"Fifteen dollars," he said.
"Twenty," breathed Mr. Heatherbloom insinuatingly.
The man put his hand in his pocket and counted out the money. The caller took it, said something in those same blithe significant accents about what would happen if the other made a move in the next two or three minutes, then vanished from the store. He did not keep to the busy thoroughfare now, but shot into a side street. Would the p.a.w.nbroker hide the frame and then call the police? It was quite possible he might thus seek to get into their good graces and revenge himself at the same time.
Mr. Heatherbloom turned from dark byway to dark byway. He knew there was a possibility that he might keep going throughout the night without being taken; but what would he attain by so doing, how would that profit him?
He had to get back to New York at once, and as speedily as possible!
The shining face of a street clock that a short time before he had looked at, admonished him there were no moments to spare, if he would carry out his plan, his headstrong purpose--to verify or disprove a certain wild theory--which would take him where, lead to what? No matter! Above, between black shadows of tall buildings, he saw a star, bright, beautiful. Something in him seemed to leap up to it--to that light as frostily clear as her eyes! A taxi pa.s.sed; he hailed it.
"How much to Jersey City?" he asked in feverish tones.
The man approximated a figure; it was large, but Mr. Heatherbloom at once got in.
"All right," he said. "Only let her go! I"ve a train to catch."
"You don"t want to land us in the police court, do you?" asked the chauffeur.
Mr. Heatherbloom devoutly hoped not.
CHAPTER XI
MISCALCULATIONS
Two days later, on a bright afternoon, a young man stood on the edge of a sea-wall called the Battery. It was not _the_ Battery, commanding a view of the outgoing and incoming maritime traffic of the continent"s metropolis, but another Battery, overlooking another harbor, or estuary, landlocked save for an entrance about a mile in width. Behind him lay, not a great, but a little, city; hardly more than a big town; before him a few vessels of moderate tonnage placidly plied the main or swash channels.
The scene was tranquilizing; nevertheless the young man appeared out of harmony with it. His face wore a feverish flush; his eyes had a restless gleam. He had only a short time before come to town, entering in unconventional fashion. As the train had slackened at a siding on the outskirts he had quietly, and unperceived, slipped off the back platform of the rear car; then made his way by devious and little frequented side streets to the sea-front.
There, his eager gaze scanned the craft, moving in the open, or motionless at the distant wharfs. An expression of acute disappointment pa.s.sed over his features; his eyes did not find what they sought. Had that mad flight been for nothing? Had he but run into a new kind of "pocket" here, all to no purpose?
Mr. Heatherbloom sat down; he was weary and worn. The dancing sparkles laughed at him; he did not feel like "laughing back". Even as he leaned against the parapet a newsboy close at hand called out:
"All about the mysterious abduction! One of the miscreants traced to this city! Superintendent of police warned of his probable arrival!"
The lad looked at Mr. Heatherbloom as he shouted; that gentleman returned his gaze with unflinching stolidness.
"What abduction?" he asked.
"Beautiful New York heiress."
The voice pa.s.sed on; the fugitive was once more alone with his thoughts.
If they had been wild, turbulent before, what were they now? His hands closed; at the moment he did not bemoan his own probable fate, only the fact that the clue bringing him here had been false--false!
Another voice--this time a man"s--accosted him. Mr. Heatherbloom sprang swiftly to his feet but the person, an old darky, did not appear very formidable.
"Got a match, boss?" he inquired mildly.
Mr. Heatherbloom"s bright suspicious glance shot into the good-humored, open look of the other; that person"s manner betrayed no ulterior motive. Perhaps he had not yet heard the newsboy; did not know--Mechanically the young man answered that he did not possess the article required, but the intruder still lingered; he had accosted the other partly because of a desire for desultory conversation. Mr.
Heatherbloom, after a moment"s careful scrutiny, showed a disposition to be accommodating in this regard; he even took the initiative--suddenly, asking question after question about this boat and that. Her name; when she had come; where she was going; of what her cargo consisted? The other replied willingly. Like many of his kind in the port, although he could not read or write, he was wise in harbor-front knowledge, knew all the floating tramps and the sailing craft.
"I suppose it"s always about the same old boats drop in here?" Mr.
Heatherbloom, after a little, observed insinuatingly.
"Yes, always de same ole tubs," a.s.sented the darky.
A shadow crossed the other"s face, but he managed to a.s.sume a light air.
"Battered hulks and sailing brigs of a past generation, eh?" He put the case strongly, but the darky only nodded smilingly. His strong point in conversation was in agreeing with people; he even forgot patriotism toward his own port in being amiable.
Mr. Heatherbloom glanced now beyond them to the right and the left; but no one whom he had reason to fear came within scope of his vision. His figure relaxed. When would they come to take him? The newsboy"s words reiterated themselves in his mind. "Traced to this city!" Of course; Miss Van Rolsen"s millions were at the command of the secret-service bureau; his description had been telegraphed far and wide. And when it should be fruitful of results, what would become of his theory?
Nevertheless, he would go on, while he could, to the last.
If he tried to explain they would consider it but a paltry blind to cover his own criminality. He could expect no help from them; he had to triumph or fail through his own efforts. To fail, certainly; it was decreed.
For the moment something in his breast pocket seemed to burn there, a tiny object, now without the frame. Involuntarily he raised his hand; then his figure swayed; the street waved up and down. He had eaten little during the last two or three days. Scornfully in his own mind he berated that momentary weakness and steadied himself. His eyes, cold and clear, now returned to the colored man; he groped for and took up the thread of the talk where he had left it.
"Old hulks and brigs! You don"t ever happen to have any really fine boats come in here, do you? Like Mr. Morgan"s big private yacht, for example?"
"No; we ain"t never seen dat craft yere. Dis port"s more for lumber and--"
Mr. Heatherbloom looked down. "I saw an item in the paper"--he strove to speak unconcernedly--"a Marconigram--that a certain Russian prince"s private yacht--the _Nevski_--had damaged her propeller, or some other part of her gear, and was being towed into this harbor for emergency repairs."
"Oh, yes, boss!" said the man. The listener took a firmer grip on the parapet. "You done mean de big white boat w"at lies on de odder side ob de island; can"t see her from yere. Dey done fix her up mighty quick an"
she gwine ter lebe to-night."
"Leave to-night!" Mr. Heatherbloom"s face changed; suppressed eagerness, expectancy shone from his eyes; he turned away to conceal it from the other. "Looks like good fishing over there near the island," he observed after a pause.
"Tain"t so much for fishin" as crabbin"," returned the other.
"Crabbing!" repeated Mr. Heatherbloom. "A grand sport! Now if--are you a crabber?" The darky confessed that crabbing was his main occupation; his boat swung right over there; for a dollar he would give the other several hours" diversion.
Mr. Heatherbloom accepted the offer with alacrity. A few moments later, seated in a dilapidated c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l, he found himself slamming over the water. The boat didn"t ship the tops of many seas but it took in enough spray over the port bow to drench pretty thoroughly the pa.s.senger. In the stern, the darky handling the sheet of a small, much patched sail, kept himself comparatively dry. But Mr. Heatherbloom didn"t seem to mind the drenching; though the briny drops stung his cheek, his face continued ever bent forward, toward a point of land to the right of which lay the island that came ever nearer, but slowly--so slowly!
He could see the top of the spars of a vessel now over the high sand-hills; his body bent toward it; in his eyes shone a steely light.
Their little boat drew closer to the near side of the island; the hillocks stood up higher; the tapering topmasts of the craft on the other side disappeared. The crabber"s c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l came to anchor in a tranquil sandy cove.
Mr. Heatherbloom, although inwardly chafing, felt obliged to restrain impatience; he could not afford to awaken the darky"s suspicions, therefore he simulated interest and--"crabbed". He enjoyed a streak of good luck, but his artificial enthusiasm soon waned. He at length suggested trying the other side of the island, whereupon his pilot expostulated.
What more did his pa.s.senger want? The latter thought he would stretch his legs a bit on the sh.o.r.e; it made him stiff to sit still so long. He would get out and walk around--he had a predilection for deserted islands. While he was gratifying his fancy the darky could return to his more remunerative business of gathering in the denizens of the deep.
Five minutes later Mr. Heatherbloom stood on the sandy beach; he started as if to walk around the island but had not gone far before he turned and moved at a right angle up over the sand-hill. The dull-hued bushes that somehow found nourishment on the yellow mound now concealed his figure from the boatman; the same hardy vegetation afforded him a shelter from the too inquisitive gaze of any persons on the yacht when he had gained the summit of the sands.
There, he peered through the leaves down upon a beautiful vessel. She lay near the sh.o.r.e; whatever her injury, it seemed to have been repaired by this time for few signs of life were apparent on or about her. Steam was up; a faint dun-colored smoke swept, pennon-like, from her white funnels. Some one was inspecting her stern from a platform swung over the rail, and to Mr. Heatherbloom"s strained vision this person"s interest, or concern, centered in the mechanism of her rudder. The trouble had been there no doubt, and if so, the yacht had probably come, or been brought near the island at high water, and at low tide any damage she might have suffered had been attended to. Her injury must have been more vexatious than serious. Would she, as the darky had affirmed, leave when the tide was once more at its full? Her lying in the outer, instead of in the inner harbor, seemed significant. Time pa.s.sed; the person on the platform regained the deck and disappeared. In the bushes the watcher suddenly started.
Something at one of the port windows had caught his glance. A ribbon? A fluttering bit of lace? A woman"s features that phantom-like had come and vanished? He looked hard--so steadily that spots began to dance before his sight, but he could not verify that first impression. Yet he remained. The shadows on the furze grew longer, falling in strange angular shapes down the hillside; the sun dipped low. At length Mr.
Heatherbloom, after the manner of one who had made up his mind to something, abruptly rose.