"Out of the answers," she resumed, "I selected four and had their writers call for a personal interview.But only two of them seemed to me to be really reformed, and of these two Elmer's reform struck me as being the more genuine.You may have noticed that Elmer gives the appearance of being done with worldly vanities.""He does seem depressed," said Cleggett, "but I had imputed it largelyto the nature of his present occupation.""It is due to his attempt to lead a better life--or at least so he tells me," said Lady Agatha."Morality does not come easy to Elmer, he says, and I believe him.Elmer's time is largely taken up by inward moral debate as to the right or wrong of particular hypothetical cases which his imagination insists on presenting to his conscience.""I can certainly imagine no state of mind less enjoyable," said Cleggett.
"Nor I," replied Lady Agatha."But to resume: The very fact that I had employed a guard seemed to put Reginald Maltravers beside himself.He followed me more closely than ever.Regardless of appearances, he would suddenly plant himself in front of me in restaurants and tramcars, in the streets or parks when I went for an airing, even in the lifts and corridors of the apartment hotel where I stopped, and stare at me intently through his monocle, caressing his mustache the while.I did not dare make a scene; the thing was causing enough remark without that; I was, in fact, losing my reputation.
"Finally, goaded beyond endurance, I called Elmer into my apartment one day and put the whole case before him.
"'I will pay almost any price short of participation in actual crime,' I told him, 'for a fortnight of freedom from that man's presence.I can stand it no longer; I feel my reason slipping from me.Have I not heard that there are in New York creatures who are willing, on the payment of a certain stipulated sum, to guarantee to chastise a person so as to disable him for a definite period, without doing him permanent injury? You must know some such disreputable characters.Procure me some wretches of this sort!'
"Elmer replied that such creatures do, indeed, exist.He called them-- what did he call them?""Gunmen?" suggested Cleggett.
"Yes, thank you.He brought two of them to me whom he introduced as--"She paused."The names escape me," she said.She called: "Elmer, just step here a moment, please."Elmer, who was still putting ice into the oblong box, moodily laid away his tools and approached.
"What WERE the odd names of your friends? The ones who--who made the mistake?" asked Lady Agatha, resuming her seat.
Elmer rolled a bilious eye at Cleggett and asked Lady Agatha, out of that corner of his mouth nearer to her:
"Is th' guy right?"
"Mr.Cleggett is a friend of mine and can keep a secret, if that is what you mean," said Lady Agatha.And the words sent a thrill of elation through Cleggett's being.
"M' friends w'at makes the mistake," said Elmer, apparently satisfied with the assurance, and offering the information to Cleggett out of the side of his mouth which had not been involved in his question to Lady Agatha, "goes by th' monakers of Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat.""Picturesque," murmured Cleggett.
"Picture--what? Picture not'in!" said Elmer, huskily."The bulls got not'in' on them boys.Them guys never been mugged.Them guys is too foxy t' get mugged.""I infer that you weren't always so foxy," said Cleggett, eyeing him curiously.
The remark seemed to touch a sensitive spot.Elmer flushed and shuffled from one foot to the other, hanging his head as if in embarrassment.Finally he said, earnestly:
"I wasn't no boob, Mr.Cleggett.It was a snitch got ME settled.I was a good cracksman, honest I was.But I never had no luck.""I intended no reflection on your professional ability," said Cleggett, politely.
"Oh, that's all right, Mr.Cleggett," said Elmer, forgivingly."Nobody's feelin's is hoited.And any friend of th' little dame here is a friend o' mine."The diminutive, on Elmer's lips, was intended as acompliment; Lady Agatha was not a small woman.
"Elmer," said Lady Agatha, "tell Mr.Cleggett how the mistake occurred."Oratory was evidently not Elmer's strongest point.But he braced himself for the effort and began:
"When th' skoit here says she wants the big boob punched I says to m'self, foist of all: 'Is it right or is it wrong?' Oncet youse got that reform high sign put onto youse, youse can't be too careful.Do youse get me? So when th' skoit here puts it up to me I thinks foist off: 'Is it right or is it wrong?' See? So I thinks it over and I says to m'self th' big boob's been pullin' rough stuff on th' little dame here.Do youse get me? So I says to m'self, the big boob ought to get a wallop on the nut.See? What th' big gink needs is someone to bounce a brick off his bean, f'r th' dame here's a square little dame.Do youse get me? So I says to the little dame: 'I'm wit' youse, see? W'at th' big gink needs is a mont' in th' hospital.' An' the little dame here says he's not to be croaked, but--"But at that instant Teddy, the Pomeranian, sprang towards the uncovered hatchway that gave into the hold, barking violently.Lady Agatha, who could see into the opening, arose with a scream.
Cleggett, leaping towards the hatchway, was just in time to see two men jump backward from the bottom of the ladder into the murk of the hold.They had been listening.Drawing his pistol, and calling to the crew of the Jasper B.to follow him, Cleggett plunged recklessly downward and into the darkness.
