The Man Who Couldn't Sleep

ting for som

ted it, not only because it was an impertinence, but more because it had driven out of my drowsy brain a very

ted that newly arrived all-night wait

was dreamily wondering why, in the name of common sense, waite

eye. Then he looked at the clock. Then he looked at my empty wine-cooler, plainly a

he had the effr

reet, the hour when chairs are piled on café tables, the white corpuscles of the milk wagons begin to move through the city's sle

rant, or of the fine and firm Clos Vougeot that had been unearthed from its shabby cellar, or of my own peace of mind as I sat there studyin

nd largely condoning matter-of-factness as though in placid search of some plumed and impatient dem

ied to that fish-eyed waiter. "Her breath is soft and dewy, and he

impersonal mild pity with which it is m

et her? Surely you have been conscious of those soft and s

away the timorous spirit I had been wooing as assiduously as an angler seeking his first trout. For one long hour, with a full body and an empty head, I had sat there

le eyes if only I await the golden moment. And so, my dear sir, if you will take this as a slight reward for your trouble, and cover that exceedingly soiled-looking divan in that exceedingly disreputable-looking alcove with a clean tablecloth, and then draw that curtain which is apparently de

bill in his hand, that if this indeed were madne

making it, in fact, look uncomfortably like a bier. Then he carried my hat and gloves and over

ld, was a study in astonishment. It was plain that I puzzled him. He even indulged in a second wondering glance back at the d

a rarer and sweeter Presence, and I wanted no sound or movement to frighten her away. Just when her hand touched mine I can not tell. But I fell o

ver by Latreille himself. Then the voices shifted and changed, receded and advanced. I seemed to be threading that buffer-state which lies between

ng to reinforce the fabric of my imaginings as iron rods reinforce concrete-walls. And I continued to lie there in that pleasant borderland torpor, which is

ork on the Belmont job?" on

ir Henry's tied up,"

" asked the

nt for the Van Tuyl

Van

ird Street. He's

touch a soup case since he got that safe-wedge in the

n't break that

ows he's mar

y the scratch of a match and

e ropes up there?" inqui

ed out in Morristown, with the Whippeny Club. Then he did the Herresford job. But he's got a peach with

'em dream he's the real thing,"

another voice that seem

of birch tops, and I was stalking Big-Horn across mountain peaks of café parfait, whe

for his second bill. And I remembered that I ought to phone Benson so he could

d like seeds in the ground. Then here and there a green shoot of suspicion emerged. The more I thought it over, the more disturbed I became. Yet I warned mysel

ter polo and catboated on the Sound together. I realized, as I heard that young matron

bly in need of a butler?" I beg

dear?" was the chuckling

good man," was my mendacious

He's English, you know. And I'm beginning to suspect he's been with royalty. Ji

s his

o be--the most approp

have you

York householder could understand

sure of him

f him. He's been a Gibr

d you get

t the Whippeny Club out th

for the name struck like a b

'd better come up for dinner to-night and inspect the paragon at

" was my very

trice Van Tuyl. "A

t orderly and well-appointed Seventy-third Street house, so like a thousand other orderly

ected its glass door, it remained a place munificently ripe for plunder. Its solidity, I felt, was only a mockery. It made me think of a fortress that had been secretly mined. Its occupants seemed basking in

den atmosphere. I began to be oppressed by a new and disturbing sense of responsibility. It would be no light matter, I began to see, to explode a bomb of dissension

which I could with certainty rely. And my inward disquiet was increased, if any

ut our man Wilkins?" she asked m

r that question a littl

a lighted match for her husband's cigarette. "Do you know, I actuall

eas

p on you some time w

nd as I spoke I realized that my one hope lay in the possibility of getting a glimpse of the mark which that wedge ha

she leaned back in a protecting-armed and softly padded library-chair which suddenly became symbo

ide his wife's flying column of humor, tu

admitted the stolid and levi

rself, time and time aga

y interested in servants, you kn

er the microscope?" was the return shot that came from the flying column. The

, "have either of you missed any

h other for a moment

ed the woman in the din

jewelry, your plate, your pocketbooks, the trinkets

even resent your bracketing my p

this? Could you verify i

ry day of our lives. It's instinctive; it's as much a habit as

k all this?" demanded

you into a Holmes's watchma

cano. Such an intimation has both its dangers and its responsibilities. My earlier sense of delight in a knowledge unparticipated in by

on to believe this paragon you call Wilkins is not only a c

criminal

sake of r

re eyes. Then she suddenly bubbled over with golden a

you got of that

smithy anvil which the idler can not pass without at least a hammer-tap or two. Yet it was thi

the fact that Wilkins is here

oof," I had

evidence

t. But I'm not stirring up this s

e not!" re

oman. It was only the solemnity of her husband's face that seemed to sober her. "Can

y, "is what your reasons are. It seems only right we sh

t be admitted as evi

ette. It meant as much

do you expe

is course I've taken, that the three of us dine quietly together. And unless I'm g

ent later I heard the snap of a light-switch in the hallway outside and then the click of jade curtain-rings on

is sober personage, with a cur

d him there in all the glory of his magisterial assurance I felt an involuntary and ridiculous sinking in the diaphragm. I asked myself in the name of all

ght was not insignificant. Any impression of fragility, of sedentary bloodlessness, which might have been given out by his quite pallid face, was sharply contradicted by the muscular heaviness of his limbs. His hair, a Kyrle

hauteur and the Charybdis of considerate patience. About the immobile and mask-like face hung that veil of impersonality which marked him as a butler-as a butler to the finger-tips. When not actually in movement he was

. There was authority, too, in his merest finger-movement and eye-shift, as from time to time he signaled to the footman who helped him in his duties. There was grave solicitude on his face as he awaited the minutest semaphoric nod of

tance I had met with disappointment. For the cuffs that projected from the edges of the livery sleeves covered each large-boned wrist. In the actual deportment of the man there was not

mistake, that what I had seemed to hear in my restless moments of the night before was only a dream projected into a period of wakefulness. Equipped with nothing m

umstances which I could not overlook. Coincidence, repeated often enough, became more than fortuity. The thing was more than a nightmare. I had heard what I had heard. There was

d Van Tuyl, with his heavy matter-of-factness,

th a self-assuring glance about the rose-shaded ta

y said. "What wer

rified that. Then he had letters, six of them from some

u verif

Witter? It really di

cky for him

hy

e forgeries, ev

for thinking that?" as

imagine, I can tell you the name o

what

the name of T

eavy purpose on his hone

e end of it. Tell me what you know, everything, and I'll have him in here

yl warningly, as Wilkins and his ma

ace of mind. We were sitting there scheming to undo the agency whose sole function was to minister to our delights. And I could not help wondering why, if the man was indeed what I suspected, he chose to follow the most precarious and the

elt her equally searching gaze directed at me. I knew that my failure to make good would meet with scant forgiveness. She would demand knowle

faced servant. I noticed, though, that as he rounded the table he repeatedly fell under the quickly questioning gaze of both his master and mistress. I began to feel like an Iago who had

en the room was once more em

nothing," I h

ose doing?" was the so

rthy founder of the American branch of the family, frow

great grandfather up there let us know

lifted it from its hook. I held it there, with a pretense of studying the face for a moment or two. Then

said, still holding the pi

its hook. I was not especially successful at this, because at the time m

om the white and heavy-boned wrists. And there, before my eyes, across the flexor c

ble. Van Tuyl, by this time, was gazing

wife asked with unruffled composure. I

ase," I in

ed here," Beatrice Van

, madam,"

suspected anything. I also wondered how hare-braine

lone; "have you a servant here you can

" answered

is

," was t

unting

ust my maid Felice-unless yo

rd to ignore

send her up to look ov

you sa

s man Wilkins is a crim

kno

I know I'm sitting at this

emanded

ghts, I'd have that maid Felice bring what you regard as valu

illy," demurred my st

s a Tiffany advertisement of a

for the maid Felice. A moment later Wilkins was at our si

r. Then you let a drop of water fall on the pearl. If the stone is an imitation one the water-drop will spread and lie close to the surface. If the stone is genuine

, white-skinned, slender of figure, and decidedly foreign-looking. Her face was a clever one, though I prompt

om the boudoir safe," her mistress to

I was busy watching Wilkins. From that worthy, howev

m?" the mai

en she turned to me. "And since you're such a jewel expert you'

me, and I picked out a slender-waisted Havana corseted in a band of gold. I suddenly looked up at the man

a clear sky. The wrist itself was covered by its cuff and

dulgent patience which seemed to imply that he was not altoge

white forearm. Not one trace of either alarm or resentment could I see on that ind

nce at the Van Tuyls, as though inquiring whether or not he should repl

said Beatrice Van Tuyl, so sharply tha

gham, madam, in London, seven years ago,

rply asked

ed by a tandem bicycle going past. They threw Siddons, the coachman, off the box as they jumped, and overturned the vehicle. His lordship was ins

ass cut your wris

livery, seemed almost a pathetic one. There was no anxiety on his face, no shadow of fear about the mild and unparticipating

y entrance of the maid Felice. In her hands she carried a japanned tin box, about th

hing else, mad

that although the key stood in it, it was unlocked. Then my hostess looked up at the waiting butl

out of the room. The delicate fingers probed through the array of leather-covered case

te table-cloth between her coffee-cup and mine, "everything is here. Those are my rings

to discountenance me. I felt a distinct sense of relief when the woman in blue suddenly dropped her eyes

appens," I said, as I reached over and gathered the glittering mass up in a table n

hen I dropped a silver bon-bon dish and a bunch of hothouse grapes into t

rently weighing some question in which the rest of that company could claim no interest. It was on

o?" she asked, with a

where it came from," I told her. "

hat?" mocke

f antagonism which I could not account for, "

f antagonism showed

," he objected, even as his wife ra

into the room. She turned an impassive face to the

s, I noticed, followed her in, but passed across the r

very calmly and coolly, "I want yo

, ma

lice headquarters. Tell them who you are. Then explai

swered the atten

etter ask them to

lothes men,"

ey are to arrest the man-servant who opens the door for

ite clear," ans

please

, ma

Tuyl's audible splu

king things into a nice mess for ourselves? Aren't we moving just a little too fast in th

arnestness at my command, "the man's a th

e it!" dem

m in and

tion for his wife

covered button when Wilkins entered, th

s his wife motioned to him in what seemed a signal for moderation, "Wilkins, I regard you as an

lkins with his tote

ially maddening in that s

g r?le and rising and confronting him as he stood there, "your name

gently but most res

you got that cut on the wrist from a wedge when you tried to blow open a safe door, and the letters of introduction which you brought to the

w suffusion of something akin to expression. It was not fear. To call it fear would be doing the man an injustice. It began with the eyes, and spr

e. Then the mask once more descended over them. He was himself again. And I felt almost sure that

eavy face as the calm-voiced servant, utterly ignoring me and m

," said Beatrice Van Tuyl, in a voi

ked. "It's all the young gentleman's foolishne

nd like this," protested

hodic calmness with which this calumniated factor in their domest

rything he says?"

ped and looked u

f her long and abstracted glances. She was still peering into his face as he stepped back to the table. She was, ind

minatively, "I want you to ans

e answered, wit

room, stepped out into the hall, and advanced to what at least one of us kn

e asked. "What

e there," answ

d, now on his feet. "You don't mean you've

his wife with enforced cal

't be made

being made

? Who's got the evidence to j

as the woma

do you

ery calm

roda pearls and the emerald pendant

echoed the inc

eps, the slam of a door, and the departing hum of a motor-car. Before I realized what she was

or," she commanded,

out that silence impressed me as ominous. We were still in

uffeur, sir,"

t does h

honed for the car a q

o me," command

ma'am. She's gone in

Wilk

out, ma'am, Wilkins driving off that way

the table. For a second or two

in full of jewelry in his hand. I, in turn, dived for the

into the hallway, to con

asked, groping impotently about th

ks before Wilkins

eans?" I asked, still gro

can it

g together-they w

ying the table napkin full of jewelry. H

gasped. "He's

oset both a little startle

n my hat and coat,"