CHAPTER XVIII

FURTHER DISCOVERIES

It was Watkins' night out and when I got home, shepherded by the ridiculous Nast, I was thinking more of Brenda Gelette than of the Black Company, which was not to be wondered at. Indeed I was thinking of her to the exclusion of all else; thus, you may say, I was ripe for the experience that befell me. And yet even if my mind hadn't been preoccupied I never would have suspected that here in my own stronghold, guarded inwardly by the faithful and efficient Watkins, and outwardly by Blunt's hirelings----

However, to proceed, I walked into the parlor, like the historic fly, switched on the light, and found a spider waiting for me in the person of Arnold Frean, and quite a venomous spider he now appeared. He was looking worse than he had the previous night, there was a febrile fire in his sunken eyes, and his face was drawn and haggard. He sat behind a table facing the door by which I had entered; his right elbow rested on that table, and in his hand rested a veritable young cannon, its black white-rimmed eye directed accurately at the middle button of my sack coat. I hate to get hit in a place like that and so I stood promptly at attention. A forty-five bullet wouldn't agree with what I had had at the Claremont; I could visualize it plowing through the menu and creating quite a disturbance.

"Put that beastly thing away, Frean," I said. "It might go off."

"It might," he agreed, finger on trigger.

Now I have heard and read a great deal about the human eye; so have you. You must have. You know how it has the power to soothe the savage breast--or is it music that does that? But you know what I mean; it has the power to transform the most voracious lions into lambs, the most enthusiastic murderer into a puling philanthropist. All the best writers are agreed on that; it has been done over and over again. You have heard also of the will to win and the power of mind over matter. Decidedly I had the will to live and, summoning all my great mental and spiritual powers I looked at Frean and commanded him again to demobilize. Nothing doing; there was something wrong somewhere. Perhaps it was because Frean wouldn't let me look him in the eye; at least his eye refused to be inveigled from that middle button. It seemed to fascinate him.

"At least," I said, "turn it a bit up or down. In the words of the martyred Barbara--I forget if they really did kill her; they should have, for I've had to learn that poem--shoot if you must but spare your country's victuals. I paid fifteen dollars for a recent dinner. Also, my friend, consider the carpet. Cleanliness is next to godliness."

To my great relief he gave a sickly sort of smile and then pocketed the weapon. "You've nerve, Lawton; I'll say that for you. But I was only fooling, showing you what I could have done. I never meant to shoot you."

Now I was very angry for I'd been properly frightened. "I don't care for that sort of fooling," I said, "and I believe I can see a joke as quick as anybody. If you ever try anything like that on me again--how the Harry did you get in here?"

He shrugged. "Oh, I knew it was Watkins' night off and I happened to have a key."

"Happened? People don't happen to have keys that fit these doors. What did you come for? Look here, if you've come to resume last night's affair, it's a mere waste of time. I refuse to quarrel with you seriously. You know I've licked you once, and that, no matter how you may deserve it, I can't go on beating you up. There's no glory in it. Therefore, knowing that, it doesn't show much spirit on your part----"

"I'm not here for that," he said jerkily, with twitching lips. "I--I've something to say to you, something that no one else must hear. It's as much as my life's worth. You're right; I didn't happen to have a key; one was made specially and given to me."

I sat down and looked at him; in spite of Ashton's tragic death I still felt a certain pity for Frean. Perhaps "understanding" is a better word. Like myself, he had taken the wrong turning in life's highway, a far more dangerous one than that which I had trod for a time, and he had gone on blundering into the abyss. Unlike myself, early poverty had never fostered the best in him.

"What exactly is the idea?" I said.

"I was sent here to kill you, Lawton," he said slowly, pausing between each word, while he fixed his somber eyes on me. "You will do me justice to admit that I could have done so easily. I could have shot you down like a dog----"

"And been caught and sent to the chair for it."

"Perhaps, but that isn't the point. I could have done it and I didn't. I saved your life, and now I ask you to save mine."

"I'd like to, Frean, but it takes two to do that. You've been throwing your life away, living----"

"I don't mean that. I'm a marked man now; they'll kill me!"

"My dear fellow----"

He broke in upon me passionately, almost hysterically. "You must listen to me! You must believe all I say! You must take things seriously for once. You're a marked man, Lawton, and now, so am I! So am I! They'll kill me for betraying them. They'll kill us both as they killed poor Ashton! They're devils, I tell you; they'll stop at nothing! That fiend, Corby, suspects me. He has all along. I've seen it in his bloodless face and dead eyes. He says nothing, but he knows. He's like a white snake, waiting to strike! I--I can't bear the strain any longer. I know you think I'm crazy--God knows I soon will be!"

He covered his face with his hands and cowered back in the chair, the picture of an utterly broken and abject spirit. It is a terrible picture, one you can never forget.

I got him to swallow some whisky, speaking to him as I would to a child. "You're absolutely safe here," I repeated, "and you don't have to convince me of your sanity. I've heard of the Black Company."

At the words he dropped the glass with a crash, started up, and stared at me wildly, terrified and astonished. "You--you've heard of it? How?"

"Never mind that now. I know you're a member. Pull yourself together and tell me all about it. I'm not your enemy, Frean, and never was."

"N-no, but I was yours," he said brokenly. "I hated you, Lawton. I hated you for catching me at the card sharping and because you'd always been too decent to me. I got you to drink, hoping you'd go the way of all your folks. I hated you--and yet I've come to you to-night, feeling that you're the only man who could or would help me, the only man I could rely on. Queer, isn't it? I don't pretend to understand it, but it's so."

"Don't try to understand it," I said. "Now I want to ask you one question; did you know beforehand anything about what was going to happen to Tommy Ashton?"

"As God is my judge, I knew nothing about it! I don't know yet. I've only suspicions."

"I couldn't bring myself to think you did, Frean--a man who'd been to college with you and had done his best to help you. And yet you saw us together at the Admiral that night. What brought you there?"

"To see Roupell. I didn't know you and Ashton were there until I walked into the grill. Roupell asked me to meet him there; he phoned me. No, I never even knew that Ashton was going to Philadelphia that night. I swear it, Lawton."

"Then I'll help you," I said. "I'll help you to the last cent and the last kick in me. I've a bone to pick with these jovial clubmates of yours, and we can help each other a lot. This visit of yours hasn't surprised me so awfully much; I knew last month the society suspected you, that they weren't sure of you, and I saw last night signs of you cracking under the strain. You've got the right line on Corby; he was detailed to watch you--and so was I."

"_Y-you?_" His face went livid, and he made a sudden dive for the revolver.

I swept it aside and shoved him back in the chair. "Keep your hair on, Frean. I'm not a member of the society, and you haven't fallen into any trap."

"You gave me an awful turn," he gasped, mopping his face. "You see, I don't know half the members. What do you mean, then?"

"I'll explain later. First, I want to hear all you know about this crew. You can trust me absolutely. How did you get in with them?"

"I hardly know myself," he said despondently, and with a dazed expression. "The past few months have been a nightmare. It was all my own fault, of course. You know the pace I was going. Well, I needed money badly, and got into the clutches of Howard Roupell. You don't know the real Roupell, Lawton." He glanced about him with the old hunted look and instinctively lowered his voice.

"I'm not sure that I don't," I said. "Isn't he a member?"

"Yes, though I don't know how you guessed it. It was he who put me up to the twenty-thousand-dollar stock job for which my father chucked me out. If I hadn't bungled it a bit, the thing might never have been discovered. Roupell got most of the profit, or, rather, it went to the general funds of the Black Company. Of course, I haven't a shred of evidence, the kind that would make good in a court of law, to prove his part in it. They're too clever for that. Anyway, if I had tried to squeal, they'd have finished me."

"Just what a sort of a society is it?"

"It's a criminal organization or company, run on business lines. I'm not a full-fledged member, for six months have to pass before you're really admitted. In other words, you're under supervision for that length of time. Roupell assured me they only shaved the law. I--I had no idea of the organization's true nature until it was too late. I swear I hadn't."

"Why do they use the names of the chess pieces and the algebraic notation? Yes, I know about that."

"I don't really know, but Roupell told me they took the name of the Black Company because life was a chess game, and they were the Black pieces because they were always on the defensive. The White pieces, representing the law and organized society, were always attacking them. They're anarchists, but without the anarchist's sacrifice of self, or his folly. They are foes of the State and Church, but they don't aim at any Utopia. They aim merely to secure the riches which they claim the world owes them. Trusts are the order of the day, and this is simply a sort of criminal trust. Of course, I haven't been admitted to their full confidence, or all their secrets, but I believe they've regular meetings at the Philadelphia headquarters, when they all appear dressed to represent chessmen. I'm not eligible to attend such meetings, and I don't know where the place is."

Frean then verified Blunt's surmise: that a pawn was attached to every capital piece, and that these pawns were promoted, according to service rendered, until they became capital pieces in turn, that they did all the actual dangerous work, and were sacrificed ruthlessly at the first sign of treachery. The earnings of all members were pooled, and every one drew a percentage according to his standing in the company.

"I don't know how many members there are," he finished, "but certainly there are more than sixteen, for there are the 'probationers,' like me, to reckon with; those who haven't yet become full-fledged pawns. There is a capital piece, pawn, and probationer in different cities; for instance, here in New York, Howard Roupell is the King's bishop, Corby the pawn, and I the probationer. With the exception of Joyce and another, these are all the members I know. And I wouldn't have known about Joyce but for what you said a minute ago. You meant that _he_ had been detailed to watch me?"

"Yes." And I related briefly all that had happened at Mr. Varney's, and the attempt on my life in Philadelphia and the subway.

"This is all news to me!" exclaimed Frean. "Roupell never said a word to me about suspecting you; I suppose I wasn't to be trusted. Well, they were right, as it turns out; maybe they knew me better than I knew myself. But those fellows in Philly might have been ordinary thugs, and are you quite sure you were shoved in front of that train?"

"Oh, quite; there's no mistake. I knew I was a marked man before you told me, and I've grown quite used to it. They made a third try to-night."

"To-night? You mean me--my being here----"

"No, I don't. I was up at Claremont----" And I related the incident. "Of course I can see now that Joyce must have telephoned from the Claremont that I'd slipped the detective who's been watching me, and they fixed it up to take me out of the beaten track which I've been sticking to closely. You can make a blow-out to order if you want, and they had the surprise package all ready. It would have served me right if the thing had come off as they planned, for I should have obeyed orders. You see, the Blunt Agency's been on the job for the past week, and I've been guarded like a pet lamb."

"The Blunt Agency! You mean, Lisping Jimmie?" cried Frean, with a look of fear. "This, then, explains everything. No wonder you're a marked man! They must suspect what you've done. I had absolutely no knowledge of this. I've been all kinds of a rotter, Lawton, but I'd no hand in those two attempts on your life. Yet I admit that I wanted you out of the way, not because you were an enemy of the society--because I didn't know that--but because I hated you. Listen, did you suspect that that affair last night was all prearranged, that if you had consented to fight me and accompanied Roupell and me to the place I named, it would have been the end of you?"

"Oh, yes, I saw that pretty clearly, though that wasn't the reason I dodged the invitation. I had an idea Roupell and you had set the stage. As you weren't drunk, I saw no logical reason why you should insist on being licked again--for you know very well you haven't a chance with me, and Roupell overplayed his hand a bit."

"You're no fool, Lawton; it would take a mighty clever man to get to windward of you. You're far sharper than I, for, even knowing Roupell as I do, I never thought he was playing a double game with me. He told me he hated you secretly because you'd cut him out with a woman last winter--the Swedish dancer, Nelson----"

"That's all piffle. I met Selma Nelson exactly twice, and never alone."

"He worked on my hatred and jealousy," continued Frean, "for I may as well admit that my regard for Miss Gelette is more than that of a mere friend. But don't think I'm still fool enough to imagine there's any hope for me in that quarter," he finished lifelessly. "She's done with me. I've lost, as I deserved, while you've won out, as you deserved. I know that."

"Then you know a lot. I haven't the slightest reason to consider myself in such a fortunate position, rather the reverse, in fact. Leaving Miss Gelette out of it, I wouldn't think of trying to saddle any woman with my inheritance----"

"A million or so? Most of them wouldn't mind."

"I wasn't speaking of dollars, and they aren't everything. I mean, I'd have to be a good deal surer than I am at the present moment that I've killed out the drink craze for all time."

"Well, anyway," he said, with a shrug, "I'm out of it, and I don't feel bitter toward you any longer. If it wasn't you, it would be some one else--never me. But, as I said, Roupell worked on my jealousy, and had me so I didn't know what I was doing. I was afraid of him, too--and I'm afraid of him yet. He put me up to coming here to-night, saying how easy it would be, and he intimated that if I didn't do it, I would find myself 'removed'--that being their polite term for murder. It was a case of your life or mine. This, then, was my first suspicion that it wasn't such a private and personal matter between you and Roupell as he would have me believe. I realized that I was to be the instrument. That finished me. From something Roupell let drop the other day, I suspected that the society had had a hand in the killing of poor Ashton. The thought was driving me crazy, Lawton."

"Yes, I should think it would."

"Well," added Frean, "I determined to end it to-night, to come here, pretending to carry out Roupell's orders, and confess everything to you. I've done so. Now let them do their worst." And he sank back wearily, with white, haggard face. "Anyway, it's all up with me, for if they don't get me, the law will. That fellow Blunt has a reputation for getting what he goes after, and he must have the case cut and dried by this time."

"No, far from it. It's a tough proposition, and we've hardly made any headway--but we shall now. Of course, I guarantee you complete immunity where the law's concerned; that's no more than your right. Now, have you any idea who is at the head of this crime trust, the man known as the Black King?"

He looked at me queerly for a moment in silence. "Yes, that's the one other member I said I knew. But surely you know. The Black King is Theodore Varney."