The Drums of Jeopardy - Page 62/202

But that young chap! Who was he? Cutty set his process of logical

deduction moving. Karlov--always supposing that gorilla was Karlov--had

come in from the west. So had the young man. Gregor's inclinations had

been toward the aristocracy; at least, that had been the impression. A

Bolshevik would not seek haven with a man like Gregor, as this young man

had. But Two-Hawks bothered him; the name bothered him, because it had

no sense either in English or in Russian. And yet he was sure he had

heard it somewhere. Perhaps his notes would throw some light on that

subject, too.

When he arrived home Miss Frances, the nurse, informed him that the

patient was babbling in an outlandish tongue. For a long time Cutty

stood by the bedside, translating.

"Olga!... Olga!... And she gave me food, Stefani, this charming American

girl. Never must we forget that. I was hungry, and she gave me food....

But I paid for it. You, gone, there was no one else.... And she is

poor.... The torches!... I am burning, burning!... Olga!"

"What does he say?" asked the nurse.

"It is Russian. Is it a crisis?" he evaded.

"Not necessarily. Doctor Harrison said he would probably return to

consciousness sometime to-morrow. But he must have absolute quiet. No

visitors. A bad blow, but not of fatal consequence. I've seen hundreds

of cases much worse pull out in a fortnight. You'd better go to bed,

sir."

"All right," said Cutty, gratefully. He was tired. The ball did not

rebound as it used to; the resilience was petering out. But look alive,

there! Big events were toward, and he must not stop to feel of his

pulse.

Three o'clock in the morning.

The man in the Gregor bedroom sat down on the bed, the pocket lamp

dangling from his hairy fingers. Not a nook or cranny in the apartment

had he overlooked. In every cupboard, drawer; in the beds and under; the

trunks; behind the radiators and the pictures; the shelves and clothes

in the closets. What he sought he had not found.

His vengeance would not be complete without those green stones in his

hands. Anna would call from her grave. Pretty little Anna, who had

trusted Stefani Gregor, and gone to her doom.

All these thousands of miles, by hook and crook, by forged passports, by

sums of money, sleepless nights and hungry days--for this! The last of

that branch of the breed out of his reach, and the stones vanished! A

queer superstition had taken lodgment in his brain; he recognized it now

for the first time. The possession of those stones would be a sign from

God to go on. Green stones for bread! Green stones for bread! The drums

of jeopardy! In his hands they would be talismanic.