"The safe is not locked," Harleston remarked. "I think I neglected to turn the k.n.o.b. If you will--"
"Don"t disturb yourself, I pray," was the quick reply, the revolver glinting in his hand; "we will gladly relieve you of the trouble."
"I was only about to say that if you try the door it will open for you,"
Harleston chuckled. "Go through it, sir," he remarked to the younger, "and don"t, I beg of you, disturb the papers more than necessary. The key to the locked drawer is in the lower compartment on the right.
Proceed, my elderly friend, to search the apartment; I"ll not balk you.
The thing"s rather amusing--and entirely absurd. If it were not--if it didn"t strike my funny-bone--I should probably put up some sort of a fight; as it is, you see I"m entirely acquiescent. Your tiny automatics didn"t in the least intimidate me. I could have landed you both as you entered. I"ve got a gun of a much larger calibre right to my hand. See!"
and he lifted the pillow and exposed a 38. "Want to borrow it?"
"Why didn"t you land us?" Marston asked, as he took the 38.
"It wouldn"t have been kind!" Harleston smiled. "When visitors come at such an hour, they deserve to be received with every attention and courtesy--particularly when they come on a mistaken impression and a fruitless quest."
The man looked at Harleston doubtfully. Just how much of this was bluff, he could not decide. Harleston"s whole conduct was rather unusual--the open door, the open safe, the unemployed revolver, were not in accordance with the game they were playing. He should have made a fight, some sort of a fight, and not--
"The letter"s not in the safe," Sparrow reported.
"I didn"t think it was," said the other, "but we had to make search."
"You"re very welcome to look elsewhere and anywhere," Harleston interjected. "I"ll trust you not to pry into matters other than the letter. By the way, whose was the letter?"
"His Majesty of Abyssinia!" was the answer.
"Taken by wireless, I presume."
"Exactly!"
"Then, why so much bother, my friend?" Harleston asked. "If you do not find it, you can get others by the same quick route."
"The King of Abyssinia never duplicates a letter."
"When," supplemented Harleston, "it has been carelessly lost in a cab."
"Just so. Therefore--"
"I repeat that I have not got the articles," said Harleston, a bit wearily, "nor are they in my apartment. You have been misinformed. I find I am getting drowsy--this thing is not as absorbing as I had thought it would be. With your permission I"ll drop off to sleep; you"re welcome to continue the search. Make yourselves perfectly at home, sirs." He lay back and drew up the sheet. "Just pull the door shut when you depart, please," he said, and closed his eyes.
"You"re a queer chap," remarked Sparrow, pausing in his search and surveying Harleston with a puzzled smile. "One would suppose you"re used to receiving interruptions at such hours for such purposes."
"I try never to be surprised at anything however _outre_," Harleston explained. "Good-night."
The two men looked at the rec.u.mbent figure and then at each other and laughed.
"He acts the part," said the elder. "Have you found anything?"
"Nothing! It"s not in the safe nor the writing-table--nor anywhere else that is reasonable. I"ve been through everything and there"s nothing doing."
"You"re not going?" Harleston remarked.
"You"re asleep, Mr. Harleston!" Marston reminded. "The letter is here: we"ve simply got to find it."
"A letter is easy to conceal," the younger replied. "There"s nothing but to overturn everything in the place--and so on; and that will require a day."
"So that you replace things, I"ve not the slightest objection,"
Harleston interjected. "Bang away, sirs, bang away! Anything to relieve me from suspicion."
"It prevents him from sleeping!" Sparrow laughed.
"Also yourselves," Harleston supplemented. "However, you for it, remembering that c.o.c.k-crow comes earlier now than in December, and the people too are up betimes. You risk interruption, I fear, from my solicitous friends."
And even as he spoke the corridor door opened and a man stepped in.
From where he lay, Harleston could see him; the others could not.
""Pon my soul, I"m popular this morning!" Harleston remarked, sitting up.
Instantly the new-comer covered him with his revolver.
"What did you say?" Sparrow inquired from the sitting-room, just as the stranger appeared around the corner.
Like a flash, the latter"s revolver shifted to him.
"Easy there!" said he.
Sparrow sprang up--then he laughed.
"Easy yourself!" said he. "Marston, let this gentleman see your hand."
Marston came slowly forward until he stood a little behind but sufficiently in view to enable the stranger to see that he himself was covered by an automatic.
"For heaven"s sake, Crenshaw," said Sparrow, "don"t let us get to shooting here! If you wing me, Marston will wing you, and we"ll only stir up a mess for ourselves."
"Then hand over the letter," said Crenshaw
"Do you fancy we would be hunting it if we had it?"
"I don"t fancy--produce the goods!"
"We haven"t the goods," Marston shrugged. "We can"t find it."
Sparrow shook his head curtly.
"It"s the truth," Harleston interjected. "They haven"t found the goods for the very good reason that the goods are not here. Plunge in and aid in the search; I wish you would; it will relieve me of your triple intrusion in one third less time. I"m becoming very tired of it all; it has lost its novelty. I prefer to sleep."
"I want the letter!" Crenshaw exclaimed.
"I a.s.sumed as much from the vigour of your quest," Harleston shrugged.
"The difficulty is that I haven"t the letter. Neither is it in my apartment. But you"ll facilitate the search if you"ll depress your respective cannon from the angle of each other"s anatomy and get to work. As I remarked before, I"m anxious to compose myself for sleep. You can hold your little dispute later on the sidewalk, or in jail, or wherever is most convenient."