第21章 BOOK I:AS SEEN BY TWO STRANGERS(21)

But even his hardihood showed shock,when,upon turning round with a brisk,"Now I'm ready to talk,"he encountered again the clear eye of Sweetwater.For,in the person of this none too welcome intruder,he saw a very different man from the one upon whom he had just turned his back with so little ceremony;and there appeared to be no good reason for the change.He had not noted in his preoccupation,how George,at sight of his stooping figure,had made a sudden significant movement,and if he had,the pulling of a necktie straight,would have meant nothing to him.But to Sweetwater it meant every thing,and it was in the tone of one fully at ease with himself that he now dryly remarked:Mr.Brotherson,if you feel quite clean;and if you have sufficiently warmed yourself,Iwould suggest that we start out at once,unless you prefer to have me share this room with you till the morning."There was silence.Mr.Dunn thus addressed attempted no answer;not for a full minute.The two men were measuring each other -George felt that he did not count at all -and they were quite too much occupied with this task to heed the passage of time.To George,who knew little,if anything,of what this silent struggle meant to either,it seemed that the detective stood no show before this Samson of physical strength and intellectual power,backed by a pistol just within reach of his hand.But as George continued to look and saw the figure of the smaller man gradually dilate,while that of the larger,the more potent and the better guarded,gave unmistakable signs of secret wavering,he slowly changed his mind and,ranging himself with the detective,waited for the word or words which should explain this situation and render intelligible the triumph gradually becoming visible in the young detective's eyes.

But he was not destined to have his curiosity satisfied so far.He might witness and hear,but it was long before he understood.

"Brotherson?"repeated their host,after the silence had lasted to the breaking-point."Why do you call me that?""Because it is your name."

"You called me Dunn a minute ago."

"That is true."

"Why Dunn if Brotherson is my name?"

"Because you spoke under the name of Dunn at the meeting to-night,and if I don't mistake,that is the name by which you are known here.""And you?By what name are you known?"

"It is late to ask,isn't it?But I'm willing to speak it now,and I might not have been so a little earlier in our conversation.Iam Detective Sweetwater of the New York Department of Police,and my errand here is a very simple one.Some letters signed by you have been found among the papers of the lady whose mysterious death at the hotel Clermont is just now occupying the attention of the New York authorities.If you have any information to give which will in any way explain that death,your presence will be welcome at Coroner Heath's office in New York.If you have not,your presence will still be welcome.At all events,I was told to bring you.You will be on hand to accompany me in the morning,I am quite sure,pardoning the unconventional means I have taken to make sure of my man?"The humour with which this was said seemed to rob it of anything like attack,and Mr.Brotherson,as we shall hereafter call him,smiled with an odd acceptance of the same,as he responded:

"I will go before the police certainly.I haven't much to tell,but what I have is at their service.It will not help you,but Ihave no secrets.What are you doing?"

He bounded towards Sweetwater,who had simply stepped to the window,lifted the shade and looked across at the opposing tenement.

"I wanted to see if it was still snowing,"explained the detective,with a smile,which seemed to strike the other like a blow."If it was a liberty,please pardon it."Mr.Brotherson drew back.The cold air of self possession which he now assumed,presented such a contrast to the unwarranted heat of the moment before that George wondered greatly over it,and later,when he recapitulated to me the whole story of this night,it was this incident of the lifted shade,together with the emotion it had caused,which he acknowledged as being for him the most inexplicable event of the evening and the one he was most anxious to hear explained.

As this ends our connection with this affair,I will bid you my personal farewell.I have often wished that circumstances had made it possible for me to accompany you through the remaining intricacies of this remarkable case.

But you will not lack a suitable guide.