The Copper House A detective story
"No, I might require him again. Isn't Rastakov ready yet?"
"Yes, he's just coming."
Rastakov entered the room.
"Well!" Ortiz greeted him.
"I have searched Rosenthal's room," replied Rastakov; "he has made no
notes, and I have found nothing."
"Good!"
Ortiz sat silent for a little time. It did not escape Wallion that the
baron and Rastakov exchanged a rapid glance full of uneasiness; he
could guess the reason.
Ortiz looked at his watch.
"Rastakov--have you left any of your men in Stockholm?"
"No, they are all here."
"Nobody missing?"
"No."
"Is everything aboard the lighter?"
"Yes."
"Good!" said the Chief once again. "Bring in Leonard Grath and Sonia
Bernin immediately; I don't wish to wait any longer."
The baron bit his lips and looked nervously at Rastakov. For several
seconds a dead silence reigned in the room, at the end of which
Rastakov went out, making an ambiguous sign to Fayerling.
"Well!" said Ortiz, raising his voice, and looking round him. "Where is
Rastakov gone? What does this mean? Am I not to be obeyed?"
Max Raebel had drawn close to Wallion, and said rapidly in a barely
audible voice:
"They caught me almost directly, but I played my part for all it was
worth, I can tell you! Three of them seized me at once and dragged me
down, but I believe the youngsters got away safely."
Ortiz fixed his dark eyes upon them, and exclaimed sharply: "Gentlemen!
You had better speak out loud; nobody whispers in my presence. Can
either of _you_ perhaps inform me where the two missing persons are to
be found?"
Wallion replied:
"They have gone to fetch some friends of mine, who might otherwise
arrive too late to meet you...."
Ortiz' eyes blazed; this time he was visibly provoked, and patches of
red appeared on his cheeks.
"So that is what you are waiting for! I saw through you from the first;
you are at the bottom of all this. You must be a very optimistic man,
Maurice Wallion, if you imagine that I have not anticipated your
action. Do I need to tell you that nothing can stop me?"
He struck the table with the palm of his hand.
"I am the master of Copper House for to-night, and I intend to show
it! You have sent them to alarm the authorities? That is a good move:
but do you suppose that Rastakov would be such a fool as to admit them?
And if he did, what would be the result? When the authorities get here,
they will find no one to tell them what has occurred. I sweep clean
after me, as you ought to know, after seeking me for so long."
"Brooms don't always sweep quite clean enough!" answered Wallion;
"to begin with, how do you know that the runaways have not taken
Tarraschin's memorandum with them, as literature for the journey?"
This shot struck home. Ortiz walked up to the journalist, and looked at
him intently.
"If you have dared to do that!" said he, slowly; "but no, it is
impossible. You couldn't be so foolishly reckless!"
He turned to Lona Ivanovna, who met his eyes without flinching.
"I know you, Lona Ivanovna! For you, and for him there," and he nodded
contemptuously at the silent figure crouched in the armchair, "the
document is altogether too costly!"
He swung round on his heel.
"Baron Fayerling! What are you waiting for? If there is such delay in
bringing in my prisoners, I must take more vigorous measures."
The baron bowed low.
"I believe they are on the way here," he answered.
The Austrian seized Wallion by the arm:
"Hark, I hear people coming up the avenue! Either they have been
caught, or else...."
A noise outside became audible. The journalist looked out of the
window, and saw a dozen lanterns coming up the avenue, in whose light
the dark faces of a band of men were visible; rifle-barrels gleamed,
and a voice shouted:
"Are you all here? In with you, there is no time to lose!"
A crowd of men surged into the hall.
CHAPTER XVII
_Leo and Sonia determine to steal a motor-car but fall into an
unexpected trap_
Never before had Leo found the avenue between the Copper House and
Karka gates so interminably long. Sometimes it seemed as wide as a
boulevard, at others no broader than a woodland path, where he kept on
bumping into the trees, and grazing his hands. The rain, which blew in
diagonal lines across their path, or fell upon their heads in heavy
drops from the thick foliage, drenched, but did not cool him; hot and
breathless, he stumbled continually, and at last stood still, perfectly
bewildered.
"Wait!" he panted to the young girl. "It has never taken me more than
six minutes to walk down this avenue, but to-night it seems by some
sort of black magic to be five times longer than usual. If one could at
least see one's own nose!"
"Hush!" whispered Sonia. "We are somewhere near the lodge; I fancied I
saw a light...."
Leo started nervously.
"Is there someone behind us?" he exclaimed, trying to peer between
the trees. But he could no longer see even the lights on the terrace,
and came to the conclusion that they must somehow have traversed the
entire length of the avenue.
"No, it's nobody," said the girl, after listening for a minute; "they
are too busy now with Ortiz' arrival."
"Ortiz! don't speak of him, I am scared to death when I think of his
face: supposing he comes after us!"
"No, no," said the girl, catching hold of his coat. "Never mind Ortiz
now! Look, isn't that a light over there?"
They went on through the trees; a flash of lightning flickered through
the darkness, but its momentary glimmer was not sufficient to show them
their exact whereabouts; it was succeeded by a brief peal of thunder,
echoing among the surrounding hills. Leo could see nothing of the light
which the girl had noticed.
"Yes, yes!" she insisted; "it was just as though somebody was lighting
a pipe--ah, there it is again!"
This time they really saw a faint glow, which threw an intermittent
light upon a brutal face, wreathed in smoke, whilst a burning match
ricochetted through the air and went out. Leo recognized the face of
the gate-keeper Tugan, who had fired at him on his first arrival at the
Copper House.
They heard him grumbling to himself, and suddenly a light flared
out again: the man had opened a dark-lantern, and was flashing it
suspiciously first on one side, then on the other, but without
discovering the fugitives, who had taken cover behind the trunk of a
large tree. After some minutes the light vanished, and they thought
they heard steps moving away. Meanwhile, the temporary illumination had
shown them where they were: the lodge was not more than twenty paces
away from them, and twenty paces further on to the right, they could
make out the bars of the gates. The gate-keeper seemed to be the only
human being about.
"He has gone," whispered Sonia. "He went out of the gate."
"No," returned Leo, "he went inside: I heard a door shut."
"Impossible, for we should see a light in the window."
"Not necessarily; he would be on the look-out."
They wrangled obstinately, though in subdued tones, assured that the
rain and the wind were sufficient to cover any sound they might make.
"Let us wait a few seconds, and we shall know for certain"; Leo
proposed finally; "I don't feel quite comfortable about it; the old fox
may be lying in wait."
They stood so close together, sheltering as best they could from the
rain, that the girl's soft hair brushed his face, and he could feel the
vibration of her hurried breathing. She was evidently strung-up to a
high pitch of excitement, and her agitation communicated itself to him,
making him feel strengthless and confused.
"Sonia," said he, taking her hand, "I may call you Sonia, mayn't I?
Your fingers are like ice, are you very frightened? Things have gone
rather well, so far."
"No," she answered in a low tone, not withdrawing her hand; "I am not
frightened...."
He ventured to squeeze the little hand.
"You'll see, if once we can get safely out of this, it will be all
right. We shall manage to outwit the lot of them, Ortiz and his
myrmidons; he shan't hurt your people, and to-morrow a happier future
will dawn...."
"There can be no future for me," she burst out mournfully, "unless,
unless...."
"Yes, unless what? Tell me."
"Unless Sergius is saved. He runs the greatest risk of all, and if he
dies...."
She broke off with a sob, and the sound struck Leo like a blow.
"Yes, of course, Sergius," he murmured. "Oh, that'll be all right.
Sergius shan't be taken from you."
In spite of his brave words he was conscious of a feeling of exhaustion
and disappointment, as he realized that he had been fixing his hopes on
something that was quite out of his reach ... no, it was best as it
was ... Sergius! So all her anxiety was for him. Ah well, perhaps it
was the most suitable....
He pulled himself together.
"Come along!" he encouraged her; "let's go ahead to rescue Sergius."
They went up to the lodge, and tried to look in through the window.
"He isn't there," whispered the girl.
"No, so it seems," muttered Leo; "but which way did he go?"
"That doesn't matter, we needn't bother about him," she returned
impatiently. "Don't you remember that the telephone is here? We must
telephone for help."
"Yes, you are right, let us do so at once."
They skirted the wall, and approached the door. Leo turned the handle,
found the door unfastened, and entered.
Something whizzed past him with an ominous sound, and struck the
door-post with a crack: it was a knife.
"Ha!" cried the young man, "is that your game, you sneaking brute!"
The burly form of the gate-keeper loomed dimly just inside the door,
and Leo flung himself unhesitatingly upon him, for he knew that it was
a matter of life or death. His enemy seized him in a bear's hug, but he
wriggled out of it, and planted his fist squarely in the center of the
brutal face. The fellow reeled backwards, slipped his right hand behind
him, and raised the butt of his gun over his head, with a furious
bellow.
"Oh no, I have had enough of that gun of yours," said Leo; "I owe you
something for yesterday. Tit for tat, you know. Now then, come on and
get it! And there's another: and just one more!"
Tugan had counted too much on his brute strength; the young man's
powerful onrush gave him no chance of inflicting his intended
death-blow with the clubbed rifle; a smashing blow on the point of the
chin knocked him off his feet, he fell backwards over chairs and table
with a crash, and lay motionless.
Leo groped for the matches, and a tiny, flickering flame lighted up the
room. Tugan was stunned, and lay like a pole-axed steer on the floor;
Sonia stared at him in alarm.
"Is he dead?" she whispered.
"No, he will soon come to."
With a certain satisfaction, Leo reflected that he must now have
regained the prestige which he had lost in her eyes by his sham fight
with the Austrian. The match went out, but he struck another, and
lighted a candle which stood on the table. The telephone became visible
on the wall near the door, and a thrill of triumph went through him, as
he picked up the receiver. At last he had succeeded! In another minute
their plight would be made known to the outside world, and help would
be forthcoming.
"Hallo!" he shouted impatiently: "hallo! Now then, Exchange! Can't you
answer? Are you all asleep there? Hallo, hallo!"
Sonia gave a cry and pointed to the wall.
"Look! the wires are cut! The telephone is useless!"
Leo saw that she was right: the cut wires were dangling down. With an
exclamation of dismay, he flung away the receiver.
"It is dreadful," faltered Sonia; "it shows that they have no further
need of it; they just want to secure themselves against being
surprised. We are lost!"