At ten o"clock that night the p.a.w.nbroker sat with his friend Levi discussing a bottle of champagne, which the open-eyed a.s.sistant had procured from the public-house opposite.
"You"re a lucky man, Hyams," said his friend, as he raised his gla.s.s to his lips. "Thirty thousand pounds! It"s a fortune, a small fortune," he added correctively.
"I shall give this place up," said the p.a.w.nbroker, "and go away for a time. I"m not safe here."
"Safe?" queried Levi, raising his eyebrows.
The p.a.w.nbroker related his adventures with his visitors.
"I can"t understand that cat business," said Levi when he had finished.
"It"s quite farcical; he must have poisoned it."
"He wasn"t near it," said the p.a.w.nbroker, "it was at the other end of the counter."
"Oh, hang it," said Levi, the more irritably because he could not think of any solution to the mystery. "You don"t believe in occult powers and all that sort of thing. This is the neighborhood of the Commercial Road; time, nineteenth century. The thing"s got on your nerves. Keep your eyes open, and stay indoors; they can"t hurt you here. Why not tell the police?"
"I don"t want any questions," said the p.a.w.nbroker.
"I mean, just tell them that one or two suspicious characters have been hanging round lately," said the other. "If this precious couple see that they are watched they"ll probably bolt. There"s nothing like a uniform to scare that sort."
"I won"t have anything to do with the police," said the p.a.w.nbroker firmly.
"Well, let Bob sleep on the premises," suggested his friend.
"I think I will to-morrow," said the other. "I"ll have a bed fixed up for him."
"Why not to-night?" asked Levi.
"He"s gone," said the p.a.w.nbroker briefly. "Didn"t you hear him shut up?"
"He was in the shop five minutes ago," said Levi.
"He left at ten," said the p.a.w.nbroker.
"I"ll swear I heard somebody only a minute or two back," said Levi, staring.
"Nerves, as you remarked a little while ago," said his friend, with a grin.
"Well, I thought I heard him," said Levi. "You might just secure the door anyway."
The p.a.w.nbroker went to the door and made it fast, giving a careless glance round the dimly lighted shop as he did so.
"Perhaps you could stay to-night yourself," he said, as he returned to the sitting-room.
"I can"t possibly, to-night," said the other. "By the way, you might lend me a pistol of some kind. With all these cut-throats hanging round, visiting you is a somewhat perilous pleasure. They might take it into their heads to kill me to see whether I have got the stone."
"Take your pick," said the p.a.w.nbroker, going to the shop and returning with two or three secondhand revolvers and some cartridges.
"I never fired one in my life," said Levi dubiously, "but I believe the chief thing is to make a bang. Which"ll make the loudest?"
On his friend"s recommendation he selected a revolver of the service pattern, and, after one or two suggestions from the p.a.w.nbroker, expressed himself as qualified to shoot anything between a chimney-pot and a paving-stone.
"Make your room-door fast to-night, and tomorrow let Bob have a bed there," he said earnestly, as he rose to go. "By the way, why not make those chalk marks on the door just for the night? You can laugh at them to-morrow. Sort of suggestion of the Pa.s.sover about it, isn"t there?"
"I"m not going to mark my door for all the a.s.sa.s.sins that ever breathed," said the Jew fiercely, as he rose to see the other out.
"Well, I think you"re safe enough in the house," said Levi. "Beastly dreary the shop looks. To a man of imagination like myself it"s quite easy to fancy that there is one of your brown friend"s pet devils crouching under the counter ready to spring."
The p.a.w.nbroker grunted and opened the door.
"Poof, fog," said Levi, as a cloud streamed in. "Bad night for pistol practice. I shan"t be able to hit anything."
The two men stood in the doorway for a minute, trying to peer through the fog. A heavy, measured tread sounded in the alley; a huge figure loomed up, and, to the relief of Levi, a constable halted be-fore them.
"Thick night, sir," said he to the p.a.w.nbroker.
"Very," was the reply. "Just keep your eye on my place to-night, constable. There have been one or two suspicious-looking characters hanging about here lately."
"I will, sir," said the constable, and moved off in company with Levi.
The p.a.w.nbroker closed the door hastily behind them and bolted it securely. His friend"s jest about the devil under the counter occurred to him as he eyed it, and for the first time in his life, the lonely silence of the shop became oppressive. He half thought of opening the door again and calling them back, but by this time they were out of earshot, and he had a very strong idea that there might be somebody lurking in the fog outside.
"Bah!" said he aloud, "thirty thousand pounds."
He turned the gas-jet on full-a man that had just made that sum could afford to burn a little gas-and, first satisfying himself by looking under the counter and round the shop, re-entered the sitting room.
Despite his efforts, he could not get rid of the sense of loneliness and danger which possessed him. The clock had stopped, and the only sound audible was the snapping of the extinguished coals in the grate. He crossed over to the mantelpiece, and, taking out his watch, wound the clock up. Then he heard something else.
With great care he laid the key softly on the mantelpiece and listened intently. The clock was now aggressively audible, so that he opened the case again, and putting his finger against the pendulum, stopped it.
Then he drew his revolver and c.o.c.ked it, and, with his set face turned towards the door, and his lips parted, waited.
At first-nothing. Then all the noises which a lonely man hears in a house at night. The stairs creaked, something moved in the walls. He crossed noiselessly to the door and opened it. At the head of the staircase he fancied the darkness moved.
"Who"s there?" he cried in a strong voice.
Then he stepped back into the room and lit his lamp. "I"ll get to bed,"
he said grimly; "I"ve got the horrors."
He left the gas burning, and with the lamp in his left hand and the pistol in his right slowly ascended the stairs. The first landing was clear. He opened the doors of each room, and, holding the lamp aloft, peered in. Then he mounted higher, and looked in the rooms, crammed from floor to ceiling with pledges, ticketed and placed on shelves. In one room he thought he saw something crouching in a corner. He entered boldly, and as he pa.s.sed along one side of a row of shelves could have sworn that he heard a stealthy footfall on the other. He rushed back to the door, and hung listening over the shaky bal.u.s.ters. Nothing stirred, and, satisfied that he must have been mistaken, he gave up the search and went to his bedroom. He set the lamp down on the drawers, and turned to close the door, when he distinctly heard a noise in the shop below.
He s.n.a.t.c.hed up the lamp again and ran hastily downstairs, pausing halfway on the lowest flight as he saw a dark figure spreadeagled against the side door, standing on tiptoe to draw back the bolt.
At the noise of his approach, it turned its head hastily, and revealed the face of the brown man; the bolt shot back, and at the same moment the Jew raised his pistol and fired twice.
From beneath the little cloud of smoke, as it rose, he saw that the door stood open and that the figure had vanished. He ran hastily down to the door, and, with the pistol raised, stood listening, trying to peer through the fog.
An unearthly stillness followed the deafening noise of the shots. The fog poured in at the doorway as he stood there hoping that the noise had reached the ears of some chance pa.s.ser-by. He stood so for a few minutes, and then, closing the door again, resolutely turned back and went upstairs.