A FLAME LEAPS OUT OF THE DARK
Kuroki announced dinner; Cleggett entered the captain's mess room of the cabin, where the cloth was laid, and a moment later lady Agatha emerged from the stateroom and gave him her hand with a smile.
If he had thought her beautiful before, when she wore her plain traveling suit, he thought her radiant now, in the true sense of that much abused word.For she flung forth her charm in vital radiations.If Cleggett had possessed a common mind he might have phrased it to himself that she hit a man squarely in the eyes.Her beauty had thatdirect and almost aggressive quality that is like a challenge, and with sophisticated feminine art she had contrived that the dinner gown she chose for that evening should sound the keynote of her personality like a leitmotif in an opera.The costume was a creation of white satin, the folds caught here and there with strings of pearls.There was a single large rose of pink velvet among the draperies of the skirt; a looped girdle of blue velvet was the only other splash of color.But the full-leaved, expanded and matured rose became the vivid epitome and illustration of the woman herself.A rope of pearls that hung down to her waist added the touch of soft luster essential to preserve the picture from the reproach of being too obvious an assault upon the senses; Cleggett reflected that another woman might have gone too far and spoiled it all by wearing diamonds.Lady Agatha always knew where to stop.
"I have not been so hungry since I was in Holloway Jail," said Lady Agatha.And she ate with a candid gusto that pleased Cleggett, who loathed in a woman a finical affectation of indifference to food.
When Kuroki brought the coffee she took up her own story again.There was little more to tell.
Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat, it appeared, had mistaken their instructions.Two nights after they had been engaged they had appeared at Lady Agatha's apartment with the oblong box.
"The horrid creatures brought it into my sitting-room and laid it on the floor before I could prevent them," said Lady Agatha.
"'What is this?' I asked them, in bewilderment.
"They replied that they had killed Reginald Maltravers ACCORDING TO ORDERS, and had brought him to me.
"'Orders!' I cried.'You had no such orders.' Elmer, who lived on the same floor, was absent temporarily, having taken Teddy out for an airing.I was distracted.I did not know what to do.'Your orders," I said, 'were to--to--'"She broke off."What was it that Elmer told them to do, and what was it that they did?" she mused, perplexed.She called Elmer into thecabin.
"Elmer," she said, "exactly what was it that you told your friends to do to him? And what was it that they did? I can never remember the words.""Poke him," said Elmer, addressing Cleggett."I tells these ginks to poke him.But these ginks tells th' little dame here they t'inks I has said to croak him.So they goes an' croaks him.D' youse get me?"Being assured that they got him, Elmer downheartedly withdrew.
"At any rate," continued Lady Agatha, "there was that terrible box upon my sitting-room floor, and there were those two degraded wretches.The callous beasts stood above the box apparently quite insensible to the ethical enormity of their crime.But they were keen enough to see that it might be used as a lever with which to force more money from me.For when I demanded that they take the box away with them and dispose of it, they only laughed at me.They said that they had had enough of that box.They had delivered the goods--that was the phrase they used--and they wanted more money.And they said they would not leave until they got it.They threatened, unless I gave them the money at once, to leave the place and get word to the police of the presence of the box in my apartment.
"I was in no mental condition to combat and get the better of them.I felt myself to be entirely in their power.I saw only the weakness of my own position.I could not, at the moment, see the weak spots in theirs.Elmer might have advised me--but he was not there.The miserable episode ended with my giving them a thousand dollars each, and they left.
"Alone with that box, my panic increased.When Elmer returned with Teddy, I told him what had happened.He wished to open the box, having a vague idea that perhaps after all it did not really contain what they had said was in it.But I could not bear the thought of its being opened.I refused to allow Elmer to look into it.
"I determined that I would ship the box at once to some fictitious personage, and then take the next ship back to England.
"I hastily wrote a card, which I tacked on the box, consigning it toMiss Genevieve Pringle, Newark, N.J.The name was the first invention that came into my head.Newark I had heard of.I knew vaguely that it was west of New York, but whether it was twenty miles west or two thousand miles, I did not stop to think.I am ignorant of American geography.
"But no sooner had the box been taken away than I began to be uneasy.I was more frightened with it gone than I had been with it present.I imagined it being dropped and broken, and revealing everything.And then it occurred to me that even if I should get out of the country, the secret was bound to be discovered some time.I do not know why I had not thought of that before--but I was distracted.Having got rid of the box, I was already wild to get it into my possession again.
"I confided my fears to Elmer, and was surprised to learn from him that Newark is very near New York.We took a taxicab at once, and were waiting at the freight depot in Newark when the thing arrived.There I claimed it in the name of Miss Genevieve Pringle.
"It became apparent to me that I must manage its final disposition myself.Elmer hired for me the vehicle in which we arrived here, and we started back to New York.
