"Which?"
"The red stone?"
"Oh, that? Picked it up on the sidewalk. Some Italian kids dropped it as they skedaddled."
"Let"s have a look."
"Sure." The policeman pa.s.sed over the stone.
"Gee! That looks like real money. Say, they can do anything with gla.s.s these days."
"They sure can."
A man in civilian clothes--a detective from headquarters--went up to the desk. "What you guys got there?"
"A ruby this b.o.o.b picks up off"n the sidewalk," said the sergeant, winking at the finder, who grinned.
"Let"s have a squint at it."
The stone was handed to him. The detective stared at it carefully, holding it on his palm and rocking it gently under the desk light.
Crimson darts of flame answered to this treatment. He pushed back his hat.
"Well, you b.o.o.bs!" he drawled.
"What"s the matter?"
"Matter? Why, this is a ruby! A whale of a ruby, an" pigeon blood at that! I didn"t work in the" appraiser"s office for nothing. But for a broken point--kids probably tried to crack it--it would stack up somewhere between three and four thousand dollars!"
The sergeant and the policemen barked simultaneously: "What?"
"A pigeon blood. Where was it you found it?"
"Holy Moses! On Eightieth."
"Any chance of finding that bunch of kids?"
"Not a chance, not a chance! If I got the hull district here there wouldn"t be nothin" doin". The kids"d be too scared t" remember anything. A pigeon-blood ruby, an" I wasn"t gonna pick it up at first!"
"Lock it up, sergeant," ordered the detective. "I"ll pa.s.s the word to headquarters. Too big for a ring. Probably fallen from a pin. But there"ll be a holler in a few hours. Lost or stolen, there"ll be some big noise. You two b.o.o.bs!"
"Well, whadda yuh know about that?" whined the policeman. "An" me thinkin" it was gla.s.s!"
But there was no big noise. No one had reported the loss or theft of a pigeon-blood ruby of unusual size and quality.
CHAPTER XIX
Kitty came home at nine that night, dreadfully tired. She had that day been rocked by so many emotions. She had viewed the parade from the windows of a theatrical agency, and she had cheered and cried like everybody else. Her eyes still smarted, and her throat betrayed her every time she recalled what she had seen. Those boys!
Loneliness. She had dined downtown, and on the way home the shadow had stalked beside her. Loneliness. Never before had these rooms seemed so empty, empty. If G.o.d had only given her a brother and he had marched in that glorious parade, what fun they two would be having at this moment!
Empty rooms; not even a pet.
Loneliness. She had been a silly little fool to stand so aloof, just because she was poor and lived in a faded locality. She mocked herself.
Poor but proud, like the shopgirl in the movies. Denied herself companionship because she was ashamed of her genteel poverty. And now she was paying for it. Silly little fool! It wasn"t as if she did not know how to make and keep friends. She knew she had attractions. Just a senseless false pride. The best friends in the world, after a series of rebuffs, would drop away. Her mother"s friends never called any more, because of her aloofness. She had only a few girl friends, and even these no doubt were beginning to think her uppish.
She did not take off her hat and coat. She wandered through the empty rooms, undecided. If she went to a movie the rooms would be just as lonely when she returned. Companionship. The urge of it was so strong that there was a temptation to call up someone, even someone she had rebuffed. She was in the mood to confess everything and to make an honest attempt to start all over again--to accept friendship and let pride go hang. Impulsively she started for the telephone, when the doorbell rang.
Immediately the sense of loneliness fell away. Another chapter in the great game of hide and seek that had kept her from brooding until to-night? The doorbell carried a new message these days. Nine o"clock.
Who could be calling at that hour? She had forgotten to advise Cutty of the fact that someone had gone through the apartment. She could not positively a.s.sert the fact. Those articles in her bureau she herself might have disturbed. She might have taken a handkerchief in a hurry, hunted for something under the lingerie impatiently. Still she could not rid herself of the feeling that alien hands had been rifling her belongings. Not Bernini, decidedly.
Remembering Cutty"s advice about opening the door with her foot against it, she peered out. No emissary of Bolshevisim here. A weary little messenger boy with a long box in his arms called her name.
"Miz Conover?"
"Yes."
The boy thrust the box into her hands and clumped to the stairhead.
Kitty slammed the door and ran into the living room, tearing open the box as she ran. Roses from Cutty; she knew it. The old darling! Just when she was on the verge of breaking down and crying! She let the box fall to the floor and cuddled the flowers to her heart, her eyes filling. Cutty.
One of those ideas which sometime or another spring into the minds of all pretty women who are poor sprang into hers--an idea such as an honest woman might muse over, only to reject. Sinister and cynical.
Kitty was at this moment in rather a desperate frame of mind. Those two inherent characteristics, which she had fought valiantly--love of good times and of pretty clothes--made ingress easy for this sinister and cynical idea. Having gained a foothold it pressed forward boldly. Cutty, who had everything--strength, comeliness, wisdom, and money. To live among all those beautiful things, never to be lonely again, to be waited on, fussed over, made much of, taken into the high world. Never more to add up accounts, to stretch five-dollar bills across the chasm of seven days. An old man"s darling!
"No, no, no!" she burst out, pa.s.sionately. She drew a hand across her eyes. As if that gesture could rub out an evil thought! It is all very well to say "Avaunt!" But if the idea will not? "I couldn"t, I couldn"t!
I"d be a liar and a cheat. But he is so nice! If he did want me!... No, no! Just for comforts! I couldn"t! What a miserable wretch I am!"
She caught up the copper jug and still holding the roses to her heart, the tears streaming down her cheeks, rushed out to the kitchen for water. She dropped the green stems into the jug, buried her face in the buds to cool the hot shame on her cheeks, and remembered--what a ridiculous thing the mind was!--that she had three shirt waists to iron.
She set the jug on the kitchen table, where it remained for many hours, and walked over to the range, to the flatiron shelf. As she reached for a flatiron her hand stopped in midair.
A fat black wallet! Instantly she knew who had placed it there. That poor Johnny Two-Hawks!
Kitty lifted out the wallet from behind the flatirons. No doubt of it, Johnny Two-Hawks had placed it there when she had gone to the speaking tube to summon the janitor. Not knowing if he would ever call for it!
Preferring that she rather than his enemies should have it. And without a word! What a simple yet amazing hiding place; and but for the need of a flatiron the wallet would have stayed there until she moved. Left it there, with the premonition that he was heading into trouble. But what if they had killed him? How would she have explained the wallet"s presence in her apartment? Good gracious, what an escape!
Without direct consciousness she raised the flap. She saw the edges of money and doc.u.ments; but she did not touch anything. There was no need. She knew it belonged to Johnny Two-Hawks. Of course there was an appalling attraction. The wallet was, figuratively, begging to be investigated. But resolutely she closed the flap. Why? Because it was as though Two-Hawks had placed the wallet in her hands, charging her to guard it against the day he reclaimed it. There was no outward proof that the wallet was his. She just knew, that was all.
Still, she examined the outside carefully. In one corner had been originally a monogram or a crest; effectually obliterated by the application of fire.
Who he was and what he was, by a simple turn of the wrist. It was Cutty"s affair now, not hers. He had a legal right to examine the contents. He was an agent of the Federal Government. The drums of jeopardy and Stefani Gregor and Johnny Two-Hawks, all interwoven. She had waited in vain for Cutty to mention the emeralds. What signified his silence? She had indirectly apprised him of the fact that she knew the author of that advertis.e.m.e.nt offering to purchase the drums, no questions asked. Who but Cutty in New York would know about them? The mark of the thong. Johnny Two-Hawks had been carrying the drums, and Karlov"s men had torn them from their victim"s neck during the battle.
Was there any reason why Cutty should not have taken her completely into his confidence? Palaces looted. If Stefani Gregor had lived in a palace, why not his protege? Still, it was possible Cutty was holding back until he could tell her everything.
But what to do with it? If she called him up and made known her discovery, Cutty would rush up as fast as a taxicab could bring him.
He had peremptorily ordered her not to come to his apartment for the present. But to sit here and wait, to be alone again after he had gone!
It was not to be borne. Orders or no orders, she would carry the wallet to him. He could lecture her as much as he pleased. To-night, at least, she would lay aside her part as parlour maid in the drama. It would give her something to do, keep her mind off herself. Nothing but excitement would pull her out of this semi-hysterical doldrum.
She hid the wallet in the pocket of her underskirt. Already her blood was beginning to dance. She ran into her bedroom for two veils, a gray automobile puggree and one of those heavy black affairs with b.u.t.terflies scattered over it, quite as effectual as a mask. She wound the puggree about her hat. When the right moment came she would discard the puggree and drop the black veil. Her coat was of dark blue, lined with steel-gray taffeta. Turned inside out it would fool any man. She wore spats. These she would leave behind when she made the change.
Someone might follow her as far as the Knickerbocker, but beyond there, never. She was sorry, but she dared not warn Bernini. He might object, notify Cutty, and spoil everything.