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Mystery of the Boule Cabinet

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<h5 id="id01042">GODFREY IS FRIGHTENED</h5> I was still staring about me, that mocking laughter in my ears, when Godfrey joined me. "He got away, of course," he said coolly. "Yes, and I heard him laugh!" I cried. Godfrey looked at me quickly. "Come, Lester," he said, soothingly, "don't let your nerves run away with you." "It wasn't my nerves," I protested, a little hotly. "I heard it quite plainly. He can't be far away." "Too far for us to catch him," Godfrey retorted, and, torch in hand, proceeded to examine the window-sill and the ground beneath it. "There is where he stood," he added, and the marks on the sill were evident enough. "Of course he had his line of retreat blocked out," and he flashed his torch back and forth across the grass, but the turf was so close that no trace of footsteps was visible. We went slowly back to the house, and Godfrey sat down again to a contemplation of the cabinet. "It's too much for me," he said, at last. "The only way I can find that drawer, I'm afraid, is with an axe. But I don't want to smash the thing to pieces—" "I should say not! It would be like smashing the Venus de Milo." "Hardly so bad as that. But we won't smash it yet awhile. I'm going to look up the subject of secret drawers—perhaps I'll stumble upon something that will help me." "And then, of course," I said, disconsolately, "it is quite possible that there isn't any such drawer at all." But Godfrey shook his head decidedly. "I don't agree with you there, Lester. I'll wager that fellow who was looking in at us could find it in a minute." "He seemed mighty frightened lest you should." "He had reason to be," Godfrey rejoined grimly. "I'll have another try at it to-morrow. One thing we've got to take care of, and that is that our friend of the burning eyes doesn't get a chance at it first." "Those shutters are pretty strong," I pointed out. "And Parks is no fool." "Yes," agreed Godfrey, "the shutters are pretty strong—they might keep him out for ten minutes—scarcely longer than that. As for Parks, he wouldn't last ten seconds. You don't seem to understand the extraordinary character of this fellow." "During your period of exaltation last night," I reminded him, "you referred to him as the greatest criminal of modern times." "Well," smiled Godfrey, "perhaps that was a little exaggerated. Suppose we say one of the greatest—great enough, surely, to walk all around us, if we aren't on guard. I think I would better drop a word to Simmonds and get him to send down a couple of men to watch the house. With them outside, and Parks on the inside, it ought to be fairly safe." "I should think so!" I said. "One would imagine you were getting ready to repel an army. Who is this fellow, anyway, Godfrey? You seem to be half afraid of him!" "I'm wholly afraid of him, if he's who I think he is—but it's a mere guess as yet, Lester. Wait a day or two. I'll call up Simmonds." He went to the 'phone, while I sat down again and looked at the cabinet in a kind of stupefaction. What was the intrigue, of which it seemed to be the centre? Who was this man, that Godfrey should consider him so formidable? Why should he have chosen Philip Vantine for a victim? Godfrey came back while I was still groping blindly amid this maze of mystery. "It's all right," he said. "Simmonds is sending two of his best men to watch the house." He stood for a moment gazing down at the cabinet. "I'm coming back to-morrow to have another try at it," he added. "I have left the gauntlet there on the chair, so if you feel like having a try yourself, Lester…." "Heaven forbid!" I protested. "But perhaps I would better tell Parks to let you in. I hope I won't find you a corpse here, Godfrey!" "So do I! But I don't believe you will. Yes, tell Parks to let me in whenever I come around. And now about Rogers." "What about him?" "I rather thought I might want to grill him to-night. But perhaps I would better wait till I get a little more to go on." He paused for a moment's thought. "Yes; I'll wait," he said, finally. "I don't want to run any risk of failing." We went out into the hall together, and I told Parks to admit Godfrey, whenever he wished to enter. Rogers was still sitting on the cot, looking so crushed and sorrowful that I could not help pitying him. I began to think that, if he were left to himself a day or two longer, he would tell all we wished to know without any grilling. I confided this idea to Godfrey as we went down the front steps. "Perhaps you're right," he agreed. "I don't believe the fellow is really crooked. Something has happened to him—something in connection with that woman—and he has never got over it. Well, we shall have to find out what it was. Hello, here are Simmonds's men," he added, as two policemen stopped before the house. "Is this Mr. Godfrey?" one of them asked. "Yes," said Godfrey. "Mr. Simmonds told us to report to you, sir, if you were here." "What we want you to do," said Godfrey, "is to watch the house—watch it from all sides—patrol clear around it, and see that no one approaches it." "Very well, sir," and the men touched their helmets, and one of them went around to the back of the house, while the other remained in front. "Perhaps if they concealed themselves," I suggested, "the fellow might venture back and be nabbed." But Godfrey shook his head. "I don't want him to venture back," he said. "I want to scare him off. I want him to see we're thoroughly on guard." He hailed a passing cab, and paused with one foot on the step. "I've already told you, Lester," he added, over his shoulder, "that I'm afraid of him. Perhaps you thought I was joking, but I wasn't. I was never more serious in my life. The Record office," he added to the cabby, and jingled away, leaving me staring after him. As I turned homeward, I could not but ponder over this remarkable and mysterious being with whom Godfrey was so impressed. Never before had I known him to hesitate to match himself with any adversary; but now, it seemed to me, he shunned the contest, or at least feared it —feared that he might be outwitted and outplayed! How great a compliment that was to the mysterious unknown only I could guess! And then I shivered a little as I recalled that mocking and ironic laughter. And I quickened my step, with a glance over my shoulder; for if Godfrey was afraid, how much more reason had I to be! It was with a sense of relief, of which I was a little ashamed, that I reached my apartment at the Marathon and locked the door. Just before I turned in for the night, I heard from Godfrey again, for my telephone rang, and it was his voice that answered. "I just wanted to tell you, Lester," he said, "that your guess was right. The mysterious Frenchman came over on La Touraine, landing at noon yesterday. He came in the steerage, and the stewards know nothing about him. What time was it he got to Vantine's?" "About two, I should say." "So he probably went directly there from the boat, as you thought. That accounts for nobody knowing him. The steamship company is holding a bag belonging to him. I'll get them to open it to-morrow, and perhaps we shall find out who he was." "But, Godfrey," I broke in, "how about this other fellow—the man with the burning eyes? He's getting on my nerves!" "Don't let him do that, Lester!" he laughed. "We're in no danger so long as we are not around that cabinet! That's the storm centre! I can't tell you more than that. Good-night!" and he hung up without waiting for me to answer. <h2 id="id01091" style="margin-top: 4em">CHAPTER XIII</h2> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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