He looked at the girl, strove to consider her impersonally, for her youthful beauty began to disturb him. Then cold doubt crept in; something of the monstrosity of the proceeding chilled his enthusiasm for occult research. Should he speak to her?
Certainly, it was a dreadful thing to do--an offense the enormity of which was utterly inexcusable except under the stress of a purely impersonal and scientific necessity for investigating a mental phase of humanity which had always thrilled him with a curiosity most profound.
He folded his arms and began to review in cold blood the circ.u.mstances which had led to his present situation in a cross-town car. Number one, and he held up one finger:
As it comes, at times, to every normal human, the odd idea had come to him that what he was saying and doing as he emerged from the subway at Times Square was what he had, sometime, somewhere, said and done before under similar circ.u.mstances. That was the beginning.
Number two, and he gravely held up a second finger:
Always before when this idea had come to bother him it had faded after a moment or two, leaving him merely uneasy and dissatisfied.
This time it persisted--intruding, annoying, exasperating him in his efforts to remember things which he could not recollect.
Number three, and he held up a third finger:
He _had_ begun to remember! As soon as he or Smith said or did anything he recollected having said or done it sometime, somewhere, or recollected that he _ought_ to have.
Number four--four fingers in air, stiff, determined digits:
He had not only, by a violent concentration of his memory, succeeded in recognizing the things said and done as having been said and done before, but suddenly he became aware that he was going to be able to foretell, vaguely, certain incidents that were yet to occur--like the prophesied advent of the cherry-colored car and the hat, gown, and wicker basket.
He now had four fingers in the air; he examined them seriously, and then stuck up the fifth.
"Here I am," he thought, "awake, perfectly sane, absolutely respectable.
Why should a foolish terror of convention prevent me from asking that girl whether she knows anything which might throw some light on this most interesting mental phenomenon?... I"ll do it."
The girl turned her head slightly; speech and the politely perfunctory smile froze on his lips.
She held up one finger; Brown"s heart leaped. _Was_ that some cabalistic sign which he ought to recognize? But she was merely signaling the conductor, who promptly pulled the bell and lifted her basket for her when she got off.
She thanked him; Brown heard her, and the crystalline voice began to ring in little bell-like echoes all through his ears, stirring endless little mysteries of memory.
Brown also got off; his legs struck up a walk of their own volition, carrying him across the street, hoisting him into a north-bound Lexington Avenue car, and landing him in a seat behind the one where she had installed herself and her wicker basket.
She seemed to be having some difficulty with the wicker basket; beseeching six-toed paws were thrust out persistently; soft meows pleaded for the right of liberty and pursuit of feline happiness. Several pa.s.sengers smiled.
Trouble increased as the car whizzed northward; the meows became wilder; mad scrambles agitated the basket; the lid bobbed and creaked; the girl turned a vivid pink and, bending close over the basket, attempted to soothe its enervated inmate.
In the forties she managed to control the situation; in the fifties a frantic rush from within burst a string that fastened the basket lid, but the girl held it down with energy.
In the sixties a tempest broke loose in the basket; harrowing yowls pierced the atmosphere; the girl, crimson with embarra.s.sment and distress, signaled the conductor at Sixty-fourth Street and descended, clinging valiantly to a basket which apparently contained a pack of firecrackers in process of explosion.
A cla.s.sical heroine in dire distress invariably exclaims aloud: "Will _no_ one aid me?" Brown, whose automatic legs had compelled him to follow, instinctively awaited some similar appeal.
It came unexpectedly; the kicking basket escaped from her arms, the lid burst open, and an extraordinarily large, healthy and indignant cat flew out, tail as big as a duster, and fled east on Sixty-fourth Street.
The girl in the summer gown and white straw hat ran after the cat.
Brown"s legs ran, too.
There was, and is, between the house on the northeast corner of Sixty- fourth Street and Lexington Avenue and the next house on Sixty-fourth, an open s.p.a.ce guarded by an iron railing; through this the cat darted, fur on end, and, with a flying leap, took to the back fences.
"Oh!" gasped the girl.
Then Brown"s legs did an extraordinary thing--they began to scramble and kick and shin up the iron railing, hoisting Brown over; and Brown"s voice, pleasant, calm, rea.s.suring, was busy, too: "If you will look out for my suitcase I think I can recover your cat.... It will give me great pleasure to recover your cat. I shall be very glad to have, the opportunity of recovering--puff--puff--your--puff--puff--c-cat!" And he dropped inside the iron railing and paused to recover his breath.
The girl came up to the railing and gazed anxiously through at the corner of the only back fence she could perceive.
"What a perfectly dreadful thing to happen!" she said in a voice not very steady. "It is exceedingly nice of you to help me catch Clarence. He is quite beside himself, poor lamb! You see, he has never before been in the city. I--I shall be distressed beyond m-measure if he is lost."
"He went over those fences," said Brown, breathing faster. "I think I"d better go after him."
"Oh--_would_ you mind? I"d be so very grateful. It seems so much to ask of you."
"I"ll do it," said Brown, firmly. "Every boy in New York has climbed back fences, and I"m only thirty."
"It is most kind of you; but--but I don"t know whether you could possibly get him to come to you. Clarence is timid with strangers."
Brown had already clambered on to the wooden fence. He balanced himself there, astride. Whitewash liberally decorated coat and trousers.
"I see him," he said.
"W-what is he doing?"
"Squatting on a trellis three back yards away." And Brown lifted a blandishing voice: "Here, Clarence--Clarence--Clarence! Here, kitty-- kitty--kitty! Good p.u.s.s.y! Nice Clarence!"
"Does he come?" inquired the girl, peering wistfully through the railing.
"He does not," said Brown. "Perhaps you had better call."
"Here, puss--puss--puss--puss!" she began gently in that fascinating, crystalline voice which seemed to set tiny silvery chimes ringing in Brown"s ears: "Here, Clarence, darling--Betty"s own little kitty-cat!"
"If he doesn"t come to _that_," thought Brown, "he _is_ a brute." And aloud: "If you could only let him see you; he sits there blinking at me."
"Do you think he"d come if he saw me?"
"Who wouldn"t?" thought Brown, and answered, calmly: "I think so.... Of course, you couldn"t get up here."
"I could.... But I"d better not.... Besides, I live only a few houses away--Number 161--and I _could_ go through into the back yard."
"But you"d better not attempt to climb the fence. Have one of the servants do it; we"ll get the cat between us then and corner him."
"There are no servants in the house. It"s closed for the summer--all boarded up!"
"Then how can you get in?"
"I have a key to the bas.e.m.e.nt.... Shall I?"
"And climb up on the fence?"