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The Pawns Count, a fiction by E. Phillips Oppenheim |
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CHAPTER XXVI |
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_ Lutchester left Sonia and the Ritz-Carlton a few minutes before midnight, to find a great yellow moon overhead, which seemed to have risen somewhere at the back of Central Park. The broad thoroughfare up which he turned seemed to have developed a new and unfamiliar beauty. The electric lamps shone with a pale and almost unnatural glow. The flashing lights of the automobiles passing up and down were almost whimsically unnecessary. Lutchester walked slowly up Fifth Avenue in the direction of his hotel. Something--the beauty of the night, perhaps, or some faint aftermath of sentimentality born of Sonia's emotion--tempted him during those few moments to relax. He threw aside his mask and breathed the freer for it. Once more he was a human being, treading the streets of a real city, his feet very much upon the earth, his heart full of the simplest things. All the scheming of the last few days was forgotten, the great issues, the fine yet devious way to be steered amidst the rocks which beset him; even the depression of the calamitous news from the North Sea passed away. He was a very simple human being, and he was in love. It was all so unpractical, so illusionary, and yet so real. Events, actual happenings--he thrust all thoughts of these away from his mind. What she might be thinking of him at the moment he ignored. He was content to let his thoughts rest upon her, to walk through the moonlit street, his brain and heart revelling in that subtle facility of the imagination which brought her so easily to his presence. It was such a vividly real Pamela, too, who spoke and walked and moved by his side. His memory failed him nowhere, followed faithfully the kaleidoscopic changes in her face and tone, showed him even that long, grateful, searching glance when their eyes had met in Von Teyl's sitting-room. There had been times when she had shown clearly enough that she was anxious to understand, anxious to believe in him. He clung to the memory of these; pushed into the background that faint impression he had had of her at the roof-garden, serene and proud, yet with a faint look of something like pain in her startled eyes. A large limousine passed him slowly, crawling up Fifth Avenue. Lutchester, with all his gifts of observation dormant, took no notice of its occupant, who leaned forward, raised the speaking-tube to his lips, and talked for a moment to his chauffeur. The car glided round a side street and came to a standstill against the curb. Its solitary passenger stepped quietly out and entered a restaurant. The chauffeur backed the car a little, slipped from his place, and followed Lutchester. By chance the little throng of people here became thicker for a few moments and then ceased. Lutchester drew a little sigh of relief as he saw before him almost an empty pavement. Then, just as he was relapsing once more into thought, some part of his subconscious instinct suddenly leaped into warning life. Without any actual perception of what it might mean, he felt the thrill of imminent danger, connected it with that soft footfall behind him, and swung round in time to seize a deadly uplifted hand which seemed to end in a shimmer of dull steel. His assailant flung himself upon Lutchester with the lithe ferocity of a cat, clinging to his body, twisting and turning his arm to wrest it free. It was a matter of seconds only before his intended victim, with a fierce backward twist, broke the man's wrist and, wrenching himself free from the knees which clung around him, flung him forcibly against the railings which bordered the pavement. Lutchester paused for a moment to recover his breath and looked around. A man from the other side of the street was running towards them, but no one else seemed to have noticed the struggle which had begun and finished in less than thirty seconds. The man, who was half-way across the thoroughfare, suddenly stopped short. He shouted a warning to Lutchester, who swung around. His late assailant, who had been lying motionless, had raised himself slightly, with a revolver clenched in his left hand. Lutchester's spring on one side saved his life, for the bullet passed so close to his cheek that he felt the rush and heat of the air. The man in the center of the road was busy shouting an alarm vociferously, and other people on both sides of the thoroughfare were running up. Lutchester's eyes now never left the dark, doubled-up figure upon the pavement. His whole body was tense. He was prepared at the slightest movement to spring in upon his would-be murderer. The man's eyes seemed to be burning in his white face. He called out to Lutchester hoarsely. "Don't move or I shall shoot!" He looked up and down the street. One of the nearest of the hastening figures was a policeman. He turned the revolver against his own temple and pulled the trigger.... Lutchester and a policeman walked slowly back along Fifth Avenue. Behind them, a little crowd was still gathered around the spot from which the body of the dead man had already been removed in an ambulance. "I really remember nothing," Lutchester told his companion, "until I heard the footsteps behind me, and, turning round, saw the knife. This is simply an impression of mine--that he might have descended from the car which passed me and stopped just round the corner of that street." "He's a chauffeur, right enough," the inspector remarked. "It don't seem to have been a chance job, either. Looks as though he meant doing you in. Got any enemies?" "None that I know of," Lutchester answered cautiously. "Why, the car's there still," he added, as they reached the corner. "And no chauffeur," the other muttered. The officer searched the car and drew out a license from the flap pocket. The commissionaire from the restaurant approached them. "Say, what are you doing with that car?" he demanded. "Better fetch the gentleman to whom it belongs," the inspector directed. "What's up, anyway?" the man persisted. "You do as you're told," was the sharp reply. The commissionaire disappeared. The officer studied the license which he had just opened. "What's the name?" Lutchester inquired. The man hesitated for a moment, then passed it over. "Oscar H. Fischer," he said. "Happen to know the name?" Lutchester's face was immovable. He passed the license back again. They both turned round. Mr. Fischer had issued from the restaurant. "What's wrong?" he asked hastily. "The commissionaire says you want me, Mr. Officer?" The inspector produced his pocketbook. "Just want to ask you a few questions about your chauffeur, sir." Fischer glanced at the driver's seat of the car, as though aware of the man's disappearance for the first time. "What's become of the fellow?" he inquired. "Shot himself," the inspector replied, "after a deliberate attempt to murder this gentleman." Mr. Fischer's composure was admirable. There was a touch of gravity mingled with his bewilderment. Nevertheless, he avoided meeting Lutchester's eyes. "You horrify me!" he exclaimed. "Why, the fellow's only been driving for me for a few hours." "That so?" the officer remarked, with a grunt. "Get any references with him?" "As a matter of fact, I did not," Fischer admitted frankly. "I discharged my chauffeur yesterday, at a moment's notice, and this man happened to call just as I was wanting the car out this afternoon. He promised to bring me references to-morrow from Mr. Gould and others. I engaged him on that understanding. He told me that his name was Kay-- Robert Kay. That is all that I know about him, except that he was an excellent driver. I am exceedingly sorry Mr. Lutchester," he went on, turning towards him, "that this should have happened." "So you two know one another, eh?" the officer observed. "Oh, yes, we know one another!" Lutchester admitted drily. "I shall have to ask you both for your names and addresses," the official continued. "I think I won't ask you any more questions at present. Seems to me headquarters had better take this on." "I shall be quite at your service," Lutchester promised. The man made a few more notes, saluted, and took his leave. Fischer and Lutchester remained for a moment upon the pavement. "It is a dangerous custom," Lutchester remarked, "to take a servant without a reference." "It will be a warning to me for the remainder of my life," Fischer declared. "I, too, have learnt something," Lutchester concluded, as he turned away. _ |
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