第37章 BOOK II:AS SEEN BY DETECTIVE SWEETWATER(16)

What he wanted was to catch the secret sigh,the muttered word,the involuntary movement.He was too far removed from this man still.

How should he manage to get nearer him -at the door of his mind -of his heart?Sweetwater stared all night from his miserable cot into the darkness of that separating closet,and with no result.His task looked hopeless;no wonder that he could get no rest.

Next morning he felt ill,but he rose all the same,and tried to get his own breakfast.He had but partially succeeded and was sitting on the edge of his bed in wretched discomfort,when the very man he was thinking of appeared at his door.

"I've come to see how you are,"said Brotherson."I noticed that you did not look well last night.Won't you come in and share my pot of coffee?""I -I can't eat,"mumbled Sweetwater,for once in his life thrown completely off his balance."You're very kind,but I'll manage all right.I'd rather.I'm not quite dressed,you see,and I must get to the shop."Then he thought -"What an opportunity I'm losing.

Have I any right to turn tail because he plays his game from the outset with trumps?No,I've a small trump somewhere about me to lay on this trick.It isn't an ace,but it'll show I'm not chicane."And smiling,though not with his usual cheerfulness,Sweetwater added,"Is the coffee all made?I might take a drop of that.But you mustn't ask me to eat -I just couldn't.""Yes,the coffee is made and it isn't bad either.You'd better put on your coat;the hall's draughty."And waiting till Sweetwater did so,he led the way back to his own room.Brotherson's manner expressed perfect ease,Sweetwater's not.He knew himself changed in looks,in bearing,in feeling,even;but was he changed enough to deceive this man on the very spot where they had confronted each other a few days before in a keen moral struggle?The looking-glass he passed on his way to the table where the simple breakfast was spread out,showed him a figure so unlike the alert,business-like chap he had been that night,that he felt his old assurance revive in time to ease a situation which had no counterpart in his experience.

"I'm going out myself to-day,so we'll have to hurry a bit,"was Brotherson's first remark as they seated themselves at table."Do you like your coffee plain or with milk in it?""Plain.Gosh!what pictures!Where do you get 'em?You must have a lot of coin."Sweetwater was staring at the row of photographs,mostly of a very high order,tacked along the wall separating the two rooms.They were unframed,but they were mostly copies of great pictures,and the effect was rather imposing in contrast to the shabby furniture and the otherwise homely fittings.

"Yes,I've enough for that kind of thing,"was his host's reply.

But the tone was reserved,and Sweetwater did not presume again along this line.Instead,he looked well at the books piled upon the shelves under these photographs,and wondered aloud at their number and at the man who could waste such a lot of time in reading them.But he made no more direct remarks.Was he cowed by the penetrating eye he encountered whenever he yielded to the fascination exerted by Mr.Brotherson's personality and looked his way?He hated to think so,yet something held him in check and made him listen,open-mouthed,when the other chose to speak.

Yet there was one cheerful moment.It was when he noticed the careless way in which those books were arranged upon their shelves.

An idea had come to him.He hid his relief in his cup,as he drained the last drops of the coffee which really tasted better than he had expected.

When he returned from work that afternoon it was with an auger under his coat and a conviction which led him to empty out the contents of a small phial which he took down from a shelf.He had told Mr.

Gryce that he was eager for the business because of its difficulties,but that was when he was feeling fine and up to any game which might come his way.Now he felt weak and easily discouraged.This would not do.He must regain his health at all hazards,so he poured out the mixture which had given him such a sickly air.This done and a rude supper eaten,he took up his auger.He had heard Mr.

Brotherson's step go by.But next minute he laid it down again in great haste and flung a newspaper over it.Mr.Brotherson was coming back,had stopped at his door,had knocked and must be let in.

"You're better this evening,"he heard in those kindly tones which so confused and irritated him.

"Yes,"was the surly admission."But it's stifling here.If I have to live long in this hole I'll dry up from want of air.It's near the shop or I wouldn't stay out the week."Twice this day he had seen Brotherson's tall figure stop before the window of this shop and look in at him at his bench.But he said nothing about that.

"Yes,"agreed the other,"it's no way to live.But you're alone.

Upstairs there's a whole family huddled into a room just like this.

Two of the kids sleep in the closet.It's things like that which have made me the friend of the poor,and the mortal enemy of men and women who spread themselves over a dozen big rooms and think themselves ill-used if the gas burns poorly or a fireplace smokes.

I'm off for the evening;anything I can do for you?""Show me how I can win my way into such rooms as you've just talked about.Nothing less will make me look up.I'd like to sleep in one to-night.In the best bedroom,sir.I'm ambitious;I am."A poor joke,though they both laughed.There Mr.Brotherson passed on,and Sweetwater listened till he was sure that his too attentive neighbour had really gone down the three flights between him and the street.Then he took up his auger again and shut himself up in his closet.

There was nothing peculiar about this closet.It was just an ordinary one with drawers and shelves on one side,and an open space on the other for the hanging up of clothes.Very few clothes hung there at present;but it was in this portion of the closet that he stopped and began to try the wall of Brotherson's room,with the butt end of the tool he carried.