Persons Unknown

  CHAPTER V

  HERRICK HEARS A BELL RING

  "Don't let them take me!" Christina entreated. "Don't let them lock meup! That door--! Turn the key!"

  Without demur he turned it. He was in that commotion of bewilderedfeeling where one shock after another deliciously and terribly strikesupon the heart, and anything seems possible. From the trembling girl hispulses took a myriad alarms; apprehension of he knew not what ran riotin them and credited the suggestions of her terror; but all the whilehis blood rushed through him, warm and singing, and his heart glowed.She was here, with him! She had fled here and clung to him for defense!She loved him! In no dream, now, did she lie back there, in the deepchair beside his fire, with her hand clasping his eagerly as he kneltand her shoulder leaning against his. It was keener than any dream; itwas that fullness of life, which, even at Herrick's age, we have mostlyceased to expect.

  "There are detectives shadowing me," Christina said. "Don't deny it--Iknow! They've been following me from the beginning!"

  "There are detectives shadowing me," Christina said."Don't deny it--I know!"]

  "But why, dearest, why?"

  "Because they think I killed Jim Ingham."

  "Christina! Why should they think such a thing?"

  "Why shouldn't they? Don't you?"

  She put her finger on his lips to still his cry of protest, and, lookingdown into his face, her own eyes slowly filled with that brooding ofmaternal tenderness which seemed to search him through and through. Fora moment he thought that her eyes brimmed, that her lips trembled withsome communication. But, without speaking, she ran her hand along hisarm and a quiver passed through her; taking his face in her two handsshe bent and kissed his mouth. In that kiss they plighted a deeper troththan in ten thousand promises. And, creeping close into his breast witha shuddering sigh, she pressed her cheek to his. "Oh, Bryce, you won'tlet them take me away? I can stand anything but being locked up--Icouldn't bear that--I couldn't! What can I do?"

  "My dearest, no one in the world can harm you!"

  "I came here to be safe, where I could touch you. Let me rest here alittle, and feel your heart close to me. Oh, my love, I'm so frightened!I thought I was strong! I thought I was brave and could go through withit! But I can't! I'm tired--to death! All through my soul, I'm cold.It's only here I can get warm!"

  "Christina," he asked her, "go through with what?"

  She stirred in his arms and drew back. "Look first--ah, carefully!--fromthe window. What do you see?"

  "Nothing but ordinary people passing. And the usual number of waitingtaxis."

  "Well, in the nearest of those taxis is a detective. He has beenfollowing me all the afternoon. He is sitting there waiting for me tocome out."

  Herrick carried her hand to his lips. "Christina, don't think me acursed schoolmaster. But it's imagination, dear. You've driven yourselfwild with all this worry and excitement. Why, believe me, they're not soclumsy! If they were following you, you wouldn't know it."

  "I tell you I've known it for at least two weeks! I'm an actress, andif, as they say, we've no intelligence, only instincts, well then, ourinstincts are extraordinarily developed. And mine tells me that, overmy shoulder, there is a shadow creeping, creeping, looming on my path."

  A series of sounds burst on the air. Herrick went to the window. "There,my sweet, the taxi's gone."

  "Did no one get out?"

  "No one."

  He had snatched up her hand again and he felt her relax.

  "Well, I ought to be used to shadows; all my girlhood there has been ashadow near me. Bryce, when I was really a child, something happened.Something that changed my whole heart--oh, you shall know before youmarry me! I shall find a way to tell you!--It made me a rebel and acynic; it made me wish to have nothing to do with the rules men make; Ihad to find my own morality. Only, when I saw you, I felt such astrength and freshness, like sunny places. Bryce!"

  "Yes."

  "My feeling for Jim was dead a year ago. Do you believe that?"

  "Oh, my darling! Why--"

  "Because I won't have you think me shameless! Nor that an accident, likedeath, turned my light love to you! I was just twenty when he firstasked me to marry him; I was so mad about him that my head swam. And yetit wasn't love. It was only infatuation and I knew it. I was still youngenough for him to be a sort of prince--all elegance and the great world.The last two have been my big years, Bryce. I was rather a poor littlegirl till then. Even so, I held him off ten months. I felt that therewas a curse on it and that it could never, never be! What did I know ofmen or that great world--well, God knows he taught me! When I didconsent to our engagement the fire was already dying. But by that timethe idea of him had grown into me. He had always a great influence overme, Bryce, and he could trouble and excite me long after he hadbroken my dream. Oh, my dear, it was one long quarrel. It was a year'sstruggle for my freedom! Well, I got my release. I didn't wait forfate." She paused. And then with a low gasp, "All my life I've stoodquite alone. I have been hard. I have been independent. I have beenbrave--oh, yes, I can say it; I have been brave!--but I've broken down.Only, if you will let me keep hold of you, I shall get courage."

  "Christina!"

  "Do you know how big you are? Or what a clear look your eyes have got?There in that coroner's office--oh, heavens,--among those_stones_!--Bryce, he was there this afternoon! that man!"

  "Ten Euyck? Yes, I know."

  "Do you know what he means to do as Police Inspector? He means to run medown! Wait--you've never known. I've kept so still--I didn't want tothink of it. Four years ago he payed for the production of a play ofhis, by a stock company I was with. Oh, my dear, that play! It gave usall quite a chill! He wanted his Mark Antony played like a younggentleman arranging the marriage-settlements. But he took the rehearsalsso hard, he nearly killed us." She hesitated. "He was very kind to me.He was too kind. One night, he met me as I was coming out of thetheater, and--forgot himself. One of the boys in the company, who wasright behind me, slapped him in the face! Do you mean to tell me that hehas ever forgotten that? At the inquest he thought he had me down, andthe laugh turned against him! Is he the man to forget that?"

  "But what can he do?"

  "How I detested him!" Christina hurried on. "He taught me, in that oneminute, when I was eighteen, how men feel about girls who aren't intheir class! Just because I was on the stage, he took it for grantedI--Well, he, too, learned something! Since then I've heard about him.He isn't a hypocrite, he's an egoist. I wonder, were some of thePuritans really like that? He's so very proper, and so particular not toentangle himself with respectable women! But with women he calls bad hedoesn't mind--because for him bad women don't count, they don't exist!Oh, dear God, how I despise a man who feels like that! How I love you,who never, never could! Does he really know, I wonder, that sometimesit's the coldest of heart who can be made to turn his ships atActium?--'What can he do?' He can hope I'm guilty! And he can use allthe machinery of his office to prove me so!"

  "Why, look here, dearest, if he's never revenged himself on the man whostruck him--"

  Christina gave a shrill little cry. "But, now he has his chance with me!His great spectacular chance! Oh, Bryce, I'm afraid of him, and I wasnever afraid before!--Dearest dear, I know you can't do anything! Butthe girl's in love with you, poor thing, and she feels as if you can!I've wanted you--oh, how I've wanted you!--all my life. I've known thedearest fellows in the world, the cleverest, the gamest, the mostcharming. But they were too much like poor Christina; fidgety things,nervous and on edge. 'You take me where the good winds blow and theeternal meadows are!'--What are you doing?"

  He had bowed down to kiss her wrist and he replied, "I'm thanking God Ilook like a farmer!"

  "My poor boy!" cried Christina, breaking her tears with little laughs,"I've got your cheek all wet! Bryce dear, we're engaged, aren't we? Youhaven't said.--Bryce!"

  He slipped back onto the floor, with his head in her lap and her twohands gathered in his one. They were bot
h silent. The little fire wasgoing out and the room was almost dark. And in that happy depth of lifewhere she had led him he was at first unaware of any change. Then heknew that the hands he held had become tense, that rigidity wascreeping over her whole body, and looking up, he could just make outthrough the dusk, the alert head, the parted lips of one who is waitingfor a sound. "Bryce," she said, "you were mistaken. That detective hasnot gone!"

  "What do you hear?"

  "I don't hear. I simply know." Their senses strained into the silence."If he went away, it was only to bring some one back. He went to get TenEuyck!"

  "Christina! Tell me what you're really afraid of!"

  "Oh! Oh!" she breathed.

  "Christina, what was it you couldn't go through with?"

  "Death!" she said. "Not that way! I can't!" She rocked herself softly toand fro. "If I could die now!" she whispered.

  "You shan't die. And you shan't go crazy, either. You're drivingyourself mad, keeping silence." He drew her to her feet, and she stood,shaking, in his arms. "Christina, what's your trouble?"

  "Nancy,--that murder--my opening--my danger--aren't they enough?"

  "For everything but your conviction that it is you who are pursued, andyou who will be punished. Some horrible accident, dear heart, has shownyou something, which you must tell. Tell it to me, and we will find thatit is nothing."

  "Bryce," she said, "they're coming. It's our last time together. Don'tlet's spend it like this."

  "Did you--" he asked her so tenderly that it sounded like a caress, "didyou, in some terrible emergency, in some defense, dear, of yourself,Christina--did you fire that shot?"

  Her head swung back; she did not answer.

  "My darling, if you did we must just take counsel whether to fight or torun. Don't be afraid. The world's before us. Christina, did you?"

  "No, no, no!" she whispered. "I did not!" She felt his quiver of relief,and her nervous hands closed on his sleeve. "Oh, if you only knew. Thereis a thing I long to tell you! But not that! Oh, if I could trust you!"

  "Can't you?"

  "I mean--trust you to see things as I do! To do only what I ask! What Ichose--not what was best for me! Suppose that some one whom--Bryce?"

  "Yes?"

  "If any one should hear--"

  "There is no one to hear."

  "You can't tell where they are."

  "Christina, can't you see that we're alone here? That the door's locked?That you're safe in my arms? The cab went away. No one followed you. Noone even knows where I live; my dear, dear love, we're all alone--"

  The door-bell sounded through the house.

  He thought the girl would have fallen and his own heart leaped in hisside. "Darling, it's nothing. It's for some one else."

  "It's for me."

  "That's impossible."

  There was a knock on the door.

  Herrick called--"Who's there?"

  "It's a card, sir."

  "A card?"

  "A gentleman's card, sir. He's down in the hall."

  "I can't see any one at present."

  "It's not for you, sir; it's for the young lady."

  "Did you tell him there was a lady here?"

  "He knew it himself, sir."

  "Well, she came in here because she felt ill; I'm just taking her home.She can't be bothered."

  "He said it was very important, sir. Something she's to do to-morrow,"he said.

  "Christina! It's only some one about your going away."

  "No. It's the end. Take the card."

  Springing on the light, he took the card to reassure her. She motionedhim to read it. And he read aloud the words "Mr. Ten Euyck."