登陆注册
5189800000093

第93章

A step, two, he took in the direction of the Bowery--and he was bending down as though to tie his shoe, his automatic, from his side pocket, concealed in his hand.WAS THAT SOME ONE THERE? He could have sworn he saw a shadow-like form start out from behind the steps of the house on the opposite side of the street as he had emerged from the alleyway.In his bent posture, without seemingly turning his head, his eyes swept sharply up and down the other side of the ill-lighted street.Nothing! There was not even a pedestrian in sight on the block from there to the Bowery.

Jimmie Dale straightened up nonchalantly, and stooped almost instantly again, as though the lace were still proving refractory.

Again that sharp, searching glance.Again--nothing! He went forward now in apparent unconcern; but his right hand, instead of being buried in his coat pocket, swung easily at his side.

It was strange! His ineffective ruse to the contrary, he was certain that he had not been mistaken.Was it Whitey Mack? Was the question answered? Was the Gray Seal known, too, as Jimmie Dale?

Were they trailing him now, with the climax to come at the club, at his own palatial home, wherever the surroundings would best lend themselves to assuaging that inordinate thirst for the sensational that was so essentially a characteristic of the confirmed criminal?

What a headline in the morning's papers it would make!

At the corner he loitered by the curb to light a cigarette--still not a soul in sight on either side of the street behind him, except a couple of Italians who had just passed by.Strange again! The intuition, if it were only intuition, was still strong.He swung abruptly on his heel, mingled with the passers-by on the Bowery, walked a rapid half dozen steps until the building hid the cross street, then ran across the road to the opposite side of the Bowery, and, in a crowd now, came back to the corner.He crossed from curb to curb slowly, sheltered by a fringe of people that, however, in no way obstructed his view down the side street.And then Jimmie Dale shrugged his shoulders.He had evidently been mistaken, after all.

He was overexcited; his nerves were raw--that, perhaps, was the solution.Meanwhile, every minute was counting, if Whitey Mack and Lannigan should still be at Bristol Bob's.

He kept on down the Bowery, hurrying with growing impatience through the crowds that massed in front of various places of amusement.He had not intended to come along the Bowery, and, except for what had occurred, would have taken a less frequented street.He would turn off at the next block.

He was in front of that moving-picture theatre again."THE DOUBLELIFE"--his eyes were attracted involuntarily to the lurid, overdone display.It seemed to threaten him; it seemed to dangle before him a premonition as it were, of what the morning held in store; but now, too, it seemed to feed into flame that smouldering fury that possessed him.His life--or Whitey Mack's! Men, women, and the children who turned night into day in that quarter of the city were clustered thick around the signs, hiving like bees to the bald sensationalism.Almost savagely he began to force his way through the crowd--and the next instant, like a man stunned, had stopped in his tracks.His fingers had closed in a fierce, spasmodic clutch over an envelope that had been thrust suddenly into his hand.

"JIMMIE!" from somewhere came a low, quick voice."Jimmie, it is half-past eleven now--HURRY."He whirled, scanning wildly this face, then that.It was her voice--HER voice! The Tocsin! The sensitive fingers were telegraphing to his brain, as they always did, that the texture of the envelope, too, was hers.Her voice; yes, anywhere, out of a thousand voices, he would distinguish hers--but her face, he had never seen that.

Which, out of all the crowd around him, was hers? Surely he could tell her by her dress; she would be different; her personality alone must single her out.She--"Say, have youse got de pip, or do youse t'ink youse owns de earth!"a man flung at him, heaving and pushing to get by.

With a start, though he scarcely heard the man, Jimmie Dale moved on.His brain was afire.All the irony of the world seemed massed in a sudden, overwhelming attack upon him.It was useless--intuitively he had known it was useless from the instant he had heard her voice.It was always the same--always! For years she had eluded him like that, come upon him without warning and disappeared, but leaving always that tangible proof of her existence--a letter, the call of the Gray Seal to arms.But to-night it was as it had never been before.It was not alone baffled chagrin now, not alone the longing, the wild desire to see her face, to look into her eyes--it was life and death.She had come at the very moment when she, perhaps alone of all the world, could have pointed the way out, when life, liberty, everything that was common to them both was at stake, in deadly peril--and she had gone, ignorant of it all, leaving him staggered by the very possibility of the succour that was held up before his eyes only to be snatched away without power of his to grasp it.His intuition had not been at fault--he had made no mistake in that shadow across the street from the Sanctuary.It had been the Tocsin.He had been followed; and it was she who had followed him, until, in a crowd, she had seized the opportunity of a moment ago.Though ultimately, perhaps, it changed nothing, it was a relief in a way to know that it was she, not Whitey Mack, who had been lurking there; but her persistent, incomprehensible determination to preserve the mystery with which she surrounded herself was like now to cost them both a ghastly price.If he could only have had one word with her--just one word!

同类推荐
  • 发史

    发史

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 云中事记

    云中事记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 闺训千字文

    闺训千字文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 大乘百福相经

    大乘百福相经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 窥园留草

    窥园留草

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 剑侠儿女志

    剑侠儿女志

    一个穿越到古代的现代人,还被仇家废掉了下身,该如何在这个举目无亲的陌生世界生存?谨以此文,怀念回不去的剑三80年代。Ps:变嫁文。
  • 亡妻之战

    亡妻之战

    好不容易干翻了邪恶主神获得了自由,关关的转世却不太顺利——她成为了一名“亡妻”。在奥尔蓝,所谓亡妻,并非是死去的妻子,而是从生下来便没有意识,但却拥有新生力,一辈子无知无觉,只能作为机器存在的女性。而关关的抗争,就是从这里开始的。
  • 恰如几许年华殇

    恰如几许年华殇

    有人说,爱对了是爱情,爱错了是青春。可是一但付出了爱,还会在乎对错吗?时光的检验给了我们答案,我们并不怕错,而是怕错过。若时光流回那年,遇见你的最美年华。青春路上,对错无悔。
  • 机密巡航

    机密巡航

    《机密巡航》,在那些浪漫精彩的海上假日里,布赖恩·大卫·布伦斯将泥土—在这本书里,是将泥水—洒了出来。他根据为嘉年华邮轮工作的这一年,写成了幽默风趣的年度纪事,故事带领读者们深入体验船员们的工作和生活,荒诞离奇的事件接二连三地戳中读者的笑点,令他们捧腹。乘务员们为食物争斗;限用刀叉和其他荒谬的规定;船员们对船上的人的称呼(不,不叫“乘客”);当然,还有男欢女爱。充斥着邮轮的角落和缝隙,引领着蠢蠢欲动的人群,在这个有些怪异和不可思议的地方相爱。对计划邮轮出游或者只是需要好好乐一下的人们来说,轻松、幽默、见闻广博的《机密巡航》是必读之选。
  • 炒股大赢家

    炒股大赢家

    本书基于市场研究者的视野,聚焦于个人投资者的行为特点,创新性地将股市投资活动划分为“市场”与“投资者”两个终极要素,以及“选股”和“选时机”两个核心事务,化繁为简、深入浅出地介绍了股市投资的基本知识、思想方法与技术策略。本书的最大特色在于逻辑结构清晰,思路明确,案例典型实用,通俗易懂。同时,兼顾思想方法诠释与技术策略应用。
  • 狐妖有点飘

    狐妖有点飘

    少林寺毕业的白小糖业余爱好就是吊打自己的死对头祁尘,可能老天同情祁尘的遭遇,一经穿越白小糖竟然生活在祁尘统治的妖族,新仇旧恨一起算......(已完本)
  • 双凤孽·姐妹乱后宫(大结局)

    双凤孽·姐妹乱后宫(大结局)

    美丽可爱的穿越侠女,风流倜傥的少年天子,谁比谁聪明?谁能玩过谁?我没有一个好爹关我什么事,干吗都冲着我来,好吧,看咱们谁先哭。没有你关照,我一样衣食无忧。宫里没感觉,那就出宫喽,我有才貌双全的好姐妹助阵,有一身绝世武功天下无双,谁能抢过我?智慧无双的绝代丫鬟,玩世不恭的丞相大人,又有怎样的奇妙姻缘?你身边佳丽无数又怎样?我好歹也是凤耀三大才女之首。不管不管,我就是嫁定了,我要风风光光的嫁进丞相府,我要让你们心服口服。来吧,本姑娘不怕!(这里说一个VIP收费的问题。很早就加V了,收费一直以来也很担心,担心被亲骂。大概不是作者很难体会到自己两个月来码字的辛苦,经常写字写到深夜。现在开学了,需要抽出时间来写作,就更困难了。不知不觉都已发表了30多万字了。希望亲们能理解。只是几分钱的问题,却是对我的极大的鼓励!如果亲们能继续关注《双凤孽·姐妹乱后宫》,因为里面有最纯真的友谊和好看的后宫故事都是我用心码出来的。希望你们能继续支持我。如果因为收费问题,你不愿意再支持我,也没有关系,但请不要放弃收藏,解禁以后还可以看。感谢亲们的关注!)这是编辑说的啊。茶想讲明一点,宫斗嘛,茶不是很在行,所以还是轻松一点的为主的
  • 五王争霸

    五王争霸

    阴谋!阳谋!情义与背叛。帝王家又如何?当一切已成定局。蓦然回首!失去的多,还是得到的多。
  • 魔法学院:千年睡公主

    魔法学院:千年睡公主

    一千年前魔幻世界发生一段孽恋,西方一位高深的魔法师-迦罗尔,爱上了东方的龙之子后代雪非霖公主,但雪非霖公主心有所属……在雪非霖公主大婚的日子,迦罗尔用黑魔法使公主进入沉睡状态,公主的夫婿龙魂气杀之千年后,迦罗尔与龙魂重新转世为人,而龙魂则转世到另一个时空。眼看一场浩劫将至,龙之魂学堂的院长同是师傅们接到陛下命令,要将转世的龙魂带回魔幻世界……转世龙魂的女友,意心亦被力量之石卷入魔幻世界,且不幸的跌倒了西方的圣德林魔法学院。一对情侣分隔东西,千年前的孽情是否会持续,雪非霖公主是否会醒来……
  • 傻瓜,还有我呢