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diff --git a/old/2126.txt b/old/2126.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ec6bad --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2126.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7314 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quest of the Sacred Slipper, by Sax Rohmer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Quest of the Sacred Slipper + +Author: Sax Rohmer + +Posting Date: January 30, 2009 [EBook #2126] +Release Date: March, 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEST OF THE SACRED SLIPPER *** + + + + +Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer. HTML +version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +The Quest of the Sacred Slipper + + +by + +Sax Rohmer + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. THE PHANTOM SCIMITAR. + II. THE GIRL WITH THE VIOLET EYES + III. "HASSAN OF ALEPPO" + IV. THE OBLONG BOX + V. THE OCCUPANT OF THE BOX + VI. THE RING OF THE PROPHET + VII. FIRST ATTEMPT ON THE SAFE + VIII. THE VIOLET EYES AGAIN + IX. SECOND ATTEMPT ON THE SAFE + X. AT THE BRITISH ANTIQUARIAN MUSEUM + XI. THE HOLE IN THE BLIND + XII. THE HASHISHIN WATCH + XIII. THE WHITE BEAM + XIV. A SCREAM IN THE NIGHT + XV. A SHRIVELLED HAND + XVI. THE DWARF + XVII. THE WOMAN WITH THE BASKET + XVIII. WHAT CAME THROUGH THE WINDOW + XIX. A RAPPING AT MIDNIGHT + XX. THE GOLDEN PAVILION + XXI. THE BLACK TUBE + XXII. THE LIGHT OF EL-MEDINEH + XXIII. THE THREE MESSAGES + XXIV. I KEEP THE APPOINTMENT + XXV. THE WATCHER IN BANK CHAMBERS + XXVI. THE STRONG-ROOM + XXVII. THE SLIPPER + XXVIII. CARNETA + XXIX. WE MEET MR. ISAACS + XXX. AT THE GATE HOUSE + XXXI. THE POOL OF DEATH + XXXII. SIX PATCHES + XXXIII. HOW WE WERE REENFORCED + XXXIV. MY LAST MEETING WITH HASSAN OF ALEPPO + + + + +THE QUEST OF THE SACRED SLIPPER + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE PHANTOM SCIMITAR + + +I was not the only passenger aboard the S.S. Mandalay who perceived +the disturbance and wondered what it might portend and from whence +proceed. A goodly number of passengers were joining the ship at +Port Said. I was lounging against the rail, pipe in mouth, lazily +wondering, with a large vagueness. + +What a heterogeneous rabble it was!--a brightly coloured rabble, +but the colours all were dirty, like the town and the canal. Only +the sky was clean; the sky and the hard, merciless sunlight which +spared nothing of the uncleanness, and defied one even to think +of the term dear to tourists, "picturesque." I was in that kind +of mood. All the natives appeared to be pockmarked; all the +Europeans greasy with perspiration. + +But what was the stir about? + +I turned to the dark, bespectacled young man who leaned upon the +rail beside me. From the first I had taken to Mr. Ahmad Ahmadeen. + +"There is some kind of undercurrent of excitement among the natives," +I said, "a sort of subdued Greek chorus is audible. What's it all +about?" + +Mr. Ahmadeen smiled. After a gaunt fashion, he was a handsome man +and had a pleasant smile. + +"Probably," he replied, "some local celebrity is joining the ship." + +I stared at him curiously. + +"Any idea who he is?" (The soul of the copyhunter is a restless +soul.) + +A group of men dressed in semi-European fashion--that is, in +European fashion save for their turbans, which were green--passed +close to us along the deck. + +Ahmadeen appeared not to have heard the question. + +The disturbance, which could only be defined as a subdued uproar, +but could be traced to no particular individual or group, grew +momentarily louder--and died away. It was only when it had +completely ceased that one realized how pronounced it had +been--how altogether peculiar, secret; like that incomprehensible +murmuring in a bazaar when, unknown to the insular visitor, a +reputed saint is present. + +Then it happened; the inexplicable incident which, though I knew +it not, heralded the coming of strange things, and the dawn of a +new power; which should set up its secret standards in England, +which should flood Europe and the civilized world with wonder. + +A shrill scream marked the overture--a scream of fear and of pain, +which dropped to a groan, and moaned out into the silence of which +it was the cause. + +"My God! what's that?" + +I started forward. There was a general crowding rush, and a darkly +tanned and bearded man came on board, carrying a brown leather case. +Behind him surged those who bore the victim. + +"It's one of the lascars!" + +"No--an Egyptian!" + +"It was a porter--?" + +"What is it--?" + +"Someone been stabbed!" + +"Where's the doctor?" + +"Stand away there, if you please!" + +That was a ship's officer; and the voice of authority served to +quell the disturbance. Through a lane walled with craning heads +they bore the insensible man. Ahmadeen was at my elbow. + +"A Copt," he said softly. "Poor devil!" I turned to him. There +was a queer expression on his lean, clean-shaven, bronze face. + +"Good God!" I said. "His hand has been cut off!" + +That was the fact of the matter. And no one knew who was +responsible for the atrocity. And no one knew what had become of +the severed hand! I wasted not a moment in linking up the story. +The pressman within me acted automatically. + +"The gentleman just come aboard, sir," said a steward, "is Professor +Deeping. The poor beggar who was assaulted was carrying some of the +Professor's baggage." The whole incident struck me as most odd. +There was an idea lurking in my mind that something else--something +more--lay behind all this. With impatience I awaited the time +when the injured man, having received medical attention, was conveyed +ashore, and Professor Deeping reappeared. To the celebrated +traveller and Oriental scholar I introduced myself. + +He was singularly reticent. + +"I was unable to see what took place, Mr. Cavanagh," he said. "The +poor fellow was behind me, for I had stepped from the boat ahead of +him. I had just taken a bag from his hand, but he was carrying +another, heavier one. It is a clean cut, like that of a scimitar. +I have seen very similar wounds in the cases of men who have +suffered the old Moslem penalty for theft." + +Nothing further had come to light when the Mandalay left, but I +found new matter for curiosity in the behaviour of the Moslem party +who had come on board at Port Said. + +In conversation with Mr. Bell, the chief officer, I learned that +the supposed leader of the party was one, Mr. Azraeel. "Obviously," +said Bell, "not his real name or not all it. I don't suppose +they'll show themselves on deck; they've got their own servants with +them, and seem to be people of consequence." + +This conversation was interrupted, but I found my unseen fellow +voyagers peculiarly interesting and pursued inquiries in other +directions. I saw members of the distinguished travellers' +retinue going about their duties, but never obtained a glimpse +of Mr. Azraeel nor of any of his green-turbaned companions. + +"Who is Mr. Azraeel?" I asked Ahmadeen. + +"I cannot say," replied the Egyptian, and abruptly changed the +subject. + +Some curious aroma of mystery floated about the ship. Ahmadeen +conveyed to me the idea that he was concealing something. Then, +one night, Mr. Bell invited me to step forward with him. + +"Listen," he said. + +From somewhere in the fo'c'sle proceeded low chanting. + +"Hear it?" + +"Yes. What the devil is it?" + +"It's the lascars," said Bell. "They have been behaving in a most +unusual manner ever since the mysterious Mr. Azraeel joined us. I +may be wrong in associating the two things, but I shan't be sorry +to see the last of our mysterious passengers." + +The next happening on board the Mandalay which I have to record was +the attempt to break open the door of Professor Deeping's stateroom. +Except when he was actually within, the Professor left his room door +religiously locked. + +He made light of the affair, but later took me aside and told me a +curious story of an apparition which had appeared to him. + +"It was a crescent of light," he said, "and it glittered through +the darkness there to the left as I lay in my berth." + +"A reflection from something on the deck?" + +Deeping smiled, uneasily. + +"Possibly," he replied; "but it was very sharply defined. Like +the blade of a scimitar," he added. + +I stared at him, my curiosity keenly aroused. "Does any explanation +suggest itself to you?" I said. + +"Well," he confessed, "I have a theory, I will admit; but it is +rather going back to the Middle Ages. You see, I have lived in the +East a lot; perhaps I have assimilated some of their superstitions." + +He was oddly reticent, as ever. I felt convinced that he was +keeping something back. I could not stifle the impression that the +clue to these mysteries lay somewhere around the invisible +Mohammedan party. + +"Do you know," said Bell to me, one morning, "this trip's giving me +the creeps. I believe the damned ship's haunted! Three bells in the +middle watch last night, I'll swear I saw some black animal crawling +along the deck, in the direction of the forward companion-way." + +"Cat?" I suggested. + +"Nothing like it," said Mr. Bell. "Mr. Cavanagh, it was some +uncanny thing! I'm afraid I can't explain quite what I mean, but +it was something I wanted to shoot!" + +"Where did it go?" + +The chief officer shrugged his shoulders. "Just vanished," he said. +"I hope I don't see it again." + +At Tilbury the Mohammedan party went ashore in a body. Among them +were veiled women. They contrived so to surround a central figure +that I entirely failed to get a glimpse of the mysterious Mr. +Azraeel. Ahmadeen was standing close by the companion-way, and I +had a momentary impression that one of the women slipped something +into his hand. Certainly, he started; and his dusky face seemed to +pale. + +Then a deck steward came out of Deeping's stateroom, carrying the +brown bag which the Professor had brought aboard at Port Said. +Deeping's voice came: + +"Hi, my man! Let me take that bag!" + +The bag changed hands. Five minutes later, as I was preparing to +go ashore, arose a horrid scream above the berthing clamour. Those +passengers yet aboard made in the direction from which the scream +had proceeded. + +A steward--the one to whom Professor Deeping had spoken--lay +writhing at the foot of the stairs leading to the saloon-deck. His +right hand had been severed above the wrist! + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE GIRL WITH THE VIOLET EYES + + +During the next day or two my mind constantly reverted to the +incidents of the voyage home. I was perfectly convinced that the +curtain had been partially raised upon some fantasy in which +Professor Deeping figured. + +But I had seen no more of Deeping nor had I heard from him, when +abruptly I found myself plunged again into the very vortex of his +troubled affairs. I was half way through a long article, I +remember, upon the mystery of the outrage at the docks. The poor +steward whose hand had been severed lay in a precarious condition, +but the police had utterly failed to trace the culprit. + +I had laid down my pen to relight my pipe (the hour was about ten +at night) when a faint sound from the direction of the outside +door attracted my attention. Something had been thrust through +the letter-box. + +"A circular," I thought, when the bell rang loudly, imperatively. + +I went to the door. A square envelope lay upon the mat--a +curious envelope, pale amethyst in colour. Picking it up, I found +it to bear my name--written simply-- + +"Mr. Cavanagh." + +Tearing it open I glanced at the contents. I threw open the door. +No one was visible upon the landing, but when I leaned over the +banister a white-clad figure was crossing the hall, below. + +Without hesitation, hatless, I raced down the stairs. As I crossed +the dimly lighted hall and came out into the peaceful twilight of +the court, my elusive visitor glided under the archway opposite. + +Just where the dark and narrow passage opened on to Fleet Street +I overtook her--a girl closely veiled and wrapped in a long coat +of white ermine. + +"Madam," I said. + +She turned affrightedly. + +"Please do not detain me!" Her accent was puzzling, but pleasing. +She glanced apprehensively about her. + +You have seen the moon through a mist?--and known it for what it +was in spite of its veiling? So, now, through the cloudy folds +of the veil, I saw the stranger's eyes, and knew them for the most +beautiful eyes I had ever seen, had ever dreamt of. + +"But you must explain the meaning of your note!" + +"I cannot! I cannot! Please do not ask me!" + +She was breathless from her flight and seemed to be trembling. +From behind the cloud her eyes shone brilliantly, mysteriously. + +I was sorely puzzled. The whole incident was bizarre--indeed, it +had in it something of the uncanny. Yet I could not detain the girl +against her will. That she went in apprehension of something, of +someone, was evident. + +Past the head of the passage surged the noisy realities of Fleet +Street. There were men there in quest of news; men who would +have given much for such a story as this in which I was becoming +entangled. Yet a story more tantalizingly incomplete could not +well be imagined. + +I knew that I stood upon the margin of an arena wherein strange +adversaries warred to a strange end. But a mist was over all. +Here, beside me, was one who could disperse the mist--and would +not. Her one anxiety seemed to be to escape. + +Suddenly she raised her veil; and I looked fully into the only +really violet eyes I had ever beheld. Mentally, I started. For +the face framed in the snowy fur was the most bewitchingly lovely +imaginable. One rebellious lock of wonderful hair swept across +the white brow. It was brown hair, with an incomprehensible +sheen in the high lights that suggested the heart of a blood-red +rose. + +"Oh," she cried, "promise me that you will never breathe a word +to any one about my visit!" + +"I promise willingly," I said; "but can you give me no hint?" + +"Honestly, truly, I cannot, dare not, say more! Only promise that +you will do as I ask!" + +Since I could perceive no alternative-- + +"I will do so," I replied. + +"Thank you--oh, thank you!" she said; and dropping her veil again +she walked rapidly away from me, whispering, "I rely upon you. Do +not fail me. Good-bye!" + +Her conspicuous white figure joined the hurrying throngs upon the +pavement beyond. My curiosity brooked no restraint. I hurried to +the end of the courtway. She was crossing the road. From the +shadows where he had lurked, a man came forward to meet her. A +vehicle obstructed the view ere I could confirm my impression; and +when it had passed, neither my lovely visitor nor her companion +were anywhere in sight. + +But, unless some accident of light and shade had deceived me, the +man who had waited was Ahmad Ahmadeen! + +It seemed that some astral sluice-gate was raised; a dreadful sense +of foreboding for the first time flooded my mind. Whilst the girl +had stood before me it had been different--the mysterious charm of +her personality had swamped all else. But now, the messenger gone, +it was the purport of her message which assumed supreme significance. + +Written in odd, square handwriting upon the pale amethyst paper, +this was the message-- + + Prevail upon Professor Deeping to place what he has in the brown + case in the porch of his house to-night. If he fails to do so, + no power on earth can save him from the Scimitar of Hassan. + + A FRIEND. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +"HASSAN OF ALEPPO" + + +Professor Deeping's number was in the telephone directory, +therefore, on returning to my room, where there still lingered the +faint perfume of my late visitor's presence, I asked for his number. +He proved to be at home. + +"Strange you should ring me up, Cavanagh," he said; "for I was +about to ring you up." + +"First," I replied, "listen to the contents of an anonymous letter +which I have received." + +(I remembered, and only just in time, my promise to the veiled +messenger.) + +"To me," I added, having read him the note, "it seems to mean +nothing. I take it that you understand better than I do." + +"I understand very well, Cavanagh!" he replied. "You will recall +my story of the scimitar which flashed before me in the darkness +of my stateroom on the Mandalay? Well, I have seen it again! I +am not an imaginative man: I had always believed myself to possess +the scientific mind; but I can no longer doubt that I am the object +of a pursuit which commenced in Mecca! The happenings on the +steamer prepared me for this, in a degree. When the man lost his +hand at Port Said I doubted. I had supposed the days of such things +past. The attempt to break into my stateroom even left me still +uncertain. But the outrage upon the steward at the docks removed +all further doubt. I perceived that the contents of a certain brown +leather case were the objective of the crimes." + +I listened in growing wonder. + +"It was not necessary in order to further the plan of stealing the +bag that the hands were severed," resumed the Professor. "In fact, +as was rendered evident by the case of the steward, this was a +penalty visited upon any one who touched it! You are thinking of +my own immunity?" + +"I am!" + +"This is attributable to two things. Those who sought to recover +what I had in the case feared that my death en route might result +in its being lost to them for ever. They awaited a suitable +opportunity. They had designed to take it at Port Said certainly, +I think; but the bag was too large to be readily concealed, and, +after the outrage, might have led to the discovery of the culprit. +In the second place, they are uncertain of my faith. I have long +passed for a true Believer in the East! As a Moslem I visited +Mecca--" + +"You visited Mecca!" + +"I had just returned from the hadj when I joined the Mandalay at +Port Said! My death, however, has been determined upon, whether +I be Moslem or Christian!" + +"Why?" + +"Because," came the Professor's harsh voice over the telephone, "of +the contents of the brown leather case! I will not divulge to you +now the nature of these contents; to know might endanger you. But +the case is locked in my safe here, and the key, together with a +full statement of the true facts of the matter, is hidden behind +the first edition copy of my book 'Assyrian Mythology,' in the +smaller bookcase--" + +"Why do you tell me all this?" I interrupted. + +He laughed harshly. + +"The identity of my pursuer has just dawned upon me," he said. "I +know that my life is in real danger. I would give up what is +demanded of me, but I believe its possession to be my strongest +safeguard." + +Mystery upon mystery! I seemed to be getting no nearer to the heart +of this maze. What in heaven's name did it all mean? Suddenly an +idea struck me. + +"Is our late fellow passenger, Mr. Ahmadeen, connected with the +matter?" I asked. + +"In no way," replied Deeping earnestly. "Mr. Ahmadeen is, I +believe, a person of some consequence in the Moslem world; but I +have nothing to fear from him." + +"What steps have you taken to protect yourself?" + +Again the short laugh reached my ears. + +"I'm afraid long residence in the East has rendered me something of +a fatalist, Cavanagh! Beyond keeping my door locked, I have taken +no steps whatever. I fear I am quite accessible!" + +A while longer we talked; and with every word the conviction was +more strongly borne in upon me that some uncanny menace threatened +the peace, perhaps the life, of Professor Deeping. + +I had hung up the receiver scarce a moment when, acting upon a +sudden determination, I called up New Scotland Yard, and asked for +Detective-Inspector Bristol, whom I knew well. A few words were +sufficient keenly to arouse his curiosity, and he announced his +intention of calling upon me immediately. He was in charge of the +case of the severed hand. + +I made no attempt to resume work in the interval preceding his +arrival. I had not long to wait, however, ere Bristol was ringing +my bell; and I hurried to the door, only too glad to confide in one +so well equipped to analyze my doubts and fears. For Bristol is no +ordinary policeman, but a trained observer, who, when I first made +his acquaintance, completely upset my ideas upon the mental +limitations of the official detective force. + +In appearance Bristol suggests an Anglo-Indian officer, and at the +time of which I write he had recently returned from Jamaica and his +face was as bronzed as a sailor's. One would never take Bristol +for a detective. As he seated himself in the armchair, without +preamble I plunged into my story. He listened gravely. + +"What sort of house is Professor Deeping's?" he asked suddenly. + +"I have no idea," I replied, "beyond the fact that it is somewhere +in Dulwich." + +"May I use your telephone?" + +"Certainly." + +Very quickly Bristol got into communication with the superintendent +of P Division. A brief delay, and the man came to the telephone +whose beat included the road wherein Professor Deeping's house was +situated. + +"Why!" said Bristol, hanging up the receiver after making a number +of inquiries, "it's a sort of rambling cottage in extensive grounds. +There's only one servant, a manservant, and he sleeps in a detached +lodge. If the Professor is really in danger of attack he could not +well have chosen a more likely residence for the purpose!" + +"What shall you do? What do you make of it all?" + +"As I see the case," he said slowly, "it stands something like this: +Professor Deeping has..." + +The telephone bell began to ring. + +I took up the receiver. + +"Hullo! Hullo." + +"Cavanagh!--is that Cavanagh?" + +"Yes! yes! who is that?" + +"Deeping! I have rung up the police, and they are sending some +one. But I wish..." + +His voice trailed off. The sound of a confused and singular uproar +came to me. + +"Hullo!" I cried. "Hullo!" + +A shriek--a deathful, horrifying cry--and a distant babbling alone +answered me. There was a crash. Clearly, Deeping had dropped the +receiver. I suppose my face blanched. + +"What is it?" asked Bristol anxiously. + +"God knows what it is!" I said. "Deeping has met with some +mishap--" + +When, over the wires-- + +"Hassan of Aleppo!" came a dying whisper. "Hassan ... of +Aleppo..." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE OBLONG BOX + + +"You had better wait for us," said Bristol to the taxi-man. + +"Very good, sir. But I shan't be able to take you further back than +the Brixton Garage. You can get another cab there, though." + +A clock chimed out--an old-world chime in keeping with the +loneliness, the curiously remote loneliness, of the locality. Less +than five miles from St. Paul's are spots whereto, with the +persistence of Damascus attar, clings the aroma of former days. +This iron gateway fronting the old chapel was such a spot. + +Just within stood a plain-clothes man, who saluted my companion +respectfully. + +"Professor Deeping," I began. + +The man, with a simple gesture, conveyed the dreadful news. + +"Dead! dead!" I cried incredulously. + +He glanced at Bristol. + +"The most mysterious case I have ever had anything to do with, +sir," he said. + +The power of speech seemed to desert me. It was unthinkable that +Deeping, with whom I had been speaking less than an hour ago, +should now be no more; that some malign agency should thus +murderously have thrust him into the great borderland. + +In that kind of silence which seems to be peopled with whispering +spirits we strode forward along the elm avenue. It was very dark +where the moon failed to penetrate. The house, low and rambling, +came into view, its facade bathed in silver light. Two of the +visible windows were illuminated. A sort of loggia ran along one +side. + +On our left, as we made for this, lay a black ocean of shrubbery. +It intruded, raggedly, upon the weed-grown path, for neglect was +the keynote of the place. + +We entered the cottage, crossed the tiny lobby, and came to the +study. A man, evidently Deeping's servant, was sitting in a chair +by the door, his head sunken in his hands. He looked up, +haggard-faced. + +"My God! my God!" he groaned. "He was locked in, gentlemen! He +was locked in; and yet something murdered him!" + +"What do you mean?" said Bristol. "Where were you?" + +"I was away on an errand, sir. When I returned, the police were +knocking the door down. He was locked in!" + +We passed him, entering the study. + +It was a museum-like room, lighted by a lamp on the littered +table. At first glance it looked as though some wild thing had +run amok there. The disorder was indescribable. + +"Touched nothing, of course?" asked Bristol sharply of the officer +on duty. + +"Nothing, sir. It's just as we found it when we forced the door." + +"Why did you force the door?" + +"He rung us up at the station and said that something or somebody +had got into the house. It was evident the poor gentleman's nerve +had broken down, sir. He said he was locked in his study. When +we arrived it was all in darkness--but we thought we heard sounds +in here." + +"What sort of sounds?" + +"Something crawling about!" + +Bristol turned. + +"Key is in the lock on the inside of the door," he said. "Is that +where you found it?" + +"Yes, sir!" + +He looked across to where the brass knob of a safe gleamed dully. + +"Safe locked?" + +"Yes, sir." + +Professor Deeping lay half under the table, a spectacle so ghastly +that I shall not attempt to describe it. + +"Merciful heavens!" whispered Bristol. "He's nearly decapitated!" + +I clutched dizzily at the mantelpiece. It was all so utterly, +incredibly horrible. How had Deeping met his death? The windows +both were latched and the door had been locked from within! + +"You searched for the murderer, of course?" asked Bristol. + +"You can see, sir," replied the officer, "that there isn't a spot +in the room where a man could hide! And there was nobody +in here when we forced the door!" + +"Why!" cried my companion suddenly. "The Professor has a chisel +in his hand!" + +"Yes. I think he must have been trying to prise open that box +yonder when he was attacked." + +Bristol and I looked, together, at an oblong box which lay upon +the floor near the murdered man. It was a kind of small +packing case, addressed to Professor Deeping, and evidently had +not been opened. + +"When did this arrive?" asked Bristol. Lester, the Professor's +man, who had entered the room, replied shakily-- + +"It came by carrier, sir, just before I went out." + +"Was he expecting it?" + +"I don't think so." + +Inspector Bristol and the officer dragged the box fully into the +light. It was some three feet long by one foot square, and solidly +constructed. + +"It is perfectly evident," remarked Bristol, "that the murderer +stayed to search for--" + +"The key of the safe!" + +"Exactly. If the men really heard sounds here, it would appear that +the assassin was still searching at that time." + +"I assure you," the officer interrupted, "that there was no living +thing in the room when we entered." + +Bristol and I looked at one another in horrified wonder. + +"It's incomprehensible!" he said. + +"See if the key is in the place mentioned by the Professor, Mr. +Cavanagh, whilst I break the box." + +I went to a great, open bookcase, which the frantic searcher seemed +to have overlooked. Removing the bulky "Assyrian Mythology," there, +behind the volume, lay an envelope, containing a key, and a short +letter. Not caring to approach more closely to the table and to +that which lay beneath it, I was peering at the small writing, in +the semi-gloom by the bookcase, when Bristol cried-- + +"This box is unopenable by ordinary means! I shall have to smash +it!" + +At his words, I joined him where he knelt on the floor. +Mysteriously, the chest had defied all his efforts. + +"There's a pick-axe in the garden," volunteered Lester. "Shall I +bring it?" + +"Yes." + +The man ran off. + +"I see the key is safe," said Bristol. "Possibly the letter may +throw some light upon all this." + +"Let us hope so," I replied. "You might read it." + +He took the letter from my hand, stepped up to the table, and by +the light of the lamp read as follows-- + +My Dear Cavanagh,-- + +It has now become apparent to me that my life is in imminent danger. +You know of the inexplicable outrages which marked my homeward +journey, and if this letter come to your hand it will be because +these have culminated in my death. + +The idea of a pursuing scimitar is not new to me. This phenomenon, +which I have now witnessed three times, is fairly easy of +explanation, but its significance is singular. It is said to be +one of the devices whereby the Hashishin warn those whom they have +marked down for destruction, and is called, in the East, "The +Scimitar of Hassan." + +The Hashishin were the members of a Moslem secret society, founded +in 1090 by one Hassan of Khorassan. There is a persistent tradition +in parts of the Orient that this sect still flourishes in Assyria, +under the rule of a certain Hassan of Aleppo, the Sheikh-al-jebal, +or supreme lord of the Hashishin. My careful inquiries, however, +at the time that I was preparing matter for my "Assyrian Mythology," +failed to discover any trace of such a person or such a group. + +I accordingly assumed Hassan to be a myth--a first cousin to the +ginn. I was wrong. He exists. And by my supremely rash act I +have incurred his vengeance, for Hassan of Aleppo is the +self-appointed guardian of the traditions and relics of Mohammed. +And I have Stolen one of the holy slippers of the Prophet! + +He, with some of his servants, has followed me from Mecca to +England. My precautions have enabled me to retain the relic, but +you have seen what fate befell all those others who even touched +the receptacle containing it. + +If I fall a victim to the Hashishin, I am uncertain how you, as my +confidant, will fare. Therefore I have locked the slipper in my +safe and to you entrust the key. I append particulars of the lock +combination; but I warn you--do not open the safe. If their +wrath be visited upon you, your possession of the key may prove a +safeguard. + +Take the copy of "Assyrian Mythology." You will find in it all +that I learned respecting the Hashishin. If I am doomed to be +assassinated, it may aid you; if not in avenging me, in saving +others from my fate. I fear I shall never see you again. A +cloud of horror settles upon me like a pall. Do not touch the +slipper, nor the case containing it. + + EDWARD DEEPING. + +"It is almost incredible!" I said hoarsely. + +Bristol returned the letter to me without a word, and turning to +Lester, who had reentered carrying a heavy pick-axe, he attacked +the oblong box with savage energy. + +Through the house of death the sound of the blows echoed and rang +with a sort of sacrilegious mockery. The box fell to pieces. + +"My God! look, sir!" + +Lester was the trembling speaker. + +The box, I have said, was but three feet long by one foot square, +and had clearly defied poor Deeping's efforts to open it. But a +crescent-shaped knife, wet with blood, lay within! + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE OCCUPANT OF THE BOX + + +Dimly to my ears came the ceaseless murmur of London. The night now +was far advanced, and not a sound disturbed the silence of the court +below my windows. + +Professor Deeping's "Assyrian Mythology" lay open before me, beside +it my notebook. A coal dropped from the fire, and I half started up +out of my chair. My nerves were all awry, and I had more than my +horrible memories of the murdered man to thank for it. Let me +explain what I mean. + +When, after assisting, or endeavouring to assist, Bristol at his +elaborate inquiries, I had at last returned to my chambers, I had +become the victim of a singular delusion--though one common enough +in the case of persons whose nerves are overwrought. I had thought +myself followed. + +During the latter part of my journey I found myself constantly +looking from the little window at the rear of the cab. I had an +impression that some vehicle was tracking us. Then, when I +discharged the man and walked up the narrow passage to the court, +it was fear of a skulking form that dodged from shadow to shadow +which obsessed me. + +Finally, as I entered the hall and mounted the darkened stair, from +the first landing I glanced down into the black well beneath. +Blazing yellow eyes, I thought, looked up at me! + +I will confess that I leapt up the remaining flight of stairs to my +door, and, safely within, found myself trembling as if with a palsy. + +When I sat down to write (for sleep was an impossible proposition) +I placed my revolver upon the table beside me. I cannot say why. +It afforded me some sense of protection, I suppose. My conclusions, +thus far, amounted to the following-- + +The apparition of the phantom scimitar was due to the presence of +someone who, by means of the moonlight, or of artificial light, +cast a reflection of such a weapon as that found in the oblong chest +upon the wall of a darkened apartment--as, Deeping's stateroom on +the Mandalay, his study, etc. + +A group of highly efficient assassins, evidently Moslem fanatics, +who might or might not be of the ancient order of the Hashishin, +had pursued the stolen slipper to England. They had severed any +hand, other than that of a Believer, which had touched the case +containing it. (The Coptic porter was a Christian.) + +Uncertain, possibly, of Deeping's faith, or fearful of endangering +the success of their efforts by an outrage upon him en route, they +had refrained from this until his arrival at his house. He had +been warned of his impending end by Ahmad Ahmadeen. + +Who was Ahmadeen? And who was his beautiful associate? I found +myself unable, at present, to answer either of those questions. In +order to gain access to Professor Deeping, who so carefully secluded +himself, a box had been sent to him by ordinary carrier. (As I sat +at my table, Scotland Yard was busy endeavouring to trace the +sender.) Respecting this box we had made an extraordinary discovery. + +It was of the kind used by Eastern conjurors for what is generally +known as "the Box Trick." That is to say, it could only be opened +(short of smashing it) from the inside! You will remember what we +found within it? Consider this with the new fact, above, and to +what conclusion do you come? + +Something (it is not possible to speak of someone in connection with +so small a box) had been concealed inside, and had killed Professor +Deeping whilst he was actually engaged in endeavouring to force it +open. This inconceivable creature had then searched the study for +the slipper--or for the key of the safe. Interrupted and trapped +by the arrival of the police, the creature had returned to the box, +re-closed it, and had actually been there when the study was +searched! + +For a creature so small as the murderous thing in the box to slip +out during the confusion, and at some time prior to Bristol's +arrival, was no difficult matter. The inspector and I were certain +that these were the facts. + +But what was this creature? + +I turned to the chapter in "Assyrian Mythology"--"The Tradition +of the Hashishin." + +The legends which the late Professor Deeping had collected relative +to this sect of religious murderers were truly extraordinary. Of +the cult's extinction at the time of writing he was clearly certain, +but he referred to the popular belief, or Moslem legend, that, since +Hassan of Khorassan, there had always been a Sheikh-al-jebal, and +that a dreadful being known as Hassan of Aleppo was the present +holder of the title. + +He referred to the fact that De Sacy has shown the word Assassin +to be derived from Hashishin, and quoted El-Idrisi to the same +end. The Hashishin performed their murderous feats under the +influence of hashish, or Indian hemp; and during the state of +ecstasy so induced, according to Deeping, they acquired powers +almost superhuman. I read how they could scale sheer precipices, +pass fearlessly along narrow ledges which would scarce afford +foothold for a rat, cast themselves from great heights unscathed, +and track one marked for death in such a manner as to remain unseen +not only by the victim but by others about him. At this point of +my studies I started, in a sudden nervous panic, and laid my hand +upon my revolver. + +I thought of the eyes which had seemed to look up from the black +well of the staircase--I thought of the horrible end of this man +whose book lay upon the table ... and I thought I heard a faint +sound outside my study door! + +The key of Deeping's safe, and his letter to me, lay close by my +hand. I slipped them into a drawer and locked it. With every +nerve, it seemed, strung up almost to snapping point, I mechanically +pursued my reading. + +"At the time of the Crusades," wrote Deeping, "there was a story +current of this awful Order which I propose to recount. It is one +of the most persistent dealing with the Hashishin, and is related +to-day of the apparently mythical Hassan of Aleppo. I am disposed +to believe that at one time it had a solid foundation, for a +similar practice was common in Ancient Egypt and is mentioned by +Georg Ebers." + +My door began very slowly to open! + +Merciful God! What was coming into the room! + +So very slowly, so gently, nay, all but imperceptibly, did it move, +that had my nerves been less keenly attuned I doubt not I should +have remained unaware of the happening. Frozen with horror, I sat +and watched. Yet my mental condition was a singular one. + +My direct gaze never quitted the door, but in some strange fashion +I saw the words of the next paragraph upon the page before me! + +"As making peculiarly efficient assassins, when under the influence +of the drug, and as being capable of concealing themselves where +a normal man could not fail to be detected--" + +(At this moment I remembered that my bathroom window was open, and +that the waste-pipe passed down the exterior wall.) + +"--the Sheikh-al-jebal took young boys of a certain desert tribe, +and for eight hours of every day, until their puberty, confined them +in a wooden frame--" + +What looked like a reed was slowly inserted through the opening +between door and doorpost! It was brought gradually around +... until it pointed directly toward me! + +I seemed to put forth a mighty mental effort, shaking off the icy +hand of fear which held me inactive in my chair. A saving instinct +warned me--and I ducked my head. + +Something whirred past me and struck the wall behind. + +Revolver in hand, I leapt across the room, dashed the door open, +and fired blindly--again--and again--and again--down the +passage. + +And in the brief gleams I saw it! + +I cannot call it man, but I saw the thing which, I doubt not, had +killed poor Deeping with the crescent-knife and had propelled a +poison-dart at me. + +It was a tiny dwarf! Neither within nor without a freak exhibition +had I seen so small a human being! A kind of supernatural dread +gripped me by the throat at sight of it. As it turned with animal +activity and bounded into my bathroom, I caught a three-quarter +view of the creature's swollen, incredible head--which was nearly +as large as that of a normal man! + +Never while my mind serves me can I forget that yellow, grinning +face and those canine fangs--the tigerish, blazing eyes--set in +the great, misshapen head upon the tiny, agile body. + +Wildly, I fired again. I hurled myself forward and dashed into +the room. + +Like nothing so much as a cat, the gleaming body (the dwarf was +but scantily clothed) streaked through the open window! + +Certain death, I thought, must be his lot upon the stones of the +court far below. I ran and looked down, shaking in every limb, +my mind filled with a loathing terror unlike anything I had ever +known. + +Brilliant moonlight flooded the pavement beneath; for twenty yards +to left and right every stone was visible. + +The court was empty! + +Human, homely London moved and wrought intimately about me; but +there, at sight of the empty court below, a great loneliness swept +down like a mantle--a clammy mantle of the fabric of dread. I +stood remote from my fellows, in an evil world peopled with the +creatures of Hassan of Aleppo. + +Moved by some instinct, as that of a frightened child, I dropped +to my knees and buried my face in trembling hands. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE RING OF THE PROPHET + + +"There is no doubt," said Mr. Rawson, "that great personal danger +attaches to any contact with this relic. It is the first time I +have been concerned with anything of the kind." + +Mr. Bristol, of Scotland Yard, standing stiffly military by the +window, looked across at the gray-haired solicitor. We were all +silent for a few moments. + +"My late client's wishes," continued Mr. Rawson, "are explicit. +His last instructions, evidently written but a short time prior to +his death, advise me that the holy slipper of the Prophet is +contained in the locked safe at his house in Dulwich. He was +clearly of opinion that you, Mr. Cavanagh, would incur risk--great +risk--from your possession of the key. Since attempts have been +made upon you, murderous attempts, the late Professor Deeping, my +unfortunate client, evidently was not in error." + +"Mysterious outrages," said Bristol, "have marked the progress of +the stolen slipper from Mecca almost to London." + +"I understand," interrupted the solicitor, "that a fanatic known +as Hassan of Aleppo seeks to restore the relic to its former +resting-place." + +"That is so." + +"Exactly; and it accounts for the Professor's wish that the safe +should not be touched by any one but a Believer--and for his +instructions that its removal to the Antiquarian Museum and the +placing of the slipper within that institution be undertaken by a +Moslem or Moslems." + +Bristol frowned. + +"Any one who has touched the receptacle containing the thing," he +said, "has either been mutilated or murdered. I want to apprehend +the authors of those outrages, but I fail to see why the slipper +should be put on exhibition. Other crimes are sure to follow." + +"I can only pursue my instructions," said Mr. Rawson dryly. "They +are, that the work be done in such a manner as to expose all +concerned to a minimum of risk from these mysterious people; that +if possible a Moslem be employed for the purpose; and that Mr. +Cavanagh, here, shall always hold the key or keys to the case in +the museum containing the slipper. Will you undertake to look for +some--Eastern workmen, Mr. Bristol? In the course of your +inquiries you may possibly come across such a person." + +"I can try," replied Bristol. "Meanwhile, I take it, the safe must +remain at Dulwich?" + +"Certainly. It should be guarded." + +"We are guarding it and shall guard it," Bristol assured him. "I +only hope we catch someone trying to get at it!" + +Shortly afterward Bristol and I left the office, and, his duties +taking him to Scotland Yard, I returned to my chambers to survey +the position in which I now found myself. Indeed, it was a strange +one enough, showing how great things have small beginnings; for, +as a result of a steamer acquaintance I found myself involved in a +dark business worthy of the Middle Ages. That Professor Deeping +should have stolen one of the holy slippers of Mohammed was no +affair of mine, and that an awful being known as Hassan of Aleppo +should have pursued it did not properly enter into my concerns; yet +now, with a group of Eastern fanatics at large in England, I was +become, in a sense, the custodian of the relic. Moreover, I +perceived that I had been chosen that I might safeguard myself. +What I knew of the matter might imperil me, but whilst I held the +key to the reliquary, and held it fast, I might hope to remain +immune though I must expect to be subjected to attempts. It would +be my affair to come to terms. + +Contemplating these things I sat, in a world of dark dreams, +unconscious of the comings and goings in the court below, +unconscious of the hum which told of busy Fleet Street so near to +me. The weather, as is its uncomfortable habit in England, had +suddenly grown tropically hot, plunging London into the vapours of +an African spring, and the sun was streaming through my open window +fully upon the table. + +I mopped my clammy forehead, glancing with distaste at the pile of +work which lay before me. Then my eyes turned to an open quarto +book. It was the late Professor Deeping's "Assyrian Mythology," +and embodied the result of his researches into the history of the +Hashishin, the religious murderers of whose existence he had been +so skeptical. To the Chief of the Order, the terrible Sheikh Hassan +of Aleppo, he referred as a "fabled being"; yet it was at the hands +of this "fabled being" that he had met his end! How incredible it +all seemed. But I knew full well how worthy of credence it was. + +Then upon my gloomy musings a sound intruded--the ringing of my door +bell. I rose from my chair with a weary sigh, went to the door, +and opened it. An aged Oriental stood without. He was tall and +straight, had a snow-white beard and clear-cut, handsome features. +He wore well-cut European garments and a green turban. As I stood +staring he saluted me gravely. + +"Mr. Cavanagh?" he asked, speaking in faultless English. + +"I am he." + +"I learn that the services of a Moslem workman are required." + +"Quite correct, sir; but you should apply at the offices of Messrs. +Rawson & Rawson, Chancery Lane." + +The old man bowed, smiling. + +"Many thanks; I understood so much. But, my position being a +peculiar one, I wished to speak with you--as a friend of the late +Professor." + +I hesitated. The old man looked harmless enough, but there was an +air of mystery about the matter which put me on my guard. + +"You will pardon me," I said, "but the work is scarcely of a kind--" + +He raised his thin hand. + +"I am not undertaking it myself. I wished to explain to you the +conditions under which I could arrange to furnish suitable porters." + +His patient explanation disposed me to believe that he was merely +some kind of small contractor, and in any event I had nothing to +fear from this frail old man. + +"Step in, sir," I said, repenting of my brusquerie--and stood +aside for him. + +He entered, with that Oriental meekness in which there is +something majestic. I placed a chair for him in the study, and +reseated myself at the table. The old man, who from the first had +kept his eyes lowered deferentially, turned to me with a gentle +gesture, as if to apologize for opening the conversation. + +"From the papers, Mr. Cavanagh," he began, "I have learned of the +circumstances attending the death of Professor Deeping. Your +papers"--he smiled, and I thought I had never seen a smile of +such sweetness--"your papers know all! Now I understand why a +Moslem is required, and I understand what is required of him. But +remembering that the object of his labours would be to place a +holy relic on exhibition for the amusement of unbelievers, can you +reasonably expect to obtain the services of one?" + +His point of view was fair enough. + +"Perhaps not," I replied. "For my own part I should wish to see +the slipper back in Mecca, or wherever it came from. But Professor +Deeping--" + +"Professor Deeping was a thorn in the flesh of the Faithful!" + +My visitor's voice was gravely reproachful. + +"Nevertheless his wishes must be considered," I said, "and the +methods adopted by those who seek to recover the relic are such +as to alienate all sympathy." + +"You speak of the Hashishin?" asked the old man. "Mr. Cavanagh, in +your own faith you have had those who spilled the blood of infidels +as freely!" + +"My good sir, the existence of such an organization cannot be +tolerated today! This survival of the dark ages must be stamped +out. However just a cause may be, secret murder is not permissible, +as you, a man of culture, a Believer, and"--I glanced at his +unusual turban--"a descendant of the Prophet, must admit." + +"I can admit nothing against the Guardian of the Tradition, Mr. +Cavanagh! The Prophet taught that we should smite the Infidel. I +ask you--have you the courage of your convictions?" + +"Perhaps; I trust so." + +"Then assist me to rid England of what you have called a survival +of the dark ages. I will furnish porters to remove and carry the +safe, if you will deliver to me the key!" + +I sprang to my feet. + +"That is madness!" I cried. "In the first place I should be +compromising with my conscience, and in the second place I should +be defenceless against those who might--" + +"I have with me a written promise from one highly placed--one to +whose will Hassan of Aleppo bows!" + +My mind greatly disturbed, I watched the venerable speaker. I had +determined now that he was some religious leader of Islam in +England, who had been deputed to approach me; and, let me add, I +was sorely tempted to accede to his proposal, for nothing would be +gained by any one if the slipper remained for ever at the museum, +whereas by conniving at its recovery by those who, after all, were +its rightful owners I should be ridding England of a weird and +undesirable visitant. + +I think I should have agreed, when I remembered that the Hashishin +had murdered Professor Deeping and had mutilated others wholly +innocent of offence. I looked across at the old man. He had drawn +himself up to his great height, and for the first time fully +raising the lids, had fixed upon me the piercing gaze of a pair of +eagle eyes. I started, for the aspect of this majestic figure was +entirely different from that of the old stranger who had stood +suppliant before me a moment ago. + +"It is impossible," I said. "I can come to no terms with those +who shield murderers." + +He regarded me fixedly, but did not move. + +"Es-selam 'aleykum!" I added ("Peace be on you!") closing the +interview in the Eastern manner. + +The old man lowered his eyes, and saluted me with graceful gravity. + +"Wa-'aleykum!" he said ("And on you!"). I conducted him to the +door and closed it upon his exit. In his last salute I had noticed +the flashing of a ring which he wore upon his left hand, and he was +gone scarce ten seconds ere my heart began to beat furiously. I +snatched up "Assyrian Mythology" and with trembling fingers turned +to a certain page. + +There I read-- + +Each Sheikh of the Assassins is said to be invested with the "Ring +of the Prophet." It bears a green stone, shaped in the form of a +scimitar or crescent. + +My dreadful suspicion was confirmed. I knew who my visitor had +been. + +"God in heaven!" I whispered. "It was Hassan of Aleppo!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +FIRST ATTEMPT ON THE SAFE + + +On the following morning I was awakened by the arrival of Bristol. +I hastened to admit him. + +"Your visitor of yesterday," he began, "has wasted no time!" + +"What has happened?" + +He tugged irritably at his moustache. "I don't know!" he replied. +"Of course it was no surprise to find that there isn't a Mohammedan +who'll lay his little finger on Professor Deeping's safe! There's +no doubt in my mind that every lascar at the docks knows Hassan of +Aleppo to be in England. Some other arrangement will have to be +arrived at, if the thing is ever to be taken to the Antiquarian +Museum. Meanwhile we stand to lose it. Last night--" + +He accepted a cigarette, and lighted it carefully. + +"Last night," he resumed, "a member of P Division was on point +duty outside the late Professor's house, and two C.I.D. men were +actually in the room where the safe is. Result--someone has put +in at least an hour's work on the lock, but it proved too tough a +job!" + +I stared at him amazedly. + +"Someone has been at the lock!" I cried. "But that is impossible, +with two men in the room--unless--" + +"They were both knocked on the head!" + +"Both! But by whom! My God! They are not--" + +"Oh, no! It was done artistically. They both came round about +four o'clock this morning." + +"And who attacked them?" + +"They had no idea. Neither of them saw a thing!" + +My amazement grew by leaps and bounds. "But, Bristol, one of them +must have seen the other succumb!" + +"Both did! Their statements tally exactly!" + +"I quite fail to follow you." + +"That's not surprising. Listen: When I got on the scene about five +o'clock, Marden and West, the two C.I.D. men, had quite recovered +their senses, though they were badly shaken, and one had a cracked +skull. The constable was conscious again, too." + +"What! Was he attacked?" + +"In exactly the same way! I'll give you Marden's story, as he gave +it to me a few minutes after the surgeon had done with him. He said +that they were sitting in the study, smoking, and with both windows +wide open. It was a fearfully hot night." + +"Did they have lights?" + +"No. West sat in an armchair near the writing-table; Marden sat by +the window next to the door. I had arranged that every hour one of +them should go out to the gate and take the constable's report. It +was just after Marden had been out at one o'clock that it happened. + +"They were sitting as I tell you when Marden thought he heard a +curious sort of noise from the gate. West appeared to have heard +nothing; but I have no doubt that it was the sound of the constable's +fall. West's pipe had gone out, and he struck a match to relight +it. As he did so, Marden saw him drop the match, clench both fists, +and with eyes glaring in the moonlight and his teeth coming together +with a snap, drop from his chair. + +"Marden says that he was half up from his seat when something struck +him on the back of the head with fearful force. He remembered +nothing more until he awoke, with the dawn creeping into the room, +and heard West groaning somewhere beside him. They both had badly +damaged skulls with great bruises behind the ear. It is instructive +to note that their wounds corresponded almost to a fraction of an +inch. They had been stunned by someone who thoroughly understood +his business, and with some heavy, blunt weapon. A few minutes +later came the man to relieve the constable; and the constable was +found to have been treated in exactly the same way!" + +"But if Marden's account is true--" + +"West, as he lost consciousness, saw Marden go in exactly the same +way." + +"Marden was seated by the open window, but I cannot conjecture how +any one can have got at West, who sat by the table!" + +"The case of Marden is little less than remarkable; he was some +distance from the window. No one could possibly have reached him +from outside." + +"And the constable?" + +"The constable can give us no clue. He was suddenly struck down, +as the others were. I examined the safe, of course, but didn't +touch it, according to instructions. Someone had been at work on +the lock, but it had defied their efforts. I'm fully expecting +though that they'll be back to-night, with different tools!" + +"The place is watched during the day, of course?" + +"Of course. But it's unlikely that anything will be attempted in +daylight. Tonight I am going down myself." + +"Could you arrange that I join you?" + +"I could, but you can see the danger for yourself?" + +"It is extraordinarily mysterious." + +"Mr. Cavanagh, it's uncanny!" said Bristol. "I can understand that +one of these Hashishin could easily have got up behind the man on +duty out in the open. I know, and so do you, that they're past +masters of that kind of thing; but unless they possess the power to +render themselves invisible, it's not evident how they can have got +behind West whilst he sat at the table, with Marden actually +watching him!" + +"We must lay a trap for them to-night." + +"Rely upon me to do so. My only fear is that they may anticipate it +and change their tactics. Hassan of Aleppo apparently knows as much +of our plans as we do ourselves." + +Inspector Bristol, though a man of considerable culture, clearly was +infected with a species of supernatural dread. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE VIOLET EYES AGAIN + + +At four o'clock in the afternoon I had heard nothing further from +Bristol, but I did not doubt that he would advise me of his +arrangements in good time. I sought by hard work to forget for a +time the extraordinary business of the stolen slipper; but it +persistently intruded upon my mind. Particularly, my thoughts +turned to the night of Professor Deeping's murder, and to the +bewitchingly pretty woman who had warned me of the impending tragedy. +She had bound me to secrecy--a secrecy which had proved irksome, +for it had since appeared to me that she must have been an +accomplice of Hassan of Aleppo. At the time I had been at a loss +to define her peculiar accent, now it seemed evidently enough to +have been Oriental. + +I threw down my pen in despair, for work was impossible, went +downstairs, and walked out under the arch into Fleet Street. Quite +mechanically I turned to the left, and, still engaged with idle +conjectures, strolled along westward. + +Passing the entrance to one of the big hotels, I was abruptly +recalled to the realities--by a woman's voice. + +"Wait for me here," came musically to my ears. + +I stopped, and turned. A woman who had just quitted a taxi-cab was +entering the hotel. The day was hot and thunderously oppressive, +and this woman with the musical voice wore a delicate costume of +flimsiest white. A few steps upward she paused and glanced back. +I had a view of a Greek profile, and for one magnetic instant looked +into eyes of the deepest and most wonderful violet. + +Then, shaking off inaction, I ran up the steps and overtook the +lady in white as a porter swung open the door to admit her. We +entered together. + +"Madame," I said in a low tone, "I must detain you for a moment. +There is something I have to ask." + +She turned, exhibiting the most perfect composure, lowered her +lashes and raised them again, the gaze of the violet eyes sweeping +me from head to foot with a sort of frigid scorn. + +"I fear you have made a mistake, sir. We have never met before!" + +Her voice betrayed no trace of any foreign accent! + +"But," I began--and paused. + +I felt myself flush; for this encounter in the foyer of an hotel, +with many curious onlookers, was like to prove embarrassing if my +beautiful acquaintance persisted in her attitude. I fully realized +what construction would be put upon my presence there, and foresaw +that forcible and ignominious ejection must be my lot if I failed +to establish my right to address her. + +She turned away, and crossed in the direction of the staircase. +A sunbeam sought out a lock of hair that strayed across her brow, +and kissed it to a sudden glow like that which lurks in the heart +of a blush rose. + +That wonderful sheen, which I had never met with elsewhere in +nature, but which no artifice could lend, served to remove my last +frail doubt which had survived the evidence of the violet eyes. I +had been deceived by no strange resemblance; this was indeed the +woman who had been the harbinger of Professor Deeping's death. In +three strides I was beside her again. Curious glances were set +upon me, and I saw a servant evidently contemplating approach; but +I ignored all save my own fixed purpose. + +"You must listen to what I have to say!" I whispered. "If you +decline, I shall have no alternative but to call in the detective +who holds a warrant for your arrest!" + +She stood quite still, watching me coolly. "I suppose you would +wish to avoid a scene?" I added. + +"You have already made me the object of much undesirable attention," +she replied scornfully. "I do not need your assurance that you +would disgrace me utterly! You are talking nonsense, as you must +be aware--unless you are insane. But if your object be to force +your acquaintance upon me, your methods are novel, and, under the +circumstances, effective. Come, sir, you may talk to me--for +three minutes!" + +The musical voice had lost nothing of its imperiousness, but for +one instant the lips parted, affording a fleeting glimpse of pearl +beyond the coral. + +Her sudden change of front was bewildering. Now, she entered the +lift and I followed her. As we ascended side by side I found it +impossible to believe that this dainty white figure was that of an +associate of the Hashishin, that of a creature of the terrible +Hassan of Aleppo. Yet that she was the same girl who, a few days +after my return from the East, had shown herself conversant with +the plans of the murderous fanatics was beyond doubt. Her accent +on that occasion clearly had been assumed, with what object I could +not imagine. Then, as we quitted the lift and entered a cosy +lounge, my companion seated herself upon a Chesterfield, signing to +me to sit beside her. + +As I did so she lay back smiling, and regarding me from beneath her +black lashes. Thus, half veiled, her great violet eyes were most +wonderful. + +"Now, sir," she said softly, "explain yourself." + +"Then you persist in pretending that we have not met before?" + +"There is no occasion for pretence," she replied lightly; and I +found myself comparing her voice with her figure, her figure with +her face, and vainly endeavouring to compute her age. Frankly, +she was bewildering--this lovely girl who seemed so wholly a woman +of the world. + +"This fencing is useless." + +"It is quite useless! Come, I know New York, London, and I know +Paris, Vienna, Budapest. Therefore I know mankind! You thought I +was pretty, I suppose? I may be; others have thought so. And you +thought you would like to make my acquaintance without troubling +about the usual formalities? You adopted a singularly brutal +method of achieving your object, but I love such insolence in a man. +Therefore I forgave you. What have you to say to me?" + +I perceive that I had to deal with a bold adventuress, with a +consummate actress, who, finding herself in a dangerous situation, +had adopted this daring line of defence, and now by her personal +charm sought to lure me from my purpose. + +But with the scimitar of Hassan of Aleppo stretched over me, with +the dangers of the night before me, I was in no mood for a veiled +duel of words, for an interchange of glances in thrust and parry, +however delightful such warfare might have been with so pretty an +adversary. + +For a long time I looked sternly into her eyes; but their violet +mystery defied, whilst her red-lipped smile taunted me. + +"Unfortunately," I said, with slow emphasis, "you are protected by +my promise, made on the occasion of our previous meeting. But +murder has been done, so that honour scarcely demands that I respect +my promise further--" + +She raised her eyebrows slightly. + +"Surely that depends upon the quality of the honour!" she said. + +"I believe you to be a member of a murderous organization, and +unless you can convince me that I am wrong, I shall act accordingly." + +At that she leaned toward me, laying her hand on my arm. + +"Please do not be so cruel," she whispered, "as to drag me into a +matter with which truly I have no concern. Believe me, you are +utterly mistaken. Wait one moment, and I will prove it." + +She rose, and before I could make move to detain her, quitted the +room; but the door scarcely had closed ere I was afoot. The +corridor beyond was empty. I ran on. The lift had just descended. +A dark man whom I recognized stood near the closed gate. + +"Quick!" I said, "I am Cavanagh of the Report! Did you see a lady +enter the lift?" + +"I did, Mr. Cavanagh," answered the hotel detective; for this was he. + +In such a giant inn as this I knew full well that one could come and +go almost with impunity, though one had no right to the hospitality +of the establishment; and it was with a premonition respecting what +his answer would be, that I asked the man-- + +"Is she staying here?" + +"She is not. I have never seen her before!" + +The girl with the violet eyes had escaped, taking all her secrets +with her! + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SECOND ATTEMPT ON THE SAFE + + +"You see," said Bristol, "the Hashishin must know that the safe +won't remain here unopened much longer. They will therefore +probably make another attempt to-night." + +"It seems likely," I replied; and was silent. Outside the open +windows whispered the shrubbery, as a soft breeze stole through the +bushes. Beyond, the moon made play in the dim avenue. From the +old chapel hard by the sweet-toned bell proclaimed midnight. Our +vigil was begun. In this room it was that Professor Deeping had +met death at the hands of the murderous Easterns; here it was that +Marden and West had mysteriously been struck down the night before. + +To-night was every whit as hot, and Bristol and I had the windows +widely opened. My companion was seated where the detective, Marden, +had sat, in a chair near the westerly window, and I lay back in +the armchair that had been occupied by West. + +I may repeat here that the house of the late Professor Deeping was +more properly a cottage, surrounded by a fairly large piece of +ground, for the most part run wild. The room used as a study was +on the ground floor, and had windows on the west and on the south. +Those on the west (French windows) opened on a loggia; those on the +south opened right into the dense tangle of a neglected shrubbery. +The place possessed an oppressive atmosphere of loneliness, for +which in some measure its history may have been responsible. + +The silence, seemingly intensified by each whisper that sped through +the elms and crept about the shrubbery, grew to such a stillness +that I told myself I had experienced nothing like it since crossing +with a caravan I had slept in the desert. Yet noisy, whirling +London was within gunshot of us; and this, though hard enough to +believe, was a reflection oddly comforting. Only one train of +thought was possible, and this I pursued at random. + +By what means were Marden and West struck down? In thus exposing +ourselves, in order that we might trap the author or authors of the +outrage, did we act wisely? + +"Bristol," I said suddenly, "it was someone who came through the +open window." + +"No one," he replied, "came through the windows. West saw +absolutely nothing. But if any one comes that way to-night, we +have him!" + +"West may have seen nothing; but how else could any one enter?" + +Bristol offered no reply; and I plunged again into a maze of +speculation. + +Powerful mantraps were set in such a way that any one or anything, +ignorant of their positions, coming up to the windows must +unavoidably be snared. These had been placed in position with +much secrecy after dusk, and the man on duty at the gate stood +with his back to the wall. No one could approach him except from +the front. My thoughts took a new turn. + +Was the girl with the violet eyes an ally of the Hashishin? Thus +far, although she so palpably had tricked me, I had found myself +unable to speak of her to Bristol; for the idea had entered my mind +that she might have learned of the plan to murder Deeping without +directly being implicated. Now came yet another explanation. The +publicity given to that sensational case might have interested some +third party in the fate of the stolen slipper! Could it be that +others, in no way connected with the dreadful Hassan of Aleppo, +were in quest of the slipper? + +Scotland Yard had taken care to ensure that the general public be +kept in ignorance of the existence of such an organization as the +Hashishin, but I must assume that this hypothetical third party +were well aware that they had Hassan, as well as the authorities, +to count with. Granting the existence of such a party, my beautiful +acquaintance might be classified as one of its members. I spoke +again. + +"Bristol," I said, "has it occurred to you that there may be others, +as well as Hassan of Aleppo, seeking to gain possession of the +sacred slipper?" + +"It has not," he replied. "In the strictest sense of the expression, +they would be out for trouble! What gave you the idea?" + +"I hardly know," I returned evasively, for even now I was loath to +betray the mysterious girl with the wonderful eyes. + +The chapel bell sounding the half-hour, Bristol rose with a sigh +that might have been one of relief, and went out to take the report +of the man on duty at the gate. As his footsteps died away along +the elm avenue, it came to me how, in the darkness about, menace +lurked; and I felt myself succumbing to the greatest dread +experienced by man--the dread of the unknown. + +All that I knew of the weird group of fanatics--survivals of a dim +and evil past--who must now be watching this cottage as bloodlustful +devotees watch a shrine violated, burst upon my mind. I peopled the +still blackness with lurking assassins, armed with the murderous +knowledge of by-gone centuries, armed with invisible weapons which +struck down from afar, supernaturally. + +I glanced toward the corner of the room where the safe stood, +reliquary of a worthless thing for which much blood had been spilled. + +Then sounded footsteps along the avenue, and my fear whispered that +they were not those of Bristol but of one who had murdered him, and +who came guilefully, to murder me! + +I snatched the revolver from my pocket and crossed the darkened room. +Just to the right of one of the French windows I stood looking out +across the loggia to the end of the avenue. The night was a bright +one, and the room was flooded with a reflected mystic light, but +outside the moon paved the avenue with pearl, and through the trees +I saw a figure approaching. + +Was it Bristol? It had his build, it had his gait; but my fears +remained. Then the figure crossed the patch of shrubbery and stepped +on to the loggia. + +"Mr. Cavanagh!" + +I laughed dryly at my own cowardice, but my heart was still beating +abnormally. + +"Here I am, Bristol, in a ghastly funk!" + +"I don't wonder! They may be on us any time now. All's well at +the gate, but Morris says he heard, or thought he heard something +at the side of the chapel opposite, a while ago." + +"Wind in the bushes?" + +"It may have been; but he says there was no breeze at the time." + +We resumed our seats. + +"Bristol," I said, "now that the danger grows imminent, doesn't it +seem to you foolhardy for us thus to expose ourselves?" + +"Perhaps it is," he agreed; "but how otherwise are we likely to +learn what happened to Marden and West?" + +"The enemy may adopt different measures to-night." + +"I think not. Our dispositions are the same, and I credit them with +cunning enough to know it. At the same time I credit ourselves with +having kept the existence of the steel traps completely secret. They +will assume (so I've reasoned) that we intend to rely entirely upon +our superior vigilance, therefore they will try the same game as last +night." + +Silence fell. + +The moon rays, creeping around from the right of the avenue, crossing +the shrubbery and encroaching upon the low wall of the loggia, now +flooded its floor. Against the silvern light, Bristol appeared to +me in black silhouette. The breeze, too, seemed now to blow from a +slightly different direction. It came through the windows on my +right, beyond which lay the unkempt bushes which extended on that +side to the wall of the grounds. + +So we sat, until the moonlight poured fully in upon Bristol's back. +So we sat when the clock chimed the hour of one. + +Bristol arose and once more went out to the gate. He had arranged +to visit Morris's post every half-hour. Again I experienced the +nervous dread that he would be attacked in the avenue; but again he +returned unscathed. + +"All's well," he said. + +But from his tones I knew that he had not forgotten that it was at +this hour Marden and West had suffered mysterious attack. + +Neither of us, I think, was disposed to talk. We both were +unwilling to break the silence, wherein, with all our ears, we +listened for the slightest disturbance. + +And now my attention turned anew to the course of the slowly creeping +moon rays. In my mind an idea was struggling for definition. There +was something significant in the lunar lighting of the room. Why, I +asked myself, had the attack been made at one o'clock? Did the time +signify anything? If so, what? I looked toward Bristol. + +His figure, the chair upon which he sat, were sharply outlined by +the cold light. The wall behind me, and to my left, was illuminated +brilliantly; but no light fell directly upon me. + +The idea was taking shape. From the loggia and the avenue Bristol, +I reasoned, must be clearly visible. From the shrubbery on the +south, through the other windows could I be seen? Yes, silhouetted +against the moonlight! + +A faint sound, quite indescribable, came to my ears from somewhere +outside-beyond. + +"My God!" whispered Bristol. "Did you hear it?" + +"Yes! What?" + +"It must have been Morris!--" + +Bristol was half standing, one hand upon the arm of the chair, the +other concealed, but grasping his revolver as I well knew. I, too, +had my revolver in my hand, and as I twisted in my seat, preparatory +to rising, in sheer nervousness I dropped the weapon upon the +carpet. + +With an exclamation of dismay, I stooped quickly to recover it. + +As I did so something whistled past my ear, so closely as almost to +touch it--and struck with a dull thud upon the wall beyond! + +"Bristol!" I whispered. + +But as I raised my eyes to him he seemed to crumple up, and fell +loosely forward into the patch of moonlight spread upon the floor! +"God in heaven!" I said aloud. + +In a cold sweat of fear I crouched there, for it had become evident +to me that, as I bent, I was entirely in shadow. + +There was a rustling in the bushes on the left; but before I could +turn in that direction, my attention was claimed elsewhere. Over +into the loggia leapt an almost naked brown figure! + +It was that of a small but strongly built man, who carried a short, +exceedingly thick bamboo rod in his hand. My fear was too great to +admit of my accurately observing anything at that time, but I +noticed that some kind of leather thong or loop was attached to the +end of the squat cane. + +The panic fear of the supernatural was strongly upon me, and I was +unable to realize that this Eastern apparition was a creature of +flesh and blood. With my nerves strung up to snapping point, I +crouched watching him. He entered the room, bending over the body +of Bristol. + +A hot breath fanned my cheek! + +At that my overwrought nerves betrayed me. I uttered a stifled cry, +looking upward ... and into a pair of gleaming eyes which looked +down into mine! + +A second brown man (who must have entered by one of the windows +overlooking the shrubbery) was bending over me! + +Scarce knowing what I did, I raised my revolver and blazed straight +into the dimly-seen face. Down upon me silently dropped a naked +body, and something warm came flowing over my hand. But, knowing my +foes to be of flesh and blood, feeling myself at handgrips now with +a palpable enemy, I threw off the body, leapt up and fired, though +blindly, at the flying shape that flashed across the loggia--and +was lost in the shadow pools under the elms. + +Upon the din of my shooting fell silence like a cloak. A moment I +listened, tense, still; then I turned to the table and lighted the +lamp. + +In its light I saw Bristol lying like a dead man. Close beside him +was a big and heavy lump of clay. It had been shaped as a ball, +but now it was flattened out curiously. Bending over my unfortunate +companion and learning that, though unconscious, he lived, I learnt, +too, how the Hashishin contrived to strike men insensible without +approaching them; I learnt that the one whom I had shot, who lay in +his blood almost on the spot where Professor Deeping once had lain, +was an expert slinger. + +The contrivance which he carried, as did the other who had escaped, +was a sling, of the ancient Persian type. In place of stones, heavy +lumps of clay were used, which operated much the same as a sand-bag, +whilst enabling the operator to work from a considerable distance. + +Hidden, over by the ancient chapel it might be, one of this evil +twain had struck down Morris, the constable; from the shelter of the +trees, from many yards away, they had shot their singular missiles +through the open windows at Bristol and myself. Bristol had +succumbed, and now, with a redness showing through his close-cut +hair immediately behind the right ear, lay wholly unconscious at my +feet. + +It had been a divine accident which had caused me to drop my +revolver, and, stooping to recover it, unknowingly to frustrate the +design of the second slinger upon myself. The light of the lamp +fell upon the face of the dead Hashishin. He lay forward upon his +hands, crouching almost, but with his face, his dreadful, +featureless face, twisted up at me from under his left shoulder. + +God knows he deserved his end; but that mutilated face is often +grinning, bloodily, in my dreams. + +And then as I stood, between that horrid exultation which is born +of killing and the panic which threatened me out of the darkness, +I saw something advancing ... slowly ... slowly ... from the +elmen shades toward the loggia. + +It was a shape--it was a shadow. Silent it came--on--and on. +Where the dusk lay deepest it paused, undefined; for I could give +it no name of man or spirit. But a horror seemed to proceed from +it as light from a lamp. + +I groped about the table near to me, never taking my eyes from +that sinister form outside. As my fingers closed upon the +telephone, distant voices and the sound of running footsteps +(of those who had heard the shots) came welcome to my ears. + +The form stirred, seeming to raise phantom arms in execration, and +a stray moonbeam pierced the darkness shrouding it. For a fleeting +instant something flashed venomously. + +The sounds grew nearer. I could tell that the newcomers had found +Morris lying at the gate. Yet still I stood, frozen with uncanny +fear, and watching--watching the spot to which that stray beam had +pierced; the spot where I had seen the moon gleam upon the ring of +the Prophet! + + + + +CHAPTER X + +AT THE BRITISH ANTIQUARIAN MUSEUM + + +A little group of interested spectators stood at the head of the +square glass case in the centre of the lofty apartment in the +British Antiquarian Museum known as the Burton Room (by reason of +the fact that a fine painting of Sir Richard Burton faces you as +you enter). A few other people looked on curiously from the lower +end of the case. It contained but one exhibit--a dirty and +dilapidated markoob--or slipper of morocco leather that had once +been red. + +"Our latest acquisition, gentlemen," said Mr. Mostyn, the curator, +speaking in a low tone to the distinguished Oriental scholars +around him. "It has been left to the Institution by the late +Professor Deeping. He describes it in a document furnished by his +solicitor as one of the slippers worn by the Prophet Mohammed, but +gives us no further particulars. I myself cannot quite place the +relic." + +"Nor I," interrupted one of the group. "It is not mentioned by +any of the Arabian historians to my knowledge--that is, if it +comes from Mecca, as I understand it does." + +"I cannot possibly assert that it comes from Mecca, Dr. Nicholson," +Mostyn replied. "The Professor may have taken it from Al-Madinah--perhaps +from the mysterious inner passage of the baldaquin where +the treasures of the place lie. But I can assure you that what +little we do know of its history is sufficiently unsavoury." + +I fancied that the curator's tired cultured voice faltered as he +spoke; and now, without apparent reason, he moved a step to the +right and glanced oddly along the room. I followed the direction +of his glance, and saw a tall man in conventional morning dress, +irreproachable in every detail, whose head was instantly bent upon +his catalogue. But before his eyes fell I knew that their long +almond shape, as well as the peculiar burnt pallor of his +countenance, were undoubtedly those of an Oriental. + +"There have been mysterious outrages committed, I believe, upon +many of those who have come in contact with the slipper?" asked one +of the savants. + +"Exactly. Professor Deeping was undoubtedly among the victims. +His instructions were explicit that the relic should be brought here +by a Moslem, but for a long time we failed to discover any Moslem +who would undertake the task; and, as you are aware, while the +slipper remained at the Professor's house attempts were made to +steal it." + +He ceased uneasily, and glanced at the tall Eastern figure. It had +edged a little nearer; the head was still bowed and the fine yellow +waxen fingers of the hand from which he had removed his glove +fumbled with the catalogue's leaves. It may well have been that +in those days I read menace in every eye, yet I felt assured that +the yellow visitor was eavesdropping--was malignantly attentive to +the conversation. + +The curator spoke lower than ever now; no one beyond the circle +could possibly hear him as he proceeded-- + +"We discovered an Alexandrian Greek who, for personal reasons, not +unconnected with matrimony, had turned Moslem! He carried the +slipper here, strongly escorted, and placed it where you now see it. +No other hand has touched it." (The speaker's voice was raised ever +so slightly.) "You will note that there is a rail around the case, +to prevent visitors from touching even the glass." + +"Ah," said Dr. Nicholson quizzically, "And has anything untoward +happened to our Graeco-Moslem friend?" + +"Perhaps Inspector Bristol can tell," replied the curator. + +The straight, military figure of the well-known Scotland Yard man +was conspicuous among the group of distinguished--and mostly +round-shouldered--scholars. + +"Sorry, gentlemen," he said, smiling, "but Mr. Acepulos has vanished +from his tobacco shop in Soho. I am not apprehensive that he had +been kidnapped or anything of that kind. I think rather that the +date of his disappearance tallies with that on which he cashed his +cheque for service rendered! His present wife is getting most +unbeautifully fat, too." + +"What precautions," someone asked, "are being taken to guard the +slipper?" + +"Well," Mostyn answered, "though we have only the bare word of the +late Professor Deeping that the slipper was actually worn by +Mohammed, it has certainly an enormous value according to Moslem +ideas. There can be no doubt that a group of fanatics known as +Hashishin are in London engaged in an extraordinary endeavour to +recover it." + +Mostyn's voice sank to an impressive whisper. My gaze sought again +the tall Eastern visitor and was held fascinated by the baffled +straining in those velvet eyes. But the lids fell as I looked; and +the effect was that of a fire suddenly extinguished. I determined +to draw Bristol's attention to the man. + +"Accordingly," Mostyn continued, "we have placed it in this room, +from which I fancy it would puzzle the most accomplished thief to +remove it." + +The party, myself included, stared about the place, as he went on +to explain-- + +"We have four large windows here; as you see. The Burton Room +occupies the end of a wing; there is only one door; it communicates +with the next room, which in turn opens into the main building by +another door on the landing. We are on the first floor; these two +east windows afford a view of the lawn before the main entrance; +those two west ones face Orpington Square; all are heavily barred +as you see. During the day there is a man always on duty in these +two rooms. At night that communicating door is locked. Short of +erecting a ladder in full view either of the Square or of Great +Orchard Street, filing through four iron bars and breaking the +window and the case, I fail to see how anybody can get at the +slipper here." + +"If a duplicate key to the safe--" another voice struck in; I knew +it afterward for that of Professor Rhys-Jenkyns. + +"Impossible to procure one, Professor," cried Mostyn, his eyes +sparkling with an almost boyish interest. "Mr. Cavanagh here holds +the keys of the case, under the will of the late Professor Deeping. +They are of foreign workmanship and more than a little complicated." + +The eyes of the savants were turned now in my direction. + +"I suppose you have them in a place of safety?" said Dr. Nicholson. + +"They are at my bankers," I replied. + +"Then I venture to predict," said the celebrated Orientalist, "that +the slipper of the Prophet will rest here undisturbed." + +He linked his arm into that of a brother scholar and the little +group straggled away, Mostyn accompanying them to the main entrance. + +But I saw Inspector Bristol scratching his chin; he looked very much +as if he doubted the accuracy of the doctor's prediction. He had +already had some experience of the implacable devotion of the Moslem +group to this treasure of the Faithful. + +"The real danger begins," I suggested to him, "when the general public +is admitted--after to-day, is it not?" + +"Yes. All to-day's people are specially invited, or are using +special invitation cards," he replied. "The people who received +them often give their tickets away to those who will be likely +really to appreciate the opportunity." + +I looked around for the tall Oriental. He seemed to have vanished, +and for some reason I hesitated to speak of him to Bristol; for my +gaze fell upon an excessively thin, keen-faced man whose curiously +wide-open eyes met mine smilingly, whose gray suit spoke Stein-Bloch, +whose felt was a Boss raw-edge unmistakably of a kind that only +Philadelphia can produce. At the height of the season such visitors +are not rare, but this one had an odd personality, and moreover his +keen gaze was raking the place from ceiling to floor. + +Where had I met him before? To the best of my recollection I had +never set eyes upon the man prior to that moment; and since he was +so palpably an American I had no reason for assuming him to be +associated with the Hashishin. But I remembered--indeed, I could +never forget--how, in the recent past, I had met with an apparent +associate of the Moslems as evidently European as this curiously +alert visitor was American. Moreover ... there was something +tauntingly familiar, yet elusive, about that gaunt face. + +Was it not upon the eve of the death of Professor Deeping that the +girl with the violet eyes had first intruded her fascinating +personality into my tangled affairs? Patently, she had then been +seeking the holy slipper, and by craft had endeavoured to bend me +to her will. Then had I not encountered her again, meeting the +glance of her unforgettable violet eyes outside a Strand hotel? +The encounter had presaged a further attempt upon the slipper! +Certainly she acted on behalf of someone interested in it; and since +neither Bristol nor I could conceive of any one seeking to possess +the bloodstained thing except the mysterious leader of the +Hashishin--Hassan of Aleppo--as a creature of that awful fanatic +being I had written her down. + +Why, then, if the mysterious Eastern employed a European girl, +should he not also employ an American man? It might well be that +the relic, in entering the doors of the impregnable Antiquarian +Museum, had passed where the diabolical arts of the Hashishin had +no power to reach it--where the beauty of Western women and the +craft of Eastern man were equally useless weapons. Perhaps Hassan's +campaign was entering upon a new phase. + +Was it a shirking of plain duty on my part that wish--that +ever-present hope--that the murderous company of fanatics who had +pursued the stolen slipper from its ancient resting-place to London, +should succeed in recovering it? I leave you to judge. + +The crescent of Islam fades to-day and grows pale, but there are yet +fierce Believers, alust for the blood of the infidel. In such as +these a faith dies the death of an adder, and is more venomous in +its death-throes than in the full pulse of life. The ghastly +indiscretion of Professor Deeping, in rifling a Moslem Sacristy, had +led to the mutilation of many who, unwittingly, had touched the +looted relic, had brought about his own end, had established a league +of fantastic assassins in the heart of the metropolis. + +Only once had I seen the venerable Hassan of Aleppo--a stately, +gentle old man; but I knew that the velvet eyes could blaze into a +passionate fury that seemed to scorch whom it fell upon. I knew +that the saintly Hassan was Sheikh of the Hashishin. And +familiarity with that dreadful organization had by no means bred +contempt. I was the holder of the key, and my fear of the fanatics +grew like a magic mango, darkened the sunlight of each day, and +filled the night with indefinable dread. + +You, who have not read poor Deeping's "Assyrian Mythology", cannot +picture a creature with a huge, distorted head, and a tiny, dwarfed +body--a thing inhuman, yet human--a man stunted and malformed by +the cruel arts of brother men--a thing obnoxious to life, with but +one passion, the passion to kill. You cannot conceive of the years +of agony spent by that creature strapped to a wooden frame--in +order to prevent his growth! You cannot conceive of his fierce +hatred of all humanity, inflamed to madness by the Eastern drug, +hashish, and directed against the enemies of Islam--the holders of +the slipper--by the wonderful power of Hassan of Aleppo. + +But I had not only read of such beings, I had encountered one! + +And he was but one of the many instruments of the Hashishin. Perhaps +the girl with the violet eyes was another. What else to be dreaded +Hassan might hold in store for us I could not conjecture. + +Do you wonder that I feared? Do you wonder that I hoped (I confess +it), hoped that the slipper might be recovered without further +bloodshed? + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE HOLE IN THE BLIND + + +I stepped over to the door, where a constable stood on duty. + +"You observed a tall Eastern gentleman in the room a while ago, +officer?" + +"I did, sir." + +"How long is he gone?" + +The man started and began to peer about anxiously. + +"That's a funny thing, sir," he said. "I was keeping my eyes +specially upon him. I noticed him hovering around while Mr. +Mostyn was speaking; but although I could have sworn he hadn't +passed out, he's gone!" + +"You didn't notice his departure, then?" + +"I'm sorry to say I didn't, sir." + +The man clearly was perplexed, but I found small matter for wonder +in the episode. I had more than suspected the stranger to be a spy +of Hassan's, and members of that strange company were elusive as +will-o'-the-wisps. + +Bristol, at the far end of the room, was signalling to me. I +walked back and joined him. + +"Come over here," he said, in a low voice, "and pretend to examine +these things." + +He glanced significantly to his left. Following the glance, my +eyes fell upon the lean American; he was peering into the receptacle +which held the holy slipper. + +Bristol led me across the room, and we both faced the wall and bent +over a glass case. Some yellow newspaper cuttings describing its +contents hung above it, and these we pretended to read. + +"Did you notice that man I glanced at?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, that's Earl Dexter, the first crook in America! Ssh! Only +goes in on very big things. We had word at the Yard he was in town; +but we can't touch him--we can only keep our eyes on him. He +usually travels openly and in his own name, but this time he seems +to have slipped over quietly. He always dresses the same and has +just given me 'good day!' They call him The Stetson Man. We heard +this morning that he had booked two first-class sailings in the +Oceanic, leaving for New York three weeks hence. Now, Mr. Cavanagh, +what is his game?" + +"It has occurred to me before, Bristol," I replied, "and you may +remember that I mentioned the idea to you, that there might be a +third party interested in the slipper. Why shouldn't Earl Dexter +be that third party?" + +"Because he isn't a fool," rapped Bristol shortly. "Earl Dexter +isn't a man to gather up trouble for himself. More likely if his +visit has anything really to do with the slipper he's retained by +Hassan and Company. Museum-breaking may be a bit out of the line +of Hashishin!" + +This latter suggestion dovetailed with my own ideas, and oddly +enough there was something positively wholesome in the notion of +the straightforward crookedness of a mere swell cracksman. + +Then happened a singular thing, and one that effectually concluded +our whispered colloquy. From the top end of the room, beyond the +case containing the slipper, one of the yellow blinds came down +with a run. + +Bristol turned in a flash. It was not a remarkable accident, and +might portend no more than a loose cord; but when, having walked +rapidly up the room, we stood before the lowered blind, it +appeared that this was no accident at all. + +Some four feet from the bottom of the blind (or five feet from the +floor) a piece of linen a foot square had been neatly slashed out! + +I glanced around the room. Several fashionably dressed visitors +were looking idly in our direction, but I could fasten upon no one +of them as a likely perpetrator. + +Bristol stared at me in perplexity. + +"Who on earth did it," he muttered, "and what the blazes for?" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE HASHISHIN WATCH + + +"The American gentleman has just gone out, sir," said the sergeant +at the door. + +I nodded grimly and raced down the steps. Despite my half-formed +desire that the slipper should be recovered by those to whom +properly it belonged, I experienced at times a curious interest in +its welfare. I cannot explain this. Across the hall in front of +me I saw Earl Dexter passing out of the Museum. I followed him +through into Kingsway and thence to Fleet Street. He sauntered +easily along, a nonchalant gray figure. I had begun to think that +he was bound for his hotel and that I was wasting my time when he +turned sharply into quiet Salisbury Square; it was almost deserted. + +My heart leapt into my mouth with a presentiment of what was coming +as I saw an elegant and beautifully dressed woman sauntering along +in front of us on the far side. + +Was it that I detected something familiar in her carriage, in the +poise of her head--something that reminded me of former +unforgettable encounters; encounters which without exception had +presaged attempts upon the slipper of the Prophet? Or was it that +I recollected how Dexter had booked two passages to America? I +cannot say, but I felt my heart leap; I knew beyond any possibility +of doubt that this meeting in Salisbury Square marked the opening +of a new chapter in the history of the slipper. + +Dexter slipped his arm within that of the girl in front of him and +they paced slowly forward in earnest conversation. I suppose my +action was very amateurish and very poor detective work; but +regardless of discovery I crossed the road and passed close by +the pair. + +I am certain that Dexter was speaking as I came up, but, well out +of earshot, his voice was suddenly arrested. His companion turned +and looked at me. + +I was prepared for it, yet was thrilled electrically by the +flashing glance of the violet eyes--for it was she--the beautiful +harbinger of calamities! + +My brain was in a whirl; complication piled itself upon complication; +yet in the heart of all this bewilderment I thought I could detect +the key of the labyrinth, but at the time my ideas were in disorder, +for the violet eyes were not lowered but fixed upon me in cold scorn. + +I knew myself helpless, and bending my head with conscious +embarrassment I passed on hurriedly. + +I had work to do in plenty, but I could not apply my mind to it; +and now, although the obvious and sensible thing was to go about +my business, I wandered on aimlessly, my brain employed with a +hundred idle conjectures and the query, "Where have I seen The +Stetson Man?" seeming to beat, like a tattoo, in my brain. There +was something magnetic about the accursed slipper, for without +knowing by what route I had arrived there, I found myself in Great +Orchard Street and close under the walls of the British Antiquarian +Museum. Then I was effectually aroused from my reverie. + +Two men, both tall, stood in the shadow of a doorway on the Opposite +side of the street, staring intently up at the Museum windows. It +was a tropically hot afternoon and they stood in deepest shadow. No +one else was in Orchard Street--that odd little backwater--at the +time, and they stood gazing upward intently and gave me not even a +passing glance. + +But I knew one for the Oriental visitor of the morning, and despite +broad noonday and the hum of busy London about me, my blood seemed +to turn to water. I stood rooted to the spot, held there by a most +surprising horror. + +For the gray-bearded figure of the other watcher was one I could +never forget; its benignity was associated with the most horrible +hours of my life, with deeds so dreadful that recollection to this +day sometimes breaks my sleep, arousing me in the still watches, +bathed in a cold sweat of fear. + +It was Hassan of Aleppo! + +If he saw me, if either of them saw me, I cannot say. What I should +have done, what I might have done it is useless to speak of here--for +I did nothing. Inert, thralled by the presence of that eerie, +dreadful being, I watched them leave the shadow of the doorway and +pace slowly on with their dignified Eastern gait. + +Then, knowing how I had failed in my plain duty to my fellow-men--how, +finding a serpent in my path, I had hesitated to crush it, +had weakly succumbed to its uncanny fascination--I made my way +round to the door of the Museum. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE WHITE BEAM + + +That night the deviltry began. Mr. Mostyn found himself wholly +unable to sleep. Many relics have curious histories, and the +experienced archaeologist becomes callous to that uncanniness which +seems to attach to some gruesome curios. But the slipper of the +Prophet was different. No mere ghostly menace threatened its +holders; an avenging scimitar followed those who came in contact +with it; gruesome tragedies, mutilations, murders, had marked its +progress throughout. + +The night was still--as still as a London night can be; for there +is always a vague murmuring in the metropolis as though the +sleeping city breathed gently and sometimes stirred in its sleep. + +Then, distinct amid these usual nocturnal noises, rose another, +unaccountable sound, a muffled crash followed by a musical tinkling. + +Mostyn sprang up in bed, drew on a dressing-gown, and took from the +small safe at his bed-head the Museum keys and a loaded revolver. +A somewhat dishevelled figure, pale and wild-eyed, he made his way +through the private door and into the ghostly precincts of the +Museum. He did not hesitate, but ascended the stairs and unlocked +the door of the Assyrian gallery. + +Along its ghostly aisles he passed, and before the door which gave +admittance to the Burton Room paused, fumbling a moment for the +key. + +Inside the room something was moving! + +Mostyn was keenly alarmed; he knew that he must enter at once or +never. He inserted the key in the lock, swung open the heavy door, +stepped through and closed it behind him. He was a man of +tremendous moral courage, for now,--alone in the apartment which +harboured the uncanny relic, alone in the discharge of his duty, +he stood with his back to the door trembling slightly, but with +the idea of retreat finding no place in his mind. + +One side of the room lay in blackest darkness; through the +furthermost window of the other a faint yellowed luminance (the +moonlight through the blind) spread upon the polished parquet +flooring. But that which held the curator spell-bound--that which +momentarily quickened into life the latent superstition, common to +all mankind, was a beam of cold light which poured its effulgence +fully upon the case containing the Prophet's slipper! Where the +other exhibits lay either in utter darkness or semi-darkness this +one it seemed was supernaturally picked out by this lunar +searchlight! + +It was ghostly-unnerving; but, the first dread of it passed, Mostyn +recalled how during the day a hole inexplicably had been cut in +that blind; he recalled that it had not been mended, but that the +damaged blind had merely been rolled up again. + +And as a dawning perception of the truth came to him, as falteringly +he advanced a step toward the mystic beam, he saw that one side of +the case had been shattered--he saw the broken glass upon the floor; +and in the dense shadow behind and under the beam of light, vaguely +he saw a dull red object. + +It moved--it seemed to live! It moved away from the case and in +the direction of the eastern windows. + +"My God!" whispered Mostyn; "it's the Prophet's slipper!" + +And wildly, blindly, he fired down the room. Later he knew that he +had fired in panic, for nothing human was or could be in the place; +yet his shot was not without effect. In the instant of its flash, +something struck sharply against the dimly seen blind of one of the +east windows; he heard the crash of broken glass. + +He leapt to the switch and flooded the room with light. A fear of +what it might hold possessed him, and he turned instantly. + +Hard by the fragments of broken glass upon the floor and midway +between the case and the first easterly window lay the slipper. A +bell was ringing somewhere. His shot probably had aroused the +attention of the policeman. Someone was clamouring upon the door +of the Museum, too. Mostyn raced forward and raised the blind--that +toward which the slipper had seemed to move. + +The lower pane of the window was smashed. Blood was trickling down +upon the floor from the jagged edges of the glass. + +"Hullo there! Open the door! Open the door!" + +Bells were going all over the place now; sounds of running footsteps +came from below; but Mostyn stood staring at the broken window and +at the solid iron bars which protected it without, which were intact, +substantial--which showed him that nothing human could possibly +have entered. + +Yet the case was shattered, the holy slipper lay close beside him +upon the floor, and from the broken window-pane blood was +falling--drip-drip-drip... + +That was the story as I heard it half an hour later. For Inspector +Bristol, apprised of the happening, was promptly on the scene; and +knowing how keen was my interest in the matter, he rang me up +immediately. I arrived soon after Bristol and found a perplexed +group surrounding the uncanny slipper of the Prophet. No one had +dared to touch it; the dread vengeance of Hassan of Aleppo would +visit any unbeliever who ventured to lay hand upon the holy, bloody +thing. Well we knew it, and as though it had been a venomous +scorpion we, a company of up-to-date, prosaic men of affairs, stood +around that dilapidated markoob, and kept a respectful distance. + +Mostyn, an odd figure in pyjamas and dressing-gown, turned his pale, +intellectual face to me as I entered. + +"It will have to be put back ... secretly," he said. + +His voice was very unsteady. Bristol nodded grimly and glanced at +the two constables, who, with a plain-clothes man unknown to me, +made up that midnight company. + +"I'll do it, sir," said one of the constables suddenly. + +"One moment"--Mostyn raised his hand! + +In the ensuing silence I could hear the heavy breathing of those +around me. We were all looking at the slipper, I think. + +"Do you understand, fully," the curator continued, "the risk you +run?" + +"I think so, sir," answered the constable; "but I'm prepared to +chance it." + +"The hands," resumed Mostyn slowly, "of those who hitherto have +ventured to touch it have been"--he hesitated--"cut off." + +"Your career in the Force would be finished if it happened to you, +my lad," said Bristol shortly. + +"I suppose they'd look after me," said the man, with grim humour. + +"They would if you met with--an accident, in the discharge of your +duty," replied the inspector; "but I haven't ordered you to do it, +and I'm not going to." + +"All right, sir," said the man, with a sort of studied truculence, +"I'll take my chance." + +I tried to stop him; Mostyn, too, stepped forward, and Bristol +swore frankly. But it was all of no avail. + +A sort of chill seemed to claim my very soul when I saw the +constable stoop, unconcernedly pick up the slipper, and replace it +in the broken case. + +It was out of a silence cathedral-like, awesome, that he spoke. + +"All you want is a new pane of glass, sir," he said--"and the +thing's done." + +I anticipate in mentioning it here; but since Constable Hughes +has no further place in these records I may perhaps be excused for +dismissing him at this point. + +He was picked up outside the section house on the following evening +with his right hand severed just above the wrist. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A SCREAM IN THE NIGHT + + +The day that followed was one of the hottest which we experienced +during the heat wave. It was a day crowded with happenings. The +Burton Room was closed to the public, whilst a glazier worked upon +the broken east window and a new blind was fitted to the west. +Behind the workmen, guarded by a watchful commissionaire, yawned +the shattered case containing the slipper. + +I wondered if the visitors to the other rooms of the Museum realized, +as I realized, that despite the blazing sunlight of tropical +London, the shadow of Hassan of Aleppo lay starkly on that haunted +building? + +At about eleven o'clock, as I hurried along the Strand, I almost +collided with the girl of the violet eyes! She turned and ran like +the wind down Arundel Street, whilst I stood at the corner staring +after her in blank amazement, as did other passers-by; for a man +cannot with dignity race headlong after a pretty woman down a +public thoroughfare! + +My mystification grew hourly deeper; and Bristol wallowed in +perplexities. + +"It's the most horrible and confusing case," he said to me when +I joined him at the Museum, "that the Yard has ever had to handle. +It bristles with outrages and murders. God knows where it will +all end. I've had London scoured for a clue to the whereabouts +of Hassan and Company and drawn absolutely blank! Then there's +Earl Dexter. Where does he come in? For once in a way he's +living in hiding. I can't find his headquarters. I've been +thinking--" + +He drew me aside into the small gallery which runs parallel with +the Assyrian Room. + +"Dexter has booked two passages in the Oceanic. Who is his +companion?" + +I wondered, I had wondered more than once, if his companion were +my beautiful violet-eyed acquaintance. A scruple--perhaps an +absurd scruple--hitherto had kept me silent respecting her, but +now I determined to take Bristol fully into my confidence. A +conviction was growing upon me that she and Earl Dexter together +represented that third party whose existence we had long suspected. +Whether they operated separately or on behalf of the Moslems (of +which arrangement I could not conceive) remained to be seen. I +was about to voice my doubts and suspicions when Bristol went on +hurriedly-- + +"I have thoroughly examined the Burton Room, and considering that +the windows are thirty feet from the ground, that there is no sign +of a ladder having stood upon the lawn, and that the iron bars are +quite intact, it doesn't look humanly possible for any one to have +been in the room last night prior to Mostyn's arrival!" + +"One of the dwarfs--" + +"Not even one of the dwarfs," said Bristol, "could have passed +between those iron bars!" + +"But there was blood on the window!" + +"I know there was, and human blood. It's been examined!" + +He stared at me fixedly. The thing was unspeakably uncanny. + +"To-night," he went on, "I am remaining in here"--nodding toward +the Assyrian Room--"and I have so arranged it that no mortal being +can possibly know I am here. Mostyn is staying, and you can stay, +too, if you care to. Owing to Professor Deeping's will you are +badly involved in the beastly business, and I have no doubt you are +keen to see it through." + +"I am," I admitted, "and the end I look for and hope for is the +recovery of the slipper by its murderous owners!" + +"I am with you," said Bristol. "It's just a point of honour; but +I should be glad to make them a present of it. We're ostentatiously +placing a constable on duty in the hallway to-night--largely as a +blind. It will appear that we're taking no other additional +precautions." + +He hurried off to make arrangements for my joining him in his watch, +and thus again I lost my opportunity of confiding in him regarding +the mysterious girl. + +I half anticipated, though I cannot imagine why, that Earl Dexter +would put in an appearance, during the day. He did not do so, +however, for Bristol had put a constable on the door who was well +acquainted with the appearance of The Stetson Man. The inspector, +in the course of his investigations, had come upon what might have +been a clue, but what was at best a confusing one. Close by the +wall of the curator's house and lying on the gravel path he had +found a part of a gold cuff link. It was of American manufacture. + +Upon such slender evidence we could not justly assume that it +pointed to the presence of Dexter on the night of the attempted +robbery, but it served to complicate a matter already sufficiently +involved. + +In pursuance of Bristol's plan, I concealed myself that evening +just before the closing of the Museum doors, in a recess behind a +heavy piece of Babylonian sculpture. Bristol was similarly +concealed in another part of the room, and Mostyn joined us later. + +The Museum was closed; and so far as evidence went the authorities +had relied again upon the bolts and bars hitherto considered +impregnable, and upon the constable in the hall. The broken window +was mended, the cut blind replaced, and within, in its shattered +case, reposed the slipper of the Prophet. + +All the blinds being lowered, the Assyrian Room was a place of +gloom, yellowed on the western side by the moonlight through the +blind. The door communicating with the Burton Room was closed +but not fastened. + +"They operated last night," Bristol whispered to me, "at the exact +time when the moonlight shone through the hole in the westerly +blind on to the case. If they come to-night, and I am quite +expecting them, they will have to dispense with that assistance; +but they know by experience where to reach the case." + +"Despite our precautions," I said, "they will almost certainly +know that a watch is being kept." + +"They may or they may not," replied Bristol. "Either way I'm +disposed to think there will be another attempt. Their mysterious +method is so rapid that they can afford to take chances." + +This was not my first night vigil since I had become in a sense the +custodian of the relic, but it was quite the most dreary. Amid the +tomb-like objects about us we seemed two puny mortals toying with +stupendous things. We could not smoke and must converse only in +whispers; and so the night wore on until I began to think that our +watch would be dully uneventful. + +"Our big chance," whispered Mostyn, "is in the fact that any day +may change the conditions. They can't afford to wait." + +He ceased abruptly, grasping my arm. From somewhere, somewhere +outside the building, we all three had heard a soft whistle. A +moment of tense listening followed. + +"If only we could have had the place surrounded," whispered Bristol--"but +it was impossible, of course." + +A faint grating noise echoed through the lofty Burton Room. Bristol +slipped past me in the semi-gloom, and gently opened the +communicating door a few inches. + +A-tiptoe, I joined him, and craning across his shoulder saw a strange +and wonderful thing. + +The newly glazed east window again was shattered with a booming +crash! The yellow blind was thrust aside. A long something reached +out toward the broken case. There was a sort of fumbling sound, and +paralyzed with the wonder of it--for the window, remember, was +thirty feet from the ground--I stood frozen to my post. + +Not so Bristol. As the weird tentacle (or more exactly it reminded +me of a gigantic crab's claw) touched the case, the Inspector leapt +forward. A white beam from his electric torch cut through to the +broken cabinet. + +The thing was withdrawn ... and with it went the slipper of the +Prophet. + +"Raise the blinds!" cried Bristol. "Mr. Cavanagh! Mr. Mostyn! +We must not let them give us the slip!" + +I got up the blind of the nearer window as Bristol raised the other. +Not a living thing was in sight from either! + +Mostyn was beside me, his hand resting on my shoulder. I noted how +he trembled. Bristol turned and looked back at us. The light from +his pocket torch flashed upon the curator's face; and I have never +seen such an expression of horrified amazement as that which it +wore. Faintly, I could hear the constable racing up the steps from +the hall. + +Ideas of the supernatural came to us all, I know; when, with a +scuffling sound not unlike that of a rat in a ceiling, something moved +above us! + +"Damn my thick head!" roared Bristol, furiously. "He's on the roof! +It's flat as a floor and there's enough ivy alongside the water-spout +on your house adjoining, Mr. Mostyn, to afford foothold to an +invading army!" + +He plunged off toward the open door, and I heard him racing down +the Assyrian Room. + +"He had a short rope ladder fixed from the gutter!" he cried back +at us. "Graham! Graham!" (the constable on duty in the hall)--"Get +the front door open! Get..." His voice died away as he +leapt down the stairs. + +From the direction of Orpington Square came a horrid, choking +scream. It rose hideously; it fell, rose again--and died. + +The thief escaped. We saw the traces upon the ivy where he had +hastened down. Bristol ascended by the same route, and found where +the ladder-hooks had twice been attached to the gutterway. Constable +Graham, who was first actually to leave the building, declared that +he heard the whirr of a re-started motor lower down Great Orchard +Street. + +Bristol's theory, later to be dreadfully substantiated, was that +the thief had broken the glass and reached into the case with an +arrangement similar to that employed for pruning trees, having a +clutch at the end, worked with a cord. + +"Hassan has been too clever for us!" said the inspector. "But--what +in God's name did that awful screaming mean?" + +I had a theory, but I did not advance it then. + +It was not until nearly dawn that my theory, and Bristol's, regarding +the clutch arrangement, both were confirmed. For close under the +railings which abut on Orpington Square, in a pool of blood we found +just such an instrument as Bristol had described. + +And still clutching it was a pallid and ghastly shrunken hand that +had been severed from above the wrist! + +"Merciful God!" whispered the inspector--"look at the opal ring on +the finger! Look at the bandage where he cut himself on the +broken window-glass that first night, when Mr. Mostyn disturbed him. +It wasn't the Hashishin who stole the thing.... It's Earl +Dexter's hand!" + +No one spoke for a moment. Then-- + +"Which of them has--" began Mostyn huskily. + +"The slipper of the Prophet?" interrupted Bristol. "I wonder if we +shall ever know?" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A SHRIVELLED HAND + + +Around a large square table in a room at New Scotland Yard stood a +group of men, all of whom looked more or less continuously at +something that lay upon the polished deal. One of the party, none +other than the Commissioner himself, had just finished speaking, +and in silence now we stood about the gruesome object which had +furnished him with the text of his very terse address. + +I knew myself privileged in being admitted to such a conference at +the C.I.D. headquarters and owed my admission partly to Inspector +Bristol, and partly to the fact that under the will of the late +Professor Deeping I was concerned in the uncanny business we were +met to discuss. + +Novelty has a charm for every one; and to find oneself immersed in +a maelstrom of Eastern devilry, with a group of scientific murderers +in pursuit of a holy Moslem relic, and unexpectedly to be made a +trustee of that dangerous curiosity, makes a certain appeal to the +adventurous. But to read of such things and to participate in them +are widely different matters. The slipper of the Prophet and the +dreadful crimes connected with it, the mutilations, murders, the +uncanny mysteries which made up its history, were filling my world +with horror. + +Now, in silence we stood around that table at New Scotland Yard +and watched, as though we expected it to move, the ghastly "clue" +which lay there. It was a shrivelled human hand, and about the +thumb and forefinger there still dryly hung a fragment of lint +which had bandaged a jagged wound. On one of the shrunken fingers +was a ring set with a large opal. + +Inspector Bristol broke the oppressive silence. + +"You see, sir," he said, addressing the Commissioner, "this marks +a new complication in the case. Up to this week although, +unfortunately, we had made next to no progress, the thing was +straightforward enough. A band of Eastern murderers, working along +lines quite novel to Europe, were concealed somewhere in London. +We knew that much. They murdered Professor Deeping, but failed to +recover the slipper. They mutilated everyone who touched it +mysteriously. The best men in the department, working night and +day, failed to effect a single arrest. In spite of the mysterious +activity of Hassan of Aleppo the slipper was safely lodged in the +British Antiquarian Museum." + +The Commissioner nodded thoughtfully. + +"There is no doubt," continued Bristol, "that the Hashishin were +watching the Museum. Mr. Cavanagh, here"--he nodded in my +direction--"saw Hassan himself lurking in the neighbourhood. We +took every precaution, observed the greatest secrecy; but in +spite of it all a constable who touched the accursed thing lost +his right hand. Then the slipper was taken." + +He stopped, and all eyes again were turned to the table. + +"The Yard," resumed Bristol slowly, "had information that Earl +Dexter, the cleverest crook in America, was in England. He was +seen in the Museum, and the night following the slipper was stolen. +Then outside the place I found--that!" + +He pointed to the severed hand. No one spoke for a moment. Then-- + +"The new problem," said the Commissioner, "is this: who took the +slipper, Dexter or Hassan of Aleppo?" + +"That's it, sir," agreed Bristol. "Dexter had two passages booked +in the Oceanic: but he didn't sail with her, and--that's his hand!" + +"You say he has not been traced?" asked the Commissioner. + +"No doctor known to the Medical Association," replied Bristol, "is +attending him! He's not in any of the hospitals. He has completely +vanished. The conclusion is obvious!" + +"The evident deduction," I said, "is that Dexter stole the slipper +from the Museum--God knows with what purpose--and that Hassan of +Aleppo recovered it from him." + +"You think we shall next hear of Earl Dexter from the river police?" +suggested Bristol. + +"Personally," replied the Commissioner, "I agree with Mr. Cavanagh. +I think Dexter is dead, and it is very probable that Hassan and +Company are already homeward bound with the slipper of the Prophet." + +With all my heart I hoped that he might be right, but an intuition +was with me crying that he was wrong, that many bloody deeds would +be, ere the sacred slipper should return to the East. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE DWARF + + +The manner in which we next heard of the whereabouts of the Prophet's +slipper was utterly unforeseen, wildly dramatic. That the Hashishin +were aware that I, though its legal trustee, no longer had charge +of the relic nor knowledge of its resting-place, was sufficiently +evident from the immunity which I enjoyed at this time from that +ceaseless haunting by members of the uncanny organization ruled by +Hassan. I had begun to feel more secure in my chambers, and no +longer worked with a loaded revolver upon the table beside me. But +the slightest unusual noise in the night still sufficed to arouse +me and set me listening intently, to chill me with dread of what +it might portend. In short, my nerves were by no means recovered +from the ceaseless strain of the events connected with and arising +out of the death of my poor friend, Professor Deeping. + +One evening as I sat at work in my chambers, with the throb of busy +Fleet Street and its thousand familiar sounds floating in to me +through the open windows, my phone bell rang. + +Even as I turned to take up the receiver a foreboding possessed me +that my trusteeship was no longer to be a sinecure. It was +Bristol who had rung me up, and upon very strange business. + +"A development at last!" he said; "but at present I don't know what +to make of it. Can you come down now?" + +"Where are you speaking from?" + +"From the Waterloo Road--a delightful neighbourhood. I shall be +glad if you can meet me at the entrance to Wyatt's Buildings in +half an hour." + +"What is it? Have you found Dexter?" + +"No, unfortunately. But it's murder!" + +I knew as I hung up the receiver that my brief period of peace was +ended; that the lists of assassination were reopened. I hurried +out through the court into Fleet Street, thinking of the key of the +now empty case at the Museum which reposed at my bankers, thinking +of the devils who pursued the slipper, thinking of the hundred and +one things, strange and terrible, which went to make up the history +of that gruesome relic. + +Wyatt's Buildings, Waterloo Road, are a gloomy and forbidding block +of dwellings which seem to frown sullenly upon the high road, from +which they are divided by a dark and dirty courtyard. Passing an +iron gateway, you enter, by way of an arch, into this sinister place +of uncleanness. Male residents in their shirt sleeves lounge +against the several entrances. Bedraggled women nurse dirty infants +and sit in groups upon the stone steps, rendering them almost +impassable. But to-night a thing had happened in Wyatt's Buildings +which had awakened in the inhabitants, hardened to sordid crime, a +sort of torpid interest. + +Faces peered from most of the windows which commanded a view of the +courtyard, looking like pallid blotches against the darkness; but +a number of police confined the loungers within their several +doorways, so that the yard itself was comparatively clear. + +I had had some difficulty in forcing a way through the crowd which +thronged the entrance, but finally I found myself standing beside +Inspector Bristol and looking down upon that which had brought us +both to Wyatt's Buildings. + +There was no moon that night, and only the light of the lamp in the +archway, with some faint glimmers from the stairways surrounding the +court, reached the dirty paving. Bristol directed the light of a +pocket-lamp upon the hunched-up figure which lay in the dust, and I +saw it to be that of a dwarfish creature, yellow skinned and wearing +only a dark loin cloth. He had a malformed and disproportionate +head, a head that had been too large even for a big man. I knew +after first glance that this was one of the horrible dwarfs employed +by the Hashishin in their murderous business. It might even be the +one who had killed Deeping; but this was impossible to determine +by reason of the fact that the hideous, swollen head, together with +the features, was completely crushed. I shall not describe the +creature's appearance in further detail. + +Having given me an opportunity to examine the dead dwarf, Bristol +returned the electric lamp to his pocket and stood looking at me in +the semi-gloom. A constable stood on duty quite near to us, and +others guarded the archway and the doors to the dwellings. The +murmur of subdued voices echoed hollowly in the wells of the +staircases, and a constant excited murmur proceeded from the crowd +at the entrance. No pressmen had yet been admitted, though numbers +of them were at the gates. + +"It happened less than an hour ago," said Bristol. "The place was +much as you see it now, and from what I can gather there came the +sound of a shot and several people saw the dwarf fall through the +air and drop where he lies!" + +The light was insufficient to show the expression upon the speaker's +face, but his voice told of a great wonder. + +"It is a bit like an Indian conjuring trick," I said, looking up to +the sky above us; "who fired the shot?" + +"So far," replied Bristol, "I have failed to find out; but there's +a bullet in the thing's head. He was dead before he reached the +pavement." + +"Did no one see the flash of the pistol?" + +"No one that I have got hold of yet. Of course this kind of +evidence is very unreliable; these people regularly go out of their +way to mislead the police." + +"You think the body may have been carried here from somewhere else?" + +"Oh, no; this is where it fell, right enough. You can see where +his head struck the stones." + +"He has not been moved at all?" + +"No; I shall not move him until I've worked out where in heaven's +name he can have fallen from! You and I have seen some mysterious +things happen, Mr. Cavanagh, since the slipper of the Prophet came +to England and brought these people"--he nodded toward the thing +at our feet--"in its train; but this is the most inexplicable +incident to date. I don't know what to make of it at all. Quite +apart from the question of where the dwarf fell from, who shot at +him and why?" + +"Have you no theory?" I asked. "The incident to my mind points +directly to one thing. We know that this uncanny creature belonged +to the organization of Hassan of Aleppo. We know that Hassan +implacably pursues one object--the slipper. In pursuit of the +slipper, then, the dwarf came here. Bristol!"--I laid my hand upon +his arm, glancing about me with a very real apprehension--"the +slipper must be somewhere near!" + +Bristol turned to the constable standing hard by. + +"Remain here," he ordered. Then to me: "I should like you to come +up on to the roof. From there we can survey the ground and perhaps +arrive at some explanation of how the dwarf came to fall upon that +spot." + +Passing the constable on duty at one of the doorways and making our +way through the group of loiterers there, we ascended amid +conflicting odours to the topmost floor. A ladder was fixed against +the wall communicating with a trap in the ceiling. Several +individuals in their shirt sleeves and all smoking clay pipes had +followed us up. Bristol turned upon them. + +"Get downstairs," he said--"all the lot of you, and stop there!" + +With muttered imprecations our audience dispersed, slowly returning +by the way they had come. Bristol mounted the ladder and opened the +trap. Through the square opening showed a velvet patch spangled +with starry points. As he passed up on to the roof and I followed +him, the comparative cleanness of the air was most refreshing after +the varied fumes of the staircase. + +Side by side we leaned upon the parapet looking down into the dirty +courtyard which was the theatre of this weird mystery; looking down +upon the stage, sordidly Western, where a mystic Eastern tragedy +had been enacted. + +I could see the constable standing beside the crushed thing upon +the stones. + +"Now," said Bristol, with a sort of awe in his voice, "where did he +fall from?" + +And at his words, looking down at the spot where the dwarf lay, and +noting that he could not possibly have fallen there from any of the +buildings surrounding the courtyard, an eerie sensation crept over +me; for I was convinced that the happening was susceptible of no +natural explanation. + +I had heard--who has not heard?--of the Indian rope trick, where +a fakir throws a rope into the air which remains magically suspended +whilst a boy climbs upward and upward until he disappears into space. +I had never credited accounts of the performance; but now I began +seriously to wonder if the arts of Hassan of Aleppo were not as +great or greater than the arts of fakir. But the crowning mystery +to my mind was that of the Hashishin's death. It would seem that +as he had hung suspended in space he had been shot! + +"You say that someone heard the sound of the shot?" I asked suddenly. + +"Several people," replied Bristol; "but no one knows, or no one +will say, from what direction it came. I shall go on with the +inquiry, of course, and cross-examine every soul in Wyatt's +Buildings. Meanwhile, I'm open to confess that I am beaten." + +In the velvet sky countless points blazed tropically. The hum of +the traffic in Waterloo Road reached us only in a muffled way. +Sordidness lay beneath us, but up there under the heavens we seemed +removed from it as any Babylonian astronomer communing with the +stars. + +When, some ten minutes later, I passed out into the noise of +Waterloo Road, I left behind me an unsolved mystery and took with +me a great dread; for I knew that the quest of the sacred slipper +was not ended, I knew that another tragedy was added to its history--and +I feared to surmise what the future might hold for all of us. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE WOMAN WITH THE BASKET + + +Deep in thought respecting the inexplicable nature of this latest +mystery, I turned in the direction of the bridge, and leaving behind +me an ever-swelling throng at the gate of Wyatt's Buildings, +proceeded westward. + +The death of the dwarf had lifted the case into the realms of the +marvellous, and I noted nothing of the bustle about me, for mentally +I was still surveying that hunched-up body which had fallen out of +empty space. + +Then in upon my preoccupation burst a woman's scream! + +I aroused myself from reverie, looking about to right and left. +Evidently I had been walking slowly, for I was less than a hundred +yards from Wyatt's Buildings, and hard by the entrance to an +uninviting alley from which I thought the scream had proceeded. + +And as I hesitated, for I had no desire to become involved in a +drunken brawl, again came the shrill scream: "Help! help!" + +I cannot say if I was the only passer-by who heard the cry; +certainly I was the only one who responded to it. I ran down the +narrow street, which was practically deserted, and heard windows +thrown up as I passed for the cries for help continued. + +Just beyond a patch of light cast by a street lamp a scene was being +enacted strange enough at any time and in any place, but doubly +singular at that hour of the night, or early morning, in a lane off +the Waterloo Road. + +An old woman, from whose hand a basket of provisions had fallen, +was struggling in the grasp of a tall Oriental! He was evidently +trying to stifle her screams and at the same time to pinion her +arms behind her! + +I perceived that there was more in this scene than met the eye. +Oriental footpads are rarities in the purlieus of Waterloo Road. +So much was evident; and since I carried a short, sharp argument in +my pocket, I hastened to advance it. + +At the sight of the gleaming revolver barrel the man, who was +dressed in dark clothes and wore a turban, turned and ran swiftly +off. I had scarce a glimpse of his pallid brown face ere he was +gone, nor did the thought of pursuit enter my mind. I turned to +the old woman, who was dressed in shabby black and who was +rearranging her thick veil in an oddly composed manner, considering +the nature of the adventure that had befallen her. + +She picked up her basket, and turned away. Needless to say I was +rather shocked at her callous ingratitude, for she offered no word of +thanks, did not even glance in my direction, but made off hurriedly +toward Waterloo Road. + +I had been on the point of inquiring if she had sustained any injury, +but I checked the words and stood looking after her in blank +wonderment. Then my ideas were diverted into a new channel. I +perceived, as she passed under an adjacent lamp, that her basket +contained provisions such as a woman of her appearance would scarcely +be expected to purchase. I noted a bottle of wine, a chicken, and a +large melon. + +The nationality of the assailant from the first had marked the affair +for no ordinary one, and now a hazy notion of what lay behind all +this began to come to me. + +Keeping well in the shadows on the opposite side of the way, I +followed the woman with the basket. The lane was quite deserted; +for, the disturbance over, those few residents who had raised their +windows had promptly lowered them again. She came out into +Waterloo Road, crossed over, and stood waiting by a stopping-place +for electric cars. I saw her arranging a cloth over her basket in +such a way as effectually to conceal the contents. A strong mental +excitement possessed me. The detective fever claims us all at one +time or another, I think, and I had good reason for pursuing any +inquiry that promised to lead to the elucidation of the slipper +mystery. A theory, covering all the facts of the assault incident, +now presented itself, and I stood back in the shadow, watchful; in +a degree, exultant. + +A Greenwich-bound car was hailed by the woman with the basket. I +could not be mistaken, I felt sure, in my belief that she cast +furtive glances about her as she mounted the steps. But, having +seen her actually aboard, my attention became elsewhere engaged. + +All now depended upon securing a cab before the tram car had +passed from view! + +I counted it an act of Providence that a disengaged taxi appeared +at that moment, evidently bound for Waterloo Station. I ran out +into the road with cane upraised. + +As the man drew up-- + +"Quick!" I cried. "You see that Greenwich car--nearly at the +Ophthalmic Hospital? Follow it. Don't get too near. I will give +you further instructions through the tube." I leapt in. We were +off! + +The rocking car ahead was rounding the bend now toward St. George's +Circus. As it passed the clock and entered South London Road it +stopped. I raised the tube. + +"Pass it slowly!" + +We skirted the clock tower, and bore around to the right. Then I +drew well back in the corner of the cab. + +The woman with the basket was descending! "Pull up a few yards +beyond!" I directed. As the car re-started, and passed us, the +taxi became stationary. I peered out of the little window at the +back. + +The woman was returning in the direction of Waterloo Road! + +"Drive slowly back along Waterloo Road," was my next order. +"Pretend you are looking for a fare; I will keep out of sight." + +The man nodded. It was unlikely that any one would notice the +fact that the cab was engaged. + +I was borne back again upon my course. The woman kept to the right, +and, once we were entered into the straight road which leads to the +bridge, I again raised the speaking-tube. + +"Pull up," I said. "On the right-hand side is an old woman carrying +a basket, fifty yards ahead. Do you see her? Keep well behind, but +don't lose sight of her." + +The man drew up again and sat watching the figure with the basket +until it was almost lost from sight. Then slowly we resumed our +way. I would have continued the pursuit afoot now, but I feared +that my quarry might again enter a vehicle. She did not do so, +however, but coming abreast of the turning in which the mysterious +assault had taken place, she crossed the road and disappeared from +view. + +I leapt out of the cab, thrust half a crown into the man's hand, +and ran on to the corner. The night was now far advanced, and I +knew that the chances of detection were thereby increased. But +the woman seemed to have abandoned her fears, and I saw her just +ahead of me walking resolutely past the lamp beyond which a short +time earlier she had met with a dangerous adventure. + +Since the opposite side of the street was comparatively in darkness, +I slipped across, and in a state of high nervous tension pursued +this strange work of espionage. I was convinced that I had +forestalled Bristol and that I was hot upon the track of those who +could explain the mystery of the dead dwarf. + +The woman entered the gate of the block of dwellings even more +forbidding in appearance than those which that night had staged +a dreadful drama. + +As the figure with the basket was lost from view I crept on, and +in turn entered the evil-smelling hallway. I stepped cautiously, +and standing beneath a gaslight protected by a wire frame, I +congratulated myself upon having reached that point of vantage as +silently as any Sioux stalker. + +Footsteps were receding up the stone stairs. Craning my neck, I +peered up the well of the staircase. I could not see the woman, +but from the sound of her tread it was possible to count the +landings which she passed. When she had reached the fourth, and I +heard her step upon yet another flight, I knew that she must be +bound for the topmost floor; and observing every precaution, almost +holding my breath in a nervous endeavour to make not the slightest +sound, rapidly I mounted the stairs. + +I was come to the third landing in this secret fashion when quite +distinctly I heard the grating of a key in a lock! + +Since four doors opened upon each of the landings, at all costs, +I thought, I must learn by which door she entered. + +Throwing caution to the winds I raced up the remaining flights ... +and there at the top the woman confronted me, with blazing eyes!--with +eyes that thrilled every nerve; for they were violet eyes, the +only truly violet eyes I have ever seen! They were the eyes of the +woman who like a charming, mocking will-o'-the-wisp had danced +through this tragic scene from the time that poor Professor Deeping +had brought the Prophet's slipper to London up to this present hour! + +There at the head of those stone steps in that common dwelling-house +I knew her--and in the violet eyes it was written that she knew, +and feared, me! + +"What do you want? Why are you following me?" + +She made no endeavour to disguise her voice. Almost, I think, she +spoke the words involuntarily. + +I stood beside her. Quickly as she had turned from the door at my +ascent, I had noted that it was that numbered forty-eight which she +had been about to open. + +"You waste words," I said grimly. "Who lives there?" + +I nodded in the direction of the doorway. The violet eyes watched +me with an expression in their depths which I find myself wholly +unable to describe. Fear predominated, but there was anger, too, +and with it a sort of entreaty which almost made me regret that I +had taken this task upon myself. From beneath the shabby black hat +escaped an errant lock of wavy hair wholly inconsistent with the +assumed appearance of the woman. The flickering gaslight on the +landing sought out in that wonderful hair shades which seemed to +glow with the soft light seen in the heart of a rose. The thick +veil was raised now and all attempts at deception abandoned. At +bay she faced me, this secret woman whom I knew to hold the key to +some of the darkest places which we sought to explore. + +"I live there," she said slowly. "What do you want with me?" + +"I want to know," I replied, "for whom are those provisions in +your basket?" + +She watched me fixedly. + +"And I want to know," I continued, "something that only you can +tell me. We have met before, madam, but you have always eluded me. +This time you shall not do so. There's much I have to ask of you, +but particularly I want to know who killed the Hashishin who lies +dead at no great distance from here!" + +"How can I tell you that? Of what are you speaking?" + +Her voice was low and musical; that of a cultured woman. She +evidently recognized the futility of further subterfuge in this +respect. + +"You know quite well of what I am speaking! You know that you +can tell me if any one can! The fact that you go disguised alone +condemns you! Why should I remind you of our previous meetings--of +the links which bind you to the history of the Prophet's slipper?" +She shuddered and closed her eyes. "Your present attitude is a +sufficient admission!" + +She stood silent before me, with something pitiful in her pose--a +wonderfully pretty woman, whose disarranged hair and dilapidated hat +could not mar her beauty; whose clumsy, ill-fitting garments could +not conceal her lithe grace. + +Our altercation had not thus far served to arouse any of the +inhabitants and on that stuffy landing, beneath the flickering +gaslight, we stood alone, a group of two which epitomized strange +things. + +Then, with that quietly dramatic note which marks real life entrances +and differentiates them from the loudly acclaimed episodes of the +stage, a third actor took up his cue. + +"Both hands, Mr. Cavanagh!" directed an American voice. + +Nerves atwitch, I started around in its direction. + +From behind the slightly opened door of No. 48 protruded a steel +barrel, pointed accurately at my head! + +I hesitated, glancing from the woman toward the open door. + +"Do it quick!" continued the voice incisively. "You are up against +a desperate man, Mr. Cavanagh. Raise your hands. Carneta, relieve +Mr. Cavanagh of his gun!" + +Instantly the girl, with deft fingers, had obtained possession of +my revolver. + +"Step inside," said the crisp, strident voice. Knowing myself +helpless and quite convinced that I was indeed in the clutches of +desperate people, I entered the doorway, the door being held open +from within. She whom I had heard called Carneta followed. The +door was reclosed; and I found myself in a perfectly bare and dim +passageway. From behind me came the order-- + +"Go right ahead!" + +Into a practically unfurnished room, lighted by one gas jet, I +walked. Some coarse matting hung before the two windows and a +fairly large grip stood on the floor against one wall. A gas-ring +was in the hearth, together with a few cheap cooking utensils. + + +I turned and faced the door. First entered Carneta, carrying the +basket; then came a man with a revolver in his left hand and his +right arm strapped across his chest and swathed in bandages. One +glance revealed the fact that his right hand had been severed--revealed +the fact, though I knew it already, that my captor was Earl Dexter. + +He looked even leaner than when I had last seen him. I had no doubt +that his ghastly wound had occasioned a tremendous loss of blood. +His gaunt face was positively emaciated, but the steely gray eyes +had lost nothing of their brightness. There was a good deal about +Mr. Earl Dexter, the cracksman, that any man must have admired. + +"Shut the door, Carneta," he said quietly. His companion closed +the door and Dexter sat down on the grip, regarding me with his +oddly humorous smile. + +"You're a visitor I did not expect, Mr. Cavanagh," he said. "I +expected someone worse. You've interfered a bit with my plans but +I don't know that I can't rearrange things satisfactorily. I don't +think I'll stop for supper, though--" He glanced at the girl, who +stood silent by the door. + +"Just pack up the provisions," he directed, nodding toward the +basket--"in the next room." + +She departed without a word. + +"That's a noticeable dust coat you're wearing, Mr. Cavanagh," said +the American; "it gives me a great notion. I'm afraid I'll have to +borrow it." + +He glanced, smiling, at the revolver in his left hand and back again +to me. There was nothing of the bully about him, nothing +melodramatic; but I took off the coat without demur and threw it +across to him. + +"It will hide this stump," he said grimly; "and any of the Hashishin +gentlemen who may be on the look-out--though I rather fancy the +road is clear at the moment--will mistake me for you. See the idea? +Carneta will be in a cab and I'll be in after her and away before +they've got time to so much as whistle." + +Very awkwardly he got into the coat. + +"She's a clever girl, Carneta," he said. "She's doctored me all +along since those devils cut my hand off." + +As he finished speaking Carneta returned. + +She had discarded her rags and wore a large travelling coat and a +fashionable hat. + +"Ready?" asked Dexter. "We'll make a rush for it. We meant to go +to-night anyway. It's getting too hot here!" He turned to me. + +"Sorry to say," he drawled, "I'll have to tie you up and gag you. +Apologize; but it can't be helped." + +Carneta nodded and went out of the room again, to return almost +immediately with a line that looked as though it might have been +employed for drying washing. + +"Hands behind you," rapped Dexter, toying with the revolver--"and +think yourself lucky you've got two!" + +There was no mistaking the manner of man with whom I had to deal, +and I obeyed; but my mind was busy with a hundred projects. Very +neatly the girl bound my wrists, and in response to a slight nod +from Dexter threw the end of the line up over a beam in the sloping +ceiling, for the room was right under the roof, and drew it up in +such a way that, my wrists being raised behind me, I became utterly +helpless. It was an ingenious device indicating considerable +experience. + +"Just tie his handkerchief around his mouth," directed Dexter: +"that will keep him quiet long enough for our purpose. I hope you +will be released soon, Mr. Cavanagh," he added. "Greatly regret +the necessity." + +Carneta bound the handkerchief over my mouth. + +Dexter extinguished the gas. + +"Mr. Cavanagh," he said, "I've gone through hell and I've lost the +most useful four fingers and a thumb in the United States to get +hold of the Prophet's slipper. Any one can have it that's open to +pay for it--but I've got to retire on the deal, so I'll drive a +hard bargain! Good-night!" + +There was a sound of retreating footsteps, and I heard the entrance +door close quietly. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +WHAT CAME THROUGH THE WINDOW + + +I had not been in my unnatural position for many minutes before I +began to suffer agonies, agonies not only physical but mental; for +standing there like some prisoner of the Inquisition, it came to me +how this dismantled apartment must be the focus of the dreadful +forces of Hassan of Aleppo! + +That Earl Dexter had the slipper of the Prophet I no longer doubted, +and that he had sustained, in this dwelling beneath the roof, an +uncanny siege during the days which had passed since the theft from +the Antiquarian Museum, was equally certain. Helpless, gagged, I +pictured those hideous creatures, evil products of the secret East, +who might, nay, who must surround that place! I thought of the +horrible little yellow man who lay dead in Wyatt's Buildings; and +it became evident to me that the house in which I was now imprisoned +must overlook the back of those unsavoury tenements. The windows, +sack-covered now, no doubt commanded a view of the roofs of the +buildings. One of the mysteries that had puzzled us was solved. It +was Earl Dexter who had shot the yellow dwarf as he was bound for +this very room! But how humanly the Hashishin had proposed to gain +his goal, how he had travelled through empty space--for from empty +space the shot had brought him down--I could not imagine. + +I knew something of the almost supernatural attributes of these +people. From Professor Deeping's book I knew of the incredible +feats which they could perform when under the influence of the drug +hashish. From personal experience also I knew that they had powers +wholly abnormal. + +The pain in my arms and back momentarily increased. An awesome +silence ruled. I tortured myself with pictures of murderous +yellow men possessed of the power claimed by the Mahatmas, of +levitation. Mentally I could see a distorted half-animal creature +carrying a great gleaming knife and floating supernaturally toward +me through the night! + +A soft pattering sound became perceptible on the sloping roof above! + +I think I have never known such intense and numbing fear as that +which now descended upon me. Perhaps I may be forgiven it. A more +dreadful situation it would be hard to devise. Knowing that I was +on the fifth story of a house, bound, helpless, I knew, too, that a +second mystic guardian of the slipper was come to accomplish the +task in which the first had failed! + +I began to pray fervently. + +Neither of the windows were closed; and now through the intense +darkness I heard one of them being raised up--up--up... + +The sacking was pulled aside inch by inch. + +Silhouetted against the faintly luminous background I saw a hunched, +unnatural figure. The real was more dreadful even than the +imaginary--for some stray beam of light touched into cold radiance +a huge curved knife which the visitant held between his teeth! + +My fear became a madness, and I twisted my body violently in a wild +endeavour to free myself. A dreadful pain shot through my left +shoulder, and the whole nightmare scene--the thing with the knife +at the window--the low-ceiled room-began to fade away from me. I +seemed to be falling into deep water. + +A splintering crash and the sound of shouting formed my last +recollections ere unconsciousness came. + +I found myself lying in an armchair with Bristol forcing brandy +between my lips. My left arm hung limply at my side and the pain +in my dislocated shoulder was excruciating. + +"Thank God you are all right, Mr. Cavanagh!" said the inspector. +"I got the surprise of my life when we smashed the door in and +found you tied up here!" + +"You came none too soon," I said feebly. "God knows how Providence +directed you here." + +"Providence it was," replied Bristol. "From the roof of Wyatt's +Buildings--you know the spot?--I saw the second yellow devil +coming. By God! They meant to have it to-night! They don't value +their lives a brass farthing against that damned slipper!" + +"But how--" + +"Along the telegraph-wires, Mr. Cavanagh! They cross Wyatt's +Buildings and cross this house. It was a moonless night or we +should have seen it at once! I watched him, saw him drop to this +roof--and brought the men around to the front." + +"Did he, that awful thing, escape?" + +"He dropped full forty feet into a tree--from the tree to the +ground, and went off like a cat!" + +"Earl Dexter has escaped us," I said, "and he has the slipper!" + +"God help him!" replied Bristol. "For by now he has that hell-pack +at his heels! What a case! Heavens above, it will drive me mad!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A RAPPING AT MIDNIGHT + + +Inspector Bristol finished his whisky at a gulp and stood up, a tall, +massive figure, stretching himself and yawning. + +"The detective of fiction would be hard at work on this case, now," +he said, smiling, "but I don't even pretend to be. I am at a +standstill and I don't care who knows it." + +"You have absolutely no clue to the whereabouts of Earl Dexter?" + +"Not the slightest, Mr. Cavanagh. You hear a lot about the machinery +of the law, but as a matter of fact, looking for a clever man hidden +in London is a good deal like looking for a needle in a haystack. +Then, he may have been bluffing when he told you he had the Prophet's +slipper. He's already had his hand cut off through interfering with +the beastly thing, and I really can't believe he would take further +chances by keeping it in his possession. Nevertheless, I should like +to find him." + +He leaned back against the mantelpiece, scratching his head +perplexedly. In this perplexity he had my sympathy. No such +pursuit, I venture to say, had ever before been required of Scotland +Yard as this of the slipper of the Prophet. An organization founded +in 1090, which has made a science of assassination, which through +the centuries has perfected the malign arts, which, lingering on in +a dark spot in Syria, has suddenly migrated and established itself +in London, is a proposition almost unthinkable. + +It was hard to believe that even the daring American cracksman +should have ventured to touch that blood-stained relic of the +Prophet, that he should have snatched it away from beneath the very +eyes of the fanatics who fiercely guarded it. What he hoped to +gain by his possession of the slipper was not evident, but the fact +remained that if he could be believed, he had it, and provided +Scotland Yard's information was accurate, he still lurked in hiding +somewhere in London. + +Meanwhile, no clue offered to his hiding-place, and despite the +ceaseless vigilance of the men acting under Bristol's orders, no +trace could be found of Hassan of Aleppo nor of his fiendish +associates. + +"My theory is," said Bristol, lighting a cigarette, "that even +Dexter's cleverness has failed to save him. He's probably a dead +man by now, which accounts for our failing to find him; and Hassan +of Aleppo has recovered the slipper and returned to the East, taking +his gruesome company with him--God knows how! But that accounts +for our failing to find him." + +I stood up rather wearily. Although poor Deeping had appointed me +legal guardian of the relic, and although I could render but a poor +account of my stewardship, let me confess that I was anxious to +take that comforting theory to my bosom. I would have given much +to have known beyond any possibility of doubt that the accursed +slipper and its blood-lustful guardian were far away from England. +Had I known so much, life would again have had something to offer +me besides ceaseless fear, endless watchings. I could have slept +again, perhaps; without awaking, clammy, peering into every shadow, +listening, nerves atwitch to each slightest sound disturbing the +night; without groping beneath the pillow for my revolver. + +"Then you think," I said, "that the English phase of the slipper's +history is closed? You think that Dexter, minus his right hand, +has eluded British law--that Hassan and Company have evaded +retribution?" + +"I do!" said Bristol grimly, "and although that means the biggest +failure in my professional career, I am glad--damned glad!" + +Shortly afterward he took his departure; and I leaned from the +window, watching him pass along the court below and out under the +arch into Fleet Street. He was a man whose opinions I valued, and +in all sincerity I prayed now that he might be right; that the +surcease of horror which we had recently experienced after the +ghastly tragedies which had clustered thick about the haunted +slipper, might mean what he surmised it to mean. + +The heat to-night was very oppressive. A sort of steaming mist +seemed to rise from the court, and no cooling breeze entered my +opened windows. The clamour of the traffic in Fleet Street came +to me but remotely. Big Ben began to strike midnight. So far +as I could see, residents on the other stairs were all abed and +a velvet shadow carpet lay unbroken across three parts of the +court. The sky was tropically perfect, cloudless, and jewelled +lavishly. Indeed, we were in the midst of an Indian summer; it +seemed that the uncanny visitants had brought, together with an +atmosphere of black Eastern deviltry, something, too, of the +Eastern climate. + +The last stroke of the Cathedral bell died away. Other more +distant bells still were sounding dimly, but save for the +ceaseless hum of the traffic, no unusual sound now disturbed the +archaic peace of the court. + +I returned to my table, for during the time that had passed I had +badly neglected my work and now must often labour far into the +night. I was just reseated when there came a very soft rapping +at the outer door! + +No doubt my mood was in part responsible, but I found myself +thinking of Poe's weird poem, "The Raven"; and like the character +therein I found myself hesitating. + +I stole quietly into the passage. It was in darkness. How odd it +is that in moments of doubt instinctively one shuns the dark and +seeks the light. I pressed the switch lighting the hall lamp, and +stood looking at the closed door. + +Why should this late visitor have rapped in so uncanny a fashion +in preference to ringing the bell? + +I stepped back to my table and slipped a revolver into my pocket. + +The muffled rapping was repeated. As I stood in the study doorway +I saw the flap of the letter-box slowly raised! + +Instantly I extinguished both lights. You may brand me as +childishly timid, but incidents were fresh in my memory which +justified all my fears. + +A faintly luminous slit in the door showed me that the flap was now +fully raised. It was the dim light on the stairway shining through. +Then quite silently the flap was lowered. Came the soft rapping +again. + +"Who's there?" I cried. + +No one answered. + +Wondering if I were unduly alarming myself, yet, I confess, strung +up tensely in anticipation that this was some device of the phantom +enemy, I stood in doubt. + +The silence remained unbroken for thirty seconds or more. Then yet +again it was disturbed by that ghostly, muffled rapping. + +I advanced a step nearer to the door. + +"Who's there?" I cried loudly. "What do you want?" + +The flap of the letter box began to move, and I formed a sudden +determination. Making no sound in my heelless Turkish slippers +I crept close up to the door and dropped upon my knees. + +Thereupon the flap became fully lifted, but from where I crouched +beneath it I was unable to see who or what was looking in; yet I +hesitated no longer. I suddenly raised myself and thrust the +revolver barrel through the opening! + +"Who are you?" I cried. "Answer or I fire!"--and along the barrel +I peered out on to the landing. + +Still no one answered. But something impalpable--a powder--a +vapour--to this hour I do not know what--enveloped me with its +nauseating fumes; was puffed fully into my face! My eyes, my +mouth, my nostrils became choked up, it seemed, with a deadly +stifling perfume. + +Wildly, feeling that everything about me was slipping away, that I +was sinking into a void, for ought I knew that of dissolution, I +pulled the trigger once, twice, thrice... + +"My God!"--the words choked in my throat and I reeled back into +the passage--"it's not loaded!" + +I threw up my arms to save myself, lurched, and fell forward into +what seemed a bottomless pit. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE GOLDEN PAVILION + + +When I opened my eyes it was to a conviction that I dreamed. I +lay upon a cushioned divan in a small apartment which I find myself +at a loss adequately to describe. + +It was a yellow room, then, its four walls being hung with yellow +silk, its floor being entirely covered by a yellow Persian carpet. +One lamp, burning in a frame of some lemon coloured wood and having +its openings filled with green glass, flooded the place with a +ghastly illumination. The lamp hung by gold chains from the ceiling, +which was yellow. Several low tables of the same lemon-hued wood +as the lamp-frame stood around; they were inlaid in fanciful designs +with gleaming green stones. Turn my eyes where I would, clutch my +aching head as I might, this dream chamber would not disperse, but +remained palpable before me--yellow and green and gold. + +There was a niche behind the divan upon which I lay framed about +with yellow wood. In it stood a golden bowl and a tall pot of +yellow porcelain; I lay amid yellow cushions having golden tassels. +Some of them were figured with vivid green devices. + +To contemplate my surroundings assuredly must be to court madness. +No door was visible, no window; nothing but silk and luxury, yellow +and green and gold. + +To crown all, the air was heavy with a perfume wholly unmistakable +by one acquainted with Egypt's ruling vice. It was the reek of +smouldering hashish--a stench that seemed to take me by the throat, +a vapour damnable and unclean. I saw that a little censer, golden +in colour and inset with emeralds, stood upon the furthermost corner +of the yellow carpet. From it rose a faint streak of vapour; and I +followed the course of the sickly scented smoke upward through the +still air until in oily spirals it lost itself near to the yellow +ceiling. As a sick man will study the veriest trifle I studied +that wisp of smoke, pencilled grayly against the silken draperies, +the carven tables, against the almost terrifying persistency of the +yellow and green and gold. + +I strove to rise, but was overcome by vertigo and sank back again +upon the yellow cushions. I closed my eyes, which throbbed and +burned, and rested my head upon my hands. I ceased to conjecture +if I dreamed or was awake. I knew that I felt weak and ill, that +my head throbbed agonizingly, that my eyes smarted so as to render +it almost impossible to keep them open, that a ceaseless humming +was in my ears. + +For some time I lay endeavouring to regain command of myself, to +prepare to face again that scene which had something horrifying +in its yellowness, touched with the green and gold. + +And when finally I reopened my eyes, I sat up with a suppressed cry. +For a tall figure in a yellow robe from beneath which peeped yellow +slippers, a figure crowned with a green turban, stood in the centre +of the apartment! + +It was that of a majestic old man, white bearded, with aquiline +nose, and the fierce eagle eyes of a fanatic set upon me sternly, +reprovingly. + +With folded arms he stood watching me, and I drew a sharp breath and +rose slowly to my feet. + +There amid the yellow and green and gold, amid the abominable reek +of burning hashish I stood and faced Hassan of Aleppo! + +No words came to me; I was confounded. + +Hassan spoke in that gentle voice which I had heard only once before. + +"Mr. Cavanagh," he said, "I have brought you here that I might warn +you. Your police are seeking me night and day, and I am fully alive +to my danger whilst I stay in your midst. But for close upon a +thousand years the Sheikh-al-jebal, Lord of the Hashishin, has +guarded the traditions and the relics of the Prophet, Salla-'llahu +'ale yhi wasellem! I, Hassan of Aleppo, am Sheikh of the Order +to-day, and my sacred duty has brought me here." + +The piercing gaze never left my face. I was not yet by any means +my own man and still I made no reply. + +"You have been wise," continued Hassan, "in that you have never +touched the sacred slipper. Had you lain hands upon it, no secrecy +could have availed you. The eye of the Hashishin sees all. There +is a shaft of light which the true Believer perceives at night as +he travels toward El-Medineh. It is the light which uprises, a +spiritual fire, from the tomb of the Prophet (Salla-'llahu 'aleyhi +wasellem!). The relics also are radiant, though in a lesser degree." + +He took a step toward me, spreading out his lean brown hands, palms +downward. + +"A shaft of light," he said impressively, "shines upward now from +London. It is the light of the holy slipper." He gazed intently +at the yellow drapery at the left of the divan, but as though he +were looking not at the wall but through it. His features worked +convulsively; he was a man inspired. "I see it now!" he almost +whispered--"that white light by which the guardians of the relic +may always know its resting place!" + +I managed to force words to my lips. + +"If you know where the slipper is," I said, more for the sake of +talking than for anything else, "why do you not recover it?" + +Hassan turned his eyes upon me again. + +"Because the infidel dog," he cried loudly, "who has soiled it with +his unclean touch, defies us--mocks us! He has suffered the loss +of the offending hand, but the evil ginn protect him; he is inspired +by efreets! But God is great and Mohammed is His only Prophet! We +shall triumph; but it is written, oh, daring infidel, that you again +shall become the guardian of the slipper!" + +He spoke like some prophet of old and I stared at him fascinated. +I was loth to believe his words. + +"When again," he continued, "the slipper shall be in the receptacle +of which you hold the key, that key must be given to me!" + +I thought I saw the drift of his words now; I thought I perceived +with what object I had been trapped and borne to this mysterious +abode for whose whereabouts the police vainly were seeking. By the +exercise of the gift of divination it would seem that Hassan of +Aleppo had forecast the future history of the accursed slipper or +believed that he had done so. According to his own words I was +doomed once more to become trustee of the relic. The key of the +case at the Antiquarian Museum, to which he had prophesied the +slipper's return, would be the price of my life! But-- + +"In order that these things may be fulfilled," he continued, "I must +permit you to return to your house. So it is written, so it shall +be. Your life is in my hands; beware when it is demanded of you +that you hesitate not in yielding up the key!" + +He raised his hands before him, making a sort of obeisance, I doubt +not in the direction of Mecca, drew aside one of the yellow hangings +behind him and disappeared, leaving me alone again in that nightmare +apartment of yellow and green and gold. A moment I stood watching +the swaying curtain. Utter silence reigned, and a sort of panic +seized me infinitely greater than that occasioned by the presence +of the weird Sheikh. I felt that I must escape from the place or +that I should become raving mad. + +I leapt forward to the curtain which Hassan had raised and jerked +it aside; it had concealed a door. In this door and about level +with my eyes was a kind of little barred window through which shone +a dim green light. I bent forward, peering into the place beyond, +but was unable to perceive anything save a vague greenness. + +And as I peered, half believing that the whole episode was a +dreadful, fevered dream, the abominable fumes of hashish grew, or +seemed to grow, quite suddenly insupportable. Through the square +opening, from the green void beyond, a cloud of oily vapour, pungent, +stifling, resembling that of burning Indian hemp, poured out and +enveloped me! + +With a gasping cry I fell back, fighting for breath, for a breath +of clean air unpolluted with hashish. But every inhalation drew +down into my lungs the fumes that I sought to escape from. I +experienced a deathly sickness; I seemed to be sinking into a sea +of hashish, amid bubbles of yellow and green and gold, and I knew +no more until, struggling again to my feet, surrounded by utter +darkness--I struck my head on the corner of my writing-table ... for +I lay in my own study! + +My revolver, unloaded, was upon the table beside me. The night was +very still. I think it must have been near to dawn. + +"My God!" I whispered, "did I dream it all? Did I dream it all?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE BLACK TUBE + + +"There's no doubt in my mind," said Inspector Bristol, "that your +experience was real enough." + +The sun was shining into my room now, but could not wholly disperse +the cloud of horror which lay upon it. That I had been drugged was +sufficiently evident from my present condition, and that I had been +taken away from my chambers Inspector Bristol had satisfactorily +proved by an examination of the soles of my slippers. + +"It was a clever trick," he said. "God knows what it was they +puffed into your face through the letter box, but the devilish arts +of ten centuries, we must remember, are at the command of Hassan of +Aleppo! The repetition of the trick at the mysterious place you +were taken to is particularly interesting. I should say you won't +be in a hurry to peer through letter boxes and so forth in the +future?" + +I shook my aching head. + +"That accursed yellow room," I replied, "stank with the fumes of +hashish. It may have been some preparation of hashish that was +used to drug me." + +Bristol stood looking thoughtfully from the window. + +"It was a nightmare business, Mr. Cavanagh," he said; "but it +doesn't advance our inquiry a little bit. The prophecy of the old +man with the white beard--whom you assure me to be none other than +Hassan of Aleppo--is something we cannot very well act upon. He +clearly believes it himself; for he has released you after having +captured you, evidently in order that you may be at liberty to take +up your duty as trustee of the slipper again. If the slipper really +comes back to the Museum the fact will show Hassan to be something +little short of a magician. I shan't envy you then, Mr. Cavanagh, +considering that you hold the keys of the case!" + +"No," I replied wearily. "Poor Professor Deeping thought that he +acted in my interests and that my possession of the keys would +constitute a safeguard. He was wrong. It has plunged me into the +very vortex of this ghastly affair." + +"It is maddening," said Bristol, "to know that Hassan and Company +are snugly located somewhere under our very noses, and that all +Scotland Yard can find no trace of them. Then to think that Hassan +of Aleppo, apparently by means of some mystical light, has knowledge +of the whereabouts of the slipper and consequently of the +whereabouts of Earl Dexter (another badly wanted man) is extremely +discouraging! I feel like an amateur; I'm ashamed of myself!" + +Bristol departed in a condition of irritable uncertainty. + +My head in my hands, I sat for long after his departure, with the +phantom characters of the ghoulish drama dancing through my +brain. The distorted yellow dwarfs seemed to gibe apish before me. +Severed hands clenched and unclenched themselves in my face, and +gleaming knives flashed across the mental picture. Predominant over +all was the stately figure of Hassan of Aleppo, that benignant, +remorseless being, that terrible guardian of the holy relic who +directed the murderous operations. Earl Dexter, The Stetson Man, +with his tightly bandaged arm, his gaunt, clean-shaven face and +daredevil smile, figured, too, in my feverish daydream; nor was +that other character missing, the girl with the violet eyes whose +beautiful presence I had come to dread; for like a sybil announcing +destruction her appearances in the drama had almost invariably +presaged fresh tragedies. I recalled my previous meetings with +this woman of mystery. I recalled my many surmises regarding her +real identity and association with the case. I wondered why in the +not very distant past I had promised to keep silent respecting her; +I wondered why up to that present moment, knowing beyond doubt that +her activities were inimical to my interests, were criminal, I had +observed that foolish pledge. + +And now my door-bell was ringing--as intuitively I had anticipated. +So certain was I of the identity of my visitor that as I walked +along the passage I was endeavouring to make up my mind how I should +act, how I should receive her. + +I opened the door; and there, wearing European garments but a green +turban ... stood Hassan of Aleppo! + +When I say that amazement robbed me of the power to speak, to move, +almost to think, I doubt not you will credit me. Indeed, I felt +that modern London was crumbling about me and that I was become +involved in the fantastic mazes of one of those Oriental intrigues +such as figure in the Romance of Abu Zeyd, or with which most +European readers have been rendered familiar by the glowing pages +of "The Thousand and One Nights." + +"Effendim," said my visitor, "do not hesitate to act as I direct!" + +In his gloved hand he carried what appeared to be an ebony cane. +He raised and pointed it directly at me. I perceived that it was, +in fact, a hollow tube. + +"Death is in my hand," he continued; "enter slowly and I will +follow you." + +Still the sense of unreality held me thralled and my brain refused +me service. Like an hypnotic subject I walked back to my study, +followed by my terrible visitor, who reclosed the door behind him. + +He sat facing me across my littered table with the mysterious tube +held loosely in his grasp. + +How infinitely more terrifying are perils unknown than those known +and appreciated! Had a European armed with a pistol attempted a +similar act of coercion, I cannot doubt that I should have put up +some sort of fight; had he sat before me now as Hassan of Aleppo +sat, with a comprehensible weapon thus laid upon his knees, I +should have taken my chance, should have attacked him with the lamp, +with a chair, with anything that came to my hand. + +But before this awful, mysterious being who was turning my life +into channels unsuspected, before that black tube with its unknown +potentialities, I sat in a kind of passive panic which I cannot +attempt to describe, which I had never experienced before and have +never known since. + +"There is one about to visit you," he said, "whom you know, whom I +think you expect. For it is written that she shall come and such +events cast a shadow before them. I, too, shall be present at your +meeting!" + +His eagle eyes opened widely; they burned with fanaticism. + +"Already she is here!" he resumed suddenly, and bent as one +listening. "She comes under the archway; she crossed the +courtyard--and is upon the stair! Admit her, effendim; I shall be close +behind you!" + +The door-bell rang. + +With the consciousness that the black tube was directed toward the +back of my head, I went and opened the door. My mind was at work +again, and busy with plans to terminate this impossible situation. + +On the landing stood a girl wearing a simple white frock which +fitted her graceful figure perfectly. A white straw hat, of the New +York tourist type, with a long veil draped from the back suited her +delicate beauty very well. The red mouth drooped a little at the +corners, but the big violet eyes, like lamps of the soul, seemed +afire with mystic light. + +"Mr. Cavanagh," she said, very calmly and deliberately, "there is +only one way now to end all this trouble. I come from the man who +can return the slipper to where it belongs; but he wants his price!" + +Her quiet speech served completely to restore my mental balance, and +I noted with admiration that her words were so chosen as to commit +her in no way. She knew quite well that thus far she might appear +in the matter with impunity, and she clearly was determined to say +nothing that could imperil her. + +"Will you please come in?" I said quietly--and stood aside to +admit her. + +Exhibiting wonderful composure, she entered--and there, in the +badly lighted hallway came face to face with my other visitor! + +It was a situation so dramatic as to seem unreal. + +Away from that tall figure retreated the girl with the violet +eyes--and away--until she stood with her back to the wall. Even in +the gloom I could see that her composure was deserting her; her +beautiful face was pallid. + +"Oh, God!" she whispered, all but inaudible--"You!" + +Hassan, grasping the black rod in his hand, signed to her to enter +the study. She stood quite near to me, with her eyes fixed upon +him. I bent closer to her. + +"My revolver--in left-hand table drawer," I breathed in her ear. +"Get it. He is watching me!" + +I could not tell if my words had been understood, for, never taking +her gaze from the Sheikh of the Assassins, she sidled into the study. +I followed her; and Hassan came last of all. Just within the +doorway he stood, confronting us. + +"You have come," he said, addressing the girl and speaking in +perfect English but with a marked accent, "to open your impudent +negotiations through Mr. Cavanagh for the return of the thrice holy +relic to the Museum! Your companion, the man, who is inspired by +the Evil One, has even dared to demand ransom for the slipper from +me!" + +Hassan was majestic in his wrath; but his eyes were black with +venomous hatred. + +"He has suffered the penalty which the Koran lays down; he has lost +his right hand. But the lord of all evil protects him, else ere +this he had lost his life! Move no closer to that table!" + +I started. Either Hassan of Aleppo was omniscient or he had +overheard my whispered words! + +"Easily I could slay you where you stand!" he continued. "But to +do so would profit me nothing. This meeting has been revealed to +me. Last night I witnessed it as I slept. Also it has been +revealed to me by Erroohanee, in the mirror of ink, that the slipper +of the Prophet, Salla-'llahu 'ale yhi wasellem! Shall indeed return +to that place accursed, that infidel eyes may look upon it! It is +the will of Allah, whose name be exalted, that I hold my hand, but +it is also His will that I be here, at whatever danger to my +worthless body." + +He turned his blazing eyes upon me. + +"To-morrow, ere noon," he said, "the slipper will again be in the +Museum from which the man of evil stole it. So it is written; +obscure are the ways. We met last night, you and I, but at that +time much was dark to me that now is light. The holy 'Alee spoke +to me in a vision, saying: 'There are two keys to the case in which +it will be locked. Secure one, leaving the other with him who +holds it! Let him swear to be secret. This shall be the price of +his life!'" + +The black tube was pointed directly at my forehead. + +"Effendim," concluded the speaker, "place in my hand the key of the +case in the Antiquarian Museum!" + +Hands convulsively clenched, the girl was looking from me to Hassan. +My throat felt parched, but I forced speech to my lips. + +"Your omniscience fails you," I said. "Both keys are at my bank!" + +Blacker grew the fierce eyes--and blacker. I gave myself up for +lost; I awaited death--death by some awful, unique means--with +what courage I could muster. + +From the court below came the sound of voices, the voices of +passers-by who so little suspected what was happening near to them +that had someone told them they certainly had refused to credit it. +The noise of busy Fleet Street came drumming under the archway, too. + +Then, above all, another sound became audible. To this day I find +myself unable to define it; but it resembled the note of a silver +bell. + +Clearly it was a signal; for, hearing it, Hassan dropped the tube +and glanced toward the open window. + +In that instant I sprang upon him! + +That I had to deal with a fanatic, a dangerous madman, I knew; that +it was his life or mine, I was fully convinced. I struck out then +and caught him fairly over the heart. He reeled back, and I made +a wild clutch for the damnable tube, horrid, unreasoning fear of +which thus far had held me inert. + +I heard the girl scream affrightedly, and I knew, and felt my heart +chill to know, that the tube had been wrenched from my hand! Hassan +of Aleppo, old man that he appeared, had the strength of a tiger. He +recovered himself and hurled me from him so that I came to the floor +crashingly half under my writing-table! + +Something he cried back at me, furiously--and like an enraged animal, +his teeth gleaming out from his beard, he darted from the room. The +front door banged loudly. + +Shaken and quivering, I got upon my feet. On the threshold, in a +state of pitiable hesitancy, stood the pale, beautiful accomplice +of Earl Dexter. One quick glance she flashed at me, then turned +and ran! + +Again the door slammed. I ran to the window, looking out into the +court. The girl came hurrying down the steps, and with never a +backward glance ran on and was lost to view in one of the passages +opening riverward. + +Out under the arch, statelily passed a tall figure--and Inspector +Bristol was entering! I saw the detective glance aside as the two +all but met. He stood still, and looked back! + +"Bristol!" I cried, and waved my arms frantically. + +"Stop him! Stop him! It's Hassan of Aleppo!" + +Bristol was not the only one to hear my wild cry--not the only one +to dash back under the arch and out into Fleet Street. + +But Hassan of Aleppo was gone! + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE LIGHT OF EL-MEDINEH + + +Bristol and I walked slowly in the direction of the entrance of the +British Antiquarian Museum. It was the day following upon the +sensational scene in my chambers. + +"There's very little doubt," said Bristol, "that Earl Dexter has +the slipper and that Hassan of Aleppo knows where Dexter is in +hiding. I don't know which of the two is more elusive. Hassan +apparently melted into thin air yesterday; and although The Stetson +Man has never within my experience employed disguises, no one has +set eyes upon him since the night that he vanished from his lodgings +off the Waterloo Road. It's always possible for a man to baffle +the police by remaining closely within doors, but during all the +time that has elapsed Dexter must have taken a little exercise +occasionally, and the missing hand should have betrayed him." + +"The wonder to me is," I replied, "that he has escaped death at the +hands of the Hashishin. He is a supremely daring man, for I should +think that he must be carrying the slipper of the Prophet about +with him!" + +"I would rather he did it than I!" commented Bristol. "For sheer +audacity commend me to The Stetson Man! His idea no doubt was to +use you as intermediary in his negotiations with the Museum +authorities, but that plan failing, he has written them direct, +thoughtfully omitting his address, of course!" + +We were, in fact, at that moment bound for the Museum to inspect +this latest piece of evidence. + +"The crowning example of the man's audacity and cleverness," added +my companion, "is his having actually approached Hassan of Aleppo +with a similar proposition! How did he get in touch with him? All +Scotland Yard has failed to find any trace of that weird character!" + +"Birds of a feather--" I suggested. + +"But they are not birds of a feather!" cried Bristol. "On your own +showing, Hassan of Aleppo is simply waiting his opportunity to +balance Dexter's account forever! I always knew Dexter was a clever +man; I begin to think he's the most daring genius alive!" + +We mounted the steps of the Museum. In the hallway Mostyn, the +curator, awaited us. Having greeted Bristol and myself he led the +way to his private office, and from a pigeon-hole in his desk took +out a letter typewritten upon a sheet of quarto paper. + +Bristol spread it out upon the blotting pad and we bent over it +curiously. + +SIR-- + +I believe I can supply information concerning the whereabouts of +the missing slipper of Mohammed. As any inquiry of this nature +must be extremely perilous to the inquirer and as the relic is a +priceless one, my fee would be 10,000 pounds. The fanatics who +seek to restore the slipper to the East must not know of any +negotiations, therefore I omit my address, but will communicate +further if you care to insert instructions in the agony column +of Times. + + Faithfully, + EARL DEXTER + + +Bristol laughed grimly. + +"It's a daring game," he said; "a piece of barefaced impudence quite +characteristic. + +"He's posing as a sort of private detective now, and is prepared for +a trifling consideration to return the slipper which he stole +himself! He must know, though, that we have his severed hand at +the Yard to be used in evidence against him." + +"Is the Burton Room open to the public again?" I asked Mostyn. + +"It is open, yes," he replied, "and a quite unusual number of +visitors come daily to gaze at the empty case which once held the +slipper of the Prophet." + +"Has the case been mended?" + +"Yes; it is quite intact again; only the exhibit is missing." + +We ascended the stairs, passed along the Assyrian Room, which seemed +to be unusually crowded, and entered the lofty apartment known as +the Burton Room. The sunblinds were drawn, and a sort of dim, +religious light prevailed therein. A group of visitors stood around +an empty case at the farther end of the apartment. + +"You see," said Mostyn, pointing, "that empty case has a greater +attraction than all the other full ones!" + +But I scarcely heeded his words, for I was intently watching the +movements of one of the group about the empty case. I have said +that the room was but dimly illuminated, and this fact, together +no doubt with some effect of reflected light, enhanced by my +imagination, perhaps produced the phenomenon which was occasioning +me so much amazement. + +Remember that my mind was filled with memories of weird things, +that I often found myself thinking of that mystic light which +Hassan of Aleppo had called the light of El-Medineh--that light +whereby, undeterred by distance, he claimed to be able to trace the +whereabouts of any of the relics of the Prophet. + +Bristol and Mostyn walked on then; but I stood just within the +doorway, intently, breathlessly watching an old man wearing an +out-of-date Inverness coat and a soft felt hat. He had a gray +beard and moustache, and long, untidy hair, walked with a stoop, +and in short was no unusual type of Visitor to that institution. + +But it seemed to me, and the closer I watched him the more +convinced I became, that this was no optical illusion, that a faint +luminosity, a sort of elfin light, played eerily about his head! + +As Bristol and Mostyn approached the case the old man began to walk +toward me and in the direction of the door. The idea flashed +through my mind that it might be Hassan of Aleppo himself, Hassan +who had predicted that the stolen slipper should that day be +returned to the Museum! + +Then he came abreast of me, passed me, and I felt that my +surmise had been wrong. I saw Bristol, from farther up the room, +turn and look back. Something attracted his trained eye, I suppose, +which was not perceptible to me. But he suddenly came striding +along. Obviously he was pursuing the old man, who was just about +to leave the apartment. Seeing that the latter had reached the +doorway, Bristol began to run. + +The old man turned; and amid a chorus of exclamations from the +astonished spectators, Bristol sprang upon him! + +How it all came about I cannot say, cannot hope to describe; but +there was a short, sharp scuffle, the crack of a well-directed +blow ... and Bristol was rolling on his back, the old man, +hatless, was racing up the Assyrian Room, and everyone in the place +seemed to be shouting at once! + +Bristol, with blood streaming from his face, staggered to his feet, +clutching at me for support. + +"After him, Mr. Cavanagh!" he cried hoarsely. "It's your turn +to-day! After him! That's Earl Dexter!" + +Mostyn waited for no more, but went running quickly through the +Assyrian Room. I may mention here that at the head of the stairs +he found the caped Inverness which had served to conceal Dexter's +mutilated arm, and later, behind a piece of statuary, a wig and +a very ingenious false beard and moustache were discovered. But +of The Stetson Man there was no trace. His brief start had enabled +him to make good his escape. + +As Mostyn went off, and a group of visitors flocked in our +direction, Bristol, who had been badly shaken by the blow, turned +to them. + +"You will please all leave the Burton Room immediately," he said. + +Looks of surprise greeted his words; but with his handkerchief +raised to his face, he peremptorily repeated them. The official +note in his voice was readily to be detected; and the wonder-stricken +group departed with many a backward glance. + +As the last left the Burton Room, Bristol pointed, with a rather +shaky finger, at the soft felt hat which lay at his feet. It had +formed part of Dexter's disguise. Close beside it lay another +object which had evidently fallen from the hat--a dull red thing +lying on the polished parquet flooring. + +"For God's sake don't go near it!" whispered Bristol. "The room +must be closed for the present. And now I'm off after that man. +Step clear of it." + +His words were unnecessary; I shunned it as a leprous thing. + +It was the slipper of the Prophet! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE THREE MESSAGES + + +I stood in the foyer of the Astoria Hotel. About me was the pulsing +stir of transatlantic life, for the tourist season was now at its +height, and I counted myself fortunate in that I had been able to +secure a room at this establishment, always so popular with American +visitors. Chatting groups surrounded me and I became acquainted +with numberless projects for visiting the Tower of London, the +National Gallery, the British Museum, Windsor Castle, Kew Gardens, +and the other sights dear to the heart of our visiting cousins. +Loaded lifts ascended and descended. Bradshaws were in great +evidence everywhere; all was hustle and glad animation. + +The tall military-looking man who stood beside me glanced about him +with a rather grim smile. + +"You ought to be safe enough here, Mr. Cavanagh!" he said. + +"I ought to be safe enough in my own chambers," I replied wearily. +"How many of these pleasure-seeking folk would believe that a man +can be as greatly in peril of his life in Fleet Street as in the +most uncivilized spot upon the world map? Do you think if I told +that prosperous New Yorker who is buying a cigar yonder, for +instance, that I had been driven from my chambers by a band of +Eastern assassins founded some time in the eleventh century, he +would believe it?" + +"I am certain he wouldn't!" replied Bristol. "I should not have +credited it myself before I was put in charge of this damnable case." + +My position at that hour was in truth an incredible one. The sacred +slipper of Mohammed lay once more in the glass case at the +Antiquarian Museum from which Earl Dexter had stolen it. Now, with +apish yellow faces haunting my dreams, with ghostly menaces dogging +me day and night, I was outcast from my own rooms and compelled, in +self-defence, to live amid the bustle of the Astoria. So wholly +nonplussed were the police authorities that they could afford me no +protection. They knew that a group of scientific murderers lay +hidden in or near to London; they knew that Earl Dexter, the foremost +crook of his day, was also in the metropolis--and they could make no +move, were helpless; indeed, as Bristol had confessed, were hopeless! + +Bristol, on the previous day, had unearthed the Greek cigar merchant, +Acepulos, who had replaced the slipper in its case (for a monetary +consideration). He had performed a similar service when the +bloodstained thing had first been put upon exhibition at the Museum, +and for a considerable period had disappeared. We had feared that +his religious pretensions had not saved him from the avenging +scimitar of Hassan; but quite recently he had returned again to his +Soho shop, and in time thus to earn a second cheque. + +As Bristol and I stood glancing about the foyer of the hotel, a +plain-clothes officer whom I knew by sight came in and approached +my companion. I could not divine the fact, of course, but I was +about to hear news of the money-loving and greatly daring +Graeco-Moslem. + +The detective whispered something to Bristol, and the latter started, +and paled. He turned to me. + +"They haven't overlooked him this time, Mr. Cavanagh," he said. +"Acepulos has been found dead in his room, nearly decapitated!" + +I shuddered involuntarily. Even there, amid the chatter and laughter +of those light-hearted tourists, the shadow of Hassan of Aleppo was +falling upon me. + +Bristol started immediately for Soho and I parted from him in the +Strand, he proceeding west and I eastward, for I had occasion that +morning to call at my bank. It was the time of the year when London +is full of foreigners, and as I proceeded in the direction of Fleet +Street I encountered more than one Oriental. To my excited +imagination they all seemed to glance at me furtively, with menacing +eyes, but in any event I knew that I had little to fear whilst I +contrived to keep to the crowded thoroughfares. Solitude I dreaded +and with good reason. + +Then at the door of the bank I found fresh matter for reflection. +The assistant manager, Mr. Colby, was escorting a lady to the door. +As I stood aside, he walked with her to a handsome car which waited, +and handed her in with marks of great deference. She was heavily +veiled and I had no more than a glimpse of her, but she appeared to +be of middle age and had gray hair and a very stately manner. + +I told myself that I was unduly suspicious, suspicious of everyone +and of everything; yet as I entered the bank I found myself wondering +where I had seen that dignified, grayhaired figure before. I even +thought of asking the manager the name of his distinguished customer, +but did not do so, for in the circumstances such an inquiry must +have appeared impertinent. + +My business transacted, I came out again by the side entrance which +opens on the little courtyard, for this branch of the London County +and Provincial Bank occupies a corner site. + +A ragged urchin who was apparently waiting for me handed me a note. +I looked at him inquiringly. + +"For me?" I said. + +"Yes, sir. A dark gentleman pointed you out as you was goin' into +the bank." + +The note was written upon a half sheet of paper and, doubting if it +was really intended for me, I unfolded it and read the following-- + + Mr. Cavanagh, take the keys of the case containing the holy slipper + to your hotel this evening without fail. + HASSAN. + +"Who gave you this, boy?" I asked sharply. + +"A foreign gentleman, sir, very dark--like an Indian." + +"Where is he?" + +"He went off in a cab, sir, after he give me the note." + +I handed the boy sixpence and slowly pursued my way. An idea was +forming in my mind to trap the enemy by seeming acquiescent. I +wondered if my movements were being watched at that moment. Since +it was more than probable, I returned to the bank, entered, and +made some trivial inquiry of a cashier, and then came out again and +walked on as far as the Report office. + +I had not been in the office more than five minutes before I +received a telegram from Inspector Bristol. It had been handed in +at Soho, and the message was an odd one. + + CAVANAGH, Report, London. + Plot afoot to steal keys. Get them from bank and join me 11 o'clock + at Astoria. Have planned trap. + BRISTOL. + +This was very mysterious in view of the note so recently received by +me, but I concluded that Bristol had hit upon a similar plan to that +which was forming in my own mind. It seemed unnecessarily hazardous, +though, actually to withdraw the keys from their place of safety. + +Pondering deeply upon the perplexities of this maddening case, I +shortly afterward found myself again at the bank. With the manager +I descended to the strong-room, and the safe was unlocked which +contained the much-sought-for keys of the case at the Antiquarian +Museum. + +"There are the keys, quite safe!--and by the way, this is my second +visit here this morning, Mr. Cavanagh," said the manager, with whom +I was upon rather intimate terms. "A foreign lady who has recently +become a customer of the bank deposited some valuable jewels here +this morning--less than an hour ago, in fact." + +"Indeed," I said, and my mind was working rapidly. "The lady who +came in the large blue car, a gray-haired lady?" + +"Yes," was the reply, "did you notice her, then?" + +I nodded and said no more, for in truth I had no more to say. I +had good reason to respect the uncanny powers of Hassan of Aleppo, +but I doubted if even his omniscience could tell him (since I had +actually gone down into the strong-room) whether when I emerged I +had the keys, or whether my visit and seeming acceptance of his +orders had been no more than a subterfuge! + +That the Hashishin had some means of communicating with me at the +Astoria was evident from the contents of the note which I had +received, and as I walked in the direction of the hotel my mind +was filled with all sorts of misgivings. I was playing with fire! +Had I done rightly or should I have acted otherwise? I sighed +wearily. The dark future would resolve all my doubts. + +When I reached the Astoria, Bristol had not arrived. I lighted a +cigarette and sat down in the lounge to await his coming. Presently +a boy approached, handing me a message which had been taken down +from the telephone by the clerk. It was as follows-- + + Tell Mr. Cavanagh, who is waiting in the hotel, to take what I am + expecting to his chambers, and say that I will join him there in + twenty minutes. + INSPECTOR BRISTOL. + +Again I doubted the wisdom of Bristol's plan. Had I not fled to +the Astoria to escape from the dangerous solitude of my rooms? That +he was laying some trap for the Hashishin was sufficiently evident, +and whilst I could not justly suspect him of making a pawn of me +I was quite unable to find any other explanation of this latest move. + +I was torn between conflicting doubts. I glanced at my watch. Yes! +There was just time for me to revisit the bank ere joining Bristol +at my chambers! I hesitated. After all, in what possible way could +it jeopardize his plans for me merely to pretend to bring the keys? + +"Hang it all!" I said, and jumped to my feet. "These maddening +conjectures will turn my brain! I'll let matters stand as they +are, and risk the consequences!" + +I hesitated no longer, but passed out from the hotel and once more +directed my steps in the direction of Fleet Street. + +As I passed in under the arch through which streamed many busy +workers, I told myself that to dread entering my own chambers at +high noon was utterly childish. Yet I did dread doing so! And as +I mounted the stair and came to the landing, which was always more +or less dark, I paused for quite a long time before putting the +key in the lock. + +The affair of the accursed slipper was playing havoc with my nerves, +and I laughed dryly to note that my hand was not quite steady as I +turned the key, opened my door, and slipped into the dim hallway. + +As I closed it behind me, something, probably a slight noise, but +possibly something more subtle--an instinct--made me turn rapidly. + +There facing me stood Hassan of Aleppo. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +I KEEP THE APPOINTMENT + + +That moment was pungent with drama. In the intense hush of the +next five seconds I could fancy that the world had slipped away +from me and that I was become an unsubstantial thing of dreams. +I was in no sense master of myself; the effect of the presence of +this white-bearded fanatic was of a kind which I am entirely unable +to describe. About Hassan of Aleppo was an aroma of evil, yet of +majesty, which marked him strangely different from other men--from +any other that I have ever known. In his venerable presence, +remembering how he was Sheikh of the Assassins, and recalling his +bloody history, I was always conscious of a weakness, physical and +mental. He appalled me; and now, with my back to the door, I stood +watching him and watching the ominous black tube which he held in +his hand. It was a weapon unknown to Europe and therefore more +fearful than the most up-to-date of death-dealing instruments. + +Hassan of Aleppo pointed it toward me. + +"The keys, effendim," he said; "hand me the keys!" + +He advanced a step; his manner was imperious. The black tube was +less than a foot removed from my face. That I had my revolver in +my pocket could avail me nothing, for in my pocket it must remain, +since I dared to make no move to reach it under cover of that +unfamiliar, terrible weapon. + +The black eyes of Hassan glared insanely into mine. + +"You will have placed them in your pocketcase," he said. "Take it +out; hand it to me!" + +I obeyed, for what else could I do? Taking the case from my pocket, +I placed it in his lean brown hand. + +An expression of wild exultation crossed his features; the eagle +eyes seemed to be burning into my brain. A puff of hot vapour +struck me in the face--something which was expelled from the +mysterious black tube. And with memories crowding to my mind of +similar experiences at the hands of the Hashishin, I fell back, +clutching at my throat, fighting for my life against the deadly, +vaporous thing that like a palpable cloud surrounded me. I tried +to cry out, but the words died upon my tongue. Hassan of Aleppo +seemed to grow huge before my eyes like some ginn of Eastern lore. +Then a curtain of darkness descended. I experienced a violent blow +upon the forehead (I suppose I had pitched forward), and for the +time resigned my part in the drama of the sacred slipper. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE WATCHER IN BANK CHAMBERS + + +At about five o'clock that afternoon Inspector Bristol, who had +spent several hours in Soho upon the scene of the murder of the +Greek, was walking along Fleet Street, bound for the offices of the +Report. As he passed the court, on the corner of which stands a +branch of the London County and Provincial Bank, his eye was +attracted by a curious phenomenon. + +There are reflectors above the bank windows which face the court, +and it appeared to Bristol that there was a hole in one of these, +the furthermost from the corner. A tiny beam of light shone from +the bank window on to the reflector, or from the reflector on to +the window, which circumstance in itself was not curious. But +above the reflector, at an acute angle, this mysterious beam was +seemingly projected upward. Walking a little way up the court he +saw that it shone through, and cast a disc of light upon the +ceiling of an office on the first floor of Bank Chambers above. + +It is every detective's business to be observant, and although +many thousands of passersby must have cast their eyes in the same +direction that day, there is small matter for wonder in the fact +that Bristol alone took the trouble to inquire into the mystery--for +his trained eye told him that there was a mystery here. + +Possibly he was in that passive frame of mind when the brain is +particularly receptive of trivial impressions; for after a futile +search of the Soho cigar store for anything resembling a clue, he +was quite resigned to the idea of failure in the case of Hassan and +Company. He walked down the court and into the entrance of Bank +Chambers. An Inspection of the board upon the wall showed him that +the first floor apparently was occupied by three firms, two of them +legal, for this is the neighbourhood of the law courts, and the +third a press agency. He stepped up to the first floor. Past the +doors bearing the names of the solicitors and past that belonging +to the press agent he proceeded to a fourth suite of offices. +Here, pinned upon the door frame, appeared a card which bore the +legend-- + + THE CONGO FIBRE COMPANY + +Evidently the Congo Fibre Company had so recently taken possession +of the offices that there had been no time to inscribe their title +either upon the doors or upon the board in the hall. + +Inspector Bristol was much impressed, for into one of the rooms +occupied by the Fibre Company shone that curious disc of light +which first had drawn his attention to Bank Chambers. He rapped +on the door, turned the handle, and entered. The sole furniture +of the office in which he found himself apparently consisted of +one desk and an office stool, which stool was occupied by an office +boy. The windows opened on the court, and a door marked "Private" +evidently communicated with an inner office whose windows likewise +must open on the court. It was the ceiling of this inner office, +unless the detective's calculation erred, which he was anxious to +inspect. + +"Yes, sir?" said the boy tentatively. + +Bristol produced a card which bore the uncompromising legend: John +Henry Smith. + +"Take my card to Mr. Boulter, boy," he said tersely. The boy +stared. + +"Mr. Boulter, sir? There isn't any one of that name here." + +"Oh!" said Bristol, looking around him in apparent surprise: "how +long is he gone?" + +"I don't know, sir. I've only been here three weeks, and Mr. +Knowlson only took the offices a month ago." + +"Oh," commented Bristol, "then take my card to Mr. Knowlson; he +will probably be able to give me Mr. Boulter's present address." + +The boy hesitated. The detective had that authoritative manner +which awes the youthful mind. + +"He's out, sir," he said, but without conviction. + +"Is he?" rapped Bristol. "Well, I'll leave my card." + +He turned and quitted the office, carefully closing the door behind +him. Three seconds later he reopened it, and peering in, was in +time to see the boy knock upon the private door. A little wicket, +or movable panel, was let down, the card of John Henry Smith was +passed through to someone unseen, and the wicket was reclosed! + + +The boy turned and met the wrathful eye of the detective. Bristol +reentered, closing the door behind him. + +"See here, young fellow," said he, "I don't stand for those tricks! +Why didn't you tell me Mr. Knowlson was in?" + +"I'm very sorry, sir!"--the boy quailed beneath his glance--"but +he won't see any one who hasn't an appointment." + +"Is there someone with him, then?" + +"No." + +"Well, what's he doing?" + +"I don't know, sir; I've never been in to see!" + +"What! never been in that room?" + +"Never!" declared the boy solemnly. "And I don't mind telling +you," he added, recovering something of his natural confidence, +"that I am leaving on the 31st. This job ain't any use to me!" + +"Too much work?" suggested Bristol. + +"No work at all!" returned the boy indignantly. "I'm just here +for a blessed buffer, that's what I'm here for, a buffer!" + +"What do you mean?" + +"I just have to sit here and see that nobody gets into that +office. Lively, ain't it? Where's the prospects?" + +Bristol surveyed him thoughtfully. + +"Look here, my lad," he said quietly; "is that door locked?" + +"Always," replied the boy. + +"Does Mr. Knowlson come to that shutter when you knock?" + +"Yes." + +"Then go and knock!" + +The boy obeyed with alacrity. He rapped loudly on the door, not +noticing or not caring that the visitor was standing directly +behind him. The shutter was lowered and a grizzled, bearded face +showed for a moment through the opening. + +Bristol leant over the boy and pushed a card through into the hand +of the man beyond. On this occasion it did not bear the legend +"John Henry Smith," but the following-- + + CHIEF INSPECTOR BRISTOL + C.I.D. + NEW SCOTLAND YARD + +"Good afternoon, Mr. Knowlson," said the detective dryly. "I want +to come in!" + +There followed a moment of silence, from which Bristol divined that +he had blundered upon some mystery, possibly upon a big case; then +a key was turned in the lock and the door thrown open. + +"Come right in, Inspector," invited a strident voice. "Carter, you +can go home." + +Bristol entered warily, but not warily enough. For as the door +was banged upon his entrance he faced around only in time to +find himself looking down the barrel of a Colt automatic. + +With his back to the door which contained the wicket, now reclosed, +stood the man with the bearded face. The revolver was held in his +left hand; his right arm terminated in a bandaged stump. But +without that his steel-gray eyes would have betrayed him to the +detective. + +"Good God!" whispered Bristol. "It's Earl Dexter!" + +"It is!" replied the cracksman, "and you've looked in at a real +inconvenient time! My visitors mostly seem to have that knack. +I'll have to ask you to stay, Inspector. Sit down in that chair +yonder." + +Bristol knew his man too well to think of opening any argument at +that time. He sat down as directed, and ignoring the revolver +which covered him all the time, began coolly to survey the room +in which he found himself. In several respects it was an +extraordinary apartment. + +The only bright patch in the room was the shining disc upon the +ceiling; and the detective noted with interest that this marked +the position of an arrangement of mirrors. A white-covered table, +entirely bare, stood upon the floor immediately beneath this +mysterious apparatus. With the exception of one or two ordinary +items of furniture and a small hand lathe, the office otherwise +was unfurnished. Bristol turned his eyes again upon the daring +man who so audaciously had trapped him--the man who had stolen the +slipper of the Prophet and suffered the loss of his hand by the +scimitar of an Hashishin as a result. When he had least expected +to find one, Fate had thrown a clue in Bristol's way. He reflected +grimly that it was like to prove of little use to him. + +"Now," said Dexter, "you can do as you please, of course, but you +know me pretty well and I advise you to sit quiet." + +"I am sitting quiet!" was the reply. + +"I am sorry," continued Dexter, with a quick glance at his maimed +arm, "that I can't tie you up, but I am expecting a friend any +moment now." + +He suddenly raised the wicket with a twitch of his elbow and, +without removing his gaze from the watchful detective, cried +sharply-- + +"Carter!" + +But there was no reply. + +"Good; he's gone!" + +Dexter sat down facing Bristol. + +"I have lost my hand in this game, Mr. Bristol," he said genially, +"and had some narrow squeaks of losing my head; but having gone so +far and lost so much I'm going through, if I don't meet a funeral! +You see I'm up against two tough propositions." + +Bristol nodded sympathetically. + +"The first," continued Dexter, "is you and Cavanagh, and English +law generally. My idea--if I can get hold of the slipper again--oh! you +needn't stare; I'm out for it!--is to get the Antiquarian +Institution to ransom it. It's a line of commercial speculation I +have worked successfully before. There's a dozen rich highbrows, +cranks to a man, connected with it, and they are my likeliest +buyers--sure. But to keep the tone of the market healthy there's +Hassan of Aleppo, rot him! He's a dangerous customer to approach, +but you'll note I've been in negotiation with him already and am +still, if not booming, not much below par!" + +"Quite so," said Bristol. "But you've cut off a pretty hefty chew +nevertheless. They used to call you The Stetson Man, you used to +dress like a fashion plate and stop at the big hotels. Those days +are past, Dexter, I'm sorry to note. You're down to the skulking +game now and you're nearer an advert for Clarkson than Stein-Bloch!" + +"Yep," said Dexter sadly, "I plead guilty, but I think here's +Carneta!" + +Bristol heard the door of the outer office open, and a moment later +that upon which his gaze was set opened in turn, to admit a girl +who was heavily veiled, and who started and stood still in the +doorway, on perceiving the situation. Never for one unguarded +moment did the American glance aside from his prisoner. + +"The Inspector's dropped in, Carneta!" he drawled in his strident +way. "You're handy with a ball of twine; see if you can induce +him to stay the night!" + +The girl, immediately recovering her composure, took off her hat +in a businesslike way and began to look around her, evidently in +search of a suitable length of rope with which to fasten up Bristol. + +"Might I suggest," said the detective, "that if you are shortly +quitting these offices a couple of the window-cords neatly joined +would serve admirably?" + +"Thanks," drawled Dexter, nodding to his companion, who went into +the outer office, where she might be heard lowering the windows. +She was gone but a few moments ere she returned again, carrying a +length of knotted rope. Under cover of Dexter's revolver, Bristol +stoically submitted to having his wrists tied behind him. The end +of the line was then thrown through the ventilator above the door +which communicated with the outer office and Bristol was triced up +in such a way that, his wrists being raised behind him to an +uncomfortable degree, he was almost forced to stand upon tiptoe. +The line was then secured. + +"Very workmanlike!" commented the victim. "You'll find a large +handkerchief in my inside breast pocket. It's a clean one, and +I can recommend it as a gag!" + +Very promptly it was employed for the purpose, and Inspector +Bristol found himself helpless and constrained in a very painful +position. Dexter laid down his revolver. + +"We will now give you a free show, Inspector," he said, genially, +"of our camera obscura!" + +He pulled down the blinds, which Bristol noted with interest to be +black, but through an opening in one of them a mysterious ray of +light--the same that he had noticed from Fleet Street--shone upon +that point in the ceiling where the arrangement of mirrors was +attached. Dexter made some alteration, apparently in the focus of +the lens (for Bristol had divined that in some way a lens had been +fixed in the reflector above the bank window below) and the disc +of light became concentrated. The white-covered table was moved +slightly, and in the darkness some further manipulation was +performed. + +"Observe," came the strident voice--"we now have upon the screen +here a minute moving picture. This little device, which is not +protected in any way, is of my own invention, and proved extremely +useful in the Arkwright jewel case, which startled Chicago. It has +proved useful now. I know almost as much concerning the +arrangements below as the manager himself. In confidence, Inspector, +this is my last bid for the slipper! I have plunged on it. Madame +Sforza, the distinguished Italian lady who recently opened an +account below, opened it for 500 pounds cash. She has drawn a +portion, but a balance remains which I am resigned to lose. Her +motor-car (hired), her references (forged), the case of jewels which +she deposited this morning (duds!)--all represent a considerable +outlay. It's a nerve-racking line of operation, too. Any hour of +the day may bring such a visitor as yourself, for example. In short, +I am at the end of my tether." + +Bristol, ignoring the increasing pain in his arms and wrists, turned +his eyes upon the white-covered table and there saw a minute and +clear-cut picture, such as one sees in a focussing screen, of the +interior of the manager's office of the London County and Provincial +Bank! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE STRONG-ROOM + + +I wonder how often a sense of humour has saved a man from +desperation? Perhaps only the Easterns have thoroughly appreciated +that divine gift. I have interpolated the adventure of Inspector +Bristol in order that the sequence of my story be not broken; +actually I did not learn it until later, but when, on the following +day, the whole of the facts came into my possession, I laughed and +was glad that I could laugh, for laughter has saved many a man from +madness. + +Certainly the Fates were playing with us, for at a time very nearly +corresponding with that when Bristol found himself bound and +helpless in Bank Chambers I awoke to find myself tied hand and foot +to my own bed! Nothing but the haziest recollections came to me at +first, nothing but dim memories of the awful being who had lured me +there; for I perceived now that all the messages proceeded, not from +Bristol, but from Hassan of Aleppo! I had been a fool, and I was +reaping the fruits of my folly. Could I have known that almost +within pistol shot of me the Inspector was trussed up as helpless as +I, then indeed my situation must have become unbearable, since upon +him I relied for my speedy release. + +My ankles were firmly lashed to the rails at the foot of my bed; +each of my wrists was tied back to a bedpost. I ached in every limb +and my head burned feverishly, which latter symptom I ascribed to +the powerful drug which had been expelled into my face by the +uncanny weapon carried by Hassan of Aleppo. I reflected bitterly +how, having transferred my quarters to the Astoria, I could not well +hope for any visitor to my chambers; and even the event of such a +visitor had been foreseen and provided against by the cunning lord +of the Hashishin. A gag, of the type which Dumas has described in +"Twenty Years After," the poire d'angoisse, was wedged firmly into +my mouth, so that only by preserving the utmost composure could I +breathe. I was bathed in cold perspiration. So I lay listening to +the familiar sounds without and reflecting that it was quite +possible so to lie, undisturbed, and to die alone, my presence there +wholly unsuspected! + +Once, toward dusk, my phone bell rang, and my state of mind became +agonizing. It was maddening to think that someone, a friend, was +virtually within reach of me, yet actually as far removed as if an +ocean divided us! I tasted the hellish torments of Tantalus. I +cursed fate, heaven, everything; I prayed; I sank into bottomless +depths of despair and rose to dizzy pinnacles of hope, when a +footstep sounded on the landing and a thousand wild possibilities, +vague possibilities of rescue, poured into my mind. + +The visitor hesitated, apparently outside my door; and a change, as +sudden as lightning out of a cloud, transformed my errant fancies. +A gruesome conviction seized me, as irrational as the hope which it +displayed, that this was one of the Hashishin--an apish yellow +dwarf, a strangler, the awful Hassan himself! + +The footsteps receded down the stairs. And my thoughts reverted +into the old channels of dull despair. + +I weighed the chances of Bristol's seeking me there; and, eager as +I was to give them substance, found them but airy--ultimately was +forced to admit them to be nil. + +So I lay, whilst only a few hundred yards from me a singular scene +was being enacted. Bristol, a prisoner as helpless as myself, +watched the concluding business of the day being conducted in the +bank beneath him; he watched the lift descend to the strongroom--the +spying apparatus being slightly adjusted in some way; he saw +the clerks hastening to finish their work in the outer office, and +as he watched, absorbed by the novelty of the situation, he almost +forgot the pain and discomfort which he suffered... + +"This little peep-show of ours has been real useful," Dexter +confided out of the darkness. "I got an impression of the key of +the strongroom door a week ago, and Carneta got one of the keys of +the safe only this morning, when she lodged her box of jewellery +with the bank! I was at work on that key when you interrupted me, +and as by means of this useful apparatus I have learnt the +combination, you ought to see some fun in the next few hours!" + +Bristol repressed a groan, for the prospect of remaining in that +position was thus brought keenly home to him. + +The bank staff left the premises one by one until only a solitary +clerk worked on at a back desk. His task completed, he, too, took +his departure and the bank messenger commenced his nightly duty of +sweeping up the offices. It was then that excitement like an +anaesthetic dulled the detective's pain--indeed, he forgot his +aching body and became merely a watchful intelligence. + +So intent had he become upon the picture before him that he had not +noticed the fact that he was alone in the office of the Congo Fibre +Company. Now he realized it from the absolute silence about him, +and from another circumstance. + +The spying apparatus had been left focussed, and on to the screen +beneath his eyes, bending low behind the desks and creeping, +Indian-like, around, toward the head of the stair which communicated +with the strongroom and the apartment used by the messenger, came the +alert figure of Earl Dexter! + +It may be a surprise to some people to learn that at any time in +the day the door of a bank, unguarded, should be left open, when +only a solitary messenger is within the premises; yet for a few +minutes at least each evening this happens at more than one City +bank, where one of the duties of the resident messenger is to clean +the outer steps. Dexter had taken advantage of the man's absence +below in quest of scrubbing material to enter the bank through the +open door. + +Watching, breathless, and utterly forgetful of his own position, +Bristol saw the messenger, all unconscious of danger, come up the +stairs carrying a pail and broom. As his head reached the level +of the railings The Stetson Man neatly sand-bagged him, rushed +across to the outer door, and closed it! + +Given duplicate keys and the private information which Dexter so +ingeniously had obtained, there are many London banks vulnerable to +similar attack. Certainly, bullion is rarely kept in a branch +storeroom, but the detective was well aware that the keys of the +case containing the slipper were kept in this particular safe! + +He was convinced, and could entertain no shadowy doubt, that at +last Dexter had triumphed. He wondered if it had ever hitherto +fallen to the lot of a representative of the law thus to be made +an accessory to a daring felony! + +But human endurance has well-defined limits. The fading light +rendered the ingenious picture dim and more dim. The pain +occasioned by his position became agonizing, and uttering a stifled +groan he ceased to take an interest in the robbery of the London +County and Provincial Bank. + +Fate is a comedian; and when later I learned how I had lain strapped +to my bed, and, so near to me, Bristol had hung helpless as a +butchered carcass in the office of the Congo Fibre Company, whilst, +in our absence from the stage, the drama of the slipper marched +feverish to its final curtain, I accorded Fate her well-earned +applause. I laughed; not altogether mirthfully. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE SLIPPER + + +Someone was breaking in at the door of my chambers! + +I aroused myself from a state of coma almost death-like and listened +to the blows. The sun was streaming in at my windows. + +A splintering crash told of a panel broken. Then a moment later I +heard the grating of the lock, and a rush of footsteps along the +passage. + +"Try the study!" came a voice that sounded like Bristol's, save that +it was strangely weak and shaky. + +Almost simultaneously the Inspector himself threw open the bedroom +door--and, very pale and haggard-eyed, stood there looking across at +me. It was a scene unforgettable. + +"Mr. Cavanagh!" he said huskily--"Mr. Cavanagh! Thank God you're +alive! But"--he turned--"this way, Marden!" he cried, "Untie him +quickly! I've got no strength in my arms!" + +Marden, a C.I.D. man, came running, and in a minute, or less, I was +sitting up gulping brandy. + +"I've had the most awful experience of my life," said Bristol. +"You've fared badly enough, but I've been hanging by my wrists--you +know Dexter's trick!--for close upon sixteen hours! I wasn't +released until Carter, an office boy, came on the scene this morning!" + +Very feebly I nodded; I could not talk. + +"The strong-room of your bank was rifled under my very eyes last +evening!" he continued, with something of his old vigour; "and five +minutes after the Antiquarian Museum was opened to the public this +morning quite an unusual number of visitors appeared. + +"I saw the bank manager the moment he arrived, and learned a piece +of news that positively took my breath away! I was at the Museum +seven minutes later and got another shock! There in the case was +the red slipper!" + +"Then," I whispered-"it hadn't been stolen?" + +"Wrong! It had! This was a duplicate, as Mostyn, the curator, saw +at a glance! Some of the early visitors--they were Easterns--had +quite surrounded the case. They were watched, of course, but any +number of Orientals come to see the thing; and, short of smashing +the glass, which would immediately attract attention, the authorities +were unprepared, of course, for any attempt. Anyway, they were +tricked. Somebody opened the case. The real slipper of the Prophet +is gone!" + +"They told you at the bank--" + +"That you had withdrawn the keys! If Dexter had known that!" + +"Hassan of Aleppo took them from me last night! At last the +Hashishin have triumphed." + +Bristol sank into the armchair. + +"Every port is watched," he said. "But--" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +CARNETA + + +"I am entirely at your mercy; you can do as you please with me. But +before you do anything I should like you to listen to what I have +to say." + +Her beautiful face was pale and troubled. Violet eyes looked sadly +into mine. + +"For nearly an hour I have been waiting for this chance--until I +knew you were alone," she continued. "If you are thinking of giving +me up to the police, at least remember that I came here of my own +free will. Of course, I know you are quite entitled to take +advantage of that; but please let me say what I came to say!" + +She pleaded so hard, with that musical voice, with her evident +helplessness, most of all with her wonderful eyes, that I quite +abandoned any project I might have entertained to secure her arrest. +I think she divined this masculine weakness, for she said, with +greater confidence-- + +"Your friend, Professor Deeping, was murdered by the man called +Hassan of Aleppo. Are you content to remain idle while his murderer +escapes?" + +God knows I was not. My idleness in the matter was none of my +choosing. Since poor Deeping's murder I had come to handgrips +with the assassins more than once, but Hassan had proved too clever +for me, too clever for Scotland Yard. The sacred slipper was once +more in the hands of its fanatic guardian. + +One man there was who might have helped the search, Earl Dexter. +But Earl Dexter was himself wanted by Scotland Yard! + +From the time of the bank affair up to the moment when this +beautiful visitor had come to my chambers I had thought Dexter, as +well as Hassan, to have fled secretly from England. But the moment +that I saw Carneta at my door I divined that The Stetson Man must +still be in London. + +She sat watching me and awaiting my answer. + +"I cannot avenge my friend unless I can find his murderer." + +Eagerly she bent forward. + +"But if I can find him?" + +That made me think, and I hesitated before speaking again. + +"Say what you came to say," I replied slowly. "You must know that +I distrust you. Indeed, my plain duty is to detain you. But I will +listen to anything you may care to tell me, particularly if it +enables me to trap Hassan of Aleppo." + +"Very well," she said, and rested her elbows upon the table before +her. "I have come to you in desperation. I can help you to find +the man who murdered Professor Deeping, but in return I want you to +help me!" + +I watched her closely. She was very plainly, almost poorly, dressed. +Her face was pale and there were dark marks around her eyes. This +but served to render their strange beauty more startling; yet I +could see that my visitor was in real trouble. The situation was an +odd one. + +"You are possibly about to ask me," I suggested, "to assist Earl +Dexter to escape the police?" + +She shook her head. Her voice trembled as she replied-- + +"That would not have induced me to run the risk of coming here. I +came because I wanted to find a man who was brave enough to help me. +We have no friends in London, and so it became a question of terms. +I can repay you by helping you to trace Hassan." + +"What is it, then, that Dexter asks me to do?" + +"He asks nothing. I, Carneta, am asking!" + +"Then you are not come from him?" + +At my question, all her self-possession left her. She abruptly +dropped her face into her hands and was shaken with sobs! It was +more than I could bear, unmoved. I forgot the shady past, forgot +that she was the associate of a daring felon, and could only realize +that she was a weeping woman, who had appealed to my pity and who +asked my aid. + +I stood up and stared out of the window, for I experienced a not +unnatural embarrassment. Without looking at her I said-- + +"Don't be afraid to tell me your troubles. I don't say I should go +out of my way to be kind to Mr. Dexter, but I have no wish whatever +to be instrumental in"--I hesitated--"in making you responsible +for his misdeeds. If you can tell me where to find Hassan of +Aleppo, I won't even ask you where Dexter is--" + +"God help me! I don't know where he is!" + +There was real, poignant anguish in her cry. I turned and +confronted her. Her lashes were all wet with tears. + +"What! has he disappeared?" + +She nodded, fought with her emotion a moment, and went on unsteadily, + +"I want you to help me to find him for in finding him we shall find +Hassan!" + +"How so?" + +Her gaze avoided me now. + +"Mr. Cavanagh, he has staked everything upon securing the slipper--and +the Hashishin were too clever for him. His hand--those +Eastern fiends cut off his hand! But he would not give in. He +made another bid--and lost again. It left him almost penniless." + +She spoke of Earl Dexter's felonious plans as another woman might +have spoken of her husband's unwise investments! It was fantastic +hearing that confession of The Stetson Man's beautiful partner, and +I counted the interview one of the strangest I had ever known. + +A sudden idea came to me. "When did Dexter first conceive the plan +to steal the slipper?" I asked. + +"In Egypt!" answered Carneta. "Yes! You may as well know! He is +thoroughly familiar with the East, and he learned of the robbery of +Professor Deeping almost as soon as it became known to Hassan. I +know what you are going to ask--" + +"Ahmad Ahmadeen!" + +"Yes! He travelled home as Ahmadeen--the only time he ever used +a disguise. Oh! the thing is accursed!" she cried. "I begged him, +implored him, to abandon his attempts upon it. Day and night we +were watched by those ghastly yellow men! But it was all in vain. +He knew, had known for a long time, where Hassan of Aleppo was in +hiding!" + +And I reflected that the best men at New Scotland Yard had failed +to pick up the slightest clue! + +"The Hashishin, of whom that dreadful man is leader, are rich, or +have supporters who are rich. The plan was to make them pay for +the slipper." + +"My God! it was playing with fire!" + +She sat silent awhile. Emotion threatened to get the upper hand. +Then-- + +"Two days ago," she almost whispered, "he set out--to ... get the +slipper!" + +"To steal it?" + +"To steal it!" + +"From Hassan of Aleppo?" + +I could scarcely believe that any man, single-handed, could have +had the hardihood to attempt such a thing. + +"From Hassan, yes!" + +I faced her, amazed, incredulous. + +"Dexter had suffered mutilation, he knew that the Hashishin sought +his life for his previous attempts upon the relic of the Prophet, +and yet he dared to venture again into the very lions' den?" + +"He did, Mr. Cavanagh, two days ago. And--" + +"Yes?" I urged, as gently as I could, for she was shaking pitifully. + +"He never came back!" + +The words were spoken almost in a whisper. She clenched her hands +and leapt from the chair, fighting down her grief and with such a +stark horror in her beautiful eyes that from my very soul I longed +to be able to help her. + +"Mr. Cavanagh" (she had courage, this bewildering accomplice of a +cracksman), "I know the house he went to! I cannot hope to make you +understand what I have suffered since then. A thousand times I have +been on the point of going to the police, confessing all I knew, and +leading them to that house! O God! if only he is alive, this shall +be his last crooked deal--and mine! I dared not go to the police, +for his sake! I waited, and watched, and hoped, through two such +nights and days ... then I ventured. I should have gone mad if I +had not come here. I knew you had good cause to hate, to detest me, +but I remembered that you had a great grievance against Hassan. Not +as great, O heaven! not as great as mine, but yet a great one. I +remembered, too, that you were the kind of man--a woman can come +to..." + +She sank back into the chair, and with her fingers twining and +untwining, sat looking dully before her. + +"In brief," I said, "what do you propose?" + +"I propose that we endeavour to obtain admittance to the house of +Hassan of Aleppo--secretly, of course, and all I ask of you in +return for revealing the secret of its situation is--" + +"That I let Dexter go free?" + +Almost inaudibly she whispered: "If he lives!" + +Surely no stranger proposition ever had been submitted to a +law-abiding citizen. I was asked to connive in the escape of a +notorious criminal, and at one and the same time to embark upon an +expedition patently burglarious! As though this were not enough, +I was invited to beard Hassan of Aleppo, the most dreadful being I +had ever encountered East or West, in his mysterious stronghold! + +I wondered what my friend, Inspector Bristol, would have thought of +the project; I wondered if I should ever live to see Hassan meet his +just deserts as a result of this enterprise, which I was forced to +admit a foolhardy one. But a man who has selected the career of a +war correspondent from amongst those which Fleet Street offers, is +the victim of a certain craving for fresh experiences; I suppose, +has in his character something of an adventurous turn. + +For a while I stood staring from the window, then faced about and +looked into the violet eyes of my visitor. + +"I agree, Carneta!" I said. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +WE MEET MR. ISAACS + + +Quitting the wayside station, and walking down a short lane, we came +out upon Watling Street, white and dusty beneath the afternoon sun. +We were less than an hour's train journey from London but found +ourselves amid the Kentish hop gardens, amid a rural peace unbroken. +My companion carried a camera case slung across her shoulder, but +its contents were less innocent than one might have supposed. In +fact, it contained a neat set of those instruments of the burglar's +art with whose use she appeared to be quite familiar. + +"There is an inn," she said, "about a mile ahead, where we can +obtain some vital information. He last wrote to me from there." + +Side by side we tramped along the dusty road. We both were silent, +occupied with our own thoughts. Respecting the nature of my +companion's I could entertain little doubt, and my own turned upon +the foolhardy nature of the undertaking upon which I was embarked. +No other word passed between us then, until upon rounding a bend +and passing a cluster of picturesque cottages, the yard of the +Vinepole came into view. + +"Do they know you by sight here?" I asked abruptly. + +"No, of course not; we never made strategic mistakes of that kind. +If we have tea here, no doubt we can learn all we require." + +I entered the little parlour of the inn, and suggested that tea +should be served in the pretty garden which opened out of it upon +the right. + +The host, who himself laid the table, viewed the camera case +critically. + +"We get a lot of photographers down here," he remarked tentatively. + +"No doubt," said my companion. "There is some very pretty scenery +in the neighbourhood." + +The landlord rested his hands upon the table. + +"There was a gentleman here on Wednesday last," he said; "an old +gentleman who had met with an accident, and was staying somewhere +hereabouts for his health. But he'd got his camera with him, and +it was wonderful the way he could use it, considering he hadn't got +the use of his right hand." + +"He must have been a very keen photographer," I said, glancing at +the girl beside me. + +"He took three or four pictures of the Vinepole," replied the +landlord (which I doubted, since probably his camera was a dummy); +"and he wanted to know if there were any other old houses in the +neighbourhood. I told him he ought to take Cadham Hall, and he said +he had heard that the Gate House, which is about a mile from here, +was one of the oldest buildings about." + +A girl appeared with a tea tray, and for a moment I almost feared +that the landlord was about to retire; but he lingered, whilst the +girl distributed the things about the table, and Carneta asked +casually, "Would there be time for me to photograph the Gate House +before dark?" + +"There might be time," was the reply, "but that's not the difficulty. +Mr. Isaacs is the difficulty." + +"Who is Mr. Isaacs?" I asked. + +"He's the Jewish gentleman who bought the Gate House recently. Lots +of money he's got and a big motor car. He's up and down to London +almost every day in the week, but he won't let anybody take +photographs of the house. I know several who've asked." + +"But I thought," said Carneta, innocently, "you said the old +gentleman who was here on Wednesday went to take some?" + +"He went, yes, miss; but I don't know if he succeeded." + +Carneta poured out some tea. + +"Now that you speak of it," she said, "I too have heard that the +Gate House is very picturesque. What objection can Mr. Isaacs +have to photographers?" + +"Well, you see, miss, to get a picture of the house, you have to +pass right through the grounds." + +"I should walk right up to the house and ask permission. Is Mr. +Isaacs at home, I wonder?" + +"I couldn't say. He hasn't passed this way to-day." + +"We might meet him on the way," said I. "What is he like?" + +"A Jewish gentleman sir, very dark, with a white beard. Wears +gold glasses. Keeps himself very much to himself. I don't know +anything about his household; none of them ever come here." + +Carneta inquired the direction of Cadham Hall and of the Gate House, +and the landlord left us to ourselves. My companion exhibited +signs of growing agitation, and it seemed to me that she had much +ado to restrain herself from setting out without a moment's delay +for the Gate House, which, I readily perceived, was the place to +which our strange venture was leading us. + +I found something very stimulating in the reflection that, rash +though the expedition might be, and, viewed from whatever standpoint, +undeniably perilous, it promised to bring me to that secret +stronghold of deviltry where the sinister Hassan of Aleppo so +successfully had concealed himself. + +The work of the modern journalist had many points of contact with +that of the detective; and since the murder of Professor Deeping I +had succumbed to the man-hunting fever more than once. I knew that +Scotland Yard had failed to locate the hiding-place of the +remarkable and evil man who, like an efreet of Oriental lore, obeyed +the talisman of the stolen slipper, striking down whomsoever laid +hand upon its sacredness. It was a novel sensation to know that, +aided by this beautiful accomplice of a rogue, I had succeeded where +the experts had failed! + +Misgivings I had and shall not deny. If our scheme succeeded it +would mean that Deeping's murderer should be brought to justice. +If it failed-well, frankly, upon that possibility I did not dare to +reflect! + +It must be needless for me to say that we two strangely met allies +were ill at ease, sometimes to the point of embarrassment. We +proceeded on our way in almost unbroken silence, and, save for a +couple of farm hands, without meeting any wayfarer, up to the time +that we reached the brow of the hill and had our first sight of the +Gate House lying in a little valley beneath. It was a small Tudor +mansion, very compact in plan and its roof glowed redly in the +rays of the now setting sun. + +From the directions given by the host of the Vinepole it was +impossible to mistake the way or to mistake the house. Amid +well-wooded grounds it stood, a place quite isolated, but so +typically English that, as I stood looking down upon it, I found +myself unable to believe that any other than a substantial country +gentleman could be its proprietor. + +I glanced at Carneta. Her violet eyes were burning feverishly, but +her lips twitched in a bravely pitiful way. + +Clearly now my adventure lay before me; that red-roofed homestead +seemed to have rendered it all substantial which hitherto had been +shadowy; and I stood there studying the Gate House gravely, for it +might yet swallow me up, as apparently it had swallowed Earl Dexter. + +There, amid that peaceful Kentish landscape, fantasy danced and +horrors unknown lurked in waiting... + +The eminence upon which we were commanded an extensive prospect, +and eastward showed a tower and flagstaff which marked the site of +Cadham Hall. There were homeward-bound labourers to be seen in the +lanes now, and where like a white ribbon the Watling Street lay +across the verdant carpet moved an insect shape, speedily. + +It was a car, and I watched it with vague interest. At a point +where a dense coppice spread down to the roadway and a lane crossed +west to east, the car became invisible. Then I saw it again, nearer +to us and nearer to the Gate House. Finally it disappeared among +the trees. + +I turned to Carneta. She, too, had been watching. Now her gaze met +mine. + +"Mr. Isaacs!" she said; and her voice was less musical than usual. +"His chauffeur, who learned his business in Cairo, is probably the +only one of his servants who remains in England." + +"What!" I began--and said no more. + +Where the road upon which we stood wound down into the valley and +lost itself amid the trees surrounding the Gate House, the car +suddenly appeared again, and began to mount the slope toward us! + +"Heavens!" whispered Carneta. "He may have seen us--with glasses! +Quick! Let us walk back until the hill-top conceals us; then we +must hide somewhere!" + +I shared her excitement. Without a moment's hesitation we both +turned and retraced our steps. Twenty paces brought us to a +spot where a stack of mangel wurzels stood at the roadside. + +"This will do!" I said. + +We ran around into the field, and crouched where we could peer out +on the road without ourselves being seen. Nor had we taken up this +position a moment too soon. + +Topping the slope came a light-weight electric, driven by a man who, +in his spruce uniform, might have passed at a glance for a very +dusky European. The car had a limousine back, and as the chauffeur +slowed down, out from the open windows right and left peered the +solitary occupant. + +He had the cast of countenance which is associated with the best +type of Jew, with clear-cut aquiline features wholly destitute of +grossness. His white beard was patriarchal and he wore gold-rimmed +pince-nez and a glossy silk hat. Such figures may often be met +with in the great money-markets of the world, and Mr. Isaacs would +have passed for a successful financier in even more discerning +communities than that of Cadham. + +But I scarcely breathed until the car was past; and, beside me, my +companion, crouching to the ground, was trembling wildly. Fifty +yards toward the village Mr. Isaacs evidently directed the man to +return. + +The car was put about, and flashed past us at high speed down into +the valley. When the sound of the humming motor had died to +something no louder than the buzz of a sleepy wasp, I held out my +hand to Carneta and she rose, pale, but with blazing eyes, and +picked up her camera case. + +"If he had detected us, everything would have been lost!" she +whispered. + +"Not everything!" I replied grimly--and showed her the revolver +which I had held in my hand whilst those eagle eyes had been +seeking us. "If he had made a sign to show that he had seen us, in +fact, if he had once offered a safe mark by leaning from the car, I +should have shot him dead without hesitation!" + +"We must not show ourselves again, but wait for dusk. He must have +seen us, then, on the hilltop, but I hope without recognizing us. +He has the sight and instincts of a vulture!" + +I nodded, slipping the revolver into my pocket, but I wondered if I +should not have been better advised to have risked a shot at the +moment that I had recognized "Mr. Isaacs" for Hassan of Aleppo. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +AT THE GATE HOUSE + + +From sunset to dusk I lurked about the neighbourhood of the Gate +House with my beautiful accomplice--watching and waiting: a man +bound upon stranger business, I dare swear, than any other in the +county of Kent that night. + +Our endeavour now was to avoid observation by any one, and in this, +I think, we succeeded. At the same time, Carneta, upon whose +experience I relied implicitly, regarded it as most important that +we should observe (from a safe distance) any one who entered or +quitted the gates. + +But none entered, and none came out. When, finally, we made along +the narrow footpath skirting the west of the grounds, the night was +silent--most strangely still. + +The trees met overhead, but no rustle disturbed their leaves and of +animal life no indication showed itself. There was no moon. + +A full appreciation of my mad folly came to me, and with it a sense +of heavy depression. This stillness that ruled all about the house +which sheltered the awful Sheikh of the Assassins was ominous, I +thought. In short, my nerves were playing me tricks. + +"We have little to fear," said my companion, speaking in a hushed +and quivering voice. "The whole of the party left England some +days ago." + +"Are you sure?" + +"Certain! We learned that before Earl made his attempt. Hassan +remains, for some reason; Hassan and one other--the one who drives +the car." + +"But the slipper?" + +"If Hassan remains, so does the slipper!" From the knapsack, which, +as you will have divined, did not contain a camera, she took out an +electric pocket lamp, and directed its beam upon the hedge above us. + +"There is a gap somewhere here!" she said. "See if you can find it. +I dare not show the light too long." + +Darkness followed. I clambered up the bank and sought for the +opening of which Carneta had spoken. + +"The light here a moment," I whispered. "I think I have it!" + +Out shone the white beam, and momentarily fell upon a black hole in +the thickset hedge. The light disappeared, and as I extended my +hand to Carneta she grasped it and climbed up beside me. + +"Put on your rubber shoes," she directed. "Leave the others here." + +There in the darkness I did as she directed, for I was provided with +a pair of tennis shoes. Carneta already was suitably shod. + +"I will go first," I said. "What is the ground like beyond?" + +"Just unkempt bushes and weeds." + +Upon hands and knees I crawled through, saw dimly that there was a +short descent, corresponding with the ascent from the lane, and +turned, whispering to my fellow conspirator to follow. + +The grounds proved even more extensive than I had anticipated. We +pressed on, dodging low-sweeping branches and keeping our arms up to +guard our faces from outshoots of thorn bushes. Our progress +necessarily was slow, but even so quite a long time seemed to have +elapsed ere we came in sight of the house. + +This was my first expedition of the kind; and now that my goal was +actually in sight I became conscious of a sort of exultation hard +to describe. My companion, on the contrary, seemed to have become +icily cool. When next she spoke, her voice had a businesslike ring, +which revealed the fact that she was no amateur at this class of +work. + +"Wait here," she directed. "I am going to pass all around the +house, and I will rejoin you." + +I could see her but dimly, and she moved off as silent as an Indian +deer-stalker, leaving me alone there crouching at the extreme edge +of the thicket. I looked out over a small wilderness of unkempt +flower-beds; so much it was just possible to perceive. The plants +in many instances had spread on to the pathways and contested +survival with the flourishing weeds. All was wild--deserted--eerie. + +A sense of dampness assailed me, and I raised my eyes to the +low-lying building wherein no light showed, no sign of life was +evident. The nearer wing presented a verandah apparently overgrown +by some climbing plant, the nature of which it was impossible to +determine in the darkness. + +The zest for the nocturnal operation which temporarily had thrilled +me succumbed now to loneliness. With keen anxiety I awaited the +return of my more experienced accomplice. The situation was +grotesque, utterly bizarre; but even my sense of humour could not +save me from the growing dread which this seemingly deserted place +poured into my heart. + +When upon the right I heard a faint rustling I started, and grasped +the revolver in my pocket. + +"Not a sound!" came in Carneta's voice. "Keep just inside the +bushes and come this way. There is something I want to show you." + +The various profuse growths rendered concealment simple enough--if +indeed any other concealment were necessary than that which the +strangely black night afforded. Just within the evil-smelling +thicket we made a half circuit of the building, and stopped. + +"Look!" whispered Carneta. + +The word was unnecessary, for I was staring fixedly in the direction +of that which evidently had occasioned her uneasiness. + +It was a small square window, so low-set that I assumed it to be +that of a cellar, and heavily cross-barred. + +From it, out upon a tangled patch of vegetation, shone a dull red +light! + +"There's no other light in the place," my companion whispered. +"For God's sake, what can it be?" + +My mind supplied no explanation. The idea that it might be a dark +room no doubt was suggested by the assumed role of Carneta; but I +knew that idea to be absurd. The red light meant something else. + +Evidently the commencing of operations before all lights were out +was irregular, for Carneta said slowly-- + +"We must wait and watch the light. There was formerly a moat +around the Gate House; that must be the window of a dungeon." + +I little relished the prospect of waiting in that swamp-like spot, +but since no alternative presented itself I accepted the inevitable. +For close upon an hour we stood watching the red window. No sound +of bird, beast, or man disturbed our vigil; in fact, it would +appear that the very insects shunned the neighbourhood of Hassan of +Aleppo. But the red light still shone out. + +"We must risk it!" said Carneta steadily. "There are French windows +opening on to that verandah. Ten yards farther around the bushes +come right up to the wall of the house. We'll go that way and +around by the other wing on to the verandah." + +Any action was preferable to this nerve-sapping delay, and with a +determination to shoot, and shoot to kill, any one who opposed +our entrance, I passed through the bushes and, with Carneta, rounded +the southern border of that silent house and slipped quietly on to +the verandah. + +Kneeling, Carneta opened the knapsack. My eyes were growing +accustomed to the darkness, and I was just able to see her deft +hands at work upon the fastenings. She made no noise, and I +watched her with an ever-growing wonder. A female burglar is a +personage difficult to imagine. Certainly, no one ever could have +suspected this girl with the violet eyes of being an expert +crackswoman; but of her efficiency there could be no question. I +think I had never witnessed a more amazing spectacle than that of +this cultured girl manipulating the tools of the house breaker with +her slim white fingers. + +Suddenly she turned and clutched my arm. + +"The windows are not fastened!" she whispered. + +A strange courage came to me--perhaps that of desperation. For, +ignoring the ominous circumstance, I pushed open the nearest +window and stepped into the room beyond! A hissing breath from +Carneta acknowledged my performance, and she entered close behind +me, silent in her rubber-soled shoes. + +For one thrilling moment we stood listening. Then came the white +beam from the electric lamp to cut through the surrounding blackness. + +The room was totally unfurnished! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE POOL OF DEATH + + +Not a sound broke the stillness of the Gate House. It was the most +eerily silent place in which I had ever found myself. Out into the +corridor we went, noiselessly. It was stripped, uncarpeted. + +Three doors we passed, two upon the left and one upon the right. +We tried them all. All were unfastened, and the rooms into which +they opened bare and deserted. Then we came upon a short, descending +stair, at its foot a massive oaken door. + +Carneta glided down, noiseless as a ghost, and to one of the +blackened panels applied an ingenious little instrument which she +carried in her knapsack. It was not unlike a stethoscope; and as I +watched her listening, by means of this arrangement, for any sound +beyond the oaken door, I reflected how almost every advance made by +science places a new tool in the hand of the criminal. + +No word had been spoken since we had discovered this door; none had +been necessary. For we both knew that the place beyond was that +from which proceeded the mysterious red light. + +I directed the ray of the electric torch upon Carneta, as she stood +there listening, and against that sombre oaken background her face +and profile stood out with startling beauty. She seemed half +perplexed and half fearful. Then she abruptly removed the apparatus, +and, stooping to the knapsack, replaced it and took out a bunch of +wire keys, signing to me to hand her the lamp. + +As I crept down the steps I saw her pause, glancing back over her +shoulder toward the door. The expression upon her face induced +me to direct the light in the same direction. + +Why neither of us had observed the fact before I cannot conjecture; +but a key was in the lock! + +Perhaps the traffic of the night afforded no more dramatic moment +than this. The house which we were come prepared burglariously +to enter was thrown open, it would seem, to us, inviting our +inspection! + +Looking back upon that moment, it seems almost incredible that the +sight of a key in a lock should have so thrilled me. But at the +time I perceived something sinister in this failure of the Lord of +the Hashishin to close his doors to intruders. That Carneta shared +my doubts and fears was to be read in her face; but her training +had been peculiar, I learned, and such as establishes a surprising +resoluteness of character. + +Quite noiselessly she turned the key, and holding a dainty pocket +revolver in her hand, pushed the door open slowly! + +An odour, sickly sweet and vaguely familiar, was borne to my +nostrils. Carneta became outlined in dim, reddish light. Bending +forward slightly, she entered the room, and I, with muscles tensed +nervously, advanced and stood beside her. + +I perceived that this was a cellar; indeed, I doubt not that in +some past age it had served as a dungeon. From the stone roof hung +the first evidence of Eastern occupation which the Gate House had +yielded; in the form of an Oriental lantern, or fanoos, of +rose-coloured waxed paper upon a copper frame. Its vague light +revealed the interior of the hideous place upon whose threshold we +stood. + +Straight before us, deep set in the stone wall, was the tiny square +window, iron-barred without, and glazed with red glass, the light +from which had so deeply mystified us. Within a niche in the wall, +a little to the left of the window, rested an object which, at that +moment, claimed our undivided attention the sight of which so +wrought upon us that temporarily all else was forgotten. + +It was the red slipper of the Prophet! + +"My God!" whispered Carneta--"my God!"--and clutched at me, +swaying dizzily. + +A few inches from our feet the floor became depressed, how deeply +I could not determine, for it was filled with water, water filthy +and slimy! The strange, nauseating odour had grown all but +unsupportable; it seemingly proceeded from this fetid pool which, +occupying the floor of the dungeon, offered a barrier, since its +depth was unknown, of fully twelve feet between ourselves and the +farther wall. + +There was a faint, dripping sound: a whispering, echoing drip-drip +of falling water. I could not tell from whence it proceeded. + +Almost supporting my companion, whose courage seemed suddenly to +have failed her, I stared fascinatedly at that blood-stained +relic. Something then induced me to look behind; I suppose a +warning instinct of that sort which is unexplainable. I only know +that upholding Carneta with my left arm, and nervously grasping my +revolver in my right, I turned and glanced over my shoulder. + +Very slowly, but with a constant, regular motion, the massive door +was closing! + +I snatched away my arm; in my left hand I held the electric torch, +and springing sharply about I directed the searching ray into the +black gap of the stairway. A yellow face, a malignant Oriental +face, came suddenly, fully, into view! Instantly I recognized it +for that of the man who had driven Hassan's car! + +Acting upon the determination with which I had entered the Gate +House, I raised my revolver and fired straight between the evil +eyes! To the fact that I dropped my left hand in the act of +pulling the trigger with my right, and thus lost my mark, the +servant of Hassan of Aleppo owed his escape. I missed him. He +uttered a shrill cry of fear and went racing up the wooden stair. +I followed him with the light and fired twice at the retreating +figure. I heard him stumble and a second time cry out. But, +though I doubt not he was hit, he recovered himself, for I heard +his tread in the corridor above. + +Propping wide the door with my foot, I turned to Carneta. Her +face was drawn and haggard; but her mouth set in a sort of grim +determination. + +"Earl is dead!" she said, in a queer, toneless voice. "He died +trying to get--that thing! I will get it, and destroy it!" + +Before I could detain her, even had I sought to do so, she stepped +into the filthy water, struggled to recover her foothold, and sank +above her waist into its sliminess. Without hesitation she began +to advance toward the niche which contained the slipper. In the +middle of the pool she stopped. + +What memory it was which supplied the clue to the identity of that +nauseating smell, heaven alone knows; but as the girl stopped and +drew herself up rigidly--then turned and leapt wildly back toward +the door--I knew what occasioned that sickly odour! + +She screamed once, dreadfully--shrilly--a scream of agonizing +fear that I can never forget. Then, roughly I grasped her, for the +need was urgent--and dragged her out on to the floor beside me. +With her wet garments clinging to her limbs, she fell prostrate on +the stones. + +A yard from the brink the slimy water parted, and the yellow snout +of a huge crocodile was raised above the surface! The saurian eyes, +hungrily malevolent, rose next to view! + +The extremity of our danger found me suddenly cool. As the thing +drew its slimy body up out of the poor I waited. The jaws were +extended toward the prostrate body, were but inches removed from +it, dripped their saliva upon the soddened skirt--when I bent +forward, and at a range of some ten inches emptied the remaining +three loaded chambers of my revolver into the creature's left +eye! + +Upchurned in bloody foam became the water of that dreadful place.... +As one recalls the incidents of a fevered dream, I recall +dragging Carneta away from the contorted body of the death-stricken +reptile. A nightmare chaos of horrid, revolting sights and sounds +forms my only recollection of quitting the dungeon of the slipper. + +I succeeded in carrying her up the stairs and out through the empty +rooms on to the verandah; but there, from sheer exhaustion, I laid +her down. I had no means of reviving her and I lacked the strength +to carry her farther. Having recharged my revolver, I stood watching +her where she lay, wanly beautiful in the dim light. + +There was no doubt in my mind respecting the fate of Earl Dexter, +nor could I doubt that the slipper in the dungeon below was a +duplicate of the real one. It was a death-trap into which he had +lured Dexter and which he had left baited for whomsoever might trace +the cracksman to the Gate House. Why Hassan should have remained +behind, unless from fanatic lust of killing, I could not imagine. + +When at last the fresher night air had its effect, and Carneta +opened her eyes, I led her to the gates, nor did she offer the +slightest resistance, but looked dully before her, muttering over +and over again, "Earl, Earl!" + +The gates were open; we passed out on to the open road. No man +pursued us, and the night was gravely still. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +SIX GRAY PATCHES + + +When the invitation came from my old friend Hilton to spend a week +"roughing it" with him in Warwickshire I accepted with alacrity. +If ever a man needed a holiday I was that man. Nervous breakdown +threatened me at any moment; the ghastly experience at the Gate +House together with Carneta's grief-stricken face when I had +parted from her were obsessing memories which I sought in vain to +shake off. + +A brief wire had contained the welcome invitation, and up to the +time when I had received it I had been unaware that Hilton was +back in England. Moreover, beyond the fact that his house, +"Uplands," was near H--, for which I was instructed to change at +New Street Station, Birmingham, I had little idea of its location. +But he added "Wire train and will meet at H--"; so that I had no +uneasiness on that score. + +I had contemplated catching the 2:45 from Euston, but by the time +I had got my work into something like order, I decided that the +6:55 would be more suitable and decided to dine on the train. + +Altogether, there was something of a rush and hustle attendant upon +getting away, and when at last I found myself in the cab, bound for +Euston, I sat back with a long-drawn sigh. The quest of the Prophet's +slipper was ended; in all probability that blood-stained relic was +already Eastward bound. Hassan of Aleppo, its awful guardian, had +triumphed and had escaped retribution. Earl Dexter was dead. I +could not doubt that; for the memory of his beautiful accomplice, +Carneta, as I last had seen her, broken-hearted, with her great +violet eyes dulled in tearless agony--have I not said that it lived +with me? + +Even as the picture of her lovely, pale face presented itself to my +mind, the cab was held up by a temporary block in the traffic--and +my imagination played me a strange trick. + +Another taxi ran close alongside, almost at the moment that the +press of vehicles moved on again. Certainly, I had no more than a +passing glimpse of the occupants; but I could have sworn that violet +eyes looked suddenly into mine, and with equal conviction I could +have sworn to the gaunt face of the man who sat beside the +violet-eyed girl for that of Earl Dexter! + +The travellers, however, were immediately lost to sight in the rear, +and I was left to conjecture whether this had been a not uncommon +form of optical delusion or whether I had seen a ghost. + +At any rate, as I passed in between the big pillars, "The gateway +of the North," I scrutinized, and closely, the numerous hurrying +figures about me. None of them, by any stretch of the imagination, +could have been set down for that of Dexter, The Stetson Man. No +doubt, I concluded, I had been tricked by a chance resemblance. + +Having dispatched my telegram, I boarded the 6:55. I thought I +should have the compartment to myself, and so deep in reverie was +I that the train was actually clear of the platforms ere I learned +that I had a companion. He must have joined me at the moment that +the train started. Certainly, I had not seen him enter. But, +suddenly looking up, I met the eyes of this man who occupied the +corner seat facing me. + +This person was olive-skinned, clean-shaven, fine featured, and +perfectly groomed. His age might have been anything from twenty-five +to forty-five, but his hair and brows were jet black. His eyes, too, +were nearer to real black than any human eyes I had ever seen +before--excepting the awful eyes of Hassan of Aleppo. Hassan of +Aleppo! It was, to that hour, a mystery how his group of trained +assassins--the Hashishin--had quitted England. Since none of them +were known to the police, it was no insoluble mystery, I admit; but +nevertheless it was singular that the careful watching of the ports +had yielded no result. Could it be that some of them had not yet +left the country? Could it be-- + +I looked intently into the black eyes. They were caressing, smiling +eyes, and looked boldly into mine. I picked up a magazine, +pretending to read. But I supported it with my left hand; my right +was in my coat pocket--and it rested upon my Smith and Wesson! + +So much had the slipper of Mohammed done for me: I went in hourly +dread of murderous attack! + +My travelling companion watched me; of that I was certain. I could +feel his gaze. But he made no move and no word passed between us. +This was the situation when the train slowed into Northampton. At +Northampton, to my indescribable relief (frankly, I was as nervous +in those days as a woman), the Oriental traveller stepped out on to +the platform. + +Having reclosed the door, he turned and leaned in through the open +window. + +"Evidently you are not concerned, Mr. Cavanagh," he said. "Be +warned. Do not interfere with those that are!" + +The night swallowed him up. + +My fears had been justified; the man was one of the Hashishin--a +spy of Hassan of Aleppo! What did it mean? + +I craned from the window, searching the platform right and left. +But there was no sign of him. + +When the train left Northampton I found myself alone, and I should +only weary you were I to attempt to recount the troubled conjectures +that bore me company to Birmingham. + +The train reached New Street at nine, with the result that having +gulped a badly needed brandy and soda in the buffet, I grabbed my +bag, raced across--and just missed the connection! More than an +hour later I found myself standing at ten minutes to eleven upon +the H-- platform, watching the red taillight of the "local" +disappear into the night. Then I realized to the full that with +four miles of lonely England before me there hung above my head a +mysterious threat--a vague menace. The solitary official, who +but waited my departure to lock up the station, was the last +representative of civilization I could hope to encounter until the +gates of "Uplands" should be opened to me! + +What was the matter with which I was warned not to interfere? Might +I not, by my mere presence in that place, unwittingly be interfering +now? + +With the station-master's directions humming like a refrain in my +ears, I passed through the sleeping village and out on to the road. +The moon was exceptionally bright and unobscured, although a dense +bank of cloud crept slowly from the west, and before me the path +stretched as an unbroken thread of silvery white twining a sinuous +way up the bracken-covered slope, to where, sharply defined against +the moonlight sky, a coppice in grotesque silhouette marked the +summit. + +The month had been dry and tropically hot, and my footsteps rang +crisply upon the hard ground. There is nothing more deceptive +than a straight road up a hill; and half an hour's steady tramping +but saw me approaching the trees. + +I had so far resolutely endeavoured to keep my mind away from the +idea of surveillance. Now, as I paused to light my pipe--a +never-failing friend in loneliness--I perceived something move in +the shadows of a neighbouring bush. + +This object was not unlike a bladder, and the very incongruity of +its appearance served to revive all my apprehensions. Taking up +my grip, as though I had noticed nothing of an alarming nature, I +pursued my way up the slope, leaving a trail of tobacco smoke in my +wake; and having my revolver secreted up my right coat-sleeve. + +Successfully resisting a temptation to glance behind, I entered the +cover of the coppice, and, now invisible to any one who might be +dogging me, stood and looked back upon the moon-bright road. + +There was no living thing in sight, the road was empty as far as the +eye could see. The coppice now remained to be negotiated, and then, +if the station-master's directions were not at fault, "Uplands" +should be visible beyond. Taking, therefore, what I had designed to +be a final glance back down the hillside, I was preparing to resume +my way when I saw something--something that arrested me. + +It was a long way behind--so far that, had the moon been less +bright, I could never have discerned it. What it was I could not +even conjecture; but it had the appearance of a vague gray patch, +moving--not along the road, but through the undergrowth--in my +direction. + +For a second my eye rested upon it. Then I saw a second patch--a +third--a fourth! + +Six! + +There were six gray patches creeping up the slope toward me! + +The sight was unnerving. What were these things that approached, +silently, stealthily--like snakes in the grass? + +A fear, unlike anything I had known before the quest of the Prophet's +slipper had brought fantastic horror into my life, came upon me. +Revolver in hand I ran--ran for my life toward the gap in the trees +that marked the coppice end. And as I went something hummed through +the darkness beside my head, some projectile, some venomous thing that +missed its mark by a bare inch! + +Painfully conversant with the uncanny weapons employed by the +Hashishin, I knew now, beyond any possibility of doubt, that death +was behind me. + +A pattering like naked feet sounded on the road, and, without +pausing in my headlong career, I sent a random shot into the +blackness. + +The crack of the Smith and Wesson reassured me. I pulled up short, +turned, and looked back toward the trees. + +Nothing--no one! + +Breathing heavily, I crammed my extinguished briar into my +pocket--re-charged the empty chamber of the revolver--and started to +run again toward a light that showed over the treetops to my left. + +That, if the man's directions were right, was "Uplands"--if his +directions were wrong--then... + +A shrill whistle--minor, eerie, in rising cadence--sounded on the +dead silence with piercing clearness! Six whistles--seemingly +from all around me--replied! + +Some object came humming through the air, and I ducked wildly. + +On and on I ran--flying from an unknown, but, as a warning instinct +told me, deadly peril--ran as a man runs pursued by devils. + +The road bent sharply to the left then forked. Overhanging trees +concealed the house, and the light, though high up under the eaves, +was no longer visible. Trusting to Providence to guide me, I plunged +down the lane that turned to the left, and, almost exhausted, saw the +gates before me--saw the sweep of the drive, and the moonlight, +gleaming on the windows! + +None of the windows were illuminated. + +Straight up to the iron gates I raced. + +They were locked! + +Without a moment's hesitation I hurled my grip over the top and +clambered up the bars! As I got astride, from the blackness of the +lane came the ominous hum, and my hat went spinning away across the +lawn!--the black cloud veiled the moon and complete darkness fell. + +Then I dropped and ran for the house--shouting, though all but +winded--"Hilton! Hilton! Open the door!" + +Sinking exhausted on the steps, I looked toward the gates--but they +showed only dimly in the dense shadows of the trees. + +Bzzz! Buzz! + +I dropped flat in the portico as something struck the metal knob of +the door and rebounded over me. A shower of gravel told of another +misdirected projectile. + +Crack! Crack! Crack! The revolver spoke its short reply into the +mysterious darkness; but the night gave up no sound to tell of a +shot gone home. + +"Hilton! Hilton!" I cried, banging on the panels with the butt of +the weapon. "Open the door! Open the door!" + +And now I heard the coming footsteps along the hall within; heavy +bolts were withdrawn--the door swung open--and Hilton, pale-faced, +appeared. His hand shot out, grabbed my coat collar; and weak, +exhausted, I found myself snatched into safety, and the door +rebolted. + +"Thank God!" I whispered. "Thank God! Hilton, look to all your +bolts and fastenings. Hell is outside!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +HOW WE WERE REINFORCED + + +Hilton, I learned, was living the simple life at "Uplands." The +place was not yet decorated and was only partly furnished. But +with his man, Soar, he had been in solitary occupation for a week. + +"Feel better now?" he asked anxiously. + +I reached for my tumbler and blew a cloud of smoke into the air. +I could hear Soar's footsteps as he made the round of bolts and +bars, testing each anxiously. + +"Thanks, Hilton," I said. "I'm quite all right. You are naturally +wondering what the devil it all means? Well, then, I wired you +from Euston that I was coming by the 6:55." + +"H-- Post Office shuts at 7. I shall get your wire in the morning!" + +"That explains your failing to meet me. Now for my explanation!" + +"Surrounding this house at the present moment," I continued, "are +members of an Eastern organization--the Hashishin, founded in +Khorassan in the eleventh century and flourishing to-day!" + +"Do you mean it, Cavanagh?" + +"I do! One Hassan of Aleppo is the present Sheikh of the order, +and he has come to England, bringing a fiendish company in his train, +in pursuit of the sacred slipper of Mohammed, which was stolen by +the late Professor Deeping---" + +"Surely I have read something about this?" + +"Probably. Deeping was murdered by Hassan! The slipper was placed +in the Antiquarian Museum--" + +"From which it was stolen again!" + +"Correct--by Earl Dexter, America's foremost crook! But the real +facts have never got into print. I am the only pressman who knows +them, and I have good reason for keeping my knowledge to myself! +Dexter is dead (I believe I saw his ghost to-day). But although, +to the best of my knowledge, the accursed slipper is in the hands +of Hassan and Company, I have been watched since I left Euston, +and on my way to 'Uplands' my life was attempted!" + +"For God's sake, why?" + +"I cannot surmise, Hilton. Deeping, for certain reasons that are +irrelevant at the moment, left the keys of the case at the Museum +in my perpetual keeping--but the case was rifled a second time--" + +"I read of it!" + +"And the keys were stolen from me. I am utterly at a loss to +understand why the Hashishin--for it is members of that awful +organization who, without a doubt, surround this house at the +present moment--should seek my life. Hilton, I have brought +trouble with me!" + +"It's almost incredible!" said Hilton, staring at me. "Why do +these people pursue you?" + +Ere I had time to reply Soar entered, arrayed, as was Hilton, in +his night attire. Soar was an ex-dragoon and a model man. + +"Everything fast, sir," he reported; "but from the window of the +bedroom over here--the room I got ready for Mr. Cavanagh--I +thought I saw someone in the orchard." + +"Eh?" jerked Hilton--"in the orchard? Come on up, Cavanagh!" + +We all ran upstairs. The moonlight was streaming into the room. + +"Keep back!" I warned. + +Well within the shadow, I crept up to the window and looked out. +The night was hot and still. No breeze stirred the leaves, but +the edge of the frowning thunder cloud which I had noted before +spread a heavy carpet of ebony black upon the ground. Beyond, I +could dimly discern the hills. The others stood behind me, +constrained by the fear of this mysterious danger which I had +brought to "Uplands." + +There was someone moving among the trees! + +Closer came the figure, and closer, until suddenly a shaft of +moonlight found passage and spilled a momentary pool of light amid +the shadows, I could see the watcher very clearly. A moment he +stood there, motionless, and looking up at the window; then as he +glided again into the shade of the trees the darkness became +complete. But I watched, crouching there nervously, for long after +he was gone. + +"For God's sake, who is it?" whispered Hilton, with a sort of awe +in his voice. + +"It's Hassan of Aleppo!" I replied. + +Virtually, the house, with the capital of the Midlands so near upon +the one hand, the feverish activity of the Black Country reddening +the night upon the other, was invested by fanatic Easterns! + +We descended again to the extemporized study. Soar entered with us +and Hilton invited him to sit down. + +"We must stick together to-night!" he said. "Now, Cavanagh, let us +see if we can find any explanation of this amazing business. I can +understand that at one period of the slipper's history you were an +object of interest to those who sought to recover it; but if, as +you say, the Hashishin have the slipper now, what do they want with +you? If you have never touched it, they cannot be prompted by +desire for vengeance." + +"I have never touched it," I replied grimly; "nor even any +receptacle containing it." + +As I ceased speaking came a distant muffled rumbling. + +"That's the thunder," said Hilton. "There's a tremendous storm +brewing." + +He poured out three glasses of whisky, and was about to speak +when Soar held up a warning finger. + +"Listen!" he said. + +At his words, with tropical suddenness down came the rain. + +Hilton, his pipe in his hand, stood listening intently. + +"What?" he asked. + +"I don't know, sir; the sound of the rain has drowned it." + +Indeed, the rain was descending in a perfect deluge, its continuous +roar drowning all other sounds; but as we three listened tensely +we detected a noise which hitherto had seemed like the overflowing +of some spout. + +But louder and clearer it grew, until at last I knew it for what +it was. + +"It's a motor-car!" I cried. + +"And coming here!" added Soar. "Listen! it's in the lane!" + +"It certainly isn't a taxicab," declared Hilton. "None of the men +will come beyond the village." + +"That's the gate!" said Soar, in an awed voice, and stood up, +looking at Hilton. + +"Come on," said the latter abruptly, making for the door. + +"Be careful, Hilton!" I cried; "it may be a trick!" + +Soar unbolted the front door, threw it open, and looked out. In +the darkness of the storm it was almost impossible to see anything +in the lane outside. But at that moment a great sheet of lightning +split the gloom, and we saw a taxicab standing close up to the +gateway! + +"Help! Open the gate!" came a high-pitched voice; "open the gate!" + +Out into the rain we ran and down the gravel path. Soar had the +gate open in a twinkling, and a woman carrying a brown leather grip, +but who was so closely veiled that I had no glimpse of her features, +leapt through on to the drive. + +"Lend a hand, two of you!" cried a vaguely familiar voice--"this way!" + +Hilton and Soar stepped out into the road. The driver of the cab +was lying forward across the wheel, apparently insensible, but as +Hilton seized his arm he moved and spoke feebly. + +"For God's sake be quick, sir!" he said. "They're after us! +They're on the other side of the lane, there!" + +With that he dropped limply into Hilton's arms! + +He was dragged in on to the drive--and something whizzed over our +heads and went sputtering into the gravel away up toward the house. +The last to enter was the man who had come in the cab. As he barred +the gate behind him he suddenly reached out through the bars and I +saw a pistol in his hand. + +Once--twice--thrice--he fired into the blackness of the lane. + +"Take that, you swine!" he shouted. "Take that!" + +As quickly as we could, bearing the insensible man, we hurried back +to the door. On the step the woman was waiting for us, with her +veil raised. A blinding flash of lightning came as we mounted the +step--and I looked into the violet eyes of Carneta! I turned and +stared at the man behind me. + +It was Earl Dexter. + +Three of the mysterious missiles fell amongst us, but miraculously +no one was struck. Amid the mighty booming of the thunder we +reentered the houses and got the door barred. In the hall we laid +down the unconscious man and stood, a strangely met company, +peering at one another in the dim lamplight. + +"We've got to bury the hatchet, Mr. Cavanagh!" said Dexter. "It's +a case of the common enemy. I've brought you your bag!" and he +pointed to the brown grip upon the floor. + +"My bag!" I cried. "My bag is upstairs in my room." + +"Wrong, sir!" snapped The Stetson Man. "They are like as two peas +in a pod, I'll grant you, but the bag you snatched off the platform +at New Street was mine! That's what I'm after; I ought to be on +the way to Liverpool. That's what Hassan's after!" + +"The bag!" + +"You don't need to ask what's in the bag?" suggested Dexter. + +"What is in the bag?" ask Hilton hoarsely. + +"The slipper of the Prophet, sir!" was the reply. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +MY LAST MEETING WITH HASSAN OF ALEPPO + + +I felt dazed, as a man must feel who has just heard the death +sentence pronounced upon him. Hilton seemed to have become +incapable of speech or action; and in silence we stood watching +Carneta tending the unconscious man. She forced brandy from +a flask between his teeth, kneeling there beside him with her +face very pale and dark rings around her eyes. Presently she +looked up. + +"Will you please get me a bowl of water and a sponge?" she said +quietly. + +Soar departed without a word, and no one spoke until he returned, +bringing the sponge and the water, when the girl set to work in a +businesslike way to cleanse a wound which showed upon the man's +head. + +"She's a good nurse is Carneta," said Dexter coolly. "She was the +only doctor I had through this"--indicating his maimed wrist. "If +you will fetch my bag down, there's some lint in it." + +I hesitated. + +"You needn't worry," said Dexter; "as well be hung for a sheep as +a lamb. You've handled the bag, and I'm not asking you to do +any more." + +I went up to my room and lifted the grip from the chair upon which +I had put it. Even now I found it difficult to perceive any +difference between this and mine. Both were of identical appearance +and both new. In fact, I had bought mine only that morning, my old +one being past use, and being in a hurry, I had not left it to be +initialled. + +As I picked up the bag the lightning flashed again, and from the +window I could see the orchard as clearly as by sunlight. At the +farther end near the wall someone was standing watching the house. + +I went downstairs carrying the fatal bag, and rejoined the group in +the hall. + +"He will have to be got to bed," said Carneta, referring to the +wounded man; "he will probably remain unconscious for a long time." + +Accordingly, we took the patient into one of the few furnished +bedrooms, and having put him to bed left him in care of the beautiful +nurse. When we four men met again downstairs, amazement had rendered +the whole scene unreal to me. Soar stood just within the open door, +not knowing whether to go or to remain; but Hilton motioned to +him to stay. Earl Dexter bit off the end of a cigar and stood with +his left elbow resting on the mantelpiece. + +His gaunt face looked gaunter than ever, but the daredevil gray eyes +still nursed that humorous light in their depths. + +"Mr. Cavanagh," he said, "we're brothers! And if you'll consider +a minute, you'll see that I'm not lying when I say I'm on the +straight, now and for always!" + +I made no reply: I could think of none. + +"I'm a crook," he resumed, "or I was up to a while ago. There's +a warrant out for me--the first that ever bore my name. I've +sailed near the wind often enough, but it was desperation that got +me into hot water about that!" + +He jerked his cigar in the direction of his grip, which lay now on +the rug at his feet. + +"I lost a useful right hand," he went on--"and I lost every cent I +had. It was a dead rotten speculation--for I lost my good name! +I mean it! Believe me, I've handled some shady propositions in the +past, but I did it right in the sunlight! Up to the time I went out +for that damned slipper I could have had lunch with any detective +from Broadway to the Strand! I didn't need any false whiskers and +the Ritz was good enough for The Stetson Man. What now? I'm +'wanted!' Enough said." + +He tossed the cigar--he had smoked scarce an inch of it--into the +empty grate. + +"I'm an Aunt Sally for any man to shy at," he resumed bitterly. +"My place henceforth is in the dark. Right! I've finished; the +book's closed. From the time I quit England--if I can quit--I'm +on the straight! I've promised Carneta, and I mean to keep my +word. See here--" + +Dexter turned to me. + +"You'll want to know how I escaped from the cursed death-trap at +Hassan's house in Kent? I'll tell you. I was never in it! I +was hiding and waiting my chance. You know what was left to guard +the slipper while the Sheikh--rot him--was away looking after +arrangements for getting his mob out of the country?" + +I nodded. + +"You fell into the trap--you and Carneta. By God! I didn't know +till it was all over! But two minutes later I was inside that +place--and three minutes later I was away with the slipper! Oh, it +wasn't a duplicate; it was the goods! What then? Carneta had +had a sickening of the business and she just invited me to say Yes +or No. I said Yes; and I'm a straight man onward." + +"Then what were you doing on the train with the slipper?" asked +Hilton sharply. + +"I was going to Liverpool, sir!" snapped The Stetson Man, turning +on him. "I was going to try to get aboard the Mauretania and +then make terms for my life! What happened? I slipped out at +Birmingham for a drink--grip in hand! I put it down beside +me, and Mr. Cavanagh here, all in a hustle, must have rushed in +behind me, snatched a whisky and snatched my grip and started for +H--!" + +A vivid flash of lightning flickered about the room. Then came +the deafening boom of the thunder, right over the house it seemed. + +"I knew from the weight of the grip it wasn't mine," said Dexter, +"and I was the most surprised guy in Great Britain and Ireland when +I found whose it was! I opened it, of course! And right on top was +a waistcoat and right in the first pocket was a telegram. Here it +is!" + +He passed it to me. It was that which I had received from Hilton. +I had packed the suit which I had been wearing that morning and +must previously have thrust the telegram into the waistcoat pocket. + +"Providence!" Dexter assured me. "Because I got on the station in +time to see Hassan of Aleppo join the train for H--! I was too late, +though. But I chartered a taxi out on Corporation Street and +invited the man to race the local! He couldn't do it, but we got +here in time for the fireworks! Mr. Cavanagh, there are anything +from six to ten Hashishin watching this house!" + +"I know it!" + +"They're bareheaded; and in the dark their shaven skulls look like +nothing human. They're armed with those damned tubes, too. I'd +give a thousand dollars--if I had it!--to know their mechanism. +Well, gentlemen, deeds speak. What am I here for, when I might be +on the way to Liverpool, and safety?" + +"You're here to try to make up for the past a bit!" said a soft, +musical voice. "Mr. Cavanagh's life is in danger." + +Carneta entered the room. + +The light played in that wonderful hair of hers; and pale though she +was, I thought I had never seen a more beautiful woman. + +"Tell them," she said quietly, "what must be done." + +Soar glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes and shifted +uneasily. Hilton stared as if fascinated. + +"Now," rapped Dexter, in his strident voice, "putting aside all +questions of justice and right (we're not policemen), what do we +want--you and I, Mr. Cavanagh?" + +"I can't think clearly about anything," I said dully. "Explain +yourself." + +"Very well. Inspector Bristol, C.I.D., would want me and Hassan +arrested. I don't want that! What I want is peace; I want to be +able to sleep in comfort; I want to know I'm not likely to be +murdered on the next corner! Same with you?" + +"Yes--yes." + +"How can we manage it? One way would be to kill Hassan of Aleppo; +but he wants a lot of killing--I've tried! Moreover, directly +we'd done it, another Sheikh-al-jebal would be nominated and he'd +carry on the bloody work. We'd be worse off than ever. Right! +we've got to connive at letting the blood-stained fanatic escape, +and we've got to give up the slipper!" + +"I'll do that with all my heart!" + +"Sure! But you and I have both got little scores up against Hassan, +which it's not in human nature to forget. But I've got it worked +out that there's only one way. It may nearly choke us to have to +do it, I'll allow. I'm working on the Moslem character. Mr. Hilton, +make up a fire in the grate here!" + +Hilton stared, not comprehending. + +"Do as he asks," I said. "Personally, I am resigned to mutilation, +since I have touched the bag containing the slipper, but if +Dexter has a plan--" + +"Excuse me, sir," Soar interrupted. "I believe there's some coal +in the coal-box, but I shall have to break up a packing-case for +firewood--or go out into the yard!" + +"Let it be the packing-case," replied Hilton hastily. + +Accordingly a fire was kindled, whilst we all stood about the room +in a sort of fearful uncertainty; and before long a big blaze was +roaring up the chimney. Dexter turned to me. + +"Mr. Cavanagh," said he, "I want you to go right upstairs, open a +first-floor window--I would suggest that of your bedroom--and +invite Hassan of Aleppo to come and discuss terms!" + +Silence followed his words; we were all amazed. Then-- + +"Why do you ask me to do this?" I inquired. + +"Because," replied Dexter, "I happen to know that Hassan has some +queer kind of respect for you--I don't know why." + +"Which is probably the reason why he tried to kill me to-night!" + +"That's beside the question, Mr. Cavanagh. He will believe you--which +is the important point." + +"Very well. I have no idea what you have in mind but I am prepared +to adopt any plan since I have none of my own. What shall I say?" + +"Say that we are prepared to return the slipper--on conditions." + +"He will probably try to shoot me as I stand at the window." + +Dexter shrugged his shoulders. + +"Got to risk it," he drawled. + +"And what are the conditions?" + +"He must come right in here and discuss them! Guarantee him safe +conduct and I don't think he'll hesitate. Anyway, if he does, just +tell him that the slipper will be destroyed immediately!" + +Without a word I turned on my heel and ascended the stairs. + +I entered my room, crossed to the window, and threw it widely open. +Hovering over the distant hills I could see the ominous thunder +cloud, but the storm seemed to have passed from "Uplands," and only +a distant muttering with the faint dripping of water from the pipes +broke the silence of the night. A great darkness reigned, however, +and I was entirely unable to see if any one was in the orchard. + +Like some mueddin of fantastic fable I stood there. + +"Hassan!" I cried--"Hassan of Aleppo!" + +The name rang out strangely upon the stillness--the name which +for me had a dreadful significance; but the whole episode seemed +unreal, the voice that had cried unlike my voice. + +Instantly as any magician summoning an efreet I was answered. + +Out from the trees strode a tall figure, a figure I could not +mistake. It was that of Hassan of Aleppo! + +"I hear, effendim, and obey," he said. "I am ready. Open the +door!" + +"We are prepared to discuss terms. You may come and go +safely"--still my voice sounded unfamiliar in my ears. + +"I know, effendim; it is so written. Open the door." + +I closed the window and mechanically descended the stairs. + +"Mind it isn't a trap!" cried Hilton, who, with the others, had +overheard every word of this strange interview. "They may try to +rush the door directly we open it." + +"I'll stand the chest behind it," said Soar; "between the door and +the wall, so that only one can enter at a time." + +This was done, and the door opened. + +Alone, majestic, entered Hassan of Aleppo. + +He was dressed in European clothes but wore the green turban of a +Sherif. With his snowy beard and coal-black eyes he seemed like a +vision of the Prophet, of the Prophet in whose name he had committed +such ghastly atrocities. + +Deigning no glance to Soar nor to Hilton, he paced into the room, +passing me and ignoring Carneta, where Earl Dexter awaited him. +I shall never forget the scene as Hassan entered, to stand looking +with blazing eyes at The Stetson Man, who sat beside the fire +with the slipper of Mohammed in his hand! + +"Hassan," said Dexter quietly, "Mr. Cavanagh has had to promise +you safe conduct, or as sure as God made me, I'd put a bullet +in you!" + +The Sheikh of the Hashishin glared fixedly at him. + +"Companion of the evil one," he said, "it is not written that I +shall die by your hand--or by the hand of any here. But it has +been revealed to me that to-night the gates of Paradise may be +closed in my face." + +"I shouldn't be at all surprised," drawled Dexter. "But it's up +to you. You've got to swear by Mohammed--" + +"Salla-'llahu 'aleyhi wasellem!" + +"That you won't lay a hand upon any living soul, or allow any of +your followers to do so, who has touched the slipper or had +anything to do with it, but that you will go in peace." + +"You are doomed to die!" + +"You don't agree, then?" + +"Those who have offended must suffer the penalty!" + +"Right!" said Dexter--and prepared to toss the slipper into the +heart of the fire! + +"Stop! Infidel! Stop!" + +There was real agony in Hassan's voice. To my inexpressible +surprise he dropped upon his knee, extending his lean brown hands +toward the slipper. + +Dexter hesitated. "You agree, then?" + +Hassan raised his eyes to the ceiling. + +"I agree," he said. "Dark are the ways. It is the will of +God..." + +Dimly the booming of the thunder came echoing back to us from the +hills. Above its roll sounded a barbaric chanting to which the +drums of angry heaven formed a fitting accompaniment. + +I heard Soar shooting the bolts again upon the going of our +strange visitor. + +Faint and more faint grew the chanting, until it merged into the +remote muttering of the storm--and was lost. The quest of the +sacred slipper was ended. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Quest of the Sacred Slipper, by Sax Rohmer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEST OF THE SACRED SLIPPER *** + +***** This file should be named 2126.txt or 2126.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/2/2126/ + +Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer. 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