Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces

and most exciting pitch. And why not? It was not often that Margot could spend a whole night with her rapscallion crew, and she had been here since early ev

home through the mists of the grey morning with a fistful of gold that had been won without labour or the ta

t, who was in flaming red to-night, and looked a devil's daughter indeed, with her fire-like sequins and her red ankles twinkling as she threw herself

it since the cracksman broke with her, Toinette. But that was before your time, ma fille. Mother of the heavens! but there was a man for you! There was a king that was wor

rowned head. "A kingdom must have a king, ma mère; and Dieu: but he is handsome, this Monsieur Gaston

Soul of me! that's where the difference lies. Had it been the cracksman, there would have been no 'if'-it were

rilled out and cut int

em all-and set the scor

ys; drink up, my loyal

d no more. No one p

down in a body upon Marise, threw her

ses and lifting them high. "Vive la Reine des A

hrew them a laughing salute,

absinthe in the little gallery above, she flung her empty glass against the wall behind them, and shook with laughter as they started in alarm and spilled the green poison when they dodged aside. "Another dance, you dawdlers!" she cried. "Does Marise pay you to sit there like mourners? Strike up, you mu

e instant feet were flying, skirts were whirling, laughter and jest mingling with wa

oice crying, as from the bowels of the earth, "Hola!

!" shrilled out Marise, as the dancers halted and Margot ran, with fleet steps, towards

ave arrived!" she replied excitedly. "Give

back, and, leaning over the gap with a light in her hand, called down i

t emerged the figure of a man in a leather cap and the blue blouse of a mechanic-a pale, fox-faced, fox-eyed fellow, with

as C

med Marise, fallin

Margot. "Clodoche-a

behind the bar, where, in the moonlight, the narrow passage leading down to the door of "The Twisted Arm" gaped evilly between do

he Café Dupin to the square beyond there"-pointing to the window-"to leave him waiting a moment while you came o

le' for doing it. He was a decoy, set there by the police for some of you fellows, and there was a sergeant de ville after me like a whirlwind. I was not fool enough to turn the chase in this direction, so I doubled and twisted until it was safe to dive into the tavern of Fouchard, and lay in hiding there. Fouchard let his

ed. "But one may expe

fragment we al

elded, mon ami, and why not? Who would not mother a th

sks, come not one step beyond the square, until he is certain that it is th

tretched toward her, and danced into

r her. "The conditions were of your own making, c

due there now, mignonne-and I am not there to show him the

the sign, t

there was nothing else to do, because he kne

azarded, desperately-choosing, on the off-chanc

he-brightened eyes deriding him, her absinthe-sharpened laughter mocking him. "Your thoughts are in the Bois, cher ami

leek's mind. The cause of Germany! What a dolt he was not to have thought of that before

in the moon to-night, la reine. 'To the day,' of course-'To the day!'"

rget how to open the door he himself locked! It is well I know thee-it is well it was the word of les Apaches in the beginning, or I had been suspicious, silly! Wait b

even such nerves as Cleek's, and if he had not

is laughter was for the trouble she had in getting the fastenings of her bodice undone. "Pe

tch; and, hearing it, Cleek clamped his jaws together and breathed hard. A single whistle-short and sharp, such as this one was-was

ard's son was to give when he and von Hetzler arrived at the place where I am to meet them. Give me the paper-quick! quick! Tear the fas

fore this," she made reply. "But you shall have the thing in a twin

then, when another second would have brought the paper into view, another moment seen i

a crash that sent Marise and her assistants darting away from it in shrieking alarm; a babel of excited voices sounded, a scurr

Twisted Arm"-had not counted on their shortening that journey by entering the passage from Fouchard's tavern, doing, in fact, the very thing which he had declared to

to play; and Margot, shutting a tight clutch on the loosened part of her half-

oaths and curses his followers were blurting out that something ha

renegade-that fury, Cleek, the cracksman, is here. He came to t

y; fifty more dirks flashed into view. "Cleek in France? Cleek? W

if an

er

ows about the paper, and is after it, Margot; and if anyone

t: "Clodoche! Clodoche! Clodoche!" as, snarling and howling like a pack of wolves, th

dlong over the bar, clutched frantically at the lever which he knew controlled the flow of gas, jammed it d

sudden flashing down of the darkness within, had made more prominent, the moon-lighted passage without; and there, scuttling away in alarm from th

excited voices, as the yellow-bearded, blue-bloused f

in. Those who were in the front rank of the pursuers were in time to see a lithe, thin figure-dressed as one of their own kind-spring up in the path of that

cking at it with their dirks. And so they were still hacking at it-although it had long

He shall have absinthe enough to swim in, the little king! Off with it all, Lanchere. First, the plaster-that's right. Now, the wig and bea

of disasters! It is not the cracksman-i

k! Get back! The fellow's in there still!" and led a blind race down the passage to the bar, where they had seen Cleek last. It wa

as dream of finding Cleek again. For there on the floor, her limp hands turned palms upward, a chloroformed cloth folded o

*

motor throb through the stillness; and, leaning forward, saw an automobile whirl up out of the darkness, cut across the square, and dash off westward like a flash. Yet in the brief instant it took to go

vely infallible recipe for the invasion of England: Wait

that the swift pace of the automobile had already carried it far past the place where the count had been in hiding, made a fan of his five fingers and his snub nose. "Oh, Mother 'Ubbard! Did you see him, sir? Bun

the window and get on with the work of changing hi

ime, if it hadn't been for you," he said, as he pushed the outward semblance of Clodoche into the kit-bag, and began to get into ordinary civilian's dress as expe

hink had've happened to you, Gov'nor ..." Then stopped short and made a

spite of himself-hesitated a moment and then, obeying an i

shake hand

ir

ke h

You don't never

uld ever muster up a tear for me? Thank you, my lad-you're a brick!"-then gripped the grimy hand that was reached out with a sort o

across his eyes. "Arfter wot you've been and went through, a-sittin' there and whistlin' as

hat's going to give me-well, at least one moment in Paradise-and when a man has a prospect like that in view ..." His voice trailed off; he laughed again; then fell to whistling once