Anarchists -- Fiction; Jewel thieves -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Precious stones -- Fiction; Suspense fiction
Cutty washed the patient's hands and face and patched up the cut on
the cheek, interlarding his chatter with trench idioms, banter, jokes.
Underneath, though, he was chuckling. He was the hero of this tale;
he had done all the thrilling stunts, carried limp bodies across fire
escapes in the rain, climbed roofs, eluded newspaper reporters, fought
with his bare fists, rescued the girl.... All with one foot in the
grave! Fifty-two, gray haired--with a prospect of rheumatism on the
morrow--and putting it over like a debonair movie idol!
Hawksley met these pleasantries halfway by grousing about being babied
when there was nothing the matter with him but his head, his body, and
his legs.
Why didn't she look at him? What was the meaning of this persistent
avoidance? She must have forgiven last night. She was too much of a
thoroughbred to harbour ill feeling over that. Why didn't she look at
him?
The telephone called Cutty from the room.
Kitty went into the dining room for an extra pair of salt cellars and
delayed her return until she heard Cutty coming back.
“Karlov is dead,” he announced. “Started a fight in the taxi, got out,
and was making for safety when one of the boys shot him. He hadn't
the jewels on him, John. I'm afraid they are gone, unless he hid them
somewhere in that--What's the matter, Kitty?”
For Kitty had dropped the salt cellars and pressed her hands against her
bosom, her face colourless.
Hawksley, terrified, tried to get up.
“No, no! Nothing is the matter with me but my head.... To think I could
forget! Good--heavens!” She prolonged the words drolly. “Wait.”
She turned her back to them. When she faced them again she extended a
palm upon which lay a leather tobacco pouch, cracked and parched and
blistered by the reactions of rain and sun.
“Think of my forgetting them! I found them this morning. Where do you
suppose? On a step of the fire-escape ladder.”
“Well, I'll be tinker-dammed!” said Cutty.
“I've reasoned it out,” went on Kitty, breathlessly, looking at Cutty,
“When the anarchist tore them from Mr. Hawksley's neck, he threw them
out of the window. The room was dark; his companion could not see. Later
he intended, no doubt, to go into the court and recover them and cheat
his master. I was looking out of the window, when I noticed a brilliant
flash of purple, then another of green. The pouch was open, the stones
about to trickle out. I dared not leave them in the apartment or tell
anybody until you came home. So I carried them with me to the office.
The drums, Cutty! The drums! Tumpitum-tump! Look!”
She poured the stones upon the white linen tablecloth. A thousand fires!
“The wonderful things!” she gasped. “Oh, the wonderful things! I don't
blame you, Cutty. They would tempt an angel. The drums of jeopardy; and
that I should find them!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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