The Man Who Couldn't Sleep

of King Lear as I did so. Not that I had lost a kingdom, or that I'd ever been turned out of an

emptied my own heart. It was the cut direct. For as I crouched back under my dripping portico, like a toad under a rhubarb-leaf, I caught sight of the only too familiar wine-colored landaulet as it swung abou

e street-lamp. But no slightest sign of recognition came from that coldly inquiring face. She neither smiled nor bowed nor looked back. A

all pleasure-seekers promptly vanished. Gaily cloaked and slippered women stampeded away as though they were made of sugar and they and their gracious curves might melt into nothing at the first touch of water. Above the sidewalk, twenty paces from the empty doorway where I loitered, an awning appeared, springing up like a mushroom from a wet meadow. In toward one end of this awning circle

ed the taurine charges of vehicles. I watched the electric display-signs that ran like liquid ivy about the shop fronts, and then climbed and fluttered above the roofs

hink of shelter. I saw the lights of the theater no more than twenty paces away. It was already a warren of crowded life. The

ider than a medieval leper-squint, from which cramped and

purchased my admission-ticket, remembering that the head usher of that

s hand met mine in that free-masonry which is perpetuated b

thing left,"

ea of heads seeking life through the

my elbow, "you'll take a se

could hear the beat and patter of the r

t later he was leading me down a side aisle i

rred it off from the more protuberant stage box, was already occupied by a man in full evening dress. He, like myself, perhaps, had never before shared a box with other

erest than I looked at the play-actors across the foot-lights, for I rat

shoulders of the woman who sat at the back of the stage box, directly in front of him. As I followed the direction of his gaze I was further surprised to discover the

dent application of rice powder) it stood out in limpid ruddiness, the most vivid of fire against the purest of snow. It was a challenge to attention. It caught and held the eye. It stood there, just below where the hair billowed int

ium in everything, in coloring, in stature, in apparel. His face was of the neutral sallowness of the sedentary New Yorker. His intelligence seemed that of the preoccupied office-worker who could worm his way into an ill-fitting dress suit and plac

ich disturbed this young woman. For as I sat there staring at the shimmering jewel, its wearer suddenly turned he

y were the Park Avenue Churchills-and farther back in the box I caught a glimpse of her brother B

he jeweled clasp on the girl's neck was holding in place a single string of graduated pearls, of very lovely pearls, the kind about which the frayed-cuff

at the man beside me was also sharing in that spectacle. I was, in fact, still staring at it, so unconscious of the movement of the play

was I did not know, nor did I look up to see. For as my idly inquisitive glance once more focused itself on the columnar white neck that tower

ow was without its touch of ruddy light. It was left as disturbingly bare as a target wi

was simple enough. The problem of proximity had already been solved. With the utter darkness had come the opportunity, the oppo

nd dextrous movement the man beside me had reached forward and with that delicacy of touch doubtless born of much experience had unclasped the jewels, all

easy to achieve. I struggled to make my scrutiny of this s

of embarrassment come out on his face. He did not turn and look at me directly, but it was plain that he was only too conscious of my presence. And

er precipitancy of his flight was proof enough of his offense. His obviou

nto the still drizzling rain of Broadway. Stronger and ever stronger waves of indignation kept swee

promptly threw decorum away and ran, ran like a rabbit, until I came to the Forty-second Street entrance to the drug store through whose revolving doors I had seen my man disappear. I felt reasonably certain he wouldn't stop to drink an ice-cream soda and he didn't, for as I hurrie

t wait to argue it out, for the car door in front of me was already beginning to close. I had just time to catapult my body in between

the same again at Twenty-eighth Street. The man had given no sign that he actually knew I was on his track. He might or might not have seen me. As to that I had

d I saw him step quickly out of the far end of the car, look about him, an

waited a moment and swung aboard the one that followed it, thirty yards in the rear. Peering ahead, I could plainly see him as he dropped from his car on the northeast corner of

racks, walking rapidly eastward along Twenty-third Street. I was close behind him as he crossed Broadway, turning south, and then suddenly tacking about

ofed individual brought his whip lash down on his steaming horse a door slammed shut in my face. Once more I so far forgot my dignity as to dodge and run like a rabbit, this time to the other side of the cab as it sw

d bodily from the carriage, which was now swinging up an all but deserted Fifth Avenu

r, was his ferocity. And it was a strange struggle, there in the half light of that musty and many-odored night-hawk cab. There seemed something subterranean about it, as though it were a battle at the bottom of a well. And bu

when I saw my writhing and desperate thief groping and grasping for his hip pocket, even when I saw him draw from it a magazine-revolver that looked quite ugly enough to stampede a regiment. And as that sodden-leat

knee on his chest, with his body bent up like a letter U. I held him there while I went through his pockets, q

ewelry he wore might be his own. The one thing I wanted was the pearl necklace with the pigeon-blood ruby. And this necklace I found, carefully wrappe

o mistake. Then I again wrapped it up in the silk handke

ld the man on

s in and how his tie had been twisted around under his right ear. He lay back against the

having readjusted my own tie, buttoned my overcoat across a sadl

'll cost you?" he cri

" was my calm retort. "I

at with a face that look

th that," he declared. I could aff

-knob, "And if you interfere with me after I leave this cab, if you so much as t

I stood there for a moment, watching its placid driver as he went on up the avenue. The glas

jumped into a waiting taxi, and dodged back to the theate

it full of languid-eyed people had been witnessing a tawdry imitation of adventure. They had been swallowing a capsule of imitation romance, while I, between the

d my glance toward Alice Churchill, who had risen in the box in front of mine, and was again showering on me the warmth of her frie

their way out, surprising them a little, I suppo

e at Sherry's?" I amiably suggested. I cou

to be out late

rather important to

h just back from the wilds. And without more ado I bundled them into a taxi and carried the

rom my pinnacle of superiority, to burning my little pin-wheel of power. I was like a puppy with its first buried bone. I knew what I carried so ca

gazing at her reflected face, gazing at it with a sort of studious yet impersonal intentness. Then I saw her suddenly lean forward in her chair, still looking at the grotesque image of herself in the polished silver. I could not help noticing her qui

. Then she looked up at us again. It was then that her br

d, his thin young face tou

im, spoke very quietly. But I could s

er her breath. "I don't want either of you to get excited

ed Benny. "I

me as her brother prodded and felt about her skir

ommand. And as I spoke I unwrapped the string of pearls with the pigeo

come back into her face. It was quite reward enough to witness the relieving warmth

she reached over and took them up i

uring the first act," I told her. H

rop forty thousand dollars a

hands. Then she suddenly looked up at me, t

shing words that I heard fall from her lip

is," I quietl

d in negation, st

you think so

esponse. "Those aren't the sort of ston

ng the necklace. And onc

hem, "and I had my clasp, here on the ruby at the back, made to work that

isagreeable feeling began to manifest itself in the pit of my stomach as he moved closer be

ed it fruitlessly f

me with puzzled eyes. The girl, too, was once more studying my face, as though my m

, anyway?" asked t

akly, mutely, as though they themselves might in some way solve an enigma which seemed inscrutable. And I had to confess that the whole thing was too much for me. I was sti

and not precisely in anxiety, yet with

ly attentive waiter. But as I turned about and looked up at this figure I saw that I was mistaken. My glance fell on a wide-shouldered and rather portly man with quiet and very deep-

unemotional matter-of-factness that in

d, trying to match his

ard the neckl

hat," he

hat?" I langu

d and nodded toward a second man, a man standing half a dozen pac

d glance to tell me that this second figure was the jewel thi

ed to have the strength of a vise-as the smaller man, still pale and

bent for a moment on his sister's sta

be any scene here." He turned to the man at my shoulder. "I don't know who you are, but I want you to r

l of you! There's nothing to be gained by heroics. And i

glances as I ordered

hairs. "And since we have a problem to discuss, there's

man at my shoulder, with some

don't let's make it

Then he felt for the chair and slowly sank into it; but not once did he take his eyes from my face. I was glad that our circle had become a compact one,

o the stranger on my left. He spoke both warningly and indigna

hand was in his pocket, I noticed, and there was a certain malig

ut the magazine revolver down on the ta

n, however, was even more laughable. Yet my re

get that gun?

oward the white-fa

om your friend the

else did

out the man's sheer impersonality

ce with the ruby c

anded my i

my prompt retort. The big m

m wh

have the honor of f

as his nex

s again silent fo

e said, with a curt head-nod to

I ans

t is

jewel

efinger. He was plainly puzzled. He began to take on human attributes, and he promptly became a less interes

is chin, he swung about and faced the wond

would you mind answeri

who spoke before sh

posed. "Just who

d the lapel of his coat an

mean?" demanded the qu

'm an o

nd-a det

es

? For thi

den Lane Protect

s that got t

an looked at him a

"Now, young lady," he began again, swinging back to the puzz

irl n

she answered, lookin

it was stol

y necklace on when I was in the

disapp

es

he

one when I sat down

gentleman tur

ace from the secon

" was m

it disappear?

t disappeared

break in at this juncture, but the bigger man quickly

that?" he

calmly inquired, resenting the per

the first ghost of a smile, a patient and

witnessed this man across the table t

ally amount

ally detected him

think I s

ed he committe

the

n was it

call a dark change

fore that change and gone when t

cise

actions of this man we

emely

what

fferen

iously close to the we

ha

ed on it during the ea

ertainl

u watch

h interest as he wa

nge, as you call it, th

wa

sure o

sit

this man acros

rried out of the theater and made hi

suppose, to have you st

ly looked e

sighed deeply, almost contentedly, after whic

snarl now," he complacently

?" demanded Be

not answer him. Inste

had the effrontery to remark, wit

retorted. And for the second t

xplained. "Nobody's going to hurt you.

ave rooted objections t

e replied, as he looked at his silver turn

instinctive conclusion which she could not, or did not care to, e

still held the necklace in my hand. I was a

you, Fessant," he went on, turning to the belligerent-lipped jewel thief, "you stay right here and make yoursel

panionably by the a

e out to the cab-stand and went dodging westward along Forty-third Street i

man sat in that box," was his answer. "A

inquired, "is tha

good," he retorted, as h

before a desolate-looking stage door over which burned an even more desolate-looking electric bu

en't you, for a New York

g stage door with his foot. He was still kicking there when the door it

im!" said

ud!" said

man g

an ho

d a moment

y anything w

it," was the w

s left something in a box.

"I'll throw on the house-ligh

ntic picture-frames. He stepped aside for a moment to turn on a switch. Then he opened

second box while he stepped briskl

brass railing. Then he sat down in it, facing the stage. Having done so, he took

st the plush-covered par

d, "within two fee

nd quite unexpected rejoinder

ising from the chair. He brushed it with the sleeve o

k," he called to me from th

ed maze again, feeling that he was in some way tricking me, resenting th

s and some good old-fashioned

d, yawned openly and audibly, as we drew up at the carriage entrance of that munificently lighted hostelry. He now seemed nothing more than a commonplace man tired ou

of us were once more seated at the same table and he once more con

ed girl, who, only too plainly, h

the necklace

e string of graduated pearls dan

ay from this man?" he asked, with

y did," was

em from this young lady

rs every mark of gen

back to

necklace?" he

oubled eyes. We all felt, in some foolish

ed, in little mo

e posi

without speaking.

saulted him, and forcibly took

y that calmly pedagogic manne

with a sharp m

ace is not your friend's. But I'm going to tell you what it is. It's a duplicate o

irl n

ing with it?" demanded Benny Churc

t and find out

ved that no hand, however artful, wa

ers. Wait, don't interrupt me. Miss Churchill's necklace, I understand, was one of the finest in this town. His house had an or

he hung over a box-rail and lifted a str

-limbed man. "He found this lady was going

beauty, he sneaked out of his ow

and started trailin' you, wouldn't you do your best to melt away when you had the chance?" demanded the officer. Then he looked at me again wi

efore I could answer. His voice, as h

should he want to duplic

rains, or the know-how, or whatever you wa

it lying there in a glimmering heap on the white table. I promptly and quietly re

very interesting. But what I want to

e more at his watch. Then he

ot '

ther. It was plain that the inconsequentialities of

n in the pocket of his damp an

held the glimmering string up to the light. "I picked 'em up fr

y and ponderous

ained strip of plate glass and slowly turned up his coat collar, "except