Richard Harding Davis

“ Ford felt the story was untrue. Prothero was trying to frighten him. Out of pure bravado no sane man would boast of murder. But—and at the thought Ford felt a touch of real fear—was the man sane? It was a most unpleasant contingency. Between a fight with an angry man and an insane man the difference was appreciable. From this new view-point Ford regarded his adversary with increased wariness; he watched him as he would a mad dog. He regretted extremely he had not brought his revolver.
With his automatic pistol still covering Ford, Prothero spoke to Pearsall. ”

“ It was a most unsatisfactory climax.
“You have not been in the street,” said Prothero. “You are wet because you hung out of your window signalling to your friend. Do you know why he did not answer your second signal? Because he is lying in an area, with a knife in him!”
“You lie!” cried Ford.
“YOU lie,” retorted the Jew quietly, “when you say your men surround this house. You are alone. You are NOT in the police service, you are a busybody meddling with men who think as little of killing you as they did of killing your friend. ”

“ An Englishman's home is his castle; an English jury——”
“An English jury,” said Ford briskly, “is the last thing you want to meet—— It isn't a Chicago jury.”
The Jew flung back his head as though Ford had struck him in the face.
“Ah!” he purred, “you know that, too, do you?” The purr increased to a snarl. “You know too much!”
For Pearsall, his tone seemed to bear an alarming meaning. He sprang toward Prothero, and laid both hands upon his disengaged arm.
“For God's sake,” he pleaded, “come away! He can't hurt you—not alive; but dead, he'll hang you—hang us both. ”

“ Why not?” he demanded.
“Because,” protested Pearsall, in terror, “the man outside will tell——”
Ford shouted in genuine relief.
“Exactly!” he cried. “The man outside, who is not down an area with a knife in him, but who at this moment is bringing the police—he will tell!”
As though he had not been interrupted, Prothero continued thoughtfully:
“What they may say he expected to find here, I can explain away later. The point is that I found a strange man, hatless, dishevelled, prowling in my house. I called on him to halt; he ran, I fired, and unfortunately killed him. ”

“ Quite happily she placed herself and her safety in the keeping of a stranger. Half to herself, half to the man, she murmured: “It is like 'The Sieur de Maletroit's Door.”'
Without looking at her, Ford shook his head and smiled.
“No such luck,” he corrected grimly. “That young man was given a choice. The moment he was willing to marry the girl he could have walked out of the room free. I do not recall Prothero's saying I can escape death by any such charming alternative.” The girl interrupted quickly.
“No,” she said; “you are not at all like that young man. ”

“ He waited as though hopeful of a reply, but Miss Dale remained silent. “They say,” continued Ford, “when a man is drowning his whole life passes in review. We are drowning, and yet I find I can see into the past no further than the last half-hour. I find life began only then, when I looked through the bars of that window and found YOU!”
With the palm of her hand the girl struck the floor sharply. ”

“ Whether moved by Pearsall's words or by some thought of his own, Prothero nodded in assent. He addressed himself to Ford.
“I don't know what to do with you,” he said, “so I will consult with my friend outside this door. While we talk, we will lock you in. We can hear any move you make. If you raise the window or call I will open the door and kill you—you and that woman!”
With a quick gesture, he swung to the door, and the spring lock snapped. An instant later the bolts were noisily driven home.
When the second bolt shot into place, Ford turned and looked at Miss Dale. ”

“ In the lower stories, from behind the edges of the blinds, lights appeared, but of the life within there was no sign. Until he hit upon a plan of action, Ford felt there was no longer anything to be gained by remaining in Sowell Street. Already the answer to his cable might have arrived at his rooms; at Gerridge's he might still learn something of Pearsall. He decided to revisit both these places, and, while so engaged, to send from his office one of his assistants to cover the Sowell Street houses. He cast a last, reluctant look at the closed blinds, and moved away. ”

“ But if the prisoner were alert and intelligent, even though she could make no answer, Ford believed through his effort she would gain courage, would grasp that from the outside a friend was working toward her. All he knew of the prisoner was that she came from Kentucky. Ford fixed his eyes on the houses opposite, and cleared his throat. The man struck the opening chords, and in a high barytone, and in a cockney accent that made even the accompanist grin, Ford lifted his voice. ”

“ In complete disapproval the girl shook her head. Her eyes filled with concern. “You must not fight him,” she ordered. “I mean, not for me. You don't know the danger. The man's not sane. He won't give you a chance. He's mad. You have no right to risk your life for a stranger. I'll not permit it——”
Ford held up his hand for silence. With a jerk of his head he signified the door. “They've stopped talking,” he whispered.
Straining to hear, the two leaned forward, but from the hall there came no sound. The girl raised her eyebrows questioningly. ”

“ Both Pearsall and Prothero believed from the new patient they had nothing to fear, and Ford was congratulating himself that his presence at the house was firmly secure.
“I think,” said Pearsall, “we should warn Mr. Grant that there are in the house other patients who, like himself, are suffering from nervous disorders. At times some silly neurotic woman becomes hysterical, and may make an outcry or scream. He must not think ——”
“That's all right!” Ford reassured him cheerfully. “I expect that. In a sanatorium it must be unavoidable.” ”

“ To the girl, he was a reckless young person with a dirty face and eyes that gave confidence. But, though a knight-errant, Ford was a modern knight-errant. He wasted no time in explanations or pretty speeches.
“In two minutes,” he whispered, “I'll unlock your door. There's a ladder outside your room to the roof. Once we get to the roof the rest's easy. Should anything go wrong, I'll come back by this fire-escape. Wait at the window until you see your door open. Do you understand?” ”

“ Sowell Street was deserted. He returned to Miss Dale, again closing the door between the two rooms.
“The nurse,” Miss Dale whispered, “when she is on duty, leaves that door open so that she can watch me; when she goes downstairs, she locks and bolts the door from that room to the hall. It's locked now.”
“What's the nurse like?”
The girl gave a shudder that seemed to Ford sufficiently descriptive. Her lips tightened in a hard, straight line.
“She's not human,” she said. “I begged her to help me, appealed to her in every way; then I tried a dozen times to get past her to the stairs.” ”

“ Like it, it is decorated with the brass plates of physicians and the red lamps of surgeons, but, just as the medical men in Harley Street, in keeping with that thoroughfare, are broad, open, and with nothing to conceal, so those of Sowell Street, like their hiding-place, shrink from observation, and their lives are as sombre, secret, and dark as the street itself. ”

“ Below them, Sowell Street, glistening with rain and snow, lay empty, but at either end of it, held back by an army of police, were black masses of men, and beyond them more men packed upon the tops of taxicabs and hansoms, stretching as far as the street-lamps showed, and on the roofs shadowy forms crept cautiously from chimney to chimney ”

“ Ford adopted opposite tactics. He was never without ready money. His paper saw to it that in its interests he was always able at any moment to pay for a special train across Europe, or to bribe the entire working staff of a cable office. From his breast-pocket he took a blue linen envelope, and allowed the Jew to see that it was filled with twenty-pound notes. “I have means outside my pay,” said Ford.
“I would give almost any price to the man who can cure me.” ”

“ What Ford read was:
“I am a prisoner in the street on which this paper is found. The house faces east. I think I am on the top story. I was brought here three weeks ago. They are trying to kill me. My uncle, Charles Ralph Pearsall, is doing this to get my money. He is at Gerridge's Hotel in Craven Street, Strand. He will tell you I am insane. My name is Dosia Pearsall Dale. My home is at Dalesville, Kentucky, U. S. A. Everybody knows me there, and knows I am not insane. If you would save a life take this at once to the American Embassy, or to Scotland Yard. ”

“ Having finished with Gerridge and the cab-man, Ford had at once gone to the Langham Hotel, where, as he anticipated, nothing was known of Pearsall or his niece, or of any invalid lady. But the hall-porter remembered the American gentleman who had driven up with many pieces of luggage, and who, although it was out of season, and many suites in the hotel were vacant, had found none to suit him. He had then set forth on foot, having left word that his trunks be sent after him. The address he gave was a house in Sowell Street. ”

“ Balancing himself with his left hand on the rung of the ladder, he raised the other and pointed a revolver. It was apparently at the two prisoners, and Miss Dale sprang to one side.
“Standstill!” commanded Ford. “He knows who YOU are! You heard that yell when they saw you? They know you are the prisoner, and they are glad you're still alive. That officer is aiming at the window BELOW us. He's after the men who murdered his mates.”
From the window directly beneath them came the crash of a rifle, and from the top of the ladder the revolver of the police officer blazed in the darkness. ”

“ But he now appreciated that in spite of the iron bars he was nearer that prisoner than he had ever been. Should he return to the hall below, even while he could unlock the doors, he was in danger of discovery by those inside the house. But from the fire-escape only a window-pane would separate him from the prisoner, and though the bars would keep him at arm's-length, he might at least speak with her, and assure her that her call for help had carried. He grasped the sides of the ladder and dropped to the platform. ”

“ Or I could be a very good imitation of a man on the edge of a nervous breakdown. I haven't been five years in the newspaper business without knowing all there is to know about nerves. That's it!” he cried. “I will do that! And if Mr. Bluebeard Svengali, the Strangler of Paris person, won't take me in as a patient, we'll come back with a couple of axes and BREAK in. But we'll try the nervous breakdown first, and we'll try it now. I will be a naval officer,” declared Ford. “I made the round-the-world cruise with our fleet as a correspondent, and I know enough sea slang to fool a medical man. ”

“ II
“Prothero,” said Cuthbert, “is a man of mystery. As soon as I began asking his neighbors questions, I saw he was of interest and that I was of interest. I saw they did not believe I was an agent of a West End shop, but a detective. So they wouldn't talk at all, or else they talked freely. And from one of them, a chemist named Needham, I got all I wanted. He's had a lawsuit against Prothero, and hates him. Prothero got him to invest in a medicine to cure the cocaine habit. Needham found the cure was no cure, but cocaine disguised. ”

“ Good-luck had been with him, and, hoping that Gerridge's might yet yield some clew to Pearsall, he returned there. Calling up the London office of the REPUBLIC, he directed that one of his assistants, an English lad named Cuthbert, should at once join him at that hotel. Cuthbert was but just out of Oxford. He wished to become a writer of fiction, and, as a means of seeing many kinds of life at first hand, was in training as a “Pressman.” His admiration for Ford amounted to almost hero-worship ”

“ Beside them, on his knees in the snow, a young man with the silver hilt of an officer's sword showing through the slit in his greatcoat, was giving commands; and at the other end of the street, a brother officer in evening dress was directing other sharp-shooters, bending over them like the coach of a tug-of-war team, pointing with white-gloved fingers. ”

“ But of any sound that was human there was none. That the room was empty, and that the girl was in the front of the house was possible, and the temptation to stretch his hand through the bars and lift the blind was almost compelling. ”

“ I will explain my treatment later. You will now go to your room, and you will remain there until you are a well man.”
Ford had no wish to be at once shut off from the rest of the house. The odor of cooking came through the hall, and seemed to offer an excuse for delay.
“I smell food,” he laughed. “And I'm terrifically hungry. Can't I have a farewell dinner before you begin feeding me from a spoon?”
The Jew was about to refuse, but, with his guilty knowledge of what was going forward in the house, he could not be too sure of those he allowed to enter it. ”

“ Ford sprang to his feet.
“And meanwhile,” he exclaimed angrily, “the man will get away.”
Without seeking permission, he ran past James, and through the empty outer offices. In two minutes he returned, herding before him an individual, seedy and soiled. In appearance the man suggested that in life his place was to support a sandwich-board. Ford reluctantly relinquished his hold upon a folded paper which he laid in front of the Secretary.
“This man,” he explained, “picked that out of the gutter in Sowell Street, It's not addressed to any one, so you read it!” ”

“ You can reach the roof by means of the apartment house in Devonshire Street. Send men to meet her.”
In the groups of officials half hidden in the doorway farther down the street, he could make out the bandaged head of Cuthbert. “Cuthbert!” he called. Weighting the envelope with a coin, he threw it into the air. It fell in the gutter, under a lamp-post, and full in view, and at once the two madmen below splashed the street around it with bullets. But, indifferent to the bullets, a policeman sprang from a dark areaway and flung himself upon it. ”