The Flesh Of The Orchid Part 28

"Frank's dead," Ismi said, and crossed himself.

"Would that the other were dead too," Miss Lolly muttered. "So long as he can breathe she's in danger. I feel it in my bones. I can't help it, Ismi. I feel it."

"He is paralysed," the old man insisted. "You don't know what you're saying. You haven't seen him. He can't even speak."

"He is Max," Miss Lolly said. "I'm frightened. To think she is opposite his room. It's too close, Ismi. If he finds out Ismi groaned.

"You go on and on," he said. "I tell you he can't move. He'll never be able to walk again. I know. Look what happened to me, and Max is twenty times as bad as I was."

Miss Lolly went to her suitcase, opened it, took out a heavy throwing-knife.

"There's nothing he can't do with a knife," she said, showing it to Ismi. "I kept this. It is his-one of many. He could throw a knife even if he couldn't walk. There's nothing he can't do with it."

Ismi wrung his hands.

"You're wearing me out," he groaned. "You go on and on. He hasn't a knife. He hasn't any weapon. Nothing . . . please stop. Nothing can happen to her."

Miss Lolly eyed him.

"I'm going to the hospital," she said. "I couldn't rest. I should have gone before now if it hadn't been for you."

Ismi started to his feet.

"What are you going to do? You're not going to tell them who he is-what he's done? You wouldn't do that?"

"I must warn them," she said firmly. "I don't trust him."

Ismi caught her hands in his.

"Don't tell them," he pleaded. "They wouldn't treat him so well if they knew. They have his name on the door and a special nurse. He is very ill. Have a little mercy, Lolly. He is my son."

"He had no mercy for me," Miss Lolly said quietly.

"But he is helpless now," Ismi said. "Go and see for yourself. He can't do anything evil. This may be the making of him. When he is well enough I'll take him away. I'll begin a new life for him. Don't tell them."

"Why did you have such a son?" Miss Lolly burst out. "I warned you. Why did you marry such a woman? I told you she was no good, and you found that out soon enough. Why didn't you listen to me ?"

Ismi sat down again.

"You were right," he said. "I wish I had listened to yon. What am I going to do, Lolly? There's no future for me now. I have little money." He put his hands over his eyes. "It won't last long. Every nickel will have to go to Max. He needs it now." He rocked himself backwards and forwards. "I feel so old and useless, Lolly."

While he was speaking Miss Lolly moved silently to the door. She opened it, stood looking back at the old clown as he moaned to himself.

"What's to become of us?" he went on. "I know you're right. He is evil. He'll go on doing evil no matter how helpless he is, because he thinks evilly. . . ."

But Miss Lolly didn't hear. She was already running down the stairs, and it wasn't until she reached the main lobby of this shoddy little hotel that she realized that. she was still grasping the heavy throwing-knife, and hastily she hid it from sight under her coat.

A couple of drummers, fat, oily-faced men, nudged each other as Miss Lolly crossed the lobby.

"That's the kind of hotel this is," one of them said to the other. "Even the dames have beards."

But Miss Lolly paid no attention, although she heard what was said. She went into the dark street, and after a minute or so hailed a pa.s.sing taxi.

She arrived at the Santo Rio Memorial Hospital as the tower clock chimed eleven.

The porter at the gate eyed her with a mixture of disgust and contempt on his round fat face.

"You can't see anyone now," he said firmly. "Come tomorrow. The Head Sister's off duty and the resident doctor's on his rounds. It's no use wagging your head at me. You can't come in," and he turned back to his office, closing the door firmly in Miss Lolly's face.

She looked up at the immense building with its thousands of lighted windows. Somewhere in this building was Max: opposite his room was Carol.

She had a presentiment of danger. She knew Max. If he learned that Carol was so close to him he would move heaven and earth to get at her. Setting her ridiculous hat more firmly on her head, she walked quietly past the porter's lodge and moved quickly, like a lost shadow, towards the main hospital building.

Max reached the opposite door, paused for a moment to lift himself up on his arm to read the nameplate. A hot wave of vicious exaltation ran through him when he saw the name: Carol Blandish. So she was there; behind that door, now within his reach. He fumbled at the handle, pushed the door open, dragged himself along the floor into the room, closed the door.

The room was in semi-darkness, lit only by a small blue pilot light immediately over the bed. For a moment or so Max could see nothing, blinded by the contrast between this dim light and the harsh light of the corridor. Then things in the room began to take shape. He became aware of the bed, set in the middle of the room, the white enamelled table by the bed and the armchair. But his whole vicious attention was concentrated on the bed.

He crawled towards it, paused when he reached it. It was a high bed, and reaching up he could only just get his fingers on the top of the edge of the mattress. When he raised himself on his right arm he could see Carol lying in the bed, but as his left arm was useless he could not reach her.

She lay on her back, the sheet drawn up to her chin, her face the colour of snow in the bluish light. She looked as if she were dead- very lovely and calm-but he could see the slight rise and fall of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s as she breathed. Her head was swathed in bandages, and only a wisp of her beautiful red hair showed beneath the bandages.

Max saw nothing of this: all he saw was someone to kill, just out of his reach, and, trembling with fury, he caught hold of the bedrail and tried to lever himself up, but the dead side of his body proved too heavy.

He thought for a moment that he was going to have another stroke. To be so close to her; to have had to suffer so much to get to her and for her still to be safe and beyond his reach was more than he could endure. He relaxed on the floor, shut his eyes, tried to control the pounding of blood in his head. He must think. There must be some way in which he could reach her.

Perhaps if he pushed the armchair against the bed he could hoist himself on to it and be within reach. He began to drag himself across the floor to the armchair when his ears, never ceasing to listen for an alarming sound, warned him that someone was coming.

He paused, listened intently.

Miss Lolly came scurrying down the pa.s.sage, breathless and alarmed. No one had seen her enter the hospital, although she had had several narrow escapes. She had found the Montgomery Ward with difficulty, remembered Ismi had said that Max was on the third floor, and she had toiled up the emergency staircase, knowing that it was unlikely that she would meet anyone.

But once on the third floor there were nurses busy in the rooms leading on to the landing, and Miss Lolly had to wait her opportunity to make a dash down the corridor. She succeeded, and was now half walking, half running along the broad corridor, her eyes searching each nameplate to show her Max's room.

She had decided to see him first. If he was as ill and as helpless as Ismi had said, she wouldn't betray him. But she knew Max: had long distrusted him. Ismi was simple, believed well of anyone. It seemed unlikely to her that Max could ever be harmless.

She suddenly paused as Max's name caught her eye. There it was, printed neatly on a white card. "To think they should make such a fuss of such a brute," she thought indignantly. She listened outside the door, heard nothing and found she was suddenly trembling. She remembered the last time she had seen him; remembered the cold viciousness in his eyes and the vindictive way he had looked at her. How he had deliberately struck her, so quickly that she had had no chance of protecting herself.

Her hand instinctively gripped the handle of the knife she kept hidden under her coat, and turning the doorhandle she looked into the room.

For a moment or so the shock of seeing the dead nurse huddled on the floor brought Miss Lolly's heart almost to a b.u.mping standstill. She saw the empty bed, realized instantly what it meant. Had she arrived in time? She knew there wasn't a second to lose, and pulling herself together she whirled on her heel and sprang across the corridor to the opposite door.

She had now no thought for herself; her one aim was to save Carol and throwing open the door she blundered into the semi-dark room.

Max, crouching in the darkness, recognized her immediately, and suppressed a cry of fury as she came blundering into the room. He knew she wouldn't be able to see him for a moment or so until her eyes became accustomed to the dim light. In that time he must settle her, if he was going through with his vengeance. He dragged himself towards her, holding his breath, but as he reached her Miss Lolly saw him.

She didn't know what it was that was moving towards her. She could just make out a dark menacing ma.s.s that was reaching out for her, and she guessed immediately it was Max.

Catching her breath in horror, she stepped back, felt his hand grip the hem of her dress, hang on. Blind terror seized her, and bending over him she struck at him with the knife: struck with all her strength.

The blade of the knife cut into Max's side, seared through his flesh and buried itself into the hard wood of the floor. For a second or so these two looked at each other, then swinging his fist Max hit Miss Lolly on the side of the head, knocking her flat.

But he was alarmed, feeling the blood running down his side, and he wondered if she had cut an artery. It had been a wild, stupid stroke. To Max, who was an expert, such a stroke was inexcusable. She had had him at her mercy: she should have finished him.

He gripped the knife-handle, his lips coming off his teeth. He scarcely felt the cold edge of the knife as it bit into him. He had now what he wanted. The old fool had brought him the one weapon with which he was expert.

But she had driven it so firmly into the floor that he could not move it. He became aware that his strength was very gradually slipping away from him as his blood flowed from his side. In a sudden frenzy he tugged and jerked at the knife, saw Miss Lolly struggling slowly to her feet. Everything was going wrong, he thought furiously, and shouted at her, although no sound came from his twitching, twisted lips.

She was on her feet now, her grotesque hat on the side of her head, her eyes wild with fear. Supporting herself by the bedrail, she placed herself between him and the silent, unconscious Carol.

He took a new grip on the knife-handle, began to work it backwards and forwards, feeling it slowly loosening, and his face lit up with ghastly triumph.

"No!" Miss Lolly said breathlessly. "Leave it alone. Take your hand off it."

He snarled at her, wrenched and jerked at the knife-handle, feeling it slowly, and as if reluctantly, coming free.

Miss Lolly saw his look of triumph, knew what would happen if he once got possession of the knife, and looked around wildly for a weapon. Standing in a corner was an iron cylinder of oxygen. She ran to it, s.n.a.t.c.hed it up and turned.

Even as she did so the knife came loose, and rolling over, M ax sent it flying through the air.

Miss Lolly gave a hoa.r.s.e scream, swung up the cylinder as the knife struck her in the middle of her narrow, bony chest. She stood for a moment, the cylinder above her head, the knife growing out of her outmoded black dress, her eyes sightless; then her knees buckled, the cylinder crashed to the floor, narrowly missing Max, and she dropped.

Slowly now, he crawled over to her, and leaning over her he spat in her face. He knew she had finished him. He could tell that he was bleeding to death, and a cold drowsiness was already creeping over him. He could feel his blood running down his side, flowing out of him, carrying away his evil spirit.

But there was still a chance, he thought, if he were quick. If he could get the knife out of Miss Lolly's body he might still have enough strength to throw it. From where he lay Carol made a perfect target.

He again gripped the knife-handle, again pulled at the knife. The handle was slippery with blood, but he kept at it until it was free. But then he found lie had become so weak that he could scarcely lift the knife. He turned on his side, looked across the dim room.

Suddenly his mind was projected back to the days when he and Frank worked in the circus. The girl in the bed, lit by the blue light, reminded him of a girl who once stood against a board and let him throw phosphorus-painted knives at her. He remembered the time he had so carefully aimed the knife at her throat. It had been a clever throw, for it had been done in the dark. He could still do it: even now, when he was dying.

His father had said over and over again: "There is no knife-thrower like you in the world. I have never known you to miss any target once you have made up your mind to hit it."

That was true, Max thought, and gathered together his last remaining strength.

It was not a difficult target. He could see Carol's throat just above the white sheet, but it was a pity that the knife was now so heavy. He raised it with an effort, balanced it, then paused.

There suddenly seemed to be a cold breath of air in the room, and he saw a shadow move; then a figure came out of a corner into the dim light.

He gripped the knife tightly, feeling the hair rise on the back of his neck, and a chill run up his spine.

Frank came out of the darkness. Frank, smiling his fat tight smile. Frank in his black overcoat and black hat and black concertina-shaped trousers.

"You've left it too late, Max," Frank said. "You'll never do it now," and he laughed.

Max snarled at him, again balanced the knife, and his brain commanded his muscles to throw. Nothing happened. The knife began to slip out of his cold fingers.

"You've left it too late, Max," Frank whispered to him from out of the shadows.

The knife clattered to the floor and Max's arm dropped.

"Come on, Max," Frank urged. "I'm waiting for you."

Before Max died, he thought with satisfaction that he had not spoilt his reputation: he had not missed his target, for he hadn't made the throw.

A little later Carol sighed and opened her eyes. From where she lay she could not see the horror that surrounded her on the floor, and she lay still, her mind washed clear of the past, and waited for someone to come to her.

THE END.