The Window-Gazer Part 53

"Know the old Doc. well?" he inquired. "Queer old duck, eh? And that Li Ho is about the most c.h.i.n.ky Chinaman I ever seen. Come to think of it, I never paid him back that gas I borrowed."

"Hasn't he been across lately?" asked Spence, controlling his voice.

"Haven't seen him. But then 'tisn't as if I was out looking for him.

Used to be a right pretty girl come over sometimes, the old Doc's daughter. Hasn't been around for a long time. Maybe you're a relative or some-thing?"

"See here," said Spence. "It's on account of the young lady that I am going there tonight. I have reason to fear that she may be in danger."

"That so?" The boat-man's comfortably slouched shoulders squared. He leaned over and did something to his engine. "In that case we'll take a chance or two. Hold tight, we're bucking the tide-rip. Lucky we've got the moon!"

Yes, they had the moon! With growing despair the professor watched her white loveliness drag a slipping mantle over the dark water. The same light must lie upon the clearing on the mountain ... where was Li Ho?

Was he awake--and watching? Had he warned the girl? Or was she sleeping, weary with the journey, while only one frail old Chinaman stood between her and a terror too grim to guess ...

A long interval ... the sailing moon ... the swish of parting water as the launch cut through ...

"Must be thereabouts now," said the boat-man suddenly. "I'll slow her down. Keep your eye skinned for the landing."

A period of endless waiting, while the launch crept cautiously along the rocky sh.o.r.e--then a darker shadow in the shadows and the boat-man's excited "Got it!" The launch slipped neatly in beside the float.

"Want any help?" asked the boat-man curiously as his pa.s.senger sprang from the moving launch.

Spence did not hear him. He was already across the sodden planks. Only the up-trail now lay between him and the end--or the beginning. The shadows of the trees stretched waving arms. He felt strong as steel, light as air as he sprang up the wooded path....

It was just as he had pictured it--the cottage in its square of silver ... the sailing moon!

But the cottage was empty.

He knew at once that it was empty. He dared not let himself know it.

With a doggedness which defied conviction, he dragged his feet, suddenly heavy, across the rough gra.s.s. The door on the veranda was open. Why not?--the door of an empty house.... He went in.

The moonlight showed the old familiar things, the c.h.i.n.ks in the wall, the rickety table, the couch, the stairway! ... He stumbled to the stairway. He forced his leaden feet to mount it.... It was pitch dark there. The upper doors were shut.... "Her door--on the right."

He said this to himself as if prompting a stupid little boy with a lesson ... In the darkness his hand felt for the door-k.n.o.b ... but why open the door? ... There was no life behind it. He knew that....

There was no life anywhere in this horrible emptiness.... "Death, then." He muttered, as he flung back the door.

There was nothing there ... only moonlight ... nothing ... yes, something on the floor ... some-thing light and lacy, crushed into shapelessness ... Desire's hat.

He picked it up. The wires of its chiffon frame, broken and twisted, fell limp in his hand.

There was no other sign in the room. The bed was untouched. The Thing which had wrecked its insatiate rage upon the hat had not lingered.

Spence went out slowly. There would be time for everything now--since time had ceased to matter. He laid the hat aside gently. There might be work for his hands to do.

With mechanical care he searched the cottage. No trace of disturbance met him anywhere until he reached the kitchen. Something had happened there Over-turned chairs and broken table--a door half off its hinge.

Someone had fled from the house this way ... fled where?

There were so many places!

In his mind's eye Spence saw them ... the steep and slippery cliff, with shingle far below ... the clumps of dense bracken ... the deep, dark crevices where water splashed! ...

He went outside. It was not so bright now. There were clouds on the moon. One side of the clearing lay wholly in shadow. He waited and, as the light brightened, he saw the thing he sought--trampled bracken, a broken bush.... He followed the trail with a slow cert.i.tude of which ordinarily he would have been incapable.... It did not lead very far. The trees thinned abruptly. A rounded moss-covered rock rose up between him and the moon ... and on the rock, grotesque and darkly clear, a crouching figure--looking down....

A curious sound broke from Spence's throat. He stooped and sprang. But quick as he was, the figure on the rock was quicker. It slipped aside.

Spence heard a guttural exclamation and caught a glimpse of a yellow face.

"Li Ho!"

The Chinaman pulled him firmly back from the edge of the moss-covered rock.

"All same Li Ho," he said. "You come click--but not too dam click."

"I know. Where is he?"

It was the one thing which held interest for Bern's Spence now.

Li Ho stepped gingerly to the edge of the rounded rock. In the clear light, Spence could see how the moss had been sc.r.a.ped from the margin.

"Him down there," said Li Ho. "Moon-devil push 'um. Plenty stlong devil!" Li Ho shrugged.

Spence's clenched hands relaxed.

"Dead?" he asked dully.

"Heap much dead," said Li Ho. "Oh, too much squash!" He made a gesture.

Benis was not quite sure what happened then. He remembers leaning against a tree. Presently he was aware of a horrible smell--the smell of some object which Li Ho held to his nostrils.

"Plenty big smell," said Li Ho. "Make 'urn sit up."

Benis sat up.

"Where is--" he began. But his throat closed upon the question. He could not ask.

"Missy in tent," said Li Ho stolidly. "Missy plenty tired. Sleep velly good."

Spence tried to take this in ... tent ... sleep ...

"Li Ho tell missy house no so-so," went on the China-man, pressing his evil-smelling salts closer to his victim's face. "Missy say 'all light'--sleep plenty well in tent; velly fine night."

Benis tried feebly to push the abomination away from his nose.

"Desire ... alive?" he whispered.

"Oh elite so. Velly much. Moon-devil velly smart but Li Ho much more clever. Missy she no savey--all light."

Spence began to laugh. It was dangerous laughter--or so at least Li Ho thought, for he promptly smothered it with his "velly big smell." The measure proved effective. The professor decided not to laugh. He held himself quiet until control came back and then stood up.

"I thought she was dead, Li Ho," he said.

In the half light the inscrutable face changed ever so little.