ What she asked of me was pretty stiff, as, for all I knew, Chu-Chu might be at that moment on the stairs. A flesh wound in the muscles of the chest isn't much, and the man had the vitality of a gorilla or timber wolf. I hesitated.
"You do not realise what you ask of me, Sœur Anne Marie," I said. "It is like sending a man into the arena unarmed."
She looked at me sorrowfully. "It is a terrible thing for a religieuse to nurse a man back to strength in the knowledge that, so soon as he is healed, he means to go forth to slay a fellowman," said she. ”

“ And with such a woman it would be almost inevitable. Listen to me, Frank. I thought of all of this when I told John to bring you here. I weighed the pros and cons for all of us. If I had found you a different sort of person I might have lost my courage; but I feel instinctively your resolution and your strength. Since you are what you are I have no fear of the result to any of us. John and I are not dependent on the dictates of Society. If such friends as we have cannot accept our decision we do not want to keep them."
"It's asking too much——" I muttered.
Edith laid her hand upon my wrist. ”

“ Chu-Chu loved money even more than he loved revenge, and he had found out that he couldn't do much without Ivan. The Shearer had wonderful cunning, ruthless methods of getting rid of obstacles, the cautious but desperate courage of a wolf and a dexterity that was equal to that of any safe expert or prestidigitator; but his lacking quality was imagination. Once given the data and general directions, there was no living man so capable of pulling off a job; but without these Chu-Chu might easily have gone a year without turning a single trick. ”

“ Ivan's thin, black eyebrows lifted and a tinge of colour showed in his olive cheeks.
"If what you say is true," I went on, "how was it that you could bring yourself to take advantage of a pal whose hands were tied by his given word and use him as a scapegoat for your own gain? Monsieur, theft is theft, of course, and in this wicked world of ours every man is for himself, and the Devil take the hindmost. That seems to be the motto that most people live by—from the pickpocket to the high financier. ”

“ Seeing the agent struggling with a man in the street, they hopped in to help and a moment later I was stretched out with a big dragoon sitting on my chest and the horse's tail in his helmet tickling my face while the agent whistled for help. It doesn't take long to draw a crowd at any moment of the day or night in Paris and while I was waiting there in the hands of four or five cops in the middle of a gang that wanted to lynch me, the iron door opened and out came the master of the house. ”

“ Edith listened with her smooth brows knit. I did not mention what Léontine had said about a thief being always a thief, because I knew in my heart that this did not apply to me. I had been a criminal, but not a weak man. Whenever I have committed a crime it has always been of my own deliberate intention and not the result of temptation. ”

“ I think, still, that he may have been the only man who had ever loved her in a really clean and unselfish way, and I believe that he would have tried to redeem her to a course of right living if the scheme of their lives had been planned differently; but I do not believe that Léontine could ever have cared for Ivan other than as a sympathetic friend. Chu-Chu himself would have stood a better chance. Ivan was too gentle physically, and Léontine had much of the savage in her composition. To win her desire a man would have had first to dominate her, mind and body. ”

“ So we got up and went out. As we left the box Kharkoff and Léontine passed, dressed for the street. I was talking to Miss Dalghren and Léontine's eyes avoided mine but rested for a moment intently on the girl. Miss Dalghren gave a little shiver.
"She's rather terrible, I think," said she. "Did you see the look she gave me? It was not agreeable. I wonder why?"
"Jealousy, perhaps," said John.
"Of what? " asked Miss Dalghren, quickly.
"I fancy," said John, "that for all of her dark beauty the Night is always a bit jealous of the Morning; also, your pearls are finer than hers." ”

“ I have always hated that breed of unconscious "oh, come, sinning brother, and sin no more" pharisee. They do a lot of harm; much more, in fact, than others with a lot less virtue and a little more tolerance. This girl was convinced that I had stolen Edith's pearls, and nothing was going to unconvince her. I wasn't. She made me tired.
Miss Dalghren may have seen my face harden up, for her eyes began to blaze. At least, there was plenty of fight in her, and no fear at all.
"Mr. Clamart," says she, "have you no sense of gratitude? No scruple nor respect for your given word? ”

“ So John was the thief. John had stolen his wife's pearls, brought them to this man Delmas, and sold them outright on Delmas' verbal agreement that he would not dispose of them for twelve months, and then only after making such changes as would render it impossible to recognise the string.
As this went through my head, the first emotion was a hot, furious rage against my thieving sot of a half-brother. It was for this that I had bearded Ivan in his den and tried to assassinate Chu-Chu. It was for this that my life must hang in the balance until I should either kill or be killed. ”

“ The sobs came quickly and noiselessly.
My friend, I've seen some harrowing things in my sinful life, but I don't know when I've been so upset as I was at the sight of that little girl, sobbing quietly under the lamp. Even though it were no more than a combination of heat and overwork and insufficient sleep—and the chance of losing a friend who had grown companionable—it was mighty pathetic. Women or children in trouble always hit me hard; and the next moment I was standing beside Rosalie, my arm behind her and my hand resting on her shoulder. ”

“ In the first place, anybody who has been for years a criminal hates the thought of being mixed up with the police. There are too many old crimes that may be brought to light. Then, my release from the clutch of the law was irregular; an unofficial pardon that would hardly bear the scrutiny of the public. Still again, I did not see how I could impeach Chu-Chu without implicating Ivan and his crowd, and I felt that if I was once marked for the hereafter by that perfect organisation I might just as well go down and hop off a bridge into the Seine. ”

“ All the criminality in me came blazing out.
"I'll wring Ivan's snipe neck, you cat!" I growled, "and I'll skin Chu-Chu with his own knife. Do you think you can scare me with your mob o' yellow crooks? Scare 'Tide-water Clam'? Do you think there's an ounce of scare in 'The Swell'? Did you think so when I stepped in front of you and took the bullet you would have got? You're up against an American, you slut, and, crook or no crook, he's good for you and your dago bunch." ”

“ It took the little Mother Superior some time to get over the effect of the tale, which I had let Rosalie tell her; but Sœur Anne Marie had served through the Franco-Prussian War as a nurse and was no rabbit-heart.
Then one day she said to me: "Mon ami, you must be careful. Our Rosalie is losing her heart."
"She already has mine, ma Mère," I answered, "though it's not much of a bargain for her."
"I am not so sure," she answered. "Though your life has been wrongly lived, I am convinced that your heart is clean. Do you really love the poor child?" ”

“ His head struck something, and he went limp in my grip.
"Run!" I yelled at Léontine. "Now's your chance! Run!"
She swept down and past me like a black leopardess, but at the foot of the stairs she stopped and looked back.
"Come!" she cried, her heart in her voice. "Come!"
I scrambled to my feet, and together we rushed through the drawing-room, through the dining-room, and across the garden to the gate. The car was on the other side of the street, the motor running. Léontine darted for it, but at the same moment a policeman came running around the corner of the wall. ”

“ As criminals, as thieves, we are crass failures, simply because we are often kind; and, let me tell you, my fellow-failures, there is no such silly thing as a kind-hearted thief. Call it what you will—theft, brigandage, graft—whatever is dishonest is cruel and selfish and has no place with generous traits. To steal, to trick a man, to take what belongs to another person, is mean just mean, and there is no getting round it. ”