Cutty at the in time to dinner with Hawksley. He had to say nothing about the of Hawksley and Kitty Conover, since it had fortunately. Bernini had the of the adventure. He Hawksley's part; but Kitty's wasn't to ordinary terms of expression. The had wild his still on his and his was to his nerves. But for Kitty to wild with him offered a blank to speculation. (As if he solve the when Kitty herself not!) So he to himself up in his study and the chrysoprase. Something might come of it. Looking backward, he the salient, at no time had he been sure of Kitty. She to be a of and deeps.
From the Pennsylvania Station he had called up the office. Kitty had gone. Bernini him that Kitty was at a on the way home. Cutty was thorough. He the restaurant and was that Miss Conover had a table. He had to send the who Kitty at that end. But the from the office to the Subway was so insignificant!
“You are looking fit,” he said across the table.
“Ought to be off your hands by Monday. But what about Stefani Gregor? I can't stir, him on a peg.”
“I am going into the study to decide that. Head you?”
“Occasionally.”
“Ryan easy to along with?”
“Rather a good sort. I say, you know, you've a good of life. Which do you the stronger, the or environment?”
“Environment. That is the true mould. There is good and in all of us. It is into by the way we live. An cannot touch without defiled. On the other hand, the in the world saved France. Do you that will not always be at and those who returned from the Marne?”
“There is hope, then, for me!”
“Hope?”
“Yes. You know that my father, my uncle, and my were scoundrels.”
“Under their you would have been one, too. But no man live with Stefani Gregor and not his qualities. Your has been Anglo-Saxon, where the in the picture is play. You have been under the of a and personality, Gregor's. Whatever you may have inherited, they have to the that have you. Take me, for instance. I was in a atmosphere. My have always been good. Yet there in me the of Macaire. Given the environment, I should now have my picture in the Rogues' Gallery.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
Hawksley played with his fork. “If you had a would you trust me with her?”
“Yes. Any man who can over the portrait of his mother may be trusted. Once you are out there in Montana you'll all about your forbears.”
Handsome beggar, Cutty; but under the opal. An against his guest his heart. He his youth, his of manner, his in the common tongue. He was a Britisher; he British; approached from a British point of view. A Britisher—except when he had that under his chin. Then Cutty he did not know what he was. Devil take him!
There must have been something in Cutty's resentment, for the object of it it subtly, and it his own. He the of action that had always been him, his host's and physical superiority. Did Cutty for the girl, or was he playing the game as it had been to him? Money and freedom. But then, it was in no a barter; she would be nothing, and the old would be nothing. His suggestion! He laughed.
“What's the joke?” asked Cutty, looking up from his coffee, which he was with vigour.
“It isn't a joke. I'm well twisted. I laugh now when I think of something tragic. I am sorry about last night. I was mad, I suppose.”
“Tell me about it.”
Cutty and occasionally. Mad as hatters, of them. He and Kitty couldn't have gone on a like this, but Kitty and Hawksley could. Thereupon his up again.
“Have you any idea why she took such a risk? Why she came here, me to be absent?”
“She spoke of a problem. I it related to your marriage. She told me.”
Cutty his spoon. “I'd like to Your Highness into the middle of East River for that idea into my head. She has to it; and now, it, I've got to out of it!” Cutty rose and his napkin.
“Why?” asked the Hawksley.
“Because there is in me the making of a first-rate scoundrel, and I should have it if you and your hadn't up.”
Cutty entered his study and the door, Hawksley to so many that his to him. Back out of it! Why? Why should Kitty have a problem to solve over such a marriage of convenience, and why should the old want to out?
Kitty would be free, then? A of fire, which under the truth. What if she were free? He not ask her to be his wife. Not of last night's madness. That no longer him. She was the who would understand, if he told her. She had a big with understanding. It was that he walked in the of death, and would so long as Karlov was free; and he not ask any woman to that.
He pushed his chair slowly. In the room he took the Amati from its case and improvising. What the did for Cutty the did for this derelict—solved problems.
He all the phases as he played. That dish of and eggs, the air of her, that fan! [Allegretto.] She had him on the floor. She had had the to come to his assistance. [Andante espressione.] What had been in her mind that night she had taken from his bedroom, after having him the wallet? Something like tears. What about? An American girl, natural, humorous, and fanciful. Somehow he that it had not been his kisses; she had looked into his and the taint. Always there, the that old Stefani had and subdued. He now that this would again its head. And he had let her go without a sign. [Dolorosomente.] To have gone through life with a woman who would have his nature. The test of her had been last night in the streets. His mood had been hers. [Allegretto amore.]
“Love,” he said, the bow.
“Love,” said Cutty, shifting his chrysoprase. There was no like an old fool. It did not to Molly in all her glory, to and for a to him out of this morass. Molly had an ghost. He loved her daughter. Double sunset; the of the Indian Ocean was now being upon his own horizon. Double sunset.
But why should Kitty have any problem to solve? Why should she over such a as this official marriage? It was only a joke which would his generosity. She had sent that after this apartment. What had here to decide her? Had Hawksley fiddled? There was something the with the green to-night; they nothing.
He in his chair, listening, the bowl of his pipe the of his coat. Music. Queer, what you do with a if you how.
After all there was no in his anger on Hawksley. He was by his own petard. Why not admit the truth? He had had a on the the same night as Hawksley; only, he had been by an idea, often more than the of a pistol. He would for that from the room. The devil! He toward the green again. In the room Hawksley sat in a chair, the across his knees. He now. The old was in love with the girl, and was of himself; couldn't having her and her go.... A on the of jeopardy! Misfortune their wake always. The world would have been different this hour if he—The in the of was by the entrance of Kuroki, who was by a man. This man into a chair without noticing that the room was already tenanted, for he toward Hawksley. A face, of eye. Kuroki and vanished, but returned shortly, the to him into the study.
“Coles?” Cutty delightedly. Here was the man he had sent to for the emeralds, free. “How did you escape? We've the town for you.”
“They had me in a room on Fifteenth Street. Once in a while I got something to eat. But I haven't escaped. I'm still a prisoner.”
“What do you by that?”
“I am here as an emissary. There was nothing for me to do but accept the job.”
“Did he have the stones?” asked Cutty, without the least of what was coming.
“That I don't know. He to have them in order to me where he wanted me. I've been a good I wouldn't talk. I'm here as a negotiator. A business. I I've you'll be able to put one over on Karlov. It's the girl.”
“Kitty?”
“Karlov has her. The girl wasn't to blame. Any one in the game would have done as she did. Karlov is on politics; but he's at this of game. He the girl he'd her to learn what she would or would not do. Now they are not going to her. They her for the man you've been up here. There's a taxi downstairs. It will me to Fifteenth; then it will return and wait. If the man is not at the place by midnight—he must go in this taxi—the girl will be off elsewhere, and you'll on her again. Karlov and his are assassins; all they want is excuse. Until midnight they will not touch the girl; but after midnight, God knows! What message am I to take back?”
“Do you know where she is?”
Cutty spoke without much emotion.
“Not the least idea. Whenever Karlov wanted to me, he appeared late at night from some other part of the town. But he got much.”
“You saw him this evening?”
“Yes. It him as a joke to send me.”
“And if you don't go back?”
“The girl will be taken away. I'm of the man. He's too spoken. That of a man always goes the limit.”
“I see. Wait here.”
At Cutty's approach Hawksley looked up apathetically.
“Want me?”
“Perhaps.”
“You are pale. Anything serious?”
“Yes. Karlov has got Kitty.”
For a minute Hawksley did not stir. Then he got up, put away the Amati, and came back. He was pale, too.
“I understand,” he said. “They will her for me. Am I right?”
“Yes. But you are not to do anything like that, you know.”
“I am ready.”
“You give up?”
“Why not?”
“You're a man!” Cutty out.
“I was up by one. Honestly, now, I look a white man in the again if I didn't give myself up? I did to that I might through. But Fate was only playing with me. May I use your to a line?”
“Come with me,” said Cutty, unsteadily. This was not the result of environment. Quiet of this order was race. No questions if there wasn't some way the inevitable. Cutty's glowed; the boy had walked into it, to it. “I'm ready.” It took a man to say that when the was death.
“Coles,” said Cutty upon the study, “tell Karlov that His Highness will give himself up. He will be there midnight.”
“That's for me. But if there's the least that you're not playing it will be all off. Two men will be the taxi and the entrance. If you appear, it's good-night. They told me to you.”
“I promise not to appear.”
Coles and for his hat. He his hand out to Hawksley. “You're a white man, sir.”
“Thanks,” said Hawksley, absently. To have it all over with!
As soon as the Federal agent Hawksley sat at the and wrote.
“Will this legally?” he asked, the to Cutty.
Cutty saw that it was a will. In it Hawksley gave of his to Kitty and to Stefani Gregor. In case the was the total was to go to Kitty.
“I got you into a muddle; this will take you out of it. Karlov will kill me. I don't know how. I am his obsession. He will sleep with me off his mind. Will this legally?”
“Yes. But why Kitty Conover, a stranger?”
“Is a woman who saves your life a stranger?”
“Well, not exactly. This is what we might call zero hour. I gave you a here not particularly I was sorry for you, but I wanted those emeralds. Once upon a time Gregor them to me. Until I your I you had in the stones; and that would have been game. But you had paid your way in honestly. Now, what did you do to Kitty Conover last night that her to accept that proposition? She sent her after she left you.
“I did not know that. I played for her. She music-struck, and I took of it—kissed her. Then she told me she was going to you.”
“And that is why you asked me if I would trust you with a of mine?”
“Yes.”
“Conscience. That this will.”
“No. Why did you accept my to her?”
“To make her without the of convention.”
“No. Because you love her—the way I do.”
Cutty's pipe from his teeth. It did not often do that. He out the and the pipe on the tray.
“What makes you think I love her?”
“What makes me tell you that I do?”
“Yes, death may be at the end of to-night's work; so I'll admit that I love her. She is like a stream, wild at turns, but always sweet and clear. I'm an old fool, old to be her father. I loved her mother. Can a man love two with all his heart, one years after the other?”
“It is the avatar; she is the of the mother. I now. What was a memory takes again. You still love the mother; the has that love.”
“By the Lord Harry, I you've it! Walked into the and couldn't the way out. Of course. What an old I've been! Simple as daylight. I've in love with Molly all over again, it was Kitty. Plain as the nose on my face. And I might have a of it if you hadn't me up.”
All this over Hawksley's head. “When do you wish me to go to the taxi?”
“Son, I'm to like you. You shall have your chance. In fact, we'll take it together. There'll be a taxi but I'll it. I'm positive I know where Kitty is. If I'm you'll have your chance. If I'm you'll have to pay the score. We'll her out or we'll where she is. In any event, Karlov will pay the price. Wouldn't you to go out—if you must—in a scrap?”
“Fighting?” Hawksley was on his instantly. “Do you that? I can die with free hands?”
“With a of out top-hole.”
“I say, what a thing is—always back!”
Cutty nodded. But he there was one that would warm his again. Molly!... Well, he'd let the that. Kitty must know. Poor little chick, with her in the dark and not what the was! Such happened. He had loved Molly on sight. He had loved Kitty on sight. In neither case had he it until too late to turn about. Mother and daughter; a of sacrilege, as if he had Molly! But what a clear love to the mind! He Kitty, who did not herself. Well, this night's would decide things.
He smiled. Neither Kitty the of jeopardy; nothing. The gates of again—for somebody else! Whoever of a press notices?
“Let's look alive! We haven't any time to waste. We'll have to to dungarees—engineer togs. There'll be some to carry. We go to the room. We come up the on the side. Remember, no haste. Two off for their of at the groggery. Through the door there, and into my taxi. Obey every order I give. Now along to Kuroki and say night work for of us. He'll what's wanted. I'll set the in motion for a raid. How do you feel? I want the truth. I don't want to turn to you for help and not it.”
Hawksley laughed. “Don't worry about me. I'll on. Don't you understand? To have an end of it, one way or the other! To come free or to die there!”
“And if Kitty is not where I her to be?”
“Then I'll return to the taxi outside.”
To be like that! Cutty, sad and old. “To come free or to die there!” That was good Anglo-Saxon. He would make a good American citizen—if he were in luck.
At after nine the two of them on the the trap. Nothing but cement. So the of this trap, the time, was a Herculean task, it had to be with little or no noise. Cold chisels, fulcrums, prying, heaving, boring. To free the under edge; the top did not matter. Not if Kitty were below—that was the part of the job.
The of ran Hawksley's face; but he faltered. He was going to die to-night, somehow, somewhere, but with free hands, the way Stefani would have him die, the way the girl would have him die. All these thousands of miles—to die in a house he had before, just when life was something!
An hour by. Then they Kitty's signal. Instinctively the two of them that the came from her. They were when her was repeated. She was below, alone.
“Faster!” Cutty.
Hawksley smiled. To say that to a when he was into his tomb!
When the of the were free Cutty to Kitty again. There was a long, wait. Then three came from below. Cutty a to the windows. In five minutes the would be in full swing—from the roof, from the street, from the cellar.
With their by the two men heaved. Noise did not now. Presently the over.
“Look out for your hands; there's of glass. And together when we drop.”
“Right-o!” Hawksley, that when he through the the result would be oblivion. Done in.
