Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-08
CHAPTEi. XIV.

peered cautiously out.
There was; apparently, nothing amiss. A
noise of pounding came to him from the
shipping room Of lace importer below. A
few scattered shafts Of light glimmered
from windows opposite. A hazy half-moon
slanted down over the housetops.
When Durkin leaned out of the window
something that looked peculiarly like fish,
ing-rOd. From 1t dangled two thin green
wires, and with the metal hook on the end
Of it he tested and felt carefully up among
| the slovenly tangle Of wires running out
past the overhanging cave.
1t was a silly and careless way OF doing
things, he inwardly decided, this lazy string
ing of wires from housetop to housetop,
instead of keeping them in the tunnels
where they belonged. 1t was not only vio-
lating regulations, but it was putting pre-
MUM on observation-disclosures" And he re-
membered what Frances had once. said to-
| him about criminals in a city like New
York, how the careless riot of wealth
seemed to breed them, as any uncleanness
breeds bacteria; how; in way. each was
only natural and inevitable agent, taking
advantage of organic waste, selling on the
unguarded and the unorderly. She hau
even once argued that the criminal could
| lay claim to a distinct economic value, en-
| joining, as he did, continual alertness of at
| tention and cleanliness of commercial
| method.
Yet the devil himself, he had somewhere
|
and his fishing-pole moved restlessly up and
down, like long finger feeling through an
swering strings. For each time, almost,
that his hook rested on one of the wires the
little Bunnell relay on the table behind him
| spoke out feebly. To the trill and chatter of
these metallic pulsations Durkin listened in
tently, until, determining that he had looped
| into the right wire, he made secure his
| switch and carefully drew down the window
l to within an inch of the sill.
Then he gave his studious attention to the
4 little Bunnell relay. Its action was feeble
| and spasmodic. 1t was doing scant justice
to what Durkin easily saw was a master
| hand toying with the rubber button at the
| far-distant end of the wire. 1t was not I'M
| and dashes flew on and on, the interloper
| for a moment or two forgot the meaning of
the messages in the clear-cut, crisp and
precise beauty of the sender's Morse:
THAT man." commented the admiring
craftsman in Durkin, "is earning his $S an
| hour!''
Then, adjusting his rheostat, he slowly
and cautiously graduated his current, until
| new life seemed to throb and flow through
| the busy little piece of clicking metal. A
1 moment later it was speaking out its
weighty and secret messages, innocently.
| authoritatively, almost triumphantly, it
seemed to the eavesdropper, bending over
the glimmering little armature lever
A quietly predaceous smile broadened on
Durkin's intent face. He suddenly smote
the table with an impetlous little rap Of
| the knuckles as he sat there listening.
BY heaven, this will open her -eyes! he
cried, under his breath
| And he repeated the words more abstract
eddy. as he lifted his telephone transmitter
| outon the table and threw open switch on
the wall, well-concealed by the window
| curtain.
He then adjusted the watch-case receiver
| to his ear and settled quietly down in his
| chair. Striking a match ne held 1t poised
| six inches away from the cigar between his
teeth. For the sounder had suddenly broken
! Il
| momentous things were flashing in to him
over that little thread of steel. The match
burned away and fell from his fingers. He
| shook himself together with an effort.
| Then he snatched up a pencil, and with
| the watch-case receiver still at his ear and
| the Bunnell sounder still busy before him,
| he hurriedly wrote notes on the .ack of an
! envelope.
| He felt like a lean and empty wharf-rat
that had tunneled into storehouse of I'M
| limited provision. The very vastness of it
| amazed and stupefied him. He had been
| grubbing about for a penny or two, and
here he had stumbled across fabulous-fig
ured 'banknote.
Then, as item by item he was able to
| piece his scattered shreds of information to-
! gether his mind became clearer and his
| nerves grew Steadfer.
| He looked at his watch. 1t was twenty
| six minutes past 8. AS he had expected,
| and as had happened every night since
| Curry had installed the private wire in his
Madison avenue residence, the operator on
| the uptown emu Oh the line SWltCneQ OH.
| The sounder grew still, like clock that had
run down. The telephone wire still carried
| its occasional message into him, but he
knew that he could wait no longer.
1t took him but minute or two to detach
| his looping wire from the Curry private
line. Then he threw back the switch Of ..is
| telephone, concealed his transmitter and
| caught up his hat and coat.
Five minutes later he was careering up
! 9Th avenue in a motor-cab A new interest,
| submerged in the sterner tides Of life,
| drifted in on him as he drew nearer the
| Ralston and Frances Gambler He began to
mediate on how much he had been miss
| ing out of existence of late, and even how
empty all triumph and conquest might be.
| if unshared by or with another. Some
vague and gently disturbing inkling of just
how much a woman could become to a
man, however preoccupied, crept into the
| quieter backgrounds Of his consciousness.
And with a man of his walk in life, I'M
companioned isolated, migratory, this muf-
| fling and softening element was doubly es-
| sential.
He sent his card up to Frances with an
| unreasonably beating heart. Word came
down to him. in time, that she was en-
gagged, but that she would see him in twenty
minutes. ! -:
but I must see her, and at oncew he told
| the impassive clerk.
| 1t would be possible in twenty minutes,
was the second message that came down to
| him.
Frances engaged-and not able to see him!
| The very idea of it startled and enraged
him. Who had the right to stand between
| them?-he demanded of himself, with IRA
| tional fierceness. And out Of the very
| midst of his soft and consuming eagerness
| to see her sprang up mad fire of jealousy
and uncertainty. Who was there, he again
demanded Of himself-who was there that
could come in this way between Frances
Gambler and himself, at such time and
| under such circumstances? After all, her
career was one of open and continuous de-
ception. There was MacNutt! And Often
heimer! And q dozen morel She made It
| her business to deceive and dupe others, so
artfully. so studiously, so laboriously-why
| would she not use her tools on him as we'll?
Was she. indeed, SO open and candid as ne
| had taken her to be?-she, with all her
soft little feline graces, and with all that
| ambiguous and unknown past of hers!
And yet he remembered how she had held
out against him, how he, with his laxer
| code. had often hurt and wounded every
/ feeling Of her sensitive nature. Even be-
fore this he had tried to argue that crime
| in one phase Of life implied moral weak
ness in all other phases Of that same ca
reer. Yet there she obdurately though
paptingly stood. unyielding, stanch, clean
of mind and life, woman of stern honor
! and through it all an adventures and a
| r0bheri A. blackleg with the Aconscieuce of