"Yes," sounded the answer. "Of course I know who _you_ are. There"s only one voice like yours in New York. Where are you?"
"In prison."
"No! Prison? For the Lord"s sake!"
"No; for conventionality"s sake. Not legally, you understand. Not even an adventure as exciting as that has happened to me. But constructively in jail. _De facto_, as it were. It"s all the same thing."
"Up there in that observatory thing of yours, are you?" asked Bohannan.
"Yes; and I want to see you."
"When?"
"At once! As soon as you can get over here in a taxi, from that incredibly stupid club of yours. You can get to _Niss"rosh_ even though it"s after seven. Take the regular elevator to the forty-first floor, and I"ll have Rrisa meet you and bring you up here in the special.
"That"s a concession, isn"t it? The sealed gates that no one else ever pa.s.ses, at night, are opened to you. It"s very important. Be here in fifteen minutes you say? First-rate! Don"t fail me. Good-bye!"
He was smiling a little now as he pressed the b.u.t.ton again and rang off. He put the faun"s head back on the table, got up and stretched his vigorous arms.
"By Allah!" he exclaimed, new notes in his voice. "What if--what if it _could_ be, after all?"
He turned to the wall, laid his hand on an ivory plate flush with the surface and pressed slightly. In silent unison, heavy gold-embroidered draperies slid across every window. As these draperies closed the apertures, light gushed from every angle and cornice. No specific source of illumination seemed visible; but the room bathed itself in soft, clear radiance with a certain restful greenish tinge, throwing no shadows, pure as the day itself.
The man pulled open a drawer in the table and silently gazed down at several little boxes within. He opened some. From one, on a bed of purple satin, the Croix de Guerre, with a palm, gleamed up at him.
Another disclosed an "M.M.," a Medaille Militaire. A third showed him the "D.F.C.," or Distinguished Flying Cross. Still another contained aviator"s insignia in the form of a double pair of wings. The Master smiled, and closed the boxes, then the drawer.
"After these," he mused, "dead inaction? Not for me!"
His dark eyes were shining with eagerness as he walked to a door beside that through which the Arab had entered. He swung it wide, disclosing an ample closet, likewise inundated with light. There hung a war-worn aviator"s uniform of leather, gauntlets, a sheepskin jacket, a helmet, resistal goggles, a cartridge-belt still half full of ammunition, a heavy service automatic.
For a moment the man looked in at these. A great yearning came upon his face. Caressingly he touched the uniform, the helmet. He unhooked the pistol from where it hung, and carried it back to the table.
There he laid it down, and drew up his chair in front of it. For a moment, silence fell as he remained there studying the automatic--silence save for the faint, far hum of the city, the occasional melodious note of steamer-whistles on the river.
The Master"s face, now that full light brought out its details, showed a white scar that led from his right ear down along jaw and throat, till the collar masked it. Gray hairs, beyond those of his age, sprinkled his temples. Strangely he smiled as he observed the nicks and deep excoriations in stock and barrel of the formidable weapon.
He reached out, took up the gun once more, weighed it, got the feel of it, patted it with affection.
"We"ve been through some wonderful times together, old pal, you and I," said he. "We thought it was all over, didn"t we, for a while? But it"s not! Life"s not done, yet. It"s maybe just beginning! We"re going out on the long trek, _again_!"
For a while he sat there musing. Then he summoned Rrisa again, bade him remove the tray, and gave him instructions about the guest soon to arrive. When Rrisa had withdrawn, the Master pulled over one of the huge atlases, opened it, turned to the map of Arabia, and fell into deep study.
Rrisa"s tapping at the door, minutes later, roused him. At his order to advance, the door swung. The Arab ushered in a guest, then silently disappeared. Without a sound, the door closed.
The Master arose, advancing with outstretched hand.
"Bohannan! G.o.d, but I"m glad to see you!"
Their hands met and clasped. The Master led Bohannan to the table and gestured toward a chair. Bohannan threw his hat on the table with a large, sweeping gesture typical of his whole character, and sat down.
And for a moment, they looked at each other in silence.
A very different type, this, from the dark, sinewed master of _Niss"rosh_. Bohannan was frankly red-haired, a bit stout, smiling, expansive. His blood was undoubtedly Celtic. An air of great geniality pervaded him. His hands were strong and energetic, with oddly spatulate fingers; and the manner in which his nails had been gnawed down and his mustache likewise chewed, bespoke a highly nervous temperament belied by his ruddy, almost boyish face. His age might have been thirty-five, but he looked one of those men who never fully grow up, who never can be old.
"Well, what"s doing now?" demanded he, fixing blue eyes on his host.
He produced a cigarette and lighted it, inhaled smoke deeply and blew a thin gray cloud toward the ceiling. "Something big, eh? by the way you routed me out of a poker-game where I was already forty-seven dollars and a half to the good. You don"t usually call a fellow, that way, unless there"s something in the wind!"
"There is, now."
"Big?"
"Very."
"So?" The newcomer"s eyes fell on the pistol. "Yes, that looks like action, all right. Hope to heaven it _is_! I"ve been boring myself and everybody else to death, the past three months. What"s up? Duel, maybe?"
"Yes. That"s just it, Bohannan. A duel." And the Master fixed strange eyes on his companion. His muscular fingers fell to tapping the prayer-rug on the table, drumming out an impatient little tattoo.
"Duel? Lord"s sake, man! With whom?"
"With Fate. Now, listen!" The Master"s tones became more animated.
A little of the inward fires had begun to burn through his self-restraint. "Listen to me, and not a word till I"m done! You"re dryrotting for life, man. Dying for it, gasping for it, eating your heart out for it! So am I. So are twenty-five or thirty men we know, between us, in this city. That"s all true, eh?"
"Some!"
"Yes! We wouldn"t have to go outside New York to find at least twenty-five or thirty in the same box we"re in. All men who"ve been through trench work, air work, life-and-death work on various fronts.
Men of independent means. Men to whom office work and club life and all this petty stuff, here, is like dish-water after champagne!
Dare-devils, all of them, that wouldn"t stop at the gates of h.e.l.l!"
"The gates of h.e.l.l?" demanded Bohannan, his brow wrinkling with glad astonishment. "What d"you mean by that, now?"
"Just what I say! It"s possible to gather together a kind of unofficial, _sub rosa_, private little Foreign Legion of our own, Bohannan--all battle-scarred men, all men with at least one decoration and some with half a dozen. With that Legion, nothing would be impossible!"
He warmed to his subject, leaned forward, fixed eager eyes on his friend, laid a hand on Bohannan"s knee. "We"ve all done the conventional thing, long enough. Now we"re going to do the unconventional thing. We"ve been all through the known. Now we"re going after the unknown. And h.e.l.l is liable to be no name for it, I tell you that!"
The Celt"s eyes were alight with swift, eager enthusiasm. He laid his hand on the other"s, and gripped it hard in hot antic.i.p.ation.
"Tell me more!" he commanded. "What are we going to do?"
"Going to see the stuff that"s in us, and in twenty-five or thirty more of our kind. The stuff, the backbone, the heart that"s in you, Bohannan! That"s in me! In all of us!"
"Great, great! That"s me!" Bohannan"s cigarette smoldered, unheeded, in his fingers. The soul of him was thrilling with great visions. "I"m with you! Whither bound?"
The Master smiled oddly, as he answered in a low, even tone:
"To Paradise--or h.e.l.l!"
CHAPTER III