Part 15 (2/2)
”Range!” he snarled. ”My girl, haven't I just told you that I had to fight for my life? My boat was in flames. We had to swim for it till we were picked up by a Long Island barge tug. I don't know what became of the motorman. He must have headed straight for sh.o.r.e. And I'm glad he did. Otherwise he'd be howling for the price of another boat.
Olga, for the first time I've had to let one of the boys have a look at my face. Doesn't know the name; but one of these days he'll stumble across it, and the result will be blackmail, unless I push him off into the dark. It was accidental.”
The countess leaned forward, her hands tightly clinched.
”But the box!”
Braine made a gesture of despair.
”Leo, are you using any drug these days?”
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”LEO, ARE YOU USING ANY DRUGS THESE DAYS?”]
”Don't make fun of me, Olga,” impatiently. ”Did you ever see me drink more than a pint of wine or smoke more than two cigars in an evening?
Poor fools! What! Let my brain go into the wastebasket for the sake of an hour or so of exhilaration? No, and never will I! I'm keen about the gray matter I've got, and by the Lord Harry, I'm going to keep it. There's only one dope fiend in the Hundred, and he's one of the best decoys we have; so we let him have his c.o.ke whenever he really needs it. But this man Felton has seen my face. Some day he'll see it again, ask questions, and then...”
”Then what?”
”A burial at sea,” he laughed. The laughter died swiftly as it came.
”Threw it into eight hundred feet of water, on a bar where the sands are always s.h.i.+fting. He'll never find it, even if he took the range.
He could not have got a decent one. The sun was dropping and the shadows were long. He threw the chest into the water and then began pegging away at us, cool as you please, and fired our tank.”
”It looks to me as if he had wasted his time.”
”That depends. Between you and me and the gatepost, I've a sneaking idea that this man Jones, whom n.o.body has given any particular attention, is a deep, clever man. He may have been honestly attempting to find a new hiding place; the advertis.e.m.e.nt in the newspaper may have drawn him. He may have thrown the box over in pure rage at seeing himself checkmated. Again, the whole thing may have been worked up for our benefit, a blind. But if that's the case, Jones has us on the hip, for we can't tell. But we can do what in all probability he expects we'll cease to do--watch him just as shrewdly as before.”
Olga caught his hand and drew him down beside her. ”I wasn't going to bother you to-night, but it may mean something vital.”
”What?” alertly.
For reply she rose and walked over to the light b.u.t.ton. She pressed it and the apartment became dark.
”Come over to the window, quick!” She dragged him across the room.
”Over the way, the house with the marble frontage.”
A man emerged, lit a cigarette, and walked leisurely down the street.
”No!” she cried, as Braine turned to make for the door doubtless with the intention of finding out who the man was. ”Every night after you leave he appears.”
”Does he follow me?”
”No. And that's what bothered me at first. I believed he was watching some apartment above. But regularly when I turn out the lights he comes forth. So there's no doubt he watches you enter and takes note of your departure.”
”But doesn't follow me. That's odd. What the devil is his idea?”
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