I rushed to the window and looked out. A band of half a dozen men was struggling and pushing away from Montgomery Street into the darker end of the alley. They were nearly under the window.
"Give it to him," said a voice.
In an instant there came a scream, so freighted with agony that it burst the bonds of gripping fingers and smothering palms that tried to close it in, and rose for the fraction of a second on the foul air of the alley. Then a light showed and a tall, broad-shouldered figure leaped back.
"These aren"t the papers," it hissed. "Curse on you, you"ve got the wrong man!"
There was a moment"s confusion, and the light flashed on the man who had spoken and was gone. But that flash had shown me the face of a man I could never forget--a man whose destiny was bound up for a brief period with mine, and whose wicked plans have proved the master influence of my life. It was a strong, cruel, wolfish face--the face of a man near sixty, with a fierce yellow-gray mustache and imperial--a face broad at the temples and tapering down into a firm, unyielding jaw, and marked then with all the lines of rage, hatred, and chagrin at the failure of his plans.
It took not a second for me to see and hear and know all this, for the vision came and was gone in the dropping of an eyelid. And then there echoed through the alley loud cries of "Police! Murder! Help!" I was conscious that there was a man running through the hall and down the rickety stairs, making the building ring to the same cries. My own feelings were those of overmastering fear for my friend. He had gone on his mysterious, dangerous errand, and I felt that it was he who had been dragged into the alley, and stabbed, perhaps to death. Yet it seemed I could make no effort, nor rouse myself from the stupor of terror into which I was thrown by the scene I had witnessed.
It was thus with a feeling of surprise that I found myself in the street, and came to know that the cries for help had come from me, and that I was the man who had run through the hall and down the stairs shouting for the police.
Singularly enough there was no crowd to be seen, and no excitement anywhere. Some one was playing a wheezy melodeon in the saloon, and men were singing a drunken song. The alley was dark, and I could see no one in its depths. The house through which I had flown shouting was now silent, and if any one on the street had heard me he had hurried on and closed his ears, lest evil befall him. Fortunately the policeman on the beat was at hand, and I hailed him excitedly.
"Only rolling a drunk," he said lightly, as I told of what I had seen.
"No, it"s worse than that," I insisted. "There was murder done, and I"m afraid it"s my friend."
He listened more attentively as I told him how Henry had left the house just before the cry for help had risen.
The policeman took me by the shoulders, turned me to the gaslight, and looked in my face.
"Excuse me, sor," he said. "I see you"re not one of that kind. Some of "em learns it from the blitherin" Chaneymen."
I was mystified at the moment, but I found later that he suspected me of having had an opium dream. The house, I learned, was frequented by the "opium fiends," as they figure in police slang.
"It"s a nasty place," he continued. "It"s lucky I"ve got a light." He brought up a dark lantern from his overcoat pocket, and stood in the shelter of the building as he lighted it. "There"s not many as carries "em," he continued, "but they"re mighty handy at times."
We made our way to the point beneath the window, where the men had stood.
There was nothing to be seen--no sign of struggle, no shred of torn clothing, no drop of blood. Body, traces and all had disappeared.
CHAPTER III
A QUESTION IN THE NIGHT
I was stricken dumb at this end to the investigation, and half doubted the evidence of my eyes.
"Well," said the policeman, with a sigh of relief, "there"s nothing here."
I suspected that his doubts of my sanity were returning.
"Here is where it was done," I a.s.serted stoutly, pointing to the spot where I had seen the struggling group from the window. "There were surely five or six men in it."
The policeman turned his lantern on the spot. The rough pavement had taken no mark of the scuffle.
"It"s hard to make sure of things from above in this light," said the policeman, hinting once more his suspicion that I was confusing dreams with reality.
"There was no mistaking that job," I said. "See here, the alley leads farther back. Bring your light."
"Aisy, now," said the policeman. "I"ll lead the way. Maybe you want one yourself, as your friend has set the fashion."
A few paces farther the alley turned at a right angle to the north, yawning dark behind the grim and threatening buildings, and filled with noisome odors. We looked narrowly for a body, and then for traces that might give hint of the pa.s.sage of a party.
"Nothing here," said the policeman, as we came out on the other street.
"Maybe they"ve carried him into one of these back-door dens, and maybe they whisked him into a hack here, and are a mile or two away by now."
"But we must follow them. He may be only wounded and can be rescued. And these men can be caught." I was almost hysterical in my eagerness.
"Aisy, aisy, now," said the policeman. "Go back to your room, now.
That"s the safest place for you, and you can"t do nothin" at all out here. I"ll report the case to the head office, an" we"ll send out the alarm to the force. Now, here"s your door. Just rest aisy, and they"ll let you know if anything"s found."
And he pa.s.sed on, leaving me dazed with dread and despair in the entrance of the fateful house.
The sounds of drunken pleasure were lessening about me. The custom had fallen off in the saloon across the street to such extent that the proprietor was putting up the shutters. The saloon on the corner of the alley was still waiting for stray customers and I crossed over to it with the thought that the inmates might give me a possible clue. A man half-asleep leaned back in a chair by the stove with his chin on his breast. Two rough-looking men at a table who were talking in low tones pretended not to notice my entrance, but their furtive glances gave more eloquent evidence of their interest than the closest stare.
The barkeeper eyed me with apparent openness. I called for a gla.s.s of wine, partly as an excuse for my visit, and partly to revive my shaken spirits.
"Any trouble about here to-night?" I asked in my most affable tone.
The barkeeper looked at me with cold suspicion.
"No, sir," he said shortly. "This is the quietest neighborhood in town."
"I should think there would be a disturbance every time that liquor was sold," was my private comment, as I got the aftertaste of the dose. But I merely wished him good night as I paid for the drink, and sauntered out.
I promptly got into my doorway before any one could reach the street to see whither I went, and listened to a growling comment and a mirthless laugh that followed my departure. Hardly had I gained my concealment when the swinging doors of the saloon opened cautiously, and a face peered out into the semi-darkness. With a muttered curse it went back, and I heard the barkeeper"s voice in some jest about a failure to be "quick enough to catch flies."
Once more in the room to wait till morning should give me a chance to work, I looked about the dingy place with a heart sunk to the lowest depths. I was alone in the face of this mystery. I had not one friend in the city to whom I could appeal for sympathy, advice or money. Yet I should need all of these to follow this business to the end--to learn the fate of my cousin, to rescue him, if alive and to avenge him, if dead.
Then, in the hope that I might find something among Henry"s effects to give me a clue to the men who had attacked him, I went carefully through his clothes and his papers. But I found that he did not leave memoranda of his business lying about. The only sc.r.a.p that could have a possible bearing on it was a sheet of paper in the coat he had changed with me. It bore a rough map, showing a road branching thrice, with crosses marked here and there upon it. Underneath was written:
"Third road--c.o.c.keyed barn--iron cow."
Then followed some numerals mixed in a drunken dance with half the letters of the alphabet--the explanation of the map, I supposed, in cipher, and as it might prove the clue to this dreadful business, I folded the sheet carefully in an envelope and placed it in an inmost pocket.
The search having failed of definite results, I sat with chair tilted against the wall to consider the situation. Turn it as I would, I could make nothing good of it. There were desperate enterprises afoot of which I could see neither beginning nor end, purpose nor result. I repented of my consent to mix in these dangerous doings and resolved that when the morning came I would find other quarters, take up the search for Henry, and look for such work as might be found.
It was after midnight when I had come to this conclusion, and, barring doors and windows as well as I could, I flung myself on the bed to rest.
I did not expect to sleep after the exciting events through which I had pa.s.sed; yet after a bit the train of mental pictures drawn out by the surging memories of the night became confused and faded away, and I sank into an uneasy slumber.
When I awoke it was with a start and an oppressive sense that somebody else was in the room. The gas-light that I had left burning had been put out. Darkness was intense. The beating of my own heart was the only sound I could distinguish. I sat upright and felt for the matches that I had seen upon the stand.