Dangerous Ground Part 17

"My time is up!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.es. "Twenty minutes delay, now, will ruin my Raid. Ah! here's Follingsbee." And he moves forward at the sound of an approaching step.

But it is not Follingsbee who appears upon the threshold. It is, instead, Stanhope's too-obsequious, too-attentive admirer, the Celestial, who has voted the prospect of a flirtation with a mysterious mask, a thing of spice.

CHAPTER XII.

A "'MELLICAN LADY'S" LITTLE TRICK.

In such an emergency, when every moment has its value, to think is to act with Richard Stanhope. And time just now is very precious to him.

This importunate fellow is determined to solve the mystery of his ident.i.ty, to see him unmask. Ten minutes spent in an attempt to evade him will be moments of fate for the ambitious detective.

And, for the sake of his patroness, he cannot leave the house at the risk of being followed. This difficulty must be overcome and at once.

These thoughts flash through his mind as if by electricity; and then, as the Celestial approaches, he turns languidly toward the open window and rests his head against the cas.e.m.e.nt, as if in utter weariness.

"'Mellican lady slick?" queries the masker solicitously; "'Mellican lady walm? Ching Ling flannee, flannee."

And raising his j.a.panese fan, he begins to ply it vigorously.

Mentally confiding "Ching Ling," to a region where fans are needed and are not, Stanhope sways, as if about to faint, and motions toward a reclining chair.

The mask propels it close to the window, and the detective sinks into it, with a long drawn sigh.

Then, plying his fan with renewed vigor, the Celestial murmurs tenderly:

"'Mellican lady slick?"

"Confound you," thinks Stanhope; "I will try and be too _slick_ for you." Then, for the first time, he utters a word for the Celestial's hearing. Moving his head restlessly he articulates, feebly:

"The heat--I feel--faint!" Then, half rising from the chair, seeming to make a last effort, he reels and murmuring: "Water--water," sinks back presenting the appearance of utter lifelessness.

"Water!" The Celestial, utterly deceived, drops the fan and his dialect at the same moment, and muttering: "She has fainted!" springs to the door.

It is just what Stanhope had hoped for. When the Celestial returns with the water, the fainting lady will have disappeared.

But Fate seems to have set her face against Stanhope. The Celestial does not go. At the very door he encounters a servant, none other than the girl, Millie, who, having for some time lost sight of little Daisy, is now wandering from room to room in quest of the child.

"Girl," calls the masker authoritatively, "get some water quick; a lady has fainted."

Uttering a startled: "Oh, my!" Millie skurries away, and the Celestial returns to the side of the detective, who seems just now to be playing a losing game.

But it is only seeming. The case, grown desperate, requires a desperate remedy, and the G.o.ddess of Liberty resolves to do what, probably, no "'Mellican Lady" ever did before.

Through his drooping eyelids he notes the approach of the Celestial, sees him fling aside his fan to bend above him, and realizes the fact that he is about to be unmasked.

The Celestial bends nearer still. His hands touch the draped head, searching for the secret that releases the tightly secured mask. It is a sentimental picture, but suddenly the scene changes. Sentiment is put to rout, and absurdity reigns.

With indescribable swiftness, the body of the G.o.ddess darts forward, and the head comes in sudden contact with the stomach of the too-devoted Celestial, who goes down upon the floor in a state of collapse, while Stanhope, bounding to his feet and gathering up his trailing draperies, springs through the open window!

When Millie returns with water and other restoratives, she finds only a disarranged masker sitting dolefully upon the floor, with one hand pressed against his stomach and the other supporting his head; still too much dazed and bewildered to know just how he came there.

When he has finally recovered sufficiently to be able to give a shrewd guess as to the nature of the calamity that so suddenly overcame him, he is wise enough to see that the victory sits perched on the banner of the vanished G.o.ddess, and to retire from the field permanently silent upon the subject of "spicy flirtations" and mysterious ladies.

Meantime, Stanhope having alighted, with no particular damage to himself or his drapery, upon a balcony which runs half the length of the house, is creeping silently along that convenient causeway toward the gentlemen's dressing-room, situated at its extreme end.

Foreseeing some possible difficulty in leaving the house unnoticed while attired in so conspicuous a costume, the G.o.ddess had come prepared with a long black domino, which had been confided to Mr. Follingsbee, who, at the proper moment, was to fetch it from the gentlemen's dressing-room, array Stanhope in its sombre folds, and then see him from the house, and safely established in the carriage which the detective had arranged to have in waiting to convey him to the scene of the Raid.

Owing to his little encounter with the Celestial, Stanhope knows himself cut off from communication with Mr. Follingsbee, and he now creeps toward the dressing-room wholly intent upon securing the domino and quitting the house in the quickest manner possible.

As he approaches the window, however, he realizes that there is another lion in his path.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Stanhope, bounding to his feet, springs through the open window"--page 99.]

The room is already occupied; he hears two voices speaking in guarded tones.

"Be quick, Harvey; some one may come in a moment."

"I have locked the door."

"But it must be opened at the first knock. There must be no appearance of mystery, no room for suspicion, Harvey."

At the sound of a most familiar voice, Richard Stanhope starts, and flushes with excitement underneath his mask. Then he presses close against the window and peers in.

Two men are rapidly exchanging garments there; the one doffing a uniform such as is worn by an officer of Her Majesty's troops, the other pa.s.sing over, in exchange for said uniform, the suit of a common policeman.

With astonished eyes and bated breath, Stanhope recognizes the two. Van Vernet, his friend, and Harvey, a member of the police force, who is Vernet's staunch admirer and chosen a.s.sistant when such a.s.sistance can be of use.

How came Vernet at this masquerade, of all others? And what are they about to do?

He is soon enlightened, for Van Vernet, flushed with his success, present and prospective, utters a low triumphant laugh as he dons the policeman's coat, and turns to readjust his mask.

"Ah! Harvey," he says gayly; "if you ever live to execute as fine a bit of strategy as I did to-night, you may yet be Captain of police. Ha! ha!

this most recent battle between America and England has turned out badly for America--all because she _will_ wear petticoats!"

America! England! petticoats! Stanhope can scarcely suppress an exclamation as suddenly light flashes upon his mental horizon.

"I've done a good thing to-night, Harvey," continues Vernet with unusual animation, "and I've got the lead on a sharp man. If I can hold my own to-night, you'll never again hear of Van Vernet as only '_one_ of our best detectives.' Is your mask adjusted? All right, then. Now, Harvey, time presses; there's a big night's work before me. You are sure you understand everything?"

"Oh, perfectly; _my_ work's easy enough."

"And mine begins to be difficult. Unlock the door, Harvey, I must be off." Then turning sharply he adds, as if it were an after-thought: "By the way, if you happen to set your eye on a G.o.ddess of Liberty, just note her movements; I would give something to know when she contrives to leave the house and," with a dry laugh, "and _how_."

In another moment the dressing-room is deserted.

And then Richard Stanhope steps lightly through the window. With rapid movements he singles out his own dark domino, gathers his colored draperies close about him, and flings it over them, drawing the hood down about his head, and the long folds around his person. Then he goes out from the dressing-rooms, hurries down the great stairway, and pa.s.sing boldly out by the main entrance, glances up and down the street.