The Moonlit Way Part 56

"This is Martha.... Martha Kurtz. Yes, I want Frank Lehr.... Is that you, Frank?... The artist, Barres, who was pumping Soane the other night, is after him again. I told you how I listened at the door, and how I heard that Irish souse blabbing and bragging.... What?...

Sure!... Barres was at the desk just now inquiring if Soane had gone to Grogan's.... You bet!... Barres is leery since _K17_ hit him with a gun. Sure; he's stickin' his nose into everything.... Look out for him, if he comes around Grogan's askin' for Soane.... And say; there was a French guy here callin' on Barres. I knew he was in, but I said he was out. I was just goin' to call you when Barres came down....

Yes, I got his name.... Wait, I copied it out.... Here it is, 'Georges Renoux, Architect.' And he wrote 'Hotel Astor' in the corner.

"Yes, he said tell Barres to call him up. Naw, I didn't give him the message.... You don't say! Is that right? He's one o' them nosey Frenchman? _A captain_?... Gee!... What's his lay?... In New York?

Well, you better watch out then.... Sure, I'll ring you if he comes back!... No, there ain't no news.... Yes, I was to the Astor grille last night, and I talked to _K17_.... There was a guy higher up there.

I don't know who. He looked like he was a dark complected Jew....

_Ferez Bey_?... Gee!... You expect Skeel? To-night? Doin' _what_? You think this man Renoux is watchin' the Clan-na-Gael? Well, you better tell Soane to shut his mouth then.

"Yes, that Dunois girl is here still. It's a pity _K17_ lost his nerve.... Well, you better look out for her and for Barres, too.

They're as thick as last year honey!

"All right, I'll let you know anything. Bye-bye."

Barres, walking leisurely up the street, kept watching for Soane somewhere along the block; but could see n.o.body in the darkness, resembling him.

Outdoors the July night was cooler; young girls, hatless, in summer frocks, gathered on stoops or strolled through the lamplit dark.

Somewhere a piano sounded, not unpleasantly.

In the branch post office he mailed his letters, turned to go out, and caught sight of Soane pa.s.sing along the sidewalk just outside.

And with him was the one-eyed man, Max Freund--the man who, perhaps, had robbed Dulcie of half the letter.

His first emotion was sheer anger, and it started him toward the door, bent on swift but unconsidered vengeance.

But before this impulse culminated in his collaring the one-eyed man, sufficient common sense came to the rescue. A row meant publicity, and an inquiry by authority would certainly involve the writer of the partly stolen letter--Thessalie Dunois.

Cool and collected now, but mad all through, Barres continued to follow Soane and Freund, dropping back several yards to keep out of sight, and trying to make up his mind what he ought to do.

The cross street was fairly well lighted; there seemed to be plenty of evening strollers abroad, so that he was not particularly conspicuous on the long block between Sixth and Fifth Avenues.

The precious pair, arriving at Fifth Avenue, halted, blocked by the normal rush of automobiles, unchecked now by a traffic policeman.

So Barres halted, too, and drew back alongside a shop window.

And, as he stopped and stepped aside, he saw a man pause on the sidewalk across the street and move back cautiously into the shadow of a facade opposite.

There was nothing significant in the occurrence; Barres merely happened to notice it; then he turned his eyes toward Soane and Freund, who now were crossing Fifth Avenue. And he went after them, with no definite idea in his head.

Soane and Freund walked on eastward; a tramcar on Madison Avenue stopped them once more; and, as Barres also halted behind them and stepped aside into the shadows, there, just across the street, he saw the same man again halt, retire, and stand motionless in a recess between two shop windows.

Barres tried to keep one eye on him and the other on Soane and Freund.

The two latter were crossing Madison Avenue; and as soon as they had crossed, still headed east, the man on the other side of the street came out of his shadowy recess and started eastward, too.

Then Barres also started, but now he was watching the man across the street as well as keeping Soane and Freund in view--watching the former solitary individual with increasing curiosity.

Was that man keeping an eye on him? Was he following Soane and Freund?

Was he, in fact, following anybody, and had the lively imagination of Barres begun to make something out of nothing?

At Park Avenue Freund and Soane paused, not apparently because of any vehicular congestion impeding their progress, but they seemed to be engaged in vehement conversation, Soane's excitable tones reaching Barres, where he had halted again beside the tradesmen's gate of a handsome private house.

And once more, across the street the solitary figure also halted and stood unstirring under a porte-cochere.

Barres, straining his eyes, strove to make out details of his features and dress. And presently he concluded that, though the man did turn and glance in his direction occasionally, his attention was princ.i.p.ally fixed on Soane and Freund.

His movements, too, seemed to corroborate this idea, because as soon as they started across Park Avenue the man on the opposite side of the street was in instant motion. And Barres, now intensely curious, walked eastward once more, following all three.

At Lexington Avenue Soane sheered off and, despite the clutch of Freund, went into a saloon. Freund finally followed.

As usual, across the street the solitary figure had stopped. Barres, also immobile, kept him in view. Evidently he, too, was awaiting the reappearance of Soane and Freund.

Suddenly Barres made up his mind to have a good look at him. He walked to the corner, walked over to the south side of the street, turned west, and slowly sauntered past the man, looking him deliberately in the face.

As for the stranger, far from shrinking or avoiding the scrutiny, he on his part betrayed a very lively interest in the physiognomy of Barres; and as that young man approached he found himself scanned by a brilliant and alert pair of eyes, as keen as a fox-terrier's.

In frank but subtly hostile curiosity their glances met and crossed.

Then, in an instant, a rather odd smile glimmered in the stranger's eyes, twitched at his pleasant mouth, just shaded by a tiny moustache:

"If you please, sir," he said in a low, amused voice, "you will not--as they say in New York--b.u.t.t in."

Barres, astonished, stood quite still. The young man continued to regard him with a very intelligent and slightly ironical expression:

"I do not know, of course," he said, "whether you are of the city police, the State service, the Post Office, the Department of Justice, the Federal Secret Service"--he shrugged expressive shoulders--"but this I do know very well, that through lack of proper coordination in the branches of all your departments of City, State, and Federal surety, there is much bungling, much working at cross purposes, much interference, and many blunders.

"Therefore, I beg of you not to do anything further in the matter which very evidently occupies you." And he bowed and glanced across at the saloon into which Soane and Freund had disappeared.

Barres was thinking hard. He drew out his cigarette case, lighted a cigarette, came to his conclusions:

"You are watching Freund and Soane?" he asked bluntly.

"And you, sir? Are you observing the stars?" inquired the young man, evidently amused at something or other unperceived by Barres.

The latter said, frankly and pleasantly:

"I _am_ following those two men. It is evident that you are, also. So may I ask, have you any idea where they are going?"

"I can guess, perhaps."

"To Grogan's?"

"Of course."

"Suppose," said Barres quietly, "I put myself under your orders and go along with you."

The strange young man was much diverted:

"In your kind suggestion there appears to be concealed a germ of common sense," he said. "In which particular service are you employed, sir?"