Drug addicts -- Fiction; Fantasy fiction; Magicians -- Fiction
Holding a match so that its light could not be detected outside the
car, I examined the "disguise" and was hard put to restrain an insane
laugh. The disguise was the complete hide of a gorilla! Gathering the
bundle under my arm I trudged toward the wall which surrounded the
Frenton estate. A few steps and the trees where the negro hid with the
car merged into one dark mass. I did not believe he could see me, but
for safety's sake I made, not for the high iron gate at the front but
for the wall at the side where there was no gate.
No light showed in the house. Sir Haldred was a bachelor and I was sure
that the servants were all in bed long ago. I negotiated the wall with
ease and stole across the dark lawn to a side door, still carrying
the grisly "disguise" under my arm. The door was locked, as I had
anticipated, and I did not wish to arouse anyone until I was safely
in the house, where the sound of voices would not carry to one who
might have followed me. I took hold of the knob with both hands, and,
exerting slowly the inhuman strength that was mine, began to twist. The
shaft turned in my hands and the lock within shattered suddenly, with a
noise that was like the crash of a cannon in the stillness. An instant
more and I was inside and had closed the door behind me.
* * * * *
I took a single stride in the darkness in the direction I believed the
stair to be, then halted as a beam of light flashed into my face. At
the side of the beam I caught the glimmer of a pistol muzzle. Beyond a
lean shadowy face floated.
"Stand where you are and put up your hands!"
I lifted my hands, allowing the bundle to slip to the floor. I had
heard that voice only once but I recognized it--knew instantly that the
man who held that light was John Gordon.
"How many are with you?"
His voice was sharp, commanding.
"I am alone," I answered. "Take me into a room where a light can not be
seen from the outside and I'll tell you some things you want to know."
He was silent; then, bidding me take up the bundle I had dropped, he
stepped to one side and motioned me to precede him into the next room.
There he directed me to a stairway and at the top landing opened a door
and switched on lights.
I found myself in a room whose curtains were closely drawn. During this
journey Gordon's alertness had not relaxed, and now he stood, still
covering me with his revolver. Clad in conventional garments, he stood
revealed a tall, leanly but powerfully built man, taller than I but not
so heavy--with steel-gray eyes and clean-cut features. Something about
the man attracted me, even as I noted a bruise on his jawbone where my
fist had struck in our last meeting.
"I can not believe," he said crispily, "that this apparent clumsiness
and lack of subtlety is real. Doubtless you have your own reasons for
wishing me to be in a secluded room at this time, but Sir Haldred is
efficiently protected even now. Stand still."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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