The sinister mark
tragedy of my life. If it can be removed, if I escape, whole and
clean, I will come to you. There is danger, I know, on account
of----No, I cannot tell you the danger without explaining all. But
danger is nothing to me now. I will put fate to the test and have
done.
What I do I must do quickly, before my courage fails. If I were to
see you again----That can not be. I could not see you face to face
again and not tell you--and then----
No, I'm determined. I've let things go on too long. I saw it in
your dear face when I left you. I am determined that you shall make
no sacrifice for me.
If I fail, there will be no one left but Anne, and you will never
find her. She will see to that. If I succeed, I will come back
to you. I promise, my beloved, as solemnly as if I were on my
death-bed. I will come back and tell you all that I have hidden
so carefully, my ugly, pitiful secret, which is known to but one
person, now, in all the world--and after that, you may do as you
will with me.
If I never see you again, believe, oh, you must believe, that I
love you. That, knowing you as I have come to know you, I will
stake everything to come clean in your eyes, or I will never look
into your dear eyes again. I am thinking of you, my dearest in all
the world, only of you, and I beg, with my heart full of tears,
that if I fail, you will remember gently her whom you have known as
MARY BLAKE.
Peter sat for a long time after he had finished reading, lost in
thought. At last he stirred and, pointing to the signature, he said:
"Then Mary Blake is not her own name."
Morris shook his head. "No, I know that to be her stage name only," he
said, quietly.
"And her real name is?"
"I don't know."
Peter thought, "And yet he has asked her to be his wife. She must be a
wonder!" Aloud he said, referring to the letter:
"I think there is something here to account for your impression that
Miss Blake wasn't too keen on her sister Anne. At any rate, the sister
seems to be connected in some way with the thing that was troubling
her. Did you make out this blotted place? These words crossed out?"
He indicated with his finger. Donald bent above the crumpled sheet.
"Yes," he said, "I made it out to be, 'My sister Anne, with whom I
live, is'----"
"That's what I make it," said Clancy. "And then she speaks again, right
after it, of the bitterness and tragedy of her life, and it seems to
be in connection with Anne.... And here again," he turned the page,
"she says there will be no one left but Anne, and that you will never
find her. What does that mean? And who is the one person who knows her
secret? Surely her sister, who lives with her, would be the most likely
to----"
"And the danger," Morris broke in. "She speaks of danger. Oh, God! And
she isn't here and I don't know where she's gone!" He clenched his
hands upon the chair arms and looked at Peter in agonized entreaty.
"We'll take steps to find her," Peter said, firmly, encouragingly.
"And we'll start this instant. Come! We'll get the janitor up here and
see what he knows, since we're on the spot. He must know something, at
least, about their ordinary habits, whether a maid came in by the day,
who some of their friends are, possibly. We might get a clue, a hint,
from anywhere or anybody. You never can tell. We've got to trust a
good deal to luck. But you know 'the luck of the Irish'!" This with a
cheerful grin as he went toward the door. "I'll get the Dago first," he
said, and vanished.
CHAPTER VII
A SPLASH OF BLOOD
The door closed after Peter with a snap of the spring lock, and Donald
Morris waited, striding nervously about. At every turn in the length
of the room he paused beside the frail scarf which still lay upon the
table. It drew him with an irresistible, horrible fascination.
Whose blood was that upon it? What fearful scene had taken place in
this quiet room? The overturned table suggested that there might
have been a struggle. But what sort of a struggle, and between whom?
Was there some secret animosity between these two sisters, living so
closely together and in such seclusion? That had been his impression
for a long time. Was it correct? And if so, what then? Had the feeling
between them been serious enough to cause----
His troubled reflections were interrupted by a quick, quiet knock on
the outer door. He went swiftly into the shadowy hall, and hearing the
detective's voice just outside, he threw open the door, disclosing
Clancy and the janitor.
The latter seemed very much abashed by the summons. He snatched off
his old hat, and with his two hands clasped behind his back he bowed
several times in a quick, foreign way, and smiled deprecatingly.
He was dressed in an old loose pair of dark trousers and a
blue-and-white striped, long-sleeved blouse, open at the throat.
Altogether he appeared what he was--a kindly, childlike, dirty little
Italian, such as one may see by the hundred in the section south of
Washington Square.
"Come on in, Angelo," said Clancy, pleasantly. "Don't be afraid. Mr.
Morris and I just want to ask you a few questions. Name's Angelo
Russo," he added, turning to Morris. "Says he's been janitor here for
about four years." Then, turning back, he took the seemingly reluctant
Italian by the arm. "Come in here, Angelo," he repeated. "Nothing for
you to be afraid of. I guess Sullivan must have treated you kind of
rough, didn't he? But he didn't mean anything. Professional etiquette,
that's all. Now sit down there and make yourself comfortable, and tell
us what you know about the tenants here."
His manner was cheerful and disarming, and the janitor was reassured.
He seated himself on the edge of a chair near the door of the living
room and answered Peter's questions with a volubility which was almost
overwhelming.
"No know mucha 'bout da ladies," he said, with a characteristic shrug
and a nervous grin. "Ver' quiet, ver' nice. Both keep alla to selves.
Both speak pleasant to Angelo, no speak mucha. Say 'Nice day, Angelo,'
Mees Anne say, ev' morn' she go out buy grub. Dat all. 'Nice day,
Angelo.' Da tall, gran' one, Mees Mary, she say, 'Good eve', Angelo,'
if see her when she go teatro at night. No see her ver' mucha. No roun'
vestabula, me, lika in morn' when Mees Anne come down. Den----"
"What does Miss Anne look like, Angelo?" Donald Morris interrupted. He
was filled with an intense desire to learn all that was possible about
the strange sister whom he had never seen--whom, now, it appeared he
would never see if Mary's letter gave the exact fact. "There will be no
one left but Anne, and you will never see her. She will see to that."
Why would there be no one left but Anne? Where----
"She looka da nice, quiet lady," again the Italian shrug and the
gesture of open hands. "Weara da black, ver' plain. No tall an' gran'
lika da sist'. She looka lika alla da ladies, only she hava da big,
reda mark on face, here, looka lika blood----"
"You mean a birthmark?" Clancy broke in hastily. "A conspicuous
birthmark?" He exchanged a hopeful glance with Morris. A thing of that
sort ought to make it easier to trace her, if it became necessary.
"Non capisch da birt'mark," Angelo showed a slightly puzzled face, "but
he big reda place alla lika here." He raised a stubby brown hand and
passed it across his dark cheek and down on his neck. "Too mucha bad,"
he added. "Oth' side she awright."
"Did she resemble Miss Mary?" asked Morris, eagerly. "Did she look at
all like her sister?"
"N', no!" The Italian's negation was very emphatic. "Mees Mary tall,
lika Madonn', stan' straight," he lifted his square body in the chair,
"lika da lil'. See face tru vail lika ange' in cloud, _si_, si.
Sometime me lika see no vail. N', no, Ev' time she wear him. Tinka, me,
she wear him so peopl' in street not know she great Mees Blake ev'bod'
talk 'bout."
Morris nodded. "That's true, Angelo. But tell us more about Miss Anne.
We know how Miss Mary looked." There was a world of sadness in his
voice. "Describe Miss Anne to us. Was she tall or short?"
"_Si, si._ Pret' gooda tall," answered the janitor, considering
heavily, "but no so ver'. She hanga down, lika dis," drooping slightly
forward. "She looka ver' sad alla time. She nev' speak, only, 'Gooda
morn', Angelo.' That all. Jus' 'Gooda morn', Angelo'."
"How long were the sisters here?" asked Clancy.
"Not know for sure. Come two, tree year ago. Soon aft' me taka da job."
"So long as that, and you don't know anything more about them?" asked
Peter, sharply.
Again the shrug, with eyebrows raised. "How me know mucha 'bout da
ladies? Justa da janitor, me."
"Well, you must know," said Peter, "what servants they had."
"No serv', no serv' 'tall," Angelo replied, quickly. "Two ladies all
alone. Tinka dey do alla own work. Tinka, me, Mees Anne do alla work,
an' Mees Mary, she sleep late. No see come down till time for she go
teatro. Mees Anne she go out ev' morn'----"
"All right," Peter interrupted. "Then they had no servants--not even a
laundress?"
"Me no know--maybe. Somebod' might come for wash. Me no know who, if
anybod'. Me no in hall alla time. Only morn' when clean up hall--me
liva da basemen'. Door no lock alla da day. If somebod' ringa da bell,
me go."
"Then you don't know if the ladies had many visitors, or who they
were?" asked Peter, with a frown. The conversation seemed not to be
eliciting anything useful to his purpose.
The janitor shook his head.
"See ol' lady come, two, tree, four time. Fine, gran' ol' lady, ver'
big, wide----" Angelo thrust out his hands together, palms down, to the
full reach of his short arms, and brought them around to his sides in
a full, sweeping curve, graphically expressive of great _embonpoint_.
"Gran' ol' lady," he repeated, his white teeth flashing in a grin, "she
puffa some on alla da stair!"
"You don't know her name?" Peter inquired, eagerly.
Again the Italian shook his head.
"Or where she lives?"
"How know, me?" was the reasonable response.
"And you've never seen any other friends of theirs?"
"No, no. No see anybod'."
Peter realized that there was no hope in this direction. He leaned
back and thought for a moment, frowning, his keen eyes half closed.
Morris shifted, uneasily, in his chair. He felt that they were merely
wasting time. He had no ideas as to what should be done in the
circumstances, but he felt, agonizingly, that they should be doing
something--anything. At last Clancy spoke:
"It was easy enough for both the sisters to leave without your seeing
them, then, Angelo?"
"Oh, _si, si_. Easy--sure!"
"And they said nothing to you about going? That seems a little queer to
me. Did they ever go away before, and leave the apartment empty, and
not tell you to look out for things?"
"No tinka dey both go sama time before. Mees Mary, she go in summer
time, but Mees Anne stay alla time home."
Peter looked around the room. Had they gone away together this time,
amicably, as sisters should? The strange phrasing of the letter came
back to him, and his eyes rested, in disturbed consideration, on the
blood-stained scarf.
Suddenly he rose from his chair. "I guess that's about all, Angelo," he
said. "I don't suppose you're familiar enough with things here," he
glanced again about the disordered room, "to know what's missing."
"No, no." The janitor jumped to his feet, shaking his head rapidly,
emphatically. "Mos' nev' come up here, me. No know what gone. Sleepa in
basemen'. My wife she sick--she hear noding, me hear noding! Burg' he