Four Hours/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.
THE HOUR OF DARKNESS.
BARNES turned and tiptoed to the door, and stood there for a time listening, and then he went back to Dratter.
“They have gone into the big room,” he whispered. “Going to make Waldorp's life miserable, I suppose. We have plenty of time, I imagine, and we want to be careful and not make a mistake. There are five of them, all armed, and we have but one revolver between us.”
He loosened Dratter's gag so that Dratter could whisper.
“Why not slip out the front door and make a get-away?” Dratter asked.
“Time enough,” Barnes said again. “We don't want to make a mistake. How do you come to be here, anyway?”
“Granilton decoyed me here.”
“Know anything about their program? They haven't told me any too much.”
“They are going to kill Waldorp and the girl, and hang the crime on me.”
“Tell me—quick!” Barnes urged.
Dratter told him in whispers, stopping now and then while Barnes crept to the door to listen.
“So they want to throw this Detective Slone off the track, and have this Chameleon blamed, do they?” Barnes said. “Very nice of them! And you are to go to the chair? Very nice for you! Well, we'll just ruin their plans, Dratter.”
“Let's just get away, and then telephone the police. They'll get here in time to save Waldorp. They won't kill Waldorp unless I am here to be blamed for it.”
“Like that, eh?” Barnes said, grinning. “You don't care to meet the police personally.”
“Do you?” Dratter countered. “I'm not particularly afraid, but I have no friends and no money, and they might give me a term for vagrancy. My story would sound preposterous, wouldn't it? And I'm particularly afraid that Granilton and his gang might spring another story and get me into trouble. I'll be glad just to get out of this. And Say, Barnes! That girl can get out.”
“What do you mean?”
“She can get out of her room—the room she's in. She showed me how to get to the lower floor.”
“You mean you were on the third floor?”
“Yes. There is a sort of servant's staircase. She can get down, get away, call for help”
“She may get down to the first floor, but she can't get out,” Barnes said. “The doors are all locked, and I have given the keys to Granilton at his order. The windows are all faced with bronze network, except one big one, and she'd never break that. But we'll be watching for her.”
“What are we going to do?”
“It isn't enough to make a get-away,” Barnes said. “I'm a little sore, you know. They didn't tell me exactly what they were going to do. And here they are mixing me up in a murder case. I suppose they might hang a part of it on me, too, the same as you. So it isn't enough just to get away, Dratter.”
“Well?”
“We're going to make those five men prisoners, Dratter. We're going to tie 'em up, the same as you are tied up, and then get out of here and send for the police. Let Waldorp and the others get out of it the best way they can, then. If this Detective Slone or The Chameleon knew it, we'd be thanked and maybe rewarded. What do you know about The Chameleon, anyway?”
“I know from the way these men talked that they have no connection with him,” Dratter said. “They want the police and Slone to think Waldorp was killed by one of The Chameleon's gang, so Slone will stop going after them and look for The Chameleon.”
“Very clever,” said Barnes. “Is The Chameleon as great as he is painted?”
“Don't ask me. These men seem to think he is a big one. If The Chameleon is that sort of master crook, and he knew about this he'd certainly make it hot for Granilton and the other four.”
“And I'd not care if he did,” Barnes said. “They hired me to do dirty work, but I didn't engage to take part in any murder. I don't care to go to the chair or spend the remainder of my days in prison.”
“We'd better be doing something,” Dratter said. “They'll be getting ready to kill Waldorp and the girl.”
“I'll put back your gag and loosen the rope on your wrists and see what I can learn,” Barnes said. 'But you're to stay here and wait for me. I can't do it all alone.”
“I'll wait. I'm as anxious as you are to see them get the worst of it,” Dratter said.
Barnes fixed the gag back in place and loosened the ropes. And then he unlocked the door and slipped into the hall, and along it toward the door of the big room. There he stopped to listen. He could hear Granilton speaking.
“Your time grows short, Waldorp. Interested to know how you are going to die? It will be a knife, Waldorp, and after it is done we'll see that the finger prints of that poor boob of a Dratter are put on the handle of the knife. We have thought of everything, you see.”
“I'm not afraid to die,” Waldorp declared. “You'll never hear me whining, you fiends. But you can't get away with it. You'll be whining yourselves when you are sentenced to the chair. You'll slip up somewhere. You never were much good at planning, Granilton, and there are too many of you in this thing.”
“We are not worrying about that.”
“But I do ask you to spare my niece,” Waldorp went on.
“Don't start that again, now. We can't spare her,” Granilton replied. “Her death is necessary to our safety, you see.”
“Haven't you any mercy?”
“Did you ever know me to have in the old days, Waldorp?” Granilton asked. “Did you have yourself, in those days?”
“I've repented
“It's a good thing for a man to repent before he dies. You have about another hour, Waldorp. We could finish you now, but we want you to think about it a while.”
“Trying to break me down, are you?” Waldorp said. “You'll never do it. I'll never beg, you fiends!”
Barnes slipped away from the door and went back to the little room. When he entered, he closed the door behind him, but neglected to turn the key in the lock. He went up close to Dratter.
“They aren't going to do it for about an hour yet; they are trying to torture this Waldorp,” he reported. “We have time to plan. It will be the two of us against five armed and desperate men, and we don't want to make any mistakes.”
“We'd better just slip out and telephone the police to make an investigation here,” Dratter said.
“The other way suits me better,” Barnes said stubbornly. “Are you afraid?”
“No!”
“You want to pay them back, don't you?”
“Certainly!”
“Very well, then. And don't whisper so loudly. I thought that gag was tighter. We don't want them getting suspicious if they happen to come in here. Listen, now! I've got some pieces of rope and some portière cords at the end of the hall, enough to bind up all five of them. Gags will be easy, of course—half a sheet torn into strips, But binding and gagging them, with all of them armed, will be no baby's job.”
“We'd better sneak away”
“I thought you wanted to get square with them?”
“I do,” Dratter replied. “Go ahead with your plans.”
Barnes crept to the door to listen again. There was a peculiar expression now in the face of Dratter, but he was careful that Barnes did not see it.
“There is one thing worrying me,” he whispered when Barnes was back beside him again.
“What's that?”
“According to what they said, this Detective Slone is on their trail. Suppose he walks in on us here?”
“Bad luck for us if he does, 1 suppose. But there's small chance of it.”
“And The Chameleon. Suppose he is as wise as they say, and knows some way that they are planning to fasten a crime on him. He might get in here with some of his men”
“He might, but I doubt it. We have to run the chance,” Barnes said. “It's a simple thing, Dratter—we overpower them, get out of here, telephone the cops that something is doing at this address, and let them do the rest. They'll probably do as much as Slone and The Chameleon together.”
“When do we start?” Dratter asked.
“In a few minutes. I want them to feel secure, you know; want them busy baiting Waldorp. We've only the one gun. We may get the worst of it.”
“Can't we find another weapon?”
“I've been through the house—nothing but a butcher knife. I'll hold 'em up from the door, and you can disarm the nearest man. I guess we can handle them then. If it is necessary, shoot, quick and straight. Understand?”
“You can depend upon me,” Dratter said.
“I'll listen at the door again, and get the ropes and cords.”
Barnes went into the hall and slipped along it to the door of the big room. Granilton was still talking.
“I have an idea, Waldorp, that you put this Detective Slone on our trails.”
“I didn't but I wish now that I had.”
“Well, we're too smooth for him at that. After this little affair he will be too busy looking for The Chameleon to bother us. And it wouldn't surprise me any to know that you are hand in glove with The Chameleon yourself, despite your pretended reformation. I have an idea you threw us over mere to hook up with another gang.
“I never saw The Chameleon in my life, that I know of, or one of his men,” Waldorp replied. “I know nothing about the man except what I have read in the newspapers. I repented, I tell you, and tried to live right. And I'll go to my death declaring that. You might as well stop talking, trying to torture me. You'll never get me to weaken and beg.”
Barnes turned away from the door again. He hastened silently to the end of the hall and got the ropes and cords, and dropped them by the door of the big room. Then he back to Dratter, closing the door as before, and not locking it.
“We'd better get busy,” Barnes said. “Gather all your nerve, Dratter, and don't weaken. They would have sent you to the chair, you know.”
“I know. You can depend upon me to do my part,” Dratter declared.
“I'll take off that gag and those ropes now.”
Somewhere in the house a clock struck four.
“The darkest hour—just before dawn,” Dratter whispered, grinning.
“We'll make it a dark hour for Granilton and his four precious friends,” Barnes answered.
He was bending down beside the chair, taking off the ropes that bound Dratter's ankles to the rungs. Behind him, the hall door opened. Dratter looked up; Barnes sprang to his feet, reaching in his pocket for his revolver.
Elizabeth Waldorp stood just inside the door.
“You—you” she stammered.
Her eyes seemed bulging with fear, her breath was coming in little gasps, her face was still as white as chalk.
“You—you let that man go!” she ordered Barnes in a hoarse whisper.
“That's all right, girl,” Barnes said. “I'm turning him loose now.”
“You let him go so he can send for the police. I've been listening. Those men are going to kill my uncle”
“Keep quiet, or they'll hear you.”
“And you are one of them,” she told Barnes. “You locked me in that room. But I knew a way out, you see. If you are letting that man loose it is some trick. You'll kill him, too.”
“It's all right, Miss Waldorp,” Dratter whispered. “We're going to get those men”
“So they have bought you, have they?” she said, stepping nearer. “If you can talk that way, then you have joined hands with them.”
“I assure you”
“Don't tell lies,” the girl said. Both Barnes and Dratter could see that she was beside herself with fear, that she was not in a state to reason, to use logic. Fear for her uncle and herself was all that she felt.
Suddenly her hand came from behind her back and they could see that it held a revolver of an old pattern.
“You stop right there or I'll shoot,” she commanded. “Since that man is to join you, don't untie those ropes?”
“Be reasonable,” Barnes said. “I am going to free him so he can help me. We'll overpower those men”
“All lies! He's going to help you kill my uncle,” she declared.
“For Heaven's sake, girl, listen,” Barnes implored. “We haven't a moment to lose. They may come out any minute and find us. Then they'll suspect me, too. It's your life: as well as your uncle's.”
But she was not willing to listen.
“You stop, or I'll shoot, she declared. “I'm going to lock you in here. And then I'm going to smash out a front window and call for help. And I'll shoot anybody who tries to stop me.”
“Don't do that! You'll ruin everything,” Barnes told her. “We don't need the police yet.”
“I'm going to”
She backed toward the door again. Barnes gave a quick spring forward. He grasped the wrist of the hand that held the revolver, jerked the weapon away from her before she could pull the trigger, whirled her back into the room, and clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her scream.
“Keep her quiet, Dratter,” he said, as if he hissed the words.
One of Dratter's arms was free already. Barnes quickly freed the other, and Dratter held the girl on his lap, one hand over her mouth, while Barnes took off the rest of the ropes.
“Have to tie and gag her and leave her here,” Barnes said. “Hate to do it, but she'll yell, or something, and have them down upon us in a moment.”
“Maybe we'd just better get out of here,” Dratter said. “I'd like to get square with those men, but”
“Help me with the girl. We can't lose any time.”
Dratter protested no more. Elizabeth Waldorp was bound and gagged and fastened to the chair. They did it as tenderly as they could, not wishing to hurt her.
“The best thing is that she brought us another weapon,” Barnes said. “Take it, Dratter. It's an old model and will make a noise like a cannon, but it will shoot. Lord, what a bullet it carries—make a hole the size of a plate! All right, Dratter? Then we'll go.”
They crept into the hall, closing the door of the little room behind them.