"May I go to father now?" he asked. "That--that dream upset me."
"Morning will do for father," Anthony said briefly.
"But I have a feeling that something terrible"s going to happen if I don"t go----"
Anthony Fry laid a kindly hand on his shoulder.
"Get back to bed, youngster," he smiled. "You"re nervous, I suppose, being in a strange bed, and all that sort of thing. And incidentally, get off those clothes and give them to Wilkins."
David gulped audibly.
"I"ll pa.s.s them out to Wilkins, if I must, sir," he said in the queerest, choking voice--and he turned from them and shuffled down the corridor to the north bedroom of Anthony Fry"s apartment.
"Curious kid!" Anthony muttered.
"Not nearly as curious as you are," said Johnson Boller. "You didn"t even go through his pockets and get out the stuff while he was here, and we could see just what he"d taken! You let him go in there and dump the pockets before he gives up the clothes and----"
Anthony permitted himself a grin and a yawn.
"My dear chap, go back to bed and forget it," he said impatiently. "The boy was stealing nothing. He may have been trying to escape; he may have been walking in his sleep. Consciously or subconsciously, he"s certainly giving us a demonstration of humanity"s tendency to dodge its opportunities."
Johnson Boller gave it up and returned, soured, to his Circa.s.sian walnut bedstead--soured because, if there was one thing above all others that he abominated, it was being routed out in the middle of the night.
Five minutes or more he spent in muttering before he drifted away again, this time to arrive at somebody"s grand ball in Montreal. It was a tremendous function, plainly given in honor of Beatrice"s arrival in town, yet she was not immediately visible. Johnson Boller"s dream personality hunted around for some time before it found her in the conservatory.
Behind thick palms, Beatrice sat with a broad-shouldered person in the uniform of a field-marshal; he had a string of medals on his chest, and he was devouring her beauty with his hungry eyes. Nay, more, he leaned close to Beatrice and sought to take her hand, and although she shrank from him in terror, there was a certain fascinated light in her own lovely black eyes; she clutched her bosom and sought to escape, but----
"Oh, my Lord!" said Johnson Boller, awakening to stare at the dark ceiling.
Somewhere a window slammed.
He listened for a little and heard nothing more; then, having the room nearest the elevators, he heard one of them hum up swiftly and heard the gate clatter open. And then there were voices and some one knocked on the door of the apartment with a club, as it seemed. Somebody else protested and pressed the buzzer--and by that time Wilkins had padded down the hall and was opening the door.
Johnson Boller caught:
"Police officer! Lemme in quick! You"ve got a burglar in there!"
CHAPTER V
The Wee Sma" Hours
Wilkins, in his official black, was a wonderfully self-contained person; roused from slumber in pink-rosed silk, his self-control was not so perfect, for as he struggled out of bed again Johnson Boller caught:
"G.o.d bless my soul, officer! What----"
"Hush!" interrupted an unfamiliar, horrified voice. "Come inside quickly and close that door."
Anthony was in motion, too. Johnson Boller, stumbling out of his Circa.s.sian apartment, met him just entering the living-room from his own chamber, and for an instant they stared at one another as they knotted bathrobe cords about them.
"You see?" Johnson Boller said, with acid triumph. "I was right, eh?"
"What?"
"The cops have tracked the little devil down for his last job, whatever that may have been, and they"ve found him _here_! Now you"ve got a nice scandal on your hands, haven"t you? A tenth-rate kid crook found hiding in the flat of Mr. Anthony Fry, with the full knowledge and consent of----"
"Upon my word, Johnson, I think you"ve lost your senses to-night!"
Anthony snapped. "Whatever is wrong, Wilkins?"
The silk-pajamaed one indicated their visitors with a hand that was none too steady.
"It"s Mr. Dodbury, the night manager, sir, and this policeman that says----"
"I"m afraid you have a burglar in here, Mr. Fry," the manager put in agitatedly. "I can"t understand how it occurred; nothing of the kind has ever happened to us before, and the mouth of that alley is constantly under the eye of the firemen on that side of the boiler-room. Moreover, there is a high gate from the street and I cannot believe that any one----"
The burly officer halted him.
"Well, however he got there, he was on the fire-escape and coming down when I see him from the street," he said energetically. "When he seen me he turned into this north window and closed it after him, and my partner"d have given me the whistle if he"d come out again. Which room will it be, now?"
Wilkins glanced significantly at his master.
"If it"s the north room on the fire-escape, sir, it must be the room young Mr. Prentiss has to-night."
"And the burglar is supposed to have gone in there?" Anthony said calmly.
"He ain"t supposed--he went. I seen him!" stated the law. "And the longer we stand here and talk about it, the more chance he has to kill whoever"s in there!"
"Well, as it happens, he isn"t killing any one, because he isn"t there,"
Mr. Fry said patiently and with just a touch of contempt. "Any one entering that room must have wakened Mr. Prentiss, and he certainly hasn"t called for help. For that matter, I should have heard the window myself, because I sleep very lightly. Nevertheless, if you wish, we will go in there."
Impressively dignified even in his bathrobe, Anthony led the way down the side corridor, with the four trailing after him. They came to the door, and the officer pushed forward, club raised grimly over his right shoulder as he laid his left hand on the k.n.o.b.
"Where"s the light-switch in there?" he whispered.
"Right by the door," Wilkins supplied.
"Duck in the second I turn the k.n.o.b, throw on the light, and then dodge along the wall," the law commanded briefly. "Are you ready?"
The invaluable one muttered his a.s.sent. The k.n.o.b turned soundlessly and the door flew open. Wilkins, with a distinctly terrified little wheeze, pushed in, jabbed at the b.u.t.ton, and scurried down the room on his hands and knees, eyes shut to shield his brain from the horrible impression.
Yet there was no hint of anything horrible. With all four corners of the room in plain sight, with the empty closet partly open and its interior fully visible, no burglar crouched, pistol in hand--no masked malefactor leaped forward to stun the officer with his padded lead-pipe. Only David Prentiss was in the room, and David slumbered sweetly in the bed, the covers pulled tight up around his young chin, a gentle dream-smile upon his regular features.
"Well, wotter yuh know about----" the officer began.
"Hush!" Anthony said gently.