The Man with the Clubfoot

ate, I had every card in my hands. I would bluff these stodgy Huns: I would brazen it out: I would b

king was

?" said a woman'

corpse and opened t

s in her outdoor clothes, with an enormous vulgar-looking hat and an old-fashioned sealskin cape with a high collar. The cape which was glis

of introduction, and raised the

nto the room, and I knew that the lamplight was falli

I seized her by the wrist. She had disgusting

er relaxing my grip on her wrist. "You will b

me, but I held her fast

session. The woman was no longer frightened. I felt instinctively that her fears had been all for herse

s," she said. "Who is it?

hat woman in the chamber of death. Her voice was incredibly hard. Her dull, basilisk eyes, seeking in mine t

obsequious. Of the two, the first manner became her vastly better. She looked at me wit

understand. The gent

purred

S

eyes were fastened upon my ch

silver badge I had

trump until I knew how the land lay. If I left this

e began to

"but not... this. Who is it

ok my

hman," I s

opened

ld have said her voice vibrated wi

ing licked its cho

head and repe

o explain her surprise, "h

h! But why up here? Or d

stions at me without pausing

me. There was another ca

"I caught him prying i

for brute man.... "The Herr Englander came into your room and he died. So, so! But one must speak t

ranz," I said. "This Englishman spo

oman's reply in a voice so silky and

d to myself, as she stood ther

ing them from the dead man's pocket. "He was an English officer, you s

led with the stale odour of the patchoul

port and permit, I held them

them!" expostulate

not be traced. I want no awkward enquiries made, you understand. T

re was a telephone message for you," she added, "to say that der Stelz

getting awkward. Who

I said, simply for the

s morning. He was nervous, oh! very, and expected you to

is he?" (I knew where he was "going on" to, well enough

voice when she spoke of Stelze. I thought

is orders, did he?" I said, "and ... an

eyes snappe

; he can make and unmake men. But I ... I in my time have broken a dozen b

ke off before she could finish the sentenc

th alone. My safety depended on my showing this ignoble creature that I received orders from no one. "You know what he is. One r

feet, her faded face all ravage

n't dare!"

ne my work and I'll report to h

ell upon

said. "You must help me, Frau Schratt. Thi

up at me

will be all right with die Schratt! 'It must not be found here'" (s

ll the full-bodied good

u m

emember die Schratt, 'die fesche Anna,' as they called me once, and it is 'gnadige Frau' here and 'gnadige Frau' there and a diamond bracelet or a pearl ring, if only I will do the l

p, which in any other wo

in her hard h

ad about him, there! Leave

t evil house, I felt that, could I but draw back from the enterprise to which I had so rashly committed myself, I would do so gladly. Only then did I begin to

y, knocking at my door, had found me ready to follow, and I w

woman tur

" she said. "I suppose the gentleman wil

said. "You can tell

on me lik

ard as fl

cried. "Yo

d with equal fo

orders and you a

hat he should give o

?" She spo

elf," I continued,

of no account," the woman said. "It is an order: you and I kn

key rattled in the lock and I realized that I was a prison

e ponderous strokes. Then the chimes played a pretty jingling

d and reflected

er to the tender mercies of Madame and of Karl. Before eight o'clock arrived I must-so I summed up my position-be clear o

ad man lying on the floor might procure me another visit from Madame an

his hour of the night, and I could scarcely dare hope to escape by the front without detection, even if Karl were not actually in the entrance hall. There must be a

e was nothing to give one a foothold. But I remembered the window in the cabinet de toil

ng, like mine, upon the air-shaft were shrouded in darkness; only a light still burned in the window beneath the grating with the iron

d dirty stucco, fell sheer away. Measured with the eye the drop from window to the pavement was ab

I had on was marked, for I had had to buy a lot of new garments when I came out of hospital. I took Semlin's overcoat, hat and bag into the cabinet de toilette and stood t

sty tassels. Mounting on the mantelpiece I cut the bell-ropes off short where they joined the wire

he purpose. I noticed that the window was fitted with shutters on the outside fastened back against the wall. They had not been touched for years, I should say, for the iron peg holding them back

that I had picked up at a course in tying knots during a preposterously dull week I had spent at the base in France. Then I dragged from the bed the gigantic eiderdown pincushion

air shaft. It sailed gracefully earthwards and settled with a gentle plop on the stones of the tiny yard. The pillows followed. The heavier thud they woul

he eiderdown and pillows covered practic

ing a short hold on my silken rope, I clambered out over the window

little difficulty in lowering myself, though I barked my knuckles most unpleasantly on the rough stucco of the wall. As I reached the extremity of my rope I glanced downward. The red splas

weight up to then I don't know-and I fell in a heap (and, as it seemed to me at the tim

inly helped to break my fall. I dropped square on top of the eiderdown with one

window from which I had descended was still dark. I could see the broken bell-ropes dangling from the shutter, and I noted, with

d overcoat from the corner of the court where they had

reened off by a dirty muslin curtain. Through the upper part I caught a glimpse of a sort of scullery with a paraffi

ance of escape. It stood a dozen yards from the bottom of the ladder across a dank,

indow should anyone enter the scullery as I passed. Treading very softly I crept

sily in my hand, b

or was