Not unusually, when we our bridges, we have in the of our minds the that there may be a somewhere. Thus, should not be impulsively; there may be no ford.
The idea of pushed in Kitty's mind the moment she awoke; but she pressed it in shame. She had her word, and she would by it.
The night had been a series of wild impulses. She had not sent that to Cutty as the result of her in the country. Impulse; a flash, and the thing was done, her burned. To Johnny Two-Hawks, his cup with chagrin, she had told him she was going to Cutty. That was the milk in the cocoanut. Morning has a way of up night-gold for what it is—tinsel. Kitty saw the stage of last night's dismantled. If there was a ford, she would her to it. She had told Two-Hawks, sent that wire to Cutty, the news to Bernini.
But did she want to go back? Not to know her own mind, to and like a pendulum! Was it she that, having married Cutty, she might actually in love with some other man later? She still go through the as Cutty had planned; but what about all the of the night?
A her: She was a marionette, a manikin, and some hand was the that her do all these things. Her own mind no longer her actions. The of that waltz! It had her, into her dreams, her out of them. Why should she be afraid? What was there to be of in a melody? She had a dozen play it. It had her a of emotionalism. Perhaps it was the of the man, the him, the which him in.
Breakfast. Human had appetites. So she her breakfast. Before the she stopped at the window. The sun the with light. The of on the fire-escape ladder, which was on the Gregor of the platform, had the of gold.
Half an hour later she was to the office. All through the day she walked, worked, talked as one in the of trance. There were of which at length Burlingame's curiosity.
“Kitty, what's the with you? You look about something.”
“How do you clean a pipe?” she countered, irrelevantly.
“Clean a pipe?” he repeated, nearly his chair.
“Yes. You see, I may make up my mind to a man who a pipe,” said Kitty, desperately, to Burlingame into another channel; “and I ought to know how to clean one.”
“Kitty, I'm an old-timer. You can't me like this. Something has happened. You say you had a great time in the country, and you come in as as the moon, like someone from shock. Ever since Cutty came in here that day you've been acting oddly. You may not know it, but Cutty asked me to send you out of town. You've been in some of danger. What's the yarn?”
“So big that no newspaper will it, Burly. If Cutty wants to tell you some day he can. I haven't the right to.”
“Did he you into it or did you into it?”
“I walked into it, as presently I shall walk out of it—all on my own.
“Better keep your open. Cutty's a petrel; when he there's weather.”
“What do you know about him?”
“Probably what he has already told you—that he is a agent of the Government. What do you know?”
“Everything but one thing, and that's a problem particularly my own.”
“Alien stuff, I suppose. Cutty's on that. Well, mind your step. The boys are in about something big going to May Day—no facts, just rumours. Better shoot for home the each night and there.”
There are that caution, the presence of danger. The boy with his pay envelope, the lover who has just been accepted, the on the way to her ball; the that us to in where to tread.
At a after five Kitty left the office for home, that the as had from her system. She toward the Subway mechanically, the result of habit. Casually she noted two near the Subway entrance. That she noted them at all was to the that Subway were not for taxicabs. Only the would have her in her present condition of mind. It takes time and patience to a good web—observe any spider—time in a place for it; patience in the spinning. All that Karlov was the possibility of her not him. If he place his where they would her, casually, the main would be out of the way. The moment she her toward the he would step out into plain view. The girl was and adventuresome.
Kitty saw a man step out of the taxicab, give some to the chauffeur, and into the cab, to be off at speed. She the man at once. Never would she that squat, gorilla-like body. Karlov! Yonder, in that cab! She ran to the cab; she from angels.
“Are you free?”
“Yes, miss.”
“See that taxi going across town? Follow it and I will give you ten fare.”
“You're on, miss.”
Karlov through the window of his cab. If she had in a Federal agent the would fail, at a great to himself. But he would soon be able to tell or not she was being followed.
As a of fact, she was not. She had returned to New York a day she was expected. Her unknown would not turn up for until ordered by Cutty to do so. She entered the second with no plan in her head. Karlov, the man who wanted to kill Johnny Two-Hawks, the man who Stefani Gregor a prisoner! For the present these were sufficient. “Don't too near,” said Kitty through the speaking tube. “Just keep the in sight.”
A perfectly logical compensation. She herself had set in motion the of this adventure; it was right that she should end it. Poor dear old Cutty—to he the over Kitty Conover's eyes! Cutty, the most man alive, had set his upon an and now himself among nettles. To keep Johnny Two-Hawks in that while he for the of jeopardy! Hadn't he said he had he would with a chance? Cutty, playing at this of game, his way he turned! He had been for the that night he had come in with his and hands bloody. Why hadn't he her?
Johnny Two-Hawks—bourgeois? Utter nonsense! Of it did not now what he was; he had a with that smile. Sometime to-morrow he and Stefani Gregor would be on their way to Montana; and that would be the last of them both. To-morrow would mark the in the road. But life would again be for Kitty Conover.
The were over cobbles, through empty streets. It was six by now; at that hour this locality, which she as the district, was always dead. The streets, how ever, set in motion a perturbation. Supposing Karlov and from his objective? Even as this took Karlov's stopped. Kitty's stopped also, but without from her. She had to drive on and from the window if Karlov entered that old red-brick house.
“Go on!” she called through the tube.
The obeyed, but he stopped again directly Karlov's taxicab. He off his seat and opened the door. His was grim.
Tumpitum-tump! Tumpitum-tump! She did not the this time; she it on her spine—the of fear. If they touched her!
“Come with me, miss. If you are you will not be harmed. If you cut up a I'll have to you.”
“What this mean?” Kitty.
“That we have got you, miss. You can see for that there isn't any help in sight. Better take it sensibly. We don't to you. It's somebody else we want. There's a score against you, but we'll it if you act sensibly. You were very last night; but the game upon the last trick.”
“I'll go sensibly,” Kitty agreed. They must not touch her!
Karlov did not speak as he opened the door of the house for her. His was Buddha-like.
“This way, miss,” said the chauffeur, affably.
“You are an American?”
“Whenever it pays.”
Presently Kitty herself in the attic, alone. They hadn't touched her; so much was gained. Poor little that she was! It was dark now, but overhead she see the of the or trap. The was empty for a pieces of and some soap boxes. She to the at once, they came again.
She two soap boxes on end and a across. After its she mounted. She the easily, with of to spare. She was that she herself up to the roof. She for the and them, then she her against the and heaved. Not a answered her. She pressed again and again. The was immovable.
Light. She turned, to Karlov in the doorway, a in his hand. “The is with cement, Miss Conover. Nobody can in or out.”
Kitty got down, her uncertain. If he touched her! Oh, the she had been!
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked through lips.
“You are to me a bill of exchange, in something more to me than gold. I am going to keep you here until you are ransomed. The is the man you have been shielding. If he isn't here by midnight you vanish. Oh, we shan't you. Merely you will until my in America are terminated. You are and for so a woman. You will that we are not going to turn aside. You are not a woman to me; you are a valuable pawn. You are something to for.”
“I understand,” said Kitty, her trying to through. It that Karlov should not the thunder. To him, to answer his questions, to keep him from angry!
“I you would.” Karlov set the on Kitty's stepladder. “We saw your in the affair, and you on that side. You had me once. Being a newspaper writer—the New York kind—you would not until you learned who I was. You would not me. You were too well uptown. You have been out of the city for a week. We not where. You were reported entering your office this morning; and here you are. My one was that you might not see me. Personally you will have no to worry. No hand shall touch you.
“Thank you for that.”
“Don't misunderstand. There is no this promise. I your protector will much for your sake. Simply it is to offer you any violence. Do you know who the man is your protector is shielding?”
Kitty her head.
“Has he played the for you?”
“Yes.”
Karlov smiled. “Did you dance?”
“Dance? I don't understand.”
“No matter. He can play the nearly as well as his master. The two of them have gone across the world the of out of their bodies.”
Kitty sat on the plank. Terror from all points. Karlov's tones—his of gesture—convinced her that this was business. Terror that for all the promise of they might hands on her. Terror for Johnny Two-Hawks, for Cutty.
“Has he you?” she asked, to time.
“He is an error in chronology. He an idea which no longer exists.” He spoke English fluently, but with a accent.
“But to kill him for that!”
“Kill him? My dear lady, I want him to for me,” said Karlov with another smile.
“You to kill him,” Kitty, the to her throat.
“Bungling agents. Do know what of them—the two who your bedroom?”
“They were taken away the police.”
“So I thought. What of the wallet?”
“I it on the of my stove.”
“I to look there,” said Karlov, musingly. “Who has the drums?”
“The emeralds? You haven't them!” Kitty, her mother's daughter, though her so as now. “We you had them!”
Karlov at her, moodily. “What is that for, at the of your bed?”
Kitty the of the mind that this question. If she answered he would accept her statements. “It an in the basement.”
Karlov nodded. “You are and I haven't the emeralds.”
“Perhaps one of your men you.”
“I have of that. But if he had me the would have been by the police.... Damn them to hell!” Kitty he meant the police or the emeralds.
“Later, food and a will be to you. If your not appear by midnight you will be taken away. If you we may have to you roughly. That is as you please.”
Karlov out, locking the door.
Oh, the little she had been! All those warnings, and she had not heeded! Cutty had her repeatedly, so had Bernini; and she had walked into this trap. As if this cold, would himself without some and terrible purpose. She had either Cutty's or Johnny Two-Hawks' death warrant. She her eyes. It was horrible.
Perhaps not Cutty, but Two-hawks. His life for her liberty.
“And he will come!” she whispered. She it. How, was not to be analyzed. She just that he would come. What if he had like that! The European point of view and her own folly. He would come quietly, without protest, and give himself up.
“God me! What can I do? What can I do?”
She to the and her body. Her fault! He would come—even as Cutty would have come had he been the man demanded. And Karlov would kill him—because he was an error in chronology! She also that the would not look upon his act as murder. He would be an from the path of his dreams.
Comparisons! She saw how much the two were. Cutty was only Johnny Two-Hawks at fifty-two—fearless and whimsical. Had Cutty gone through life without looking at some woman as, last night, Two-Hawks had looked at her? All the of her life she would see Two-Hawks' eyes.
Abysmal fool, to her against such men as Karlov! Because she had been successful to a extent, she had her cleverness, with this result... He had the out of her. But death!
She up. It was to still, to the approach of the without being able to prevent it. She the windows. No in this direction. It was dark outside. What time was it?
The door opened. A man she had not came in with a blanket, a of water, and some crackers. His were a yellow and a from his clothes. He did not speak to her, but set the articles on the and departed.
Kitty did not stir. An hour passed; she sat as one in a trance. The was sinking. By and by she of a sound, a tapping. Whence it came she not tell. She moved about cautiously, to it. When she did the blood in her ears. The trap! Someone was trying to in through the trap!
Cutty! Thus soon! Who else it be? She for a piece of light to to the trap. She three times, and waited. Silence. She the signal. This time it was answered. Cutty! In a little while she would be free, and Two-Hawks would not have to pay for her with his life. Terror and forthwith.
She took the to the door and pushed one end under the door knob. Then she the other against the butt. The moment she steps on the stairs she would on the planks. It would be difficult to open that door. She sat on the to wait. From time to time she up the tallow. Cutty must have light. The on the on. They were away the cement. Perhaps an hour passed. At least it a very long time.
Steps on the stairs! She up, the door, the of her tingling. She the key turn in the lock; and then as in a she the under her but with persistence. She presently saw the toe of a insert, itself the door and the jamb. The pressure increased; the space the door and the widened. Suddenly the vanished, the door closed, and the fell. Immediately Karlov the room, suspiciously.
