第60章

When we had finished reconnoitering we returned to the room we first entered, which apparently was the kitchen.We could still hear the voices, but not distinctly."Do you stay here, Doc," whispered Maitland, "while I get into some old clothes and hunt up the landlord of this place.I'm going to rent these rooms long enough to acquaint myself with my neighbours on the other side of the wall.I'll be back soon.Don't let any man leave that room without your knowing where he goes." With this he left me and I soon found a way to busy myself in his absence.In the wall above the stove, where the pipe passed through the partition into our neighbour's apartment, there was a chink large enough to permit me, when mounted upon the stove, to overlook the greater part of the adjacent room.I availed myself of this privilege, though not without those same twinges of conscience which I had felt some minutes before when following the young lady.The apartment was poorly furnished, and yet, despite this scantiness of appointment, there was unmistakable evidence of refinement.Everything visible in the room was scrupulously neat and the few pictures that adorned the walls, while they were inexpensive half-tones, were yet reproductions of masterpieces.In the centre of the room stood a small, deal table, on the opposite side of which sat the man who had answered my letter.

At one end of the table, poised upon the back of a chair, sat a small Capucin monkey of the Weeper or Sai species.He watched the man with that sober, judicial air which is by no means confined exclusively to supreme benches.I, too, observed the man carefully.He was tall and spare.He must have measured nearly six feet in height and could not, I think, have weighed over one hundred and fifty pounds.His face was pinched and careworn, but this effect was more than redeemed by a pair of full, black eyes having a depth and penetration I have never seen equalled, albeit there was, ever and anon, a suggestion of wildness which somewhat marred their deep, contemplative beauty.The brows and the carriage of the head at once bespoke the scholar.While thus I watched him, theyoung girl came from a corner of the room I could not overlook and laid my letter before him.She stood behind his chair as he opened it, smoothing his hair caressingly and, every now and then, kissing him gently.He paused with the open letter before him, reached up both arms, drew her down to him, kissed her passionately, sighed, and picked up the letter again.I took pains that no act, word, or look should escape me.This show of affection surprised me, and I remember the thought flashed through my mind, "What inconsistent beings we all are! Here is a man apparently capable of a causeless and cold-blooded assassination of a harmless old man.You would say such a murderer must be hopelessly selfish and brutal, amenable to none of the better sentiments of mankind, and yet it needs but a casual glance to see how his whole life is bound up in the young girl before him."While this was passing through my mind the man had glanced through my letter and thrown it upon the table with an exclamation of disgust."Bah! he has had the effrontery," he said petulantly, "to send me what he calls a new mode of treatment and it is in every essential that of Broadbent, well known for more than a quarter of a century.New indeed! I shall never find a doctor who has any scientific acumen.I may as well abandon the search now.Mon Dieu! and they call medicine a science! Bah!" and with a frown he dropped his head despondently upon his hand.The young girl passed her hand gently, soothingly, over his forehead and did not speak for nearly a minute.

"You are not feeling well to-night, father," she said at length."M.Godin has been here during my absence.""M.Godin!" I exclaimed half aloud, catching at the stovepipe lest I should fall from the stove."So our rival is hot upon the scent, - probably even ahead of us.How on earth - " But I did not finish the exclamation.My seizure of the pipe upon my side of the partition had produced an audible vibration of that portion extending over the heads of my neighbours.The young girl's quick ear had detected the sound and she had ceased speaking and fastened her eyes suspiciously upon the aperture through which I was gazing.It seemed to me as if she must see me, yet I dared not move.After a little she seemed reassured and continued: "Iknew he had been here.You are always this way after his visits.Why, of late, does he always come when I am away?" The question seemed innocent enough, yet the man to whom it was addressed turned crimson and then as pale as ashes.When he spoke the effort his self-control cost him was terribly apparent.

"We have private business, dear," he said, "private business." He hesitated a moment and again his eyes wore the wild look I had first noticed."I am selling him something," he continued, "very dear to me - as dear as my heart's blood, and I expect to get enough for it to guard you from want.""And you, father?" the young girl questioned fervently.I thought I noticed a tremor run through his frame, as drawing her face down to his, he said, kissing her, "Me? Never mind me, Puss; this cancer here will take care of me."She made no reply, but turned away to hide the tears that sprang to her eyes.As she did so she raised her face toward me.I have never been considered particularly sympathetic, - that is, no more than the average, - but there was something in the expression of her face that went to my heart like a knife.I felt as if I were about to sob with her.I do not know what it was that so aroused my sympathies.We are, I fancy, more apt to feel for those whose beauty is like to the ideals we have learned to love, than we are to be moved by the suffering of those whose looks repel us, - and this may have had something to do with my condition, - for the young girl was radiantly beautiful, - yet it could hardly have been the real cause of it.