And with this consoling comment he was gone, and I was left in the dawn of my first morning in San Francisco, mind and body at the nadir of depression after the excitement and perils of the night.
CHAPTER V
DODDRIDGE KNAPP
It was past ten o"clock of the morning when the remembrance of the mysterious note I had received the preceding night came on me. I took the slip from my pocket, and read its contents once more:
"Don"t make the change until I see you. The money will be ready in the morning. Be at the bank at 10:30."
This was perplexing enough, but it furnished me with an idea. Of course I could not take money intended for Henry Wilton. But here was the first chance to get at the heart of this dreadful business. The writer of the note, I must suppose, was the mysterious employer. If I could see her I could find the way of escape from the dangerous burden of Henry Wilton"s personality and mission.
But which bank could be meant? The only names I knew were the Bank of California, whose failure in the previous year had sent echoes even into my New England home, and the Anglo-Californian Bank, on which I held a draft. The former struck me as the more likely place of appointment, and after some skilful navigating I found myself at the corner of California and Sansome Streets, before the building through which the wealth of an empire had flowed.
I watched closely the crowd that pa.s.sed in and out of the treasure-house, and a.s.sumed what I hoped was an air of prosperous indifference to my surroundings.
No one appeared to notice me. There were eager men and cautious men, and men who looked secure and men who looked anxious, but neither man nor woman was looking for me.
Plainly I had made a bad guess. A hasty walk through several other banks that I could see in the neighborhood gave no better result, and I had to acknowledge that this chance of penetrating the mystery was gone. I speculated for the moment on what the effects might be. To neglect an order of this kind might result in the withdrawal of the protection that had saved my life, and in turning me over to the mercies of the banditti who thought I knew something of the whereabouts of a boy.
As I reflected thus, I came upon a crowd ma.s.sed about the steps of a great granite building in Pine Street; a whirlpool of men, it seemed, with crosscurrents and eddies, and from the whole rose the murmur of excited voices.
It was the Stock Exchange, the gamblers" paradise, in which millions were staked, won and lost, and ruin and affluence walked side by side.
As I watched the swaying, shouting ma.s.s with wonder and amus.e.m.e.nt, a thrill shot through me.
Upon the steps of the building, amid the crowd of brokers and speculators, I saw a tall, broad-shouldered man of fifty or fifty-five, his face keen, shrewd and hard, broad at the temples and tapering to a strong jaw, a yellow-gray mustache and imperial half-hiding and half-revealing the firm lines of the mouth, with the mark of the wolf strong upon the whole. It was a face never to be forgotten as long as I should hold memory at all. It was the face I had seen twelve hours before in the lantern flash in the dreadful alley, with the cry of murder ringing in my ears. Then it was lighted by the fierce fires of rage and hatred, and marked with the chagrin of baffled plans. Now it was cool, good-humored, alert for the battle of the Exchange that had already begun. But I knew it for the same, and was near crying aloud that here was a murderer.
I clutched my nearest neighbor by the arm, and demanded to know who it was.
"Doddridge Knapp," replied the man civilly. "He"s running the Chollar deal now, and if I could only guess which side he"s on, I"d make a fortune in the next few days. He"s the King of Pine Street."
While I was looking at the King of the Street and listening to my neighbor"s tales of his operations, Doddridge Knapp"s eyes met mine.
To my amazement there was a look of recognition in them. Yet he made no sign, and in a moment was gone. This, then, was the enemy I was to meet!
This was the explanation of Detective Coogan"s hint that I should be safer in jail than free on the streets to face this man"s hatred or revenge.
I must have stood in a daze on the busy street, for I was roused by some one shaking my arm with vigor.
"Come! are you asleep?" said the man, speaking in my ear. "Can"t you hear?"
"Yes, yes," said I, rousing my attention.
"The chief wants you." His voice was low, almost a whisper.
"The chief? Who? Where?" I asked. "At the City Hall?" I jumped to the conclusion that it was, of course, the chief of police, on the scent of the murder.
"No. Of course not. In the second office, you know."
This was scarcely enlightening. Doubtless, however, it was a summons from my unknown employer.
"I"ll follow you," said I promptly.
"I don"t think I"d better go," said the messenger dubiously. "He didn"t say anything about it, and you know he"s rather--"
"Well, I order it," I cut in decisively. "I may need you."
I certainly needed him at that moment if I was to find my way.
"Go ahead a few steps," I said.
My tone and manner impressed him, and he went without another word. I sauntered after him with as careless an air as I could a.s.sume. My heart was beating fast. I felt that I was close to the mystery and that the next half-hour would determine whether I was to take up Henry Wilton"s work or to find my way in safety back to my own name and person.
My unconscious guide led the way along Montgomery Street into an office building, up a flight of stairs, and into a back hallway.
"Stay a moment," I said, as he had his hand on the door k.n.o.b. "On second thoughts you can wait down stairs."
He turned back, and as his footsteps echoed down the stair I opened the door and entered the office.
As I crossed the threshold my heart gave a great bound, and I stopped short. Before me sat Doddridge Knapp, the King of the Street, the man for whom above all others in the world I felt loathing and fear.
Doddridge Knapp finished signing his name to a paper on his desk before he looked up.
"Come in and sit down," he said. The voice was alert and businesslike--the voice of a man accustomed to command. But I could find no trace of feeling in it, nothing that could tell me of the hatred or desperate purpose that should inspire such a tragedy as I had witnessed, or warn me of danger to come.
"Do you hear?" he said impatiently; "shut the door and sit down. Just spring that lock, will you? We might be interrupted."
I was not at all certain that I should not wish very earnestly that he might be interrupted in what Bret Harte would call the "subsequent proceedings." But I followed his directions.
Doddridge Knapp was not less impressive at close view than at long range. The strong face grew stronger when seen from the near distance.
"My dear Wilton," he said, "I"ve come to a place where I"ve got to trust somebody, so I"ve come back to you." The voice was oily and persuasive, but the keen gray eyes shot out a glance from under the bushing eyebrows that thrilled me as a warning.
"It"s very kind of you," I said, swallowing my astonishment with an effort.
"Well," said Knapp, "the way you handled that Ophir matter was perfectly satisfactory; but I"ll tell you that it"s on Mrs. Knapp"s say-so, as much as on your own doings, that I select you for this job."
"I"m much obliged to Mrs. Knapp," I said politely. I was in deep waters.
It was plainly unsafe to do anything but drift.
"Oh, you can settle that with her at your next call," he said good humoredly.
The jaded nerves of surprise refused to respond further. If I had received a telegram informing me that the dispute over the presidency had been settled by shelving both Hayes and Tilden and giving the unanimous vote of the electors to me, I should have accepted it as a matter of course. I took my place unquestioningly as a valued acquaintance of Doddridge Knapp"s and a particular friend of Mrs.
Knapp"s.
Yet it struck me as strange that the keen-eyed King of the Street had failed to discover that he was not talking to Henry Wilton, but to some one else who resembled him. There were enough differences in features and voice to distinguish us among intimate friends, though there were not enough to be seen by casual acquaintances. I had the key in the next sentence he spoke.