And then-Dolly Quaker, Jean Webster, Gwynn Roget, Marion-"
"No names, please!" a shocked voice interrupted. "Does Romeo tell Juliet?"
"You"re all going on latrine a.s.signment tomorrow," Y"ang-Yeovil said. "I"m d.a.m.ned if I"ll stand for this salacious insubordination. No, not tomorrow; but as soon as this case is closed." His hawk face darkened. "My G.o.d, what a mess! Will you ever forget Foyle standing there like a burning brand? But where is he? What"s he up to? What"s it all mean?"
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
PRESTEIGN OF PRESTEIGN"S MANSION in Central Park was ablaze for the New Year. Charming antique electric bulks with zigzag filaments and pointed tips shed yellow light. The jaunte-proof maze had been removed and the great door was open for the special occasion. The interior of the house was protected from the gaze of the crowd outside by a jeweled screen just inside the door.
The sightseers buzzed and exclaimed as the famous and near-famous of clan and sept arrived by car, by coach, by litter, by every form of luxurious transportation. Presteign of Presteign himself stood before the door, iron gray, handsome, smiling his basilisk smile, and welcomed society to his open house. Hardly had a celebrity stepped through the door and disappeared behind the screen when another, even more famous, came clattering up in a vehicle even more fabulous.
The Colas arrived in a band wagon. The Esso family (six sons, three daughters) was magnificent in agla.s.s-topped Greyhound bus. But Greyhound arrived (in an Edison electric runabout) hard on their heels and there was much laughter and chaffing at the door. But when Edison of Westing-house dismounted from his Esso-fueled gasoline buggy, completing the circle, the laughter on the steps turned into a roar.
Just as the crowd of guests turned to enter Presteign"s home, a distant commotion attracted their attention. It was a rumble, a fierce chatter of pneumatic punches, and an outrageous metallic bellowing. It approached rapidly. The outer fringe of sightseers opened a broad lane. A heavy truck rumbled down the lane. Six men were tumbling baulks of timber out the back of the truck. Following them came a crew of twenty arranging the baulks neatly in rows.
Presteign and his guests watched with amazement. A giant machine, bellowing and pounding, approached, crawling over the ties. Behind it were deposited parallel rails of welded steel. Crews with sledges and pneumatic punches spiked the rails to the timber ties. The track was laid to Presteign"s door in a sweeping arc and then curved away. The bellowing engine and crews disappeared into the darkness.
"Good G.o.d!" Presteign was distinctly heard to say. Guests poured out of the house to watch.
A shrill whistle sounded in the distance. Down the track came a man on a white horse, carrying a large red flag. Behind him panted a steam locomo-tive drawing a single observation car. The train stopped before Presteign"s door. A conductor swung down from the car followed by a Pullman porter. The porter arranged steps. A lady and gentleman in evening clothes descended.
"Shan"t be long," the gentleman told the conductor. "Come back for me in an hour."
"Good G.o.d!" Presteign exclaimed again.
The train puffed off. The couple mounted the steps.
"Good evening, Presteign," the gentleman said. "Terribly sorry about that horse messing up your grounds, but the old New York franchise still insists on the red flag in front of trains."
"Fourmylel" the guests shouted.
"Fourmyle of Ceres!" the sightseers cheered.
Presteign"s party was now an a.s.sured success.
Inside the vast velvet and plush reception hall, Presteign examined Fourmyle curiously. Foyle endured the keen iron-gray gaze with equanimity, meanwhile nodding and smiling to the enthusiastic admirers he had acquired from Canberra to New York, with whom Robin Wednesbury was chatting.
"Control," he thought. "Blood, bowels and brain. He grilled me in his office for one hour after that crazy attempt I made on "Vorga." Will he recognize me? Your face is familiar, Presteign," Fourmyle said. "Have we met before?"
"I have not had the honor of meeting a Fourmyle until tonight," Presteign answered ambiguously. Foyle had trained himself to read men, but Presteign"s hard, handsome face was inscrutable. Standing face to face, the one detached and compelled, the other reserved and indomitable, they looked like a pair of brazen statues at white heat on the verge of running molten.
"I"m told that you boast of being an upstart, Fourmyle."
"Yes. I"ve patterned myself after the first Presteign.""Indeed?"
"You will remember that he boasted of starting the family fortune in the plasma blackmarket during the third World War."
"It was the second war, Fourmyle. But the hypocrites of our clan never acknowledge him. The name was Payne then."
"I hadn"t known."
"And what was your unhappy name before you changed it to Fourmyle?"
"It was Presteign."
"Indeed?" The basilisk smile acknowledged the hit. "You claim a relationship with our clan?"
"I will claim it in time."
"Of what degree?"
"Let"s say... a blood relationship."
"How interesting. I detect a certain fascination for blood in you, Fourmyle."
"No doubt a family weakness, Presteign."
"You"re pleased to be cynical," Presteign said, not without cynicism, "but you speak the truth. We have always had a fatal weakness for blood and money. It is our vice. I admit it."
"And I share it."
"A pa.s.sion for blood and money?"
"Indeed I do. Most pa.s.sionately."
"Without mercy, without forgiveness, without hypocrisy?"
"Without mercy, without forgiveness, without hypocrisy."
"Fourmyle, you are a young man after my own heart. If you do not claim a relationship with our clan I shall be forced to adopt you."
"You"re too late, Presteign. I"ve already adopted you."
Presteign took Foyle"s arm. "You must be presented to my daughter, Lady Olivia. Will you allow me?"
They crossed the reception hall. Foyle hesitated, wondering whether he should call Robin to his side for impending emergencies, but he was too triumphant. He doesn"t know. He"ll never know. Then doubt came: But I"ll never know if he does know. He"s crucible steel. He could teach me a thing or two about control.
Acquaintances hailed Fourmyle.
"Wonderful deception you worked in Shanghai."
"Marvelous carnival in Rome, wasn"t it? Did you hear about the burning man who appeared on theSpanish Stairs?"
"We looked for you in London."
"What a heavenly entrance that was," Harry Sherwin-Williams called. "Outdid us all, Fourmyle. Made us look like a pack of d.a.m.ned pikers."
"You forget yourself, Harry," Presteign said coldly. "You know I permit no profanity in my home."
"Sorry, Presteign. Where"s the circus now, Fourmyle?"
"I don"t know," Foyle said. "Just a moment."
A crowd gathered, grinning in antic.i.p.ation of the latest Fourmyle folly. He took out a platinum watch and snapped open the case. The face of a valet appeared on the dial.
"Ahhh... whatever your name is... Where are we staying just now?"
The answer was tiny and tinny. "You gave orders to make New York your permanent residence, Fourmyle."
"Oh? Did I? And?"
"We bought St. Patrick"s Cathedral, Fourmyle."
"And where is that?"
"Old St. Patrick"s, Fourmyle. On Fifth Avenue and what was formerly joth Street. We"ve pitched the camp inside."
"Thank you." Fourmyle closed the platinum Hunter. "My address is Old St. Patrick"s, New York.
There"s one thing to be said for the outlawed religions... At least they built churches big enough to house a circus."
Olivia Presteign was seated on a dais, surrounded by admirers paying court to this beautiful albino daughter of Presteign. She was strangely and wonderfully blind, for she could see in the infrared only, from 7,500 angstroms to one millimeter wave lengths, far below the normal visible spectrum. She saw heat waves, magnetic fields, radio waves; she saw her admirers in a strange light of organic emanations against a background of red radiation.
She was a Snow Maiden, an Ice Princess with coral eyes and coral lips, imperious, mysterious, unattainable. Foyle looked at her once and lowered his eyes in confusion before the blind gaze that could only see him as electromagnetic waves and infrared light. His pulse began to beat faster; a hundred lightning fantasies about himself and Olivia Presteign flashed in his heart.
"Don"t be a fooll" he thought desperately. "Control yourself. Stop dreaming. This can be dangerous ...".
He was introduced; was addressed in a husky, silvery voice; was given a cool, slim hand; but the hand seemed to explode within his with an electric shock. It was almost a start of mutual recognition... almost a joining of emotional impact.
"This is insane. She"s a symbol. The Dream Princess . . . The Unattainable... Control!"
He was fighting so hard that he scarcely realized he had been dismissed, graciously and indifferently. Hecould not believe it. He stood, gaping like a lout.
"What? Are you still here, Fourmyle?"
"I couldn"t believe I"d been dismissed, Lady Olivia."
"Hardly that, but I"m afraid you are in the way of my friends."
"I"m not used to being dismissed. (No. No. All wrong!) At least by someone I"d like to count as a friend."
"Don"t be tedious, Fourmyle. Do step down."
"How have I offended you?"
"Offended me? Now you"re being ridiculous."
"Lady Olivia... (Can"t I say anything right? Where"s Robin?) Can we start again, please?"
"If you"re trying to be gauche, Fourmyle, you"re succeeding admirably."
"Your hand again, please. Thank you. I"m Fourmyle of Ceres."
"All right." She laughed. "I"ll concede you"re a clown. Now do step down. I"m sure you can find someone to amuse."
"What"s happened this time?"
"Really, sir, are you trying to make me angry?"
"No. (Yes, I am. Trying to touch you somehow... cut through the ice.) The first time our handclasp was... violent. Now it"s nothing. What happened?"
"Fourmyle," Olivia said wearily, "I"ll concede that you"re amusing, original, witty, fascinating... anything, if you will only go away."
He stumbled off the dais. "b.i.t.c.h. b.i.t.c.h. b.i.t.c.h. No. She"s the dream just as I dreamed her. The icy pinnacle to be stormed and taken. To lay siege... invade... ravish... force to her knees..."
He came face to face with Saul Dagenham.
He stood paralyzed, coercing blood and bowels.
"Ah, Fourmyle," Presteign said. "This is Saul Dagenham. He can only give us thirty minutes and he insists on spending one of them with you."
"Does he know? Did he send for Dagenham to make sure? Attack. Tot/jours de I"audace. What happened to your face, Dagenham?" Fourmyle asked with detached curiosity.
The death"s head smiled. "And I thought I was famous. Radiation poisoning. I"m hot. Time was when they said "Hotter than an pistol." Now they say "Hotter than Dagenham."" The deadly eyes raked Foyle.
"What"s behind that circus of yours?"
"A pa.s.sion for notoriety."
"I"m an old hand at camouflage myself. I recognize the signs. What"s your larceny?""Did Dillinger tell Capone?" Foyle smiled back, beginning to relax, restraining his triumph. "I"ve outfaced them both. You look happier, Dagenham." Instantly he realized the slip.
Dagenham picked it up in a flash. "Happier than when? Where did we meet before?"
"Not happier than when; happier than me." Foyle turned to Presteign. "I"ve fallen desperately in love with Lady Olivia."
"Saul, your half hour"s up."
Dagenham and Presteign, on either side of Foyle, turned. A tall woman approached, stately in an emerald evening gown, her red hair gleaming. It was Jisbella McQueen. Their glances met. Before the shock could seethe into his face, Foyle turned, ran six steps to the first door he saw, opened it and darted through.
The door slammed behind him. He was in a short blind corridor. There was a click, a pause, and then a canned voice spoke courteously: "You have invaded a private portion of this residence. Please retire."
Foyle gasped and struggled with himself.