XXXVI
"WE DO THINGS QUICKLY OVER HERE"
"Is this heaven?" Clo wondered.
"No, you darling, it's not. It's our same poor old world; but it'll benear heaven if you'll get well and live for me," said Justin O'Reilly.Then it seemed to the girl that she heard a very odd, choking sound, andon to her half-parted lips fell a drop of something hot. She tastedthis, and found it salt.
"You--you can't be crying?" she mumbled.
"I am." O'Reilly answered, "crying with joy. I don't remember doing itbefore--in joy or sorrow. Here goes another tear! Sorry! I couldn't helpspilling it on you. Shan't happen again."
O'Reilly's face was close to hers. She smiled up at him. Everythingseemed strange except that he should call her darling. That, somehow,was not strange at all. Nor was it strange that his head should be bentover her upturned face. Yet he said it was the same poor old world!
"I thought I was dead," she explained.
"I thought so, too, for a minute, and it was the worst minute and theworst thought I ever had. But you're alive. And you're going to live. Itell you that on the doctor's authority. He and the nurse are having aconfab in the next room. In fact, when we saw you coming to all right,after the anaesthetic (a bullet had to come out of your poor littleshoulder!) I asked them to leave me alone with you. I wanted to be thefirst one your eyes saw. You're going to live for me, aren't you?Because I adore you, you know!"
"I know," the girl echoed, floating on a strange, bright wave of joy.
"You know I adore you?"
"Something told me it would come out like that," she said. "In thoselong days when I had to lie still in my room and listen to Kit andChurn, another voice--so different from theirs!--seemed to say it in myear. Your message for me in the newspaper--I was sure it was for me--putit into my head. I couldn't answer. But the message was the greatestcomfort! I didn't feel alone after that."
"Precious one! You're a star heroine, and a martyr and a saint, and Idon't know what not. But most of all, you are my life--my very life.I've had a big disappointment since I parted from you--lost a thing I'dwanted for years--lost it to Roger Sands. His revenge for--I hardly knowwhat! Yet finding you and holding you like this shows me that nothingelse matters. What's a house, anyhow, except this darling house not madewith hands--your little body, house of your soul? When you know mebetter, could you learn to love me, do you think, if I try hard to teachyou?"
"Oh, but I do love you already," said Clo, as a matter of course. "Eventhat first night--there was something about you--I hated to cheat androb you the way I did. And it was wonderful hearing your voice in thetelephone, in Peterson's dreadful room. It wasn't only that I hopedyou'd help, it was because it was you--because you were different for mefrom anybody else, different even from Angel."
"Good Lord, I should hope so!"
"And I've wanted you dreadfully ever since. That's why I thought it mustbe heaven when I woke up just now and saw you."
"You angel!"
"How funny you should call me that. Oh, I've almost forgotten my poorAngel! I must get to her, somehow." Clo looked around hastily, andrealized that she was lying on a bed in a peculiarly unattractive room,and that O'Reilly was kneeling on the floor by the bedside. "How wickedof me to think more about you than her!"
"If you mean Mrs. Sands, you shall go to her when you're able. Mrs.Sands is all right. You sent her something rather important by MissBlackburne, the pearl-stringer that you told me about that night in thetaxi--and in Krantz's Keller. I talked to the woman--and cursed myselfafterward for stopping to speak, when I found you and saw how everyinstant had counted. I oughtn't to have waited even for a second."
"Oh, you couldn't have saved me if you'd come up without speaking toEllen. The shot was fired before I threw out the bag with the pearls,"Clo broke in. "I remember now. Someone fired through the hole in thedoor. It was Chuff, I'm sure. It didn't hurt much. It was like a heavyblow, and I couldn't help dropping on my knees at the window. I feltweak and queer, but I called to Ellen. Then somebody picked me up--Kit,I think. I could hear them arguing what to do with me. Funny! I thoughtof you then--and that's the last I remember till now."
"I must have been in the house by that time," O'Reilly soothed her. "Ihad come for you! I was sure you'd be where Kit was, because of thepearls. Denham and I had been trying to track Churn and Kit andChuff--all the lot you told me about--ever since you turned me down, inKrantz's Keller."
"I didn't turn you down!"
"No, I don't mean that! You were a brave little soldier going intobattle on your own."
"A soldier? No, I was only a mouse."
"I know. 'The lion's mouse.' And to gnaw the net the lion was caught in,you had to stick your head into another lion's den. But some memorandayou'd picked up and left for us put Denham on the right trail. Hedoesn't need much of a pointer, that chap! He fairly jumped on to thetrack of a fellow named Isaacs--at least Isaacs is his 'alias'--a manwho's been suspected for a long time as a receiver of stolen goods--afence. When I got the tip that Kit and Churn were staying in the housewhere we were to spot Chuff, I was sure I had the clue to you. I wish toGod we'd been five minutes earlier; but I thank Him we weren't fiveminutes too late! If the police eventually bring the crime home to Kit(that's improbable, Denham thinks) there's nothing to link up the storywith the name of Mrs. Sands."
"Oh, I'm not sure!" breathed Clo. "Kit knows about her. She told Churn."
"She won't tell any one else, you may depend on that. If she's accusedof the murder, she won't confess to stealing somebody's pearls as hermotive. She'll say that Peterson insulted her, and she feared him; somesob-sister stuff of that sort."
"She did complain to Churn that Pete was horrible to her, and that ifChurn had been there to hear what he said, he'd have killed him quick,"Clo remembered.
"You see, she wanted to clear herself in the eyes of her best young man!How much more anxious she'd be to keep on the same line if it came tosaving herself from the Chair! You can make your mind easy about yourfriend Mrs. Sands. I won't say a word against her. You love her. You maybe right, I may be wrong. I'm growing humble. I don't set my judgmentagainst yours, even though I know some things about the lady which it'sprobable you don't know. But she's been good to you. That makes all thedifference to me. She's to be saved from the consequences of thingswhich--you'll never hear from my lips. Saved she shall be if it dependsat all on yours ever. But you've done so much that little more remains."
"Then you'll give her the papers?"
"The papers you returned to me that Sunday night?"
"It wasn't I who returned them. I don't know who did send them. It's thegreatest mystery! But if you love me, you'll hand them back."
O'Reilly looked grave. "I love you," he said, "more than I ever thoughtit was in me to love, though I had an idea it might go hard with me whenmy time came. But I gave the papers to Heron, whose property theywere--and are. I was only keeping them for him because he had reason tothink they weren't safe in his possession."
"John Heron!" Clo echoed. A thought had suddenly started out from thebackground of her mind, pushing in front of her fears for Beverley."Yes, of course, he's a friend of yours! But he's in worse danger thanhis papers ever were. From things they said, I believe Pete came East onpurpose to kill him. Of course, there were the papers to get as well.But he wanted to kill John Heron. It was Chuff who ordered him to getthe papers. Pete had some grudge of his own against Mr. Heron, so hemade a good catspaw. When Pete was killed, Chuff had to find someoneelse to do the job. I don't know John Heron, and never saw him in mylife, so I----"
"There you're mistaken," O'Reilly broke in. "Did you notice any onecoming out of a room next to my suite when you were letting yourself inwith my key which you had--er--found?"
"Yes!" cried Clo. "A beautiful woman in a black dress with gorgeousjewellery; and a tall man with reddish hair and beard and--Oh, eyes!Great dark eyes that looked at me in a strange way. I felt them in myspine."
"That was the first
time you saw John Heron, the man his enemies stillcall the Oil Trust King--though thanks to Roger Sands they daren't callhim that out aloud. The second time must have been in Heron's own room.But you shall judge for yourself. He'd been downstairs with his wife. Hewent up to his rooms again for something, and in the hall outside hisown door--which he'd just unlocked--he fell down in a sort of faintingfit. Well, putting two and two together, after you told me youradventure creeping along the ledge from my window to his, it occurred tome that there'd been just cause for the seizure. I didn't think Heronwas the man to keel over in a faint, even for a thing like that. All thesame, seeing that ghostly vision would account for his attack."
"I understand," said Clo. "I saw he was flabbergasted. But that firsttime at the door, when he was with his wife, he didn't look at me as ifI were a stranger. It was as if he knew me, and almost fell over himselfto see me again. That was the feeling I had, but I was--a littleexcited."
"Most girls would have been corpses!"
"I felt like a live coal. But we mustn't let the gang make a corpse ofMr. Heron, must we? Let's warn him. Where are we, anyhow?"
"Same house you were in. Doctor said it wouldn't be safe to move you. Wedisinfected the best we could in a hurry, and he extracted the bulletfrom your poor little shoulder. Thank God, I was in time, or there mighthave been another bullet or two, that couldn't be extracted! You're allright now, or will be with a little rest, and we'll get you into anursing home. As for Heron, he and his wife have gone to Narragansett.That's close to Newport, you know, where Mrs. Sands is."
"Angel in Newport already! Then the pearls--but I told Ellen Blackburneto take them there if she had to. Do you think she will?"
"Sure! She'll catch the first train."
"No. She won't do that. She thinks of her mother before everything. Butthe ball's not till to-morrow. Angel won't need the pearls till then.Oh, if I could be sure she'll get them! I can't rest till I'm sure. Imust go to Newport. I must."
"When you're strong enough."
"I'm strong enough now. Is it late?"
"Getting on toward evening. You were a long time coming to yourself.Presently the doctor will say whether you can be moved to-night to thatnursing home."
"If I can be moved to a nursing home I can be moved to Newport. Tell thedoctor I shall burst if I can't go."
"You may tell him yourself."
"I _must_ go. I must know if all goes right with the pearls. I must knowif it's better or worse for Angel that Stephen's dead."
"Stephen's dead!"
"Yes. Did you know him?"
"I know of him. He is----"
"Don't tell me. She mightn't want me to hear. I haven't heard anythingexcept that Kit and Churn talked about his having died, and said Angelhad been cheated."
"By Jove, I begin to see light."
"Now you see why I must go to her? And you've forgotten maybe what Itold you about Mr. Heron. If he's near Newport, I----"
"Look here, darling, if the doctor says you can be taken thereto-morrow--oh, in time to arrive before the famous ball--let's say in acomfortable motor car, travelling slowly, banked up on cushions, willyou go as my wife?"
Clo stared as if O'Reilly had broken into some strange language which heexpected her to understand. "Your wife?"
"Well--don't you expect to marry me? That's what happens when a girl anda man love each other."
"Oh--some day--if you're sure you really want an ignorant little girllike me, brought up in an orphan asylum, who's worked in a shop andhasn't a penny in the world--except a dollar or two left of Mrs. Sands'money. A long time from now, when you've thought about it----"
"I've thought of nothing else since we met and parted, and I realizedthat you were my life and soul. If you can make up your mind to 'someday,' it might just as well be to-morrow. Don't you want to console mefor the loss of the only other thing, besides you, I've ever wanted withall my heart? You do if you love me. The dear old house that was myfather's! You know, when you sent up your name at the Dietz as MissO'Reilly, I believed you were my cranky cousin Theresa, come to tell meshe'd changed her mind about selling the house. Why, you owe it to me,if you care, to make up for that. Your Angel's husband has bribedTheresa to sell to him. The place has passed away from me forever. Butif you'll marry me to-night I shan't care. In the joy of beinghusband--and nurse--to the bravest and dearest mouse in the world I'llforget everything and be the happiest man on God's earth."
"People don't get married at a few hours' notice."
"Don't they? How long have you lived in the United States, my Irishcolleen?"
"Months. Over a year. But I never discussed marriage."
"I'm jolly glad you didn't. But you'll hear of nothing else till theknot's tied. We do things quickly over here."
Then the door opened, and the doctor came in.
The Lion's Mouse Page 36
