The Black Bag by Louis Joseph Vance (best manga ereader .TXT) đ
- Author: Louis Joseph Vance
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âNow, then,â Calendar proposed, âMr. Kirkwood asideâpeace be with
him!âletâs get down to cases.â
âWotâs the row?â asked the captain.
âThe row, Capân, is the Hallam female, who has unexpectedly shown up in
Antwerp, we have reason to believe with malicious intent and a private
detective to add to the gaiety of nations.â
âWotâs the odds? She carnât âurt us without lyinâ up trouble for âerself.â
âDamn little consolation to us when weâre working it out in Dartmoor.â
âSpeak for yourself,â grunted Mulready surlily.
âI do,â returned Calendar easily; âweâre both in the shadow of Dartmoor,
Mul, my boy; since you choose to take the reference as personal. Sing Sing,
however, yawns for me alone; itâs going to keep on yawning, too, unless I
miss my guess. I love my native land most to death, but âŠâ
âOw, blow that!â interrupted the captain irritably. âLetâs âear about the
âAllam. Wotâre you afryd of?â
ââFraid sheâll set up a yell when she finds out weâre planting the loot,
Capân. Sheâs just that vindictive; youâd think sheâd be satisfied with
her end of the stick, but you donât know the Hallam. That milk-and-water
offspring of hers is the apple of her eye, and Freddieâs going to collar
the whole shooting-match or madam will kick over the traces.â
âWell?â
âWell, sheâs queered us here. We canât do anything if my lady is going to
camp on our trail and tell everybody weâre shady customers, can we? The
question now before the board is: Where now,âand how?â
âAmsterdam,â Mulready chimed in. âI told you that in the beginning.â
âBut how?â argued Calendar. âThe Lord knows Iâm willing but ⊠we canât go
by rail, thanks to the Hallam. Weâve got to lose her first of all.â
âBut wot Iâm arskinâ is, wotâs the matter withââ
âThe Alethea, Capân? Nothing, so far as Dick and I are concerned. But my
dutiful daughter is prejudiced; sheâs been so long without proper paternal
discipline,â Calendar laughed, âthat sheâs rather high-spirited. Of course
I might overcome her objections, but the girlâs no fool, and every ounce
of pressure I bring to bear just now only helps make her more restless and
suspicious.â
âYou leave her to me,â Mulready interposed, with a brutal laugh. âIâll
guarantee to get her aboard, orâŠâ
âDrop it, Dick!â Calendar advised quietly. âAnd go a bit easy with that
bottle for five minutes, canât you?â
âWell, then,â Stryker resumed, apparently concurring in Calendarâs
attitude, âwây donât one of you tyke the stuff, go off quiet and dispose of
it to a proper fence, and come back to divide. I donât see wây thatââ
âNaturally you wouldnât,â chuckled Calendar. âFew people besides the two of
us understand the depth of affection existing between Dick, here, and
me. We just canât bear to get out of sight of each other. Weâre sure
inseparableâsince night before last. Odd, isnât it?â
âYou drop it!â snarled Mulready, in accents so ugly that the listener was
startled. âEnoughâs enough andââ
âThere, there, Dick! All right; Iâll behave,â Calendar soothed him. âWeâll
forget and say no more about it.â
âWell, see you donât.â
âBut âas either of you a plan?â persisted Stryker.
âI have,â replied Mulready; âand itâs the simplest and best, if you could
only make this long-lost parent here see it.â
âWot is it?â
Mulready seemed to ignore Calendar and address himself to the captain.
He articulated with some difficulty, slurring his words to the point of
indistinctness at times.
âSimple enough,â he propounded solemnly. âWeâve got the gladstone bag here;
Miss Dollyâs at the hotelâthatâs her papaâs bright notion; he thinks sheâs
to be trusted ⊠Now then, whatâs the matter with weighing anchor and
slipping quietly out to sea?â
âLeavinâ the dootiful darter?â
âCertânây. Sheâs only a drag any way. âBetter off without herâŠ. Then we
can wait our time and get highest market pricesââ
âYou forget, Dick,â Calendar put it, âthat thereâs a thousand in it for
each of us if sheâs kept out of England for six weeks. A thousandâs five
thousand in the land I hail from; I can use five thousand in my business.â
âWhy canât you be content with what youâve got?â demanded Mulready
wrathfully.
âBecause Iâm a seventh son of a seventh son; I can see an inch or two
beyond my nose. If Dorothy ever finds her way back to England sheâll spoil
one of the finest fields of legitimate graft I ever licked my lips to look
at. The trouble with you, Mul, is youâre too high-toned. You want to play
the swell mobs-man from post to finish. A quick touch and a clean getaway
for yours. Now, thatâs all right; that has its good points, but you donât
want to underestimate the advantages of a good blackmailing connectionâŠ.
If I can keep Dorothy quiet long enough, I look to the Hallam and precious
Freddie to be a great comfort to me in my old age.â
âThen, for Godâs sake,â cried Mulready, âgo to the hotel, get your brat by
the scruif of her pretty neck and drag her aboard. Letâs get out of this.â
âI wonât,â returned Calendar inflexibly.
The dispute continued, but the listener had heard enough. He had to get
away and think, could no longer listen; indeed, the voices of the three
blackguards below came but indistinctly to his ears, as if from a distance.
He was sick at heart and ablaze with indignation by turns. Unconsciously he
was trembling violently in every limb; swept by alternate waves of heat and
cold, feverish one minute, shivering the next. All of which phenomena were
due solely to the rage that welled inside his heart.
Stealthily he crept away to the rail, to stand grasping it and staring
across the water with unseeing eyes at the gay old city twinkling back with
her thousand eyes of light. The cool night breeze, sweeping down unhindered
over the level Netherlands from the bleak North Sea, was comforting to
his throbbing temples. By degrees his head cleared, his rioting pulses
subsided, he could think; and he did.
Over there, across the water, in the dingy and disreputable Hïżœtel du
Commerce, Dorothy waited in her room, doubtless the prey of unnumbered
nameless terrors, while aboard the brigantine her fate was being decided by
a council of three unspeakable scoundrels, one of whom, professing himself
her father, openly declared his intention of using her to further his
selfish and criminal ends.
His first and natural thought, to steal away to her and induce her to
accompany him back to England, Kirkwood perforce discarded. He could
have wept over the realization of his unqualified impotency. He had no
money,ânot even cab-fare from the hotel to the railway station. Something
subtler, more crafty, had to be contrived to meet the emergency. And there
was one way, one only; he could see none other. Temporarily he must make
himself one of the company of her enemies, force himself upon them,
ingratiate himself into their good graces, gain their confidence, then,
when opportunity offered, betray them. And the power to make them tolerate
him, if not receive him as a fellow, the knowledge of them and their plans
that they had unwittingly given him, was his.
And Dorothy, was waitingâŠ.
He swung round and without attempting to muffle his footfalls strode toward
the companionway. He must pretend he had just come aboard.
Subconsciously he had been aware, during his time of pondering, that the
voices in the cabin had been steadily gaining in volume, rising louder and
yet more loud, Mulreadyâs ominous, drink-blurred accents dominating the
others. There was a quarrel afoot; as soon as he gave it heed, Kirkwood
understood that Mulready, in the madness of his inflamed brain, was forcing
the issue while Calendar sought vainly to calm and soothe him.
The American arrived at the head of the companionway at a critical
juncture. As he moved to descend some low, cool-toned retort of Calendarâs
seemed to enrage his confederate beyond reason. He yelped aloud with wrath,
sprang to his feet, knocking over a chair, and leaping back toward the foot
of the steps, flashed an adroit hand behind him and found his revolver.
âIâve stood enough from you!â he screamed, his voice oddly clear in that
moment of insanity. âYouâve played with me as long as you will, you hulking
American hog! And now Iâm going to showââ
As he held his fire to permit his denunciation to bite home, Kirkwood,
appalled to find himself standing on the threshold of a tragedy, gathered
himself together and launched through the air, straight for the madmanâs
shoulders.
As they went down together, sprawling, Mulreadyâs head struck against a
transom and the revolver fell from his limp fingers.
XIV STRATAGEMS AND SPOILSPrepared as he had been for the shock, Kirkwood was able to pick himself up
quickly, uninjured, Mulreadyâs revolver in his grasp.
On his feet, straddling Mulreadyâs insentient body, he confronted Calendar
and Stryker. The face of the latter was a sickly green, the gift of his
fright. The former seemed coldly composed, already recovering from his
surprise and bringing his wits to bear upon the new factor which had been
so unceremoniously injected into the situation.
[Illustration: Straddling Mulreadyâs body, he confronted Calendar and
Stryker.]
Standing, but leaning heavily upon a hand that rested flat on the table,
in the other he likewise held a revolver, which he had apparently drawn in
self-defense, at the crisis of Mulreadyâs frenzy. Its muzzle was deflected.
He looked Kirkwood over with a cool gray eye, the color gradually returning
to his fat, clean-shaven cheeks, replacing the pardonable pallor which had
momentarily rested thereon.
As for Kirkwood, he had covered the fat adventurer before he knew it.
Stryker, who had been standing immediately in the rear of Calendar,
immediately cowered and cringed to find himself in the line of fire.
Of the three conscious men in the brigantineâs cabin, Calendar was probably
the least confused or excited. Stryker was palpably unmanned. Kirkwood was
tingling with a sense of mastery, but collected and rapidly revolving the
combinations for the reversed conditions which had been brought about by
Mulreadyâs drunken folly. His elation was apparent in his shining, boyish
eyes, as well as in the bright color that glowed in his cheeks. When he
decided to speak it was with rapid enunciation, but clearly and concisely.
âCalendar,â he began, âif a single shot is fired about this vessel the
river police will be buzzing round your ears in a brace of shakes.â
The fat adventurer nodded assent, his eyes contracting.
âVery well!â continued Kirkwood brusquely. âYou must know that I have
personally nothing to fear from the police; if arrested, I wouldnât be
detained a day. On the other hand, you ⊠Hand me that pistol, Calendar,
butt first, please. Look sharp, my man! If you donâtâŠâ
He left the ellipsis to be filled in by the corpulent blackguardâs
intelligence. The latter, gray eyes still intent on the younger manâs face,
wavered, plainly impressed, but still wondering.
âQuick! Iâm not patient to-nightâŠâ
No longer was Calendar of two minds. In the face of Kirkwoodâs attitude
there was but one course to be followed: that of obedience. Calendar
surrendered an untenable position as gracefully as could be wished.
âI guess you know what you mean by this,â he said, tendering the weapon as
per instructions; âIâm doggoned if I doâŠ. Youâll allow a certain
latitude in consideration of my relief; I canât say we were anticipating
thisâahâHeavensent visitation.â
Accepting the revolver with his left hand and
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