第12章 III ALIAS GYPSY NAN(3)

"That'sh all right." The young man came nearer. He balanced himself with difficulty, but upon him there appeared to have descended suddenly a vast dignity. "I'm - hic - law - 'biding citizen. Gotta know. Gotta show me. Damn funny - coming out of there this time of night! Eh - what'sh the idea?"

Rough Rorke, with his free hand, grabbed the young man by the shoulder angrily.

"Mind your own business, or you'll get into trouble!" he rasped out.

"I'm an officer, and this woman is under arrest. Beat it! D'ye hear? Beat it - or I'll run you in, too!"

"Is that'sh so!" The young man's tones expressed a fuddled defiance.

He rocked on his feet and stared from one to the other. "Shay, is that'sh so! You will - eh? Gotta show me. How do I know you're - hic - officer? Eh? More likely damned thief yourself! I -"

The young man lurched suddenly and violently forward, breaking Rough Rorke's grip on Rhoda Gray - and, as his arms swept out to grasp at the detective in an apparently wild effort to preserve his balance, Rhoda Gray felt a quick, significant push upon her shoulder.

For the space of time it takes a watch to tick she stood startled and amazed, and then, like a flash, she was speeding down the street.

A roar of rage, a burst of unbridled profanity went up from Rough Rorke behind her; it was mingled with equally angry vituperation in the young man's voice. She looked behind her. The two men were swaying around crazily in each other's arms. She ran on - faster than she had ever run in her life. The corner was not far ahead.

Her brain was working with lightning speed. Gypsy Nan's house was just around the corner. If she could get out of sight - hide - it would...

She glanced behind her again, as her ears caught the pound of racing feet. The young man was sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, shaking his fist; Rough Rorke, perhaps a bare fifty yards away, was chasing her at top speed.

Her face set hard. She could not out-run a man! There was only one hope for her - just one - to gain Gypsy Nan's doorway before Rorke got around the corner.

A yard - another - still another! She swerved around the corner.

And, as she turned, she caught a glimpse of the detective. The man was nearer - much nearer. But it was only a little way, just a little way, to Gypsy Nan's - not so far as the distance between her and Rorke - and - and if the man didn't gain too fast, then - then - A little cry of dismay came with a new and terrifying thought. Quite apart from Rorke, some one else might see her enter Gypsy Nan's! She strained her eyes in all directions as she ran.

There wasn't any one - she didn't see any one - only Rorke, around the corner there, was bawling out at the top of his voice, and - and...

She flung herself against Gypsy Nan's door, stumbled in, and, closing it, heard Rorke just swinging around the corner. Had he seen her? She didn't know. She was panting, gasping for her breath. It seemed as though her lungs would burst. She held her hand tightly to her bosom as she made for the stairs - she mustn't make any noise - they mustn't hear her breathing like that - they - they mustn't hear her going up the stairs.

How dark it was! If she could only see - so that she would be sure not to stumble! She couldn't go fast now - she would make a noise if she did. Stair after stair she climbed stealthily. Perhaps she was safe now - it had taken her a long time to get up here to the second floor, and there wasn't any sound yet from the street below.

And now she mounted the short, ladder-like steps to the attic, and, feeling with her hand for the crack in the flooring under the partition, reached in for the key. As her fingers closed upon it, she choked back a cry. Some one had been here! A piece of paper was wrapped around the key. What did it mean? What did all these strange, yes, sinister, things that had happened to-night mean?

How had Rorke known that a robbery was to be committed at Skarbolov's?

Who was that man who had effected her escape, and who, she knew now, was no more drunk than she was? Fast, quick, piling one upon the other, the questions raced through her mind.

She fought them back. There was no time for speculation now! There was only one question that mattered: Was she safe?

She stood up, thrust the paper for safe-keeping into her bosom, and unlocked the door. If - if Rorke did not know that she had entered this house here, she could remain hidden for a few hours; it would give her time to think, and...

It came this time, no strength of will would hold it back, a little moan. The front door below had opened, a heavy footstep sounded in the lower hall. She couldn't see, of course. But she knew. It was Rorke! She heard him coming up the stairs.

And then, in a flash, it seemed, her brain responded to her despairing cry. There was still a way - a desperate one - but still a way - if there was time! She darted inside the garret, locked the door, found the matches and candle, and, running silently to the rear wall, pushed up the board in the ceiling. In frantic haste she tore off her outer garments, her stockings and shoes, pulled on the rough stockings and coarse boots that Gypsy Nan had worn, slipped the other's greasy, threadbare skirt over her head, and pinned the shawl tight about her shoulders. There was a big, voluminous pocket in the skirt, and into this she dropped Gypsy Nan's revolver, and the paper she had found wrapped around the key.

She could hear a commotion from below now. It was the one thing she had counted upon. Rough Rorke might know she had entered the house, but he could not know whereabouts in the house she was, and he would naturally search each room as he came to it on the way up. She fitted the gray-streaked wig of tangled, matted hair upon her head, plunged her hand into the box that Gypsy Nan used for her make-up and daubed some of the grime upon both hands and face, adjusted the spectacles upon her nose, hid her own clothing, closed the narrow trap-door in the ceiling, and ran back, carrying the candle, to the washstand.