Ronicky Doone Page 8

  Chapter Eight

  _Two Apparitions_

  They found that the room in the house on Beekman Place, opposite thatwhich they felt covered their quarry, could be secured, and they wereshown to it by a quiet old gentlewoman, found a big double room thatran across the whole length of the house. From the back it looked downon the lights glimmering on the black East River and across to theflare of Brooklyn; to the left the whole arc of the Fifty-ninth StreetBridge was exposed. In front the windows overlooked Beekman Placeand were directly opposite, the front of the house to which the taxidriver had gone that afternoon.

  Here they took up the vigil. For four hours one of the two sat witheyes never moving from the street and the windows of the house acrossthe street; and then he left the post, and the other took it.

  It was vastly wearying work. Very few vehicles came into the light ofthe street lamp beneath them, and every person who dismounted from oneof them had to be scrutinized with painful diligence.

  Once a girl, young and slender and sprightly, stepped out of a taxi,about ten o'clock at night, and ran lightly up the steps of the house.Ronicky caught his friend by the shoulders and dragged him to thewindow. "There she is now!" he exclaimed.

  But the eye of the lover, even though the girl was in a dim light,could not he deceived. The moment he caught her profile, as she turnedin opening the door, Bill Gregg shook his head. "That's not the one.She's all different, a pile different, Ronicky."

  Ronicky sighed. "I thought we had her," he said. "Go on back to sleep.I'll call you again if anything happens."

  But nothing more happened that night, though even in the dull, ghosthours of the early morning they did not relax their vigil. But all thenext day there was still no sign of Caroline Smith in the house acrossthe street; no face like hers ever appeared at the windows. Apparentlythe place was a harmless rooming house of fairly good quality. Not asign of Caroline Smith appeared even during the second day. By thistime the nerves of the two watchers were shattered by the constantstrain, and the monotonous view from the front window was beginning tomadden them.

  "It's proof that she ain't yonder," said Bill Gregg. "Here's two daysgone, and not a sign of her yet. It sure means that she ain't in thathouse, unless she's sick in bed." And he grew pale at the thought.

  "Partner," said Ronicky Doone, "if they are trying to keep her awayfrom us they sure have the sense to keep her under cover for as longas two days. Ain't that right? It looks pretty bad for us, but I'mstaying here for one solid week, anyway. It's just about our lastchance, Bill. We've done our hunting pretty near as well as we could.If we don't land her this trip, I'm about ready to give up."

  Bill Gregg sadly agreed that this was their last chance and they mustplay it to the limit. One week was decided on as a fair test. If, atthe end of that time, Caroline Smith did not come out of the houseacross the street they could conclude that she did not stay there. Andthen there would be nothing for it but to take the first train backWest.

  The third day passed and the fourth, dreary, dreary days ofunfaltering vigilance on the part of the two watchers. And on thefifth morning even Ronicky Doone sat with his head in his hands atthe window, peering through the slit between the drawn curtains whichsheltered him from being observed at his spying. When he called outsoftly, the sound brought Gregg, with one long leap out of the chairwhere he was sleeping, to the window. There could be no shadow of adoubt about it. There stood Caroline Smith in the door of the house!

  She closed the door behind her and, walking to the top of the steps,paused there and looked up and down the street.

  Bill Gregg groaned, snatched his hat and plunged through the door, andRonicky heard the brief thunder of his feet down the first flight ofstairs, then the heavy thumps, as he raced around the landing. He wasable to trace him down all the three flights of steps to the bottom.

  And so swift was that descent that, when the girl, idling down thesteps across the street, came onto the sidewalk, Bill Gregg rushed outfrom the other side and ran toward her.

  They made a strange picture as they came to a halt at the sameinstant, the girl shrinking back in apparent fear of the man, and BillGregg stopping by that same show of fear, as though by a blow in theface. There was such a contrast between the two figures that RonickyDoone might have laughed, had he not been shaking his head withsympathy for Bill Gregg.

  For never had the miner seemed so clumsily big and gaunt, never hadhis clothes seemed so unpressed and shapeless, while his soft grayhat, to which he still clung religiously, appeared hopelessly out ofplace in contrast with the slim prettiness of the girl. She wore ablack straw hat, turned back from her face, with a single big redflower at the side of it; her dress was a tailored gray tweed. Thesame distinction between their clothes was in their faces, the finelymodeled prettiness of her features and the big, careless chiseling ofthe features of Bill Gregg.

  Ronicky Doone did not wonder that, after her first fear, her gesturewas one of disdain and surprise.

  Bill Gregg had dragged the hat from his head, and the wind lifted hislong black hair and made it wild. He went a long, slow step closer toher, with both his hands outstretched.

  A strange scene for a street, and Ronicky Doone saw the girl flash aglance over her shoulder and back to the house from which she had justcome. Ronicky Doone followed that glance, and he saw, all hidden savethe profile of the face, a man standing at an opposite window andsmiling scornfully down at that picture in the street.

  What a face it was! Never in his life had Ronicky Doone seen a manwho, in one instant, filled him with such fear and hatred, suchloathing and such dread, such scorn and such terror. The nose washooked like the nose of a bird of prey; the eyes were long andslanting like those of an Oriental. The face was thin, almostfleshless, so that the bony jaw stood out like the jaw of adeath's-head.

  As for the girl, the sight of that onlooker seemed to fill her with anew terror. She shrank back from Bill Gregg until her shoulders werealmost pressed against the wall of the house. And Ronicky saw her headshake, as she denied Bill the right of advancing farther. Still hepleaded, and still she ordered him away. Finally Bill Gregg drewhimself up and bowed to her and turned on his heel.

  The girl hesitated a moment. It seemed to Ronicky, in spite of thefact that she had just driven Bill Gregg away, as if she were onthe verge of following him to bring him back. For she made a slightoutward gesture with one hand.

  If this were in her mind, however, it vanished instantly. She turnedwith a shudder and hurried away down the street.

  As for Bill Gregg he bore himself straight as a soldier and came backacross the pavement, but it was the erectness of a soldier who has metwith a crushing defeat and only preserves an outward resolution, whileall the spirit within is crushed.

  Ronicky Doone turned gloomily away from the window and listened to theprogress of Gregg up the stairs. What a contrast between the ascentand the descent! He had literally flown down. Now his heels clumpedout a slow and regular death march, as he came back to the room.

  When Gregg opened the door Ronicky Doone blinked and drew in a deepbreath at the sight of the poor fellow's face. Gregg had known beforethat he truly loved this girl whom he had never seen, but he had neverdreamed what the strength of that love was. Now, in the very moment ofseeing his dream of the girl turned into flesh and blood, he had losther, and there was something like death in the face of the big mineras he dropped his hat on the floor and sank into a chair.

  After that he did not move so much as a finger from the position intowhich he had fallen limply. His legs were twisted awkwardly, sprawlingacross the floor in front of him; one long arm dragged down toward thefloor, as if there was no strength in it to support the weight of thelabor-hardened hands; his chin was fallen against his breast.

  When Ronicky Doone crossed to him and laid a kind hand on his shoulderhe did not look up. "It's ended," said Bill Gregg faintly. "Now wehit the back trail and forget all about this." He added with a faintattempt at cynicism: "I've just wast
ed a pile of good money-makingtime from the mine, that's all."

  "H'm!" said Ronicky Doone. "Bill, look me in the eye and tell me, manto man, that you're a liar!" He added: "Can you ever be happy withouther, man?"

  The cruelty of that speech made Gregg flush and look up sharply. Thiswas exactly what Ronicky Doone wanted.

  "I guess they ain't any use talking about that part of it," said Gregghuskily.

  "Ain't there? That's where you and me don't agree! Why, Bill, look atthe way things have gone! You start out with a photograph of a girl.Now you've followed her, found her name, tracked her clear across thecontinent and know her street address, and you've given her a chanceto see your own face. Ain't that something done? After you've done allthat are you going to give up now? Not you, Bill! You're going to buckup and go ahead full steam. Eh?"

  Bill Gregg smiled sourly. "D'you know what she said when I comerushing up and saying: 'I'm Bill Gregg!' D'you know what she said?"

  "Well?"

  "'Bill Gregg?' she says. 'I don't remember any such name!'

  "That took the wind out of me. I only had enough left to say: 'Thegent that was writing those papers to the correspondence school to youfrom the West, the one you sent your picture to and--'

  "'Sent my picture to!' she says and looks as if the ground had openedunder her feet. 'You're mad!' she says. And then she looks back overher shoulder as much as to wish she was safe back in her house!"

  "D'you know why she looked back over her shoulder?"

  "Just for the reason I told you."

  "No, Bill. There was a gent standing up there at a window watching herand how she acted. He's the gent that kept her from writing to you andsigning her name. He's the one who's kept her in that house. He's theone that knew we were here watching all the time, that sent out thegirl with exact orders how she should act if you was to come out andspeak to her when you seen her! Bill, what that girl told you didn'tcome out of her own head. It come out of the head of the gent acrossthe way. When you turned your back on her she looked like she'd runafter you and try to explain. But the fear of that fellow up in thewindow was too much for her, and she didn't dare. Bill, to get at thegirl you got to get that gent I seen grinning from the window."

  "Grinning?" asked Bill Gregg, grinding his teeth and starting from hischair. "Was the skunk laughing at me?"

  "Sure! Every minute."

  Bill Gregg groaned. "I'll smash every bone in his ugly head."

  "Shake!" said Ronicky Doone. "That's the sort of talk I wanted tohear, and I'll help, Bill. Unless I'm away wrong, it'll take the bestthat you and me can do, working together, to put that gent down!"