"Good-by, until dinner," he said, "and may you find much in your wise companion"s book to justify your conduct."
He went out through the open window, and in another moment stood just outside Miss Norton"s room. She put a startled head out at his knock.
"Oh, it"s you," she said. "I can"t invite you in. You might learn terrible secrets of the dressing-table--mamma is bedecking herself for dinner. Has anything happened?"
"Throw something over your head, Juliet," smiled Magee, "the balcony is waiting for you."
She was at his side in a moment, and they walked briskly along the shadowy white floor.
"I know who has the money," said Magee softly. "Simply through a turn of luck, I know. I realize that my protestations of what I am going to do have bored you. But it looks very much to me as if that package would be in your hands very soon."
She did not reply.
"And when I have got it, and have given it to you--if I do," he continued, "what then?"
"Then," she answered, "I must go away--very quickly. And no one must know, or they will try to stop me."
"And after that?"
"The deluge," she laughed without mirth.
Up above them the great trees of Baldpate Mountain waved their black arms constantly as though sparring with the storm. At the foot of the buried roadway they could see the lamps of Upper Asquewan Falls; under those lamps prosaic citizens were hurrying home with the supper groceries through the night. And not one of those citizens was within miles of guessing that up on the balcony of Baldpate Inn a young man had seized a young woman"s hand, and was saying wildly: "Beautiful girl--I love you."
Yet that was exactly what Billy Magee was doing. The girl had turned her face away.
"You"ve known me just two days," she said.
"If I can care this much in two days," he said, "think--but that"s old, isn"t it? Sometime soon I"m going to say to you: "Whose girl are you?"
and you"re going to look up at me with a little heaven for two in your eyes and say: "I"m Billy Magee"s girl." So before we go any further I must confess everything--I must tell you who this Billy Magee is--this man you"re going to admit you belong to, my dear."
"You read the future glibly," she replied. "Are your prophecies true, I wonder?"
"Absolutely. Some time ago--on my soul, it was only yesterday--I asked if you had read a certain novel called _The Lost Limousine_, and you said you had, and that--it wasn"t sincere. Well, I wrote it--"
"Oh!" cried the girl.
"Yes," said Magee, "and I"ve done others like it. Oh, yes, my muse has been a _nouveau riche_ lady in a Worth gown, my ambition a big red motor-car. I"ve been a "scramble a cent, mister" troubadour beckoning from the book-stalls. It was good fun writing those things, and it brought me more money than was good for me. I"m not ashamed of them; they were all right as a beginning in the game. But the other day--I thought an advertis.e.m.e.nt did the trick--I turned tired of that sort, and I decided to try the other kind--the real kind. I thought it was an advertis.e.m.e.nt that did it--but I see now it was because you were just a few days away."
"Don"t tell me," whispered the girl, "that you came up here to--to--"
"Yes," smiled Magee, "I came up here to forget forever the world"s giddy melodrama, the wild chase for money through deserted rooms, shots in the night, cupid in the middle distance. I came here to do--literature--if it"s in me to do it."
The girl leaned limply against the side of Baldpate Inn.
"Oh, the irony of it!" she cried.
"I know," he said, "it"s ridiculous. I think all this is meant just for--temptation. I shall be firm. I"ll remember your parable of the blind girl--and the lamp that was not lighted. I"ll do the real stuff.
So that when you say--as you certainly must some day--"I"m Billy Magee"s girl" you can say it proudly."
"I"m sure," she said softly, "that if I ever do say it--oh, no, I didn"t say I would"--for he had seized her hands quickly--"if I ever do say it--it will certainly be proudly. But now--you don"t even know my name--my right one. You don"t know what I do, nor where I come from, nor what I want with this disgusting bundle of money. I sort of feel, you know--that this is in the air at Baldpate, even in the winter time. No sooner have the men come than they begin to talk of--love--to whatever girls they find here--on this very balcony--down there under the trees.
And the girls listen, for--it"s in the air, that"s all. Then autumn comes, and everybody laughs, and forgets. May not our autumn come--when I go away?"
"Never," cried Magee. "This is no summer hotel affair to me. It"s a real in winter and summer love, my dear--in spring and fall--and when you go away, I"m going too, about ten feet behind."
"Yes," she laughed, "they talk that way at Baldpate--the last weeks of summer. It"s part of the game." They had come to the side of the hotel on which was the annex, and the girl stopped and pointed. "Look!" she whispered breathlessly.
In a window of the annex had appeared for a moment a flickering yellow light. But only for a moment.
"I know," said Mr. Magee. "There"s somebody in there. But that isn"t important in comparison. This is no summer affair, dear. Look to the thermometer for proof. I love you. And when you go away, I shall follow."
"And the book--"
"I have found better inspiration than Baldpate Inn."
They walked along for a time in silence.
"You forget," said the girl, "you only know who has the money."
"I will get it," he answered confidently. "Something tells me I will.
Until I do, I am content to say no more."
"Good-by," said the girl. She stood in the window of her room, while a harsh voice called "That you, dearie?" from inside. "And I may add," she smiled, "that in my profession--a following is considered quite--desirable."
She disappeared, and Mr. Magee, after a few minutes in his room, descended again to the office. In the center of the room, Elijah Quimby and Hayden stood face to face.
"What is it, Quimby?" asked Magee.
"I just ran up to see how things were going," Quimby replied, "and I find him here."
"Our latest guest," smiled Magee.
"I was just reminding Mr. Hayden," Quimby said, his teeth set, an angry light in his eyes, "that the last time we met he ordered me from his office. I told you, Mr. Magee, that the Suburban Railway once promised to make use of my invention. Then Mr. Kendrick went away--and this man took charge. When I came around to the offices again--he laughed at me.
When I came the second time, he called me a loafer and ordered me out."
He paused, and faced Hayden again.
"I"ve grown bitter, here on the mountain," he said, "as I"ve thought over what you and men like you said to me--as I"ve thought of what might have been--and what was--yes, I"ve grown pretty bitter. Time after time I"ve gone over in my mind that scene in your office. As I"ve sat here thinking you"ve come to mean to me all the crowd that made a fool of me.
You"ve come to mean to me all the crowd that said "The public be d.a.m.ned"
in my ear. I haven"t ever forgot--how you ordered me out of your office."
"Well?" asked Hayden.
"And now," Quimby went on, "I find you trespa.s.sing in a hotel left in my care--the tables are turned. I ought to show you the door. I ought to put you out."
"Try it," sneered Hayden.
"No," answered Quimby, "I ain"t going to do it. Maybe it"s because I"ve grown timid, brooding over my failure. And maybe it"s because I know who"s got the seventh key."