Chapter XXI.Beating BackAlmost as soon as my feet touched the ground I struck straight out from the wall which stretched away on either hand, for I had a wholesome respect for the people I had left behind me there. The Chief—or Emperor as Ivanovitch had called him—was doubtless waiting for the latter’s return with news of me, and it would not be long, probably, before the deaths of Ivanovitch and his assistant were discovered. To be frank, there was a quality of cold and deadly chill in the tones of the man who had spoken to me in the room of the voices that filled me with an urgent desire to put a lot of country between myself and him.I seemed to be in some kind of an orchard now, and the grass, while it was wet and pretty long, made decent walking, and silent. The night was clear and dark and I could make out the dim bulk of the trees without much trouble, so that I made pretty good going.By locating the North Star in the sky, I made out that the wall where I left it ran west by southeast. My own direction at right angles to it was about northeast, so that I was going away from town. I knew nothing about my surroundings, of course, nor what obstructions I should find, so, for a time, I kept on in as nearly as possible a straight line. I might be on either side of the Island or in the middle for all I knew.But it was possible that we had followed a winding course in coming to the place, and I might not be so far from town and from reënforcements after all. And presently the urge came to me to strike off to the northwest, and later bear around to the southwest again and so encircle the place and at least find myself going in the direction in which New York lay. For at present I was going away from it all the time.About the same time I struck a wall running at right angles to my course and made out, in the dim light, dense woods on the other side of it. So I turned to the right and followed the wall, keeping close to it, so that I could climb it and plunge into the woods at the first sign of pursuit.And presently the trees about me thinned, the land ahead fell away and I came to the top of a bluff. I looked down some sixty or seventy feet to a long white beach, deserted in the starlight, and saw the white line made by little breakers. Far in the distance shone the lights of the Connecticut coast. I was somewhere on the north shore of the Island; and, judging by the bluff, I was a long way from town; somewhere out beyond Port Jefferson, I thought.Then I had a shock. My eye swept along the line of the beach and I realized suddenly that it was not deserted. To my left, and, as I judged, about opposite the house from which I had escaped, I made out the dim outline of a smack pulled part way up on the sand. I could dimly discern the moving figures of men about it and the murmur of voices came softly to my ears. But the boat carried no lights nor did the men about it.On impulse, I made my way along the top of the bluff until I came almost opposite to where the boat lay. Here my progress was stopped by a sort of gully running inland a little way, and I lay down on the bluff to watch, keeping my head down so that it could not show up against the sky-line. These people might be picnickers or almost any one. But, on the other hand, they were close to the house I had left and I did not intend to take any chances. They might also be bootleggers, in which case they would hardly be pleased to see me.Presently the men about the boat drew away from it in a mass and came up the beach toward me. They seemed to be carrying heavy burdens.They came forward steadily, and I was just getting ready to beat a retreat when I realized that they were drawing into single file and preparing to advance into the gully. I wriggled forward a little and looked down again. The men moved slowly forward in single file for a matter of twenty yards or so. Then, one by one, they disappeared!Of course I could not see very clearly. But they certainly went into the gully and they certainly did not come out either at the top or at the mouth! And presently the gully was empty!It was too much for my nerves, and I made a mental note of the location of the gully in connection with the sweep of the beach, for possible future use, and prepared to beat a retreat. I had more pressing business than the solution of this mystery.I made my way back to my friendly wall, turned about and headed straight inland. If I kept on in a straight line, taking my direction roughly from the stars, I was bound to come to a road sooner or later.And so it proved. But I covered a lot of ground and surmounted a lot of obstacles before I came to that road. I had to strike across several farms, negotiate a brook and beat off the interested approaches of a large black dog before I struck a little side road, running in the general direction I wanted. I followed this for miles as it seemed. But at last it turned south a little and presently ran into another larger road, running about northeast by southwest.This road, too, was deserted. So far I had encountered not a soul, which was not difficult to understand, as it must have been about four o’clock in the morning. But the thought of the time made me realize suddenly the danger of being caught anywhere near the house when dawn came. It was late in November and would not be light until after seven. But it would be light enough to see long before that.So, keeping close to the edge of the road and as much as possible in the shadow, I set out to put a lot of distance between myself and the house of orgies.The night was pretty cold and I had no hat and no overcoat. The frock-coat I wore was little protection, and I had been thoroughly chilled both in my prison and in my wait on the bluff. So I set myself to run to get warm as well as to make better speed.I broke into a sort of dog-trot, not difficult to keep up for a considerable time and fairly efficient in covering ground rapidly. And so, keeping in the shadow and resting every now and then, I proceeded in the general direction of New York for the better part of an hour.But I felt as if the entire population of the world had been wiped out by some catastrophe; for there was no living thing about me anywhere. I met no one and saw no one. There was not even a light in the few houses I passed. And the muffled beat of my own feet on the soft dirt road was the only sound in my ears. At last I heard an asthmatic coughing behind me, with the unmistakable chug of a Ford engine. I drew into the shadow of a tree and waited. It might be pursuit. But somehow I did not connect the thought of a Ford with my late hosts. At any rate I determined to take a chance, and as the little car drew closer I stepped into the middle of the road, so that the lights shone on me, and held up my hand.At first the driver tried to go around me. But I jumped in front again and prevented that maneuver, so that he was forced to draw up, his engine buzzing like a swarm of angry bees in the silence.“What do you want, anyhow?” came an angry, suspicious voice.“For heaven’s sake, man, give me a lift, will you?” I answered. “My car broke down back there in the wilds hours ago, and I’ve been tramping this road ever since trying to find my bearings and get back to town. Can you set me down somewhere near a railway station?”The driver pressed down his pedal a little and the car drew closer. “Is this some kind of a hold-up?” he demanded in an angry voice. “Because if it is, you’ve come to the wrong shop. If you can get any money out of me I’d like to know where you find it.”“It’s not a hold-up,” I laughed. “It’s a yell for help. I don’t want to spend the entire night on your delightful countryside.” I set the catch on my ring as I spoke.My new acquaintance grunted. “Get in, and get a move on,” he said ungraciously. “One of my patients thinks she’s sick and I’ve got to go and tell her she ain’t. And I want to get back and get some sleep myself.”With a sigh of relief I climbed into that wheezing little Ford. The mystery of my ungracious reception was explained. For if any man has a right to be bad-tempered it’s a small-town doctor.As long as I live I shall bless that doctor and his car. He took me miles on my way and, I suspect, some little distance out his own, although he would not admit it and was grumpy and disagreeable to the last. But he went to the trouble of setting me down at a railroad station, which was all that I wanted. And I bade his grumpy back good-night with my heart in my voice.For on my way I had talked to him about the place from which I had come and had learned exactly what I wanted to know.I told him that I had broken down a long way back and had wandered about in the woods. I pretended that I had run against the wall about the house of orgies, and asked him about that. I described the beach and the bluff I had seen and asked him about that, and between the two he was able to tell me where I must have been.“You must have struck the old Rutherford place. There’s a kind of recluse lives up there now. Bought the place when old man Rutherford died. They say he’s a foreigner, but nobody knows anything about him. Lives by himself and sends a Chink lad down to the village to get a little food now and then. But he doesn’t keep a car, they tell me. No one ever sees him about these parts, and they say that he never goes out of his grounds. The Rutherford place is——” and he told me the exact location in relation to the main road and the small towns about.“Is there a garage anywhere near his place?” I asked, as it was a safe enough question in view of my earlier story that I had broken down.The doctor laughed. “Queer thing your asking,” he grunted. “They do a lot of talking about that garage.”“Why? What do they say?”“Oh, there’s a lot more cars come there than there are people in the neighborhood, and the folk about here believe that there’s some sort of smuggling going on from there. The town constable went and looked the place over, though, and it seemed all right.”I asked him where it was and he laughed again. “That’s a funny thing too,” he said. “For it isn’t on the main road at all. It’s on a side road. Funny place for a garage, the people about here think, but it seems to have plenty of business.” And he told me exactly where it was. Here’s a health to that doctor, and may he graduate to a large practice in the city entirely composed of wealthy hypochondriacs.When I got to the station I decided that matters were too serious to take any further chances by going it alone. When I had said good-bye to the doctor I found the ticket office and woke up the night clerk. He stared at me as if I were a ghost, but the sight of a bill changed the tenor of his thoughts and he consented readily enough to let me use his telephone, while he yawned and stretched behind me.And then began the most maddening half hour of my life. I had a telephone before me and I got the first operator almost at once, and gave her the number Captain Peters had told me to call in case of emergency. But that’s all the good it did me. I must have sat there for half an hour, prodding the operator and listening in despair for an answer from beyond.It came finally, however, and it was Captain Peters himself who answered. The fates were with me at last, I thought.“Hello, Peters. This is Clayton——” I began.“Thank God!” came a bellow over the wire. “Where are you and where is Pride? I tell you, the town has been turned upside down looking for the two of you.”“I’m out on Long Island, in the railroad station at ——. But between you and me I wish I was somewhere else—nearer town, for example. I don’t think the air of Long Island agrees with me. Can you send for me? There’s no train till morning.”“Send for you! I’ll come and get you. Listen, if the air out there is chilly, go to the police at —— on —— Street and tell Collins, the lieutenant there, that I sent you and that you are to be locked up there till I come. I’ll ’phone him at once. And I’ll be there in an hour. Will you do that?”“I’ll do just that and I’ll do it now. Only get a move on, Peters. There’s no time to lose!” I hesitated. “Better bring some men with you, eh?”“That will have to wait till morning. I can do it by ’phone anyway. I’ll see you in an hour. Good-by,” and he rang off.When I turned away from the ’phone I showed the clerk another bill. “Look here, I’m going to start out to walk to Jamaica, see? But some of my friends may turn up, I don’t know, and if they do, you tell them where I’ve gone so that they can come after and pick me up, will you?”“I sure will, mister,” he said, and pocketed the bill.But my precaution was too late. As I came out of the station a car was rounding the corner a block ahead. I walked quickly in the direction of the police-station, for I knew roughly where it was from Captain Peters’ directions, but after the car passed me I looked back. It had stopped and two men were getting out of it. They glanced in my direction, hesitated, and then hurried into the station, while a third got out of the car and looked after me.It was getting light now and I kept glancing over my shoulder as I walked. I quickened my pace too, for the police-station was some little distance away. And presently the two men ran out of the railroad station and jumped into the car and the third man followed them. Their car headed in the other direction. It started almost at once, but instead of striking straight ahead it pulled out across the road as though to turn. And I broke into a frank run, covering the ground to that police-station just as fast as I could put down my feet.I made it too; I got there just ahead of that car, but even then I had a narrow escape, for they drove up on the sidewalk behind me, and I only escaped being run over by leaping aside. It was my recent friends all right, there could be no doubt of that.Something sped past my ear a moment later and went “spat” against the wall of the police-station. I did not stop to argue. I burst into that station-house as if the devil was at my heels.There was a police sergeant at the desk, and he jumped to his feet when he saw me.“I’m Clayton,” I gasped. “Did Captain Peters ’phone you? They’re after me and they’re just outside. They took a shot at me. Where’s the lieutenant?” I jumped the barrier and went round to his side. “Where’s Collins?”Whatever criticism may be leveled at the police, they’re good men in an emergency, all of them. “Get behind the desk, sir. It’s all right. You’re safe now. Yes, the captain ’phoned. Collins isn’t——”He broke off, for at that moment the door burst open and three men came in. One of them I recognized at once as Vining. The others looked like New York men about town. Vining gave me one quick glance. And the concentrated determination in it made me realize that I was as near death at that moment as I had ever been.“Get out your gun! I haven’t got one!” I whispered to the sergeant just before Vining spoke.“Good! That’s the man! Good-evening, Sergeant!” He took a step or two in our direction. “I want that man with you. I have been after this fellow for a long time for robbing my flat. But he’s as slippery as an eel. However, I’m glad you caught him at last. I have a warrant for his arrest, and I’ll take him with me now if you please.”I saw the sergeant’s hand steal under the desk and close on the butt of a heavy police revolver.“That’s right, sir,” he answered. “He’s just given himself up. I was going to lock him up when you came in. Just got orders to do so. He’ll be here when you want him, sir.”Vining came a step closer, laughing. “But I want him now, Sergeant: I’m not going to take any more chances on his getting away. I want him where I can watch him myself.”The sergeant’s hand reached out and fell on the bell on his desk, “Can’t do that, sir. I have orders to lock him up.”Vining stepped back a pace, as though in astonishment and disappeared behind one of his companions. He reappeared again just as a door opened to his left and a couple of sleepy constables stumbled into the room.“Well,” said Vining, “let’s have a good look at him to make sure.” He came a step closer, his hand flashed up and the light glinted on the metal object he held. I ducked sideways, but not quite quick enough, for there was a dull thud and a sickening pain shot through my shoulder.In a daze I heard the sergeant shout, and the next minute heard the roar of his heavy revolver. I heard a scream of pain and the noise of shouting and heavy feet as I sank down on the floor; for my knees seemed to give out under me suddenly. Then, with the uproar of some sort of a fray still in my ears, blackness descended on me for the second time that night.When I came to myself again I was in a police cell. The sergeant was bending over me. My eyes wandered vaguely for a moment, and then I managed to make out two other familiar faces. The first was that of the doctor who had given me the lift earlier in the night. The other belonged to my old friend Captain Peters.I managed to summon a grin, in spite of the racking pain in my shoulder. “Pretty busy night, Captain!” I murmured. Then I glanced at the sergeant. “Did you get any of them?”The sergeant grinned—a wide, wholesome grin. “I did that, sor. I got the one that shot you. He’s in the next cell. The other two surrendered. They’re cooling their heels beyond!”Captain Peters strode forward to lean over me. “The doc. here says you can travel all right. Feel well enough, sir?”I turned and stared at the doctor. He grinned back at me. “Fine tale you told me to-night, young man,” he laughed. “But I seem to have been on the right side, anyway, in giving you a lift. I half suspected you were fleeing from justice! Feel well enough to get up?”I had been shot in the left shoulder. I put out my right hand and caught hold of the sergeant and so struggled to my feet. “Feeling first-rate now,” I told them. “Haven’t had much sleep lately, which probably explains why I went off like that.” I glanced at the sergeant. “If you’ve got Vining in the next cell, you’d better put a pretty good guard over him.He’sa slippery customer, let me tell you!”Captain Peters slipped his hand under my good arm. “Can you come away with me now? There’s no time to lose.”I turned quickly. “Right you are, Captain. I had forgotten for a moment. Good-night, Sergeant! Good-night, Doctor.”And so we left the station-house and went out into the morning, I feeling a little weak and sick, but confident at last that we had the knowledge for which we had been searching so long, and that it was now only a matter of hours before our work would be completed.Captain Peters’ big police car burned up the miles to New York, while I lay back in the tonneau, nursing my bandaged shoulder as well as I could from the jolting, leaning on the captain a little and relating to him everything that had happened that night. He wanted me to wait until we got to town and tell the story to the Chief first. For he had wired him as soon as he got my telephone message. But, with my aching shoulder and the strain I had been through, I refused to wait. I alone knew the whereabouts of the house where Natalie and Margaret, and probably Moore, Larry and Pride, were imprisoned, and my life had been threatened too often that night for me to keep that vital information to myself any longer than I had to.So he was in possession of the whole story before he reached the city. And by the time we did reach it I was sound asleep. The captain inspired confidence. The search, at last, was over. And if I was to be in at the death, as I was determined to be, I would need all the sleep I could get, while the Chief and Captain Peters made the necessary preparations.
Almost as soon as my feet touched the ground I struck straight out from the wall which stretched away on either hand, for I had a wholesome respect for the people I had left behind me there. The Chief—or Emperor as Ivanovitch had called him—was doubtless waiting for the latter’s return with news of me, and it would not be long, probably, before the deaths of Ivanovitch and his assistant were discovered. To be frank, there was a quality of cold and deadly chill in the tones of the man who had spoken to me in the room of the voices that filled me with an urgent desire to put a lot of country between myself and him.
I seemed to be in some kind of an orchard now, and the grass, while it was wet and pretty long, made decent walking, and silent. The night was clear and dark and I could make out the dim bulk of the trees without much trouble, so that I made pretty good going.
By locating the North Star in the sky, I made out that the wall where I left it ran west by southeast. My own direction at right angles to it was about northeast, so that I was going away from town. I knew nothing about my surroundings, of course, nor what obstructions I should find, so, for a time, I kept on in as nearly as possible a straight line. I might be on either side of the Island or in the middle for all I knew.
But it was possible that we had followed a winding course in coming to the place, and I might not be so far from town and from reënforcements after all. And presently the urge came to me to strike off to the northwest, and later bear around to the southwest again and so encircle the place and at least find myself going in the direction in which New York lay. For at present I was going away from it all the time.
About the same time I struck a wall running at right angles to my course and made out, in the dim light, dense woods on the other side of it. So I turned to the right and followed the wall, keeping close to it, so that I could climb it and plunge into the woods at the first sign of pursuit.
And presently the trees about me thinned, the land ahead fell away and I came to the top of a bluff. I looked down some sixty or seventy feet to a long white beach, deserted in the starlight, and saw the white line made by little breakers. Far in the distance shone the lights of the Connecticut coast. I was somewhere on the north shore of the Island; and, judging by the bluff, I was a long way from town; somewhere out beyond Port Jefferson, I thought.
Then I had a shock. My eye swept along the line of the beach and I realized suddenly that it was not deserted. To my left, and, as I judged, about opposite the house from which I had escaped, I made out the dim outline of a smack pulled part way up on the sand. I could dimly discern the moving figures of men about it and the murmur of voices came softly to my ears. But the boat carried no lights nor did the men about it.
On impulse, I made my way along the top of the bluff until I came almost opposite to where the boat lay. Here my progress was stopped by a sort of gully running inland a little way, and I lay down on the bluff to watch, keeping my head down so that it could not show up against the sky-line. These people might be picnickers or almost any one. But, on the other hand, they were close to the house I had left and I did not intend to take any chances. They might also be bootleggers, in which case they would hardly be pleased to see me.
Presently the men about the boat drew away from it in a mass and came up the beach toward me. They seemed to be carrying heavy burdens.
They came forward steadily, and I was just getting ready to beat a retreat when I realized that they were drawing into single file and preparing to advance into the gully. I wriggled forward a little and looked down again. The men moved slowly forward in single file for a matter of twenty yards or so. Then, one by one, they disappeared!
Of course I could not see very clearly. But they certainly went into the gully and they certainly did not come out either at the top or at the mouth! And presently the gully was empty!
It was too much for my nerves, and I made a mental note of the location of the gully in connection with the sweep of the beach, for possible future use, and prepared to beat a retreat. I had more pressing business than the solution of this mystery.
I made my way back to my friendly wall, turned about and headed straight inland. If I kept on in a straight line, taking my direction roughly from the stars, I was bound to come to a road sooner or later.
And so it proved. But I covered a lot of ground and surmounted a lot of obstacles before I came to that road. I had to strike across several farms, negotiate a brook and beat off the interested approaches of a large black dog before I struck a little side road, running in the general direction I wanted. I followed this for miles as it seemed. But at last it turned south a little and presently ran into another larger road, running about northeast by southwest.
This road, too, was deserted. So far I had encountered not a soul, which was not difficult to understand, as it must have been about four o’clock in the morning. But the thought of the time made me realize suddenly the danger of being caught anywhere near the house when dawn came. It was late in November and would not be light until after seven. But it would be light enough to see long before that.
So, keeping close to the edge of the road and as much as possible in the shadow, I set out to put a lot of distance between myself and the house of orgies.
The night was pretty cold and I had no hat and no overcoat. The frock-coat I wore was little protection, and I had been thoroughly chilled both in my prison and in my wait on the bluff. So I set myself to run to get warm as well as to make better speed.
I broke into a sort of dog-trot, not difficult to keep up for a considerable time and fairly efficient in covering ground rapidly. And so, keeping in the shadow and resting every now and then, I proceeded in the general direction of New York for the better part of an hour.
But I felt as if the entire population of the world had been wiped out by some catastrophe; for there was no living thing about me anywhere. I met no one and saw no one. There was not even a light in the few houses I passed. And the muffled beat of my own feet on the soft dirt road was the only sound in my ears. At last I heard an asthmatic coughing behind me, with the unmistakable chug of a Ford engine. I drew into the shadow of a tree and waited. It might be pursuit. But somehow I did not connect the thought of a Ford with my late hosts. At any rate I determined to take a chance, and as the little car drew closer I stepped into the middle of the road, so that the lights shone on me, and held up my hand.
At first the driver tried to go around me. But I jumped in front again and prevented that maneuver, so that he was forced to draw up, his engine buzzing like a swarm of angry bees in the silence.
“What do you want, anyhow?” came an angry, suspicious voice.
“For heaven’s sake, man, give me a lift, will you?” I answered. “My car broke down back there in the wilds hours ago, and I’ve been tramping this road ever since trying to find my bearings and get back to town. Can you set me down somewhere near a railway station?”
The driver pressed down his pedal a little and the car drew closer. “Is this some kind of a hold-up?” he demanded in an angry voice. “Because if it is, you’ve come to the wrong shop. If you can get any money out of me I’d like to know where you find it.”
“It’s not a hold-up,” I laughed. “It’s a yell for help. I don’t want to spend the entire night on your delightful countryside.” I set the catch on my ring as I spoke.
My new acquaintance grunted. “Get in, and get a move on,” he said ungraciously. “One of my patients thinks she’s sick and I’ve got to go and tell her she ain’t. And I want to get back and get some sleep myself.”
With a sigh of relief I climbed into that wheezing little Ford. The mystery of my ungracious reception was explained. For if any man has a right to be bad-tempered it’s a small-town doctor.
As long as I live I shall bless that doctor and his car. He took me miles on my way and, I suspect, some little distance out his own, although he would not admit it and was grumpy and disagreeable to the last. But he went to the trouble of setting me down at a railroad station, which was all that I wanted. And I bade his grumpy back good-night with my heart in my voice.
For on my way I had talked to him about the place from which I had come and had learned exactly what I wanted to know.
I told him that I had broken down a long way back and had wandered about in the woods. I pretended that I had run against the wall about the house of orgies, and asked him about that. I described the beach and the bluff I had seen and asked him about that, and between the two he was able to tell me where I must have been.
“You must have struck the old Rutherford place. There’s a kind of recluse lives up there now. Bought the place when old man Rutherford died. They say he’s a foreigner, but nobody knows anything about him. Lives by himself and sends a Chink lad down to the village to get a little food now and then. But he doesn’t keep a car, they tell me. No one ever sees him about these parts, and they say that he never goes out of his grounds. The Rutherford place is——” and he told me the exact location in relation to the main road and the small towns about.
“Is there a garage anywhere near his place?” I asked, as it was a safe enough question in view of my earlier story that I had broken down.
The doctor laughed. “Queer thing your asking,” he grunted. “They do a lot of talking about that garage.”
“Why? What do they say?”
“Oh, there’s a lot more cars come there than there are people in the neighborhood, and the folk about here believe that there’s some sort of smuggling going on from there. The town constable went and looked the place over, though, and it seemed all right.”
I asked him where it was and he laughed again. “That’s a funny thing too,” he said. “For it isn’t on the main road at all. It’s on a side road. Funny place for a garage, the people about here think, but it seems to have plenty of business.” And he told me exactly where it was. Here’s a health to that doctor, and may he graduate to a large practice in the city entirely composed of wealthy hypochondriacs.
When I got to the station I decided that matters were too serious to take any further chances by going it alone. When I had said good-bye to the doctor I found the ticket office and woke up the night clerk. He stared at me as if I were a ghost, but the sight of a bill changed the tenor of his thoughts and he consented readily enough to let me use his telephone, while he yawned and stretched behind me.
And then began the most maddening half hour of my life. I had a telephone before me and I got the first operator almost at once, and gave her the number Captain Peters had told me to call in case of emergency. But that’s all the good it did me. I must have sat there for half an hour, prodding the operator and listening in despair for an answer from beyond.
It came finally, however, and it was Captain Peters himself who answered. The fates were with me at last, I thought.
“Hello, Peters. This is Clayton——” I began.
“Thank God!” came a bellow over the wire. “Where are you and where is Pride? I tell you, the town has been turned upside down looking for the two of you.”
“I’m out on Long Island, in the railroad station at ——. But between you and me I wish I was somewhere else—nearer town, for example. I don’t think the air of Long Island agrees with me. Can you send for me? There’s no train till morning.”
“Send for you! I’ll come and get you. Listen, if the air out there is chilly, go to the police at —— on —— Street and tell Collins, the lieutenant there, that I sent you and that you are to be locked up there till I come. I’ll ’phone him at once. And I’ll be there in an hour. Will you do that?”
“I’ll do just that and I’ll do it now. Only get a move on, Peters. There’s no time to lose!” I hesitated. “Better bring some men with you, eh?”
“That will have to wait till morning. I can do it by ’phone anyway. I’ll see you in an hour. Good-by,” and he rang off.
When I turned away from the ’phone I showed the clerk another bill. “Look here, I’m going to start out to walk to Jamaica, see? But some of my friends may turn up, I don’t know, and if they do, you tell them where I’ve gone so that they can come after and pick me up, will you?”
“I sure will, mister,” he said, and pocketed the bill.
But my precaution was too late. As I came out of the station a car was rounding the corner a block ahead. I walked quickly in the direction of the police-station, for I knew roughly where it was from Captain Peters’ directions, but after the car passed me I looked back. It had stopped and two men were getting out of it. They glanced in my direction, hesitated, and then hurried into the station, while a third got out of the car and looked after me.
It was getting light now and I kept glancing over my shoulder as I walked. I quickened my pace too, for the police-station was some little distance away. And presently the two men ran out of the railroad station and jumped into the car and the third man followed them. Their car headed in the other direction. It started almost at once, but instead of striking straight ahead it pulled out across the road as though to turn. And I broke into a frank run, covering the ground to that police-station just as fast as I could put down my feet.
I made it too; I got there just ahead of that car, but even then I had a narrow escape, for they drove up on the sidewalk behind me, and I only escaped being run over by leaping aside. It was my recent friends all right, there could be no doubt of that.
Something sped past my ear a moment later and went “spat” against the wall of the police-station. I did not stop to argue. I burst into that station-house as if the devil was at my heels.
There was a police sergeant at the desk, and he jumped to his feet when he saw me.
“I’m Clayton,” I gasped. “Did Captain Peters ’phone you? They’re after me and they’re just outside. They took a shot at me. Where’s the lieutenant?” I jumped the barrier and went round to his side. “Where’s Collins?”
Whatever criticism may be leveled at the police, they’re good men in an emergency, all of them. “Get behind the desk, sir. It’s all right. You’re safe now. Yes, the captain ’phoned. Collins isn’t——”
He broke off, for at that moment the door burst open and three men came in. One of them I recognized at once as Vining. The others looked like New York men about town. Vining gave me one quick glance. And the concentrated determination in it made me realize that I was as near death at that moment as I had ever been.
“Get out your gun! I haven’t got one!” I whispered to the sergeant just before Vining spoke.
“Good! That’s the man! Good-evening, Sergeant!” He took a step or two in our direction. “I want that man with you. I have been after this fellow for a long time for robbing my flat. But he’s as slippery as an eel. However, I’m glad you caught him at last. I have a warrant for his arrest, and I’ll take him with me now if you please.”
I saw the sergeant’s hand steal under the desk and close on the butt of a heavy police revolver.
“That’s right, sir,” he answered. “He’s just given himself up. I was going to lock him up when you came in. Just got orders to do so. He’ll be here when you want him, sir.”
Vining came a step closer, laughing. “But I want him now, Sergeant: I’m not going to take any more chances on his getting away. I want him where I can watch him myself.”
The sergeant’s hand reached out and fell on the bell on his desk, “Can’t do that, sir. I have orders to lock him up.”
Vining stepped back a pace, as though in astonishment and disappeared behind one of his companions. He reappeared again just as a door opened to his left and a couple of sleepy constables stumbled into the room.
“Well,” said Vining, “let’s have a good look at him to make sure.” He came a step closer, his hand flashed up and the light glinted on the metal object he held. I ducked sideways, but not quite quick enough, for there was a dull thud and a sickening pain shot through my shoulder.
In a daze I heard the sergeant shout, and the next minute heard the roar of his heavy revolver. I heard a scream of pain and the noise of shouting and heavy feet as I sank down on the floor; for my knees seemed to give out under me suddenly. Then, with the uproar of some sort of a fray still in my ears, blackness descended on me for the second time that night.
When I came to myself again I was in a police cell. The sergeant was bending over me. My eyes wandered vaguely for a moment, and then I managed to make out two other familiar faces. The first was that of the doctor who had given me the lift earlier in the night. The other belonged to my old friend Captain Peters.
I managed to summon a grin, in spite of the racking pain in my shoulder. “Pretty busy night, Captain!” I murmured. Then I glanced at the sergeant. “Did you get any of them?”
The sergeant grinned—a wide, wholesome grin. “I did that, sor. I got the one that shot you. He’s in the next cell. The other two surrendered. They’re cooling their heels beyond!”
Captain Peters strode forward to lean over me. “The doc. here says you can travel all right. Feel well enough, sir?”
I turned and stared at the doctor. He grinned back at me. “Fine tale you told me to-night, young man,” he laughed. “But I seem to have been on the right side, anyway, in giving you a lift. I half suspected you were fleeing from justice! Feel well enough to get up?”
I had been shot in the left shoulder. I put out my right hand and caught hold of the sergeant and so struggled to my feet. “Feeling first-rate now,” I told them. “Haven’t had much sleep lately, which probably explains why I went off like that.” I glanced at the sergeant. “If you’ve got Vining in the next cell, you’d better put a pretty good guard over him.He’sa slippery customer, let me tell you!”
Captain Peters slipped his hand under my good arm. “Can you come away with me now? There’s no time to lose.”
I turned quickly. “Right you are, Captain. I had forgotten for a moment. Good-night, Sergeant! Good-night, Doctor.”
And so we left the station-house and went out into the morning, I feeling a little weak and sick, but confident at last that we had the knowledge for which we had been searching so long, and that it was now only a matter of hours before our work would be completed.
Captain Peters’ big police car burned up the miles to New York, while I lay back in the tonneau, nursing my bandaged shoulder as well as I could from the jolting, leaning on the captain a little and relating to him everything that had happened that night. He wanted me to wait until we got to town and tell the story to the Chief first. For he had wired him as soon as he got my telephone message. But, with my aching shoulder and the strain I had been through, I refused to wait. I alone knew the whereabouts of the house where Natalie and Margaret, and probably Moore, Larry and Pride, were imprisoned, and my life had been threatened too often that night for me to keep that vital information to myself any longer than I had to.
So he was in possession of the whole story before he reached the city. And by the time we did reach it I was sound asleep. The captain inspired confidence. The search, at last, was over. And if I was to be in at the death, as I was determined to be, I would need all the sleep I could get, while the Chief and Captain Peters made the necessary preparations.