The Lighted WayOppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
General
The Lighted Way
Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
Detective and mystery stories
"Be off," he said, tersely. "I have queer humors sometimes lying
here waiting for the end. Don't let it be your fate to excite one of
them. You have had your escape."
"What do you mean?" Arnold demanded.
Isaac laughed hoarsely.
"How many nights ago was it," he asked, "that you threw up a window
in the man Weatherley's house--the night Morris and I were there,
seeking for Rosario?"
"I never saw you!" Arnold exclaimed.
"No, but you saw Morris," Isaac continued. "What is more, you saw
him again on the stairs with me that night, and it very nearly cost
you your life. Lucky for you, young man, that you were not at
Hampstead the night when Morris went there to seek for you!"
Arnold was speechless.
"You mean that he was there that night looking for me?" he cried.
"He hated you all," Isaac muttered, "you and the woman and Sabatini,
and he was a little mad--just a little mad. If he had found you all
there--"
"Well?" Arnold interposed, breathlessly.
Isaac shook his head.
"Never mind!"
"But I do mind," Arnold insisted. "I want to know about that night.
Was it in search of us--"
Isaac held out his skinny hand. There was a dangerous glitter in his
eyes.
"It is enough," he snarled. "I have no more to say about what is
past. Send me Sabatini and he shall hear news from me."
Arnold retreated slowly towards the threshold.
"If you will take the advice of a sane man," he said, "you will
throw that thing away and escape. If I can help--"
Isaac was already creeping to his hiding-place. He turned around
with a contemptuous gesture.
"There is no escape for me," he declared. "Every day the police draw
their circle closer. So much the better! When they come, they will
find me prepared! If you are still here in sixty seconds," he added,
"I will treat you as I shall treat them."
Arnold closed the door and made his way into the street.
CHAPTER XXXIII
SABATINI'S DAUGHTER
Sabatini, already dressed for the evening, his coat upon his arm,
paused only to light a cigarette and read once more the telegram
which he held between his fingers, before he left his house to step
into the automobile which was waiting outside. His servant entered
the room with his silk hat.
"You will remember carefully my instructions, Pietro?" he said.
"Assuredly, sir," the man answered.
"If there is a telegram, any communication from the Embassy, or
telephone message, you will bring it to me yourself, at once, at
number 17, Grosvenor Square. If any one should call to see me, you
know exactly where I am to be found."
"There is a young gentleman here now, sir," the man announced. "He
has just arrived."
"The young gentleman who was here before, to-day?" Sabatini asked.
"The same, Excellency."
Sabatini laid down his coat.
"You can show him in," he directed. "Wait for me outside."
Arnold, who had come straight from the unknown world in which he
had found Isaac, was shown in immediately. Pietro closed the door
and withdrew. Sabatini looked inquiringly at his visitor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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