Mystery and detective stories; Short stories; Single men -- Fiction; Valets -- Fiction
The revelry was at its height when Henry VIII realized with a start that
it was already half after eleven. First there had been a professional
presentation of the scene between Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Sir Toby
Belch that had made McAllister shake with merriment. He thought Sir
Andrew the drollest fellow that he had seen for many a day. Maria and
the clown were both good, too. McAllister had a fleeting wish that he
had essayed Sir Toby. The champagne had been excellent and the
characters most amusing, and, altogether, McAllister did not blame
himself for having overstayed his time--in fact, he didn't care much
whether he had or not. He had intended going back to his rooms for the
purpose of changing his costume, but he had plenty of clothes on the
train, and there really seemed no need of it at all. He bade his hostess
good-night in a most optimistic frame of mind and hailed a cab. The long
ulster which he wore entirely concealed his costume save for his shoes,
strange creations of undressed leather, red on the uppers and white
between the toes. As for his cap and feather, he was quite too happy to
mind them for an instant. The assembled crowd of lackeys and footmen
cheered him mildly as he drove away, but Henry VIII, smoking a large
cigar, noticed them not. Neither did he observe a slim young man who
darted out from behind a flight of steps and followed the cab, keeping
about half a block in the rear. The rain had stopped. The clouds had
drawn aside their curtains, and a big friendly moon beamed down on
McAllister from an azure sky, bright almost as day.
The cabman hit up his pace as they reached the slope from the Cathedral
down Fifth Avenue, and the runner was distanced by several blocks.
McAllister, happy and sleepy, was blissfully unconscious of being an
actor in a drama of vast import to the New York police, but as they
reached Forty-third Street he saw by the illuminated clock upon the
Grand Central Station that it was two minutes to twelve. At the same
moment a trace broke. The driver sprang from his seat, but before he
could reach the ground McAllister had leaped out. Tossing a bill to the
perturbed cabby, our hero threw off his ulster and sped with an agility
marvellous to behold down Forty-third Street toward the station. As he
dashed across Madison Avenue, directly in front of an electric car, the
hand on the clock slipped a minute nearer. At that instant the slim man
turned the corner from Fifth Avenue and redoubled his speed. Thirty
seconds later, McAllister, in sword, doublet, hose, and feathered cap,
burst into the waiting-room, carrying an ulster, clearing half its
length in six strides, threw himself through the revolving door to the
platform, and sprang past the astonished gate-man just as he was
sliding-to the gate.
"Hi, there, give us yer ticket!" yelled the man after the retreating
form of Henry VIII, but royalty made no response.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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