The Crimson Flash by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER V STRANGE DOINGS IN THE NIGHT
The following day Johnny carried out Pant's wish in the matter of sellingthe three Liberty Bonds. When it came to picking up other bonds at Pant'sexcessively low price, he experienced greater difficulty than hadSnowball. Indeed, in all his time off duty he secured only one bond.
"Guess I haven't struck the right spot yet," was his mental comment."I'll try again to-morrow."
It was just as he was about to return to his dapple grays that hereceived a sudden shock. He had been idly glancing over the "Daily News"when a headline caught his eye:
"Offers $1,000 Reward for Return of Lost Gem."
Quickly he read down the column, then his face fell.
"Guess he thinks I stole it," he muttered.
It certainly looked that way, for Major MacDonald had publicly offered areward of a thousand dollars for the return of the ring, and had made itplain that no questions would be asked.
"They won't be asked, either." Johnny set his teeth hard. "I'll let himknow that he can keep his reward. I'll get that ring back, and I'll sendit to him with no return address."
Even as he spoke, he started. A new thought had struck him. What if thegirl who had the ring should read of the reward and return the jewelry?Where would he be then?
"He'd think I had stolen it and given it to a circus girl," Johnnygroaned. "Then what would he think of me?"
But the next moment he was resolute again. "I'll get next to that boxingbear fellow right away, and I'll cultivate the acquaintance of Millie, ifshe cuts my face open with that whip of hers. I'll win yet! Watch mysmoke!"
He hastened away, resolved upon getting better acquainted with MillieGonzales at once.
That night, however, offered no further opportunity for makingacquaintances. Indeed, he was made more and more conscious of the factthat in the circus there existed an almost unbreakable line of caste.There were the performers and the attendants. The attendants were kept intheir places. They did not mingle with the performers; they weredistinctly considered beneath them.
"Oh, well," Johnny said to himself, "if that's that, why I'll have to getto be a performer, that's all."
But when he came to think it over soberly, he could imagine no means bywhich this end could be attained.
If he had but known it, the opportunity was to present itself in a notfar distant time, and in a manner as startling as it was sudden.
In one thing that night he was extremely fortunate--he succeeded insecuring a position where he could get a clear view of the performance oftwo very interesting persons, Gwen, the Queen, and Allegretti, the manwho boxed the bear. The contrast of the two stood out in his thoughtslong after the performers had moved out of the ring. Gwen was wonderful.Johnny was sure he had never seen anyone to equal her in all his life.Light as a feather, waving her delicate silk parasol here and there, shetripped across the invisible wire. Yet, fairy-like as she was, every movespoke of strength, of well developed and perfectly trained muscles. Shewore the accustomed grease paint of the ring, but Johnny did not need tobe told that beneath this there lay the glow of a healthy skin.
"She's all right," he decided. "I'll wager she's an American. Only anAmerican girl could be like that."
Through the quarter of an hour during which Gwen was the center ofattention of the vast throng, he watched her. The breathless leaps inair, the light, tripping dance from post to post, the bow, the smile--hesaw it all and breathed hard as she at last danced out of the ring.
"If she has the ring, it's going to be hard to get it," he decided. "Ifanother could be bought, and I had the money, I'd rather buy it and lether keep the old one, but there's only one in all the world, and if shehas it I must get it from her. Gwen, big, wonderful American girl, I'mfor you, but I'm also a hard hearted detective, and I'm on your trail."
The antics of the swarthy foreigner who boxed the bear were as ludicrousand grotesque as Gwen's act had been exquisite.
"Clumsy lobster!" Johnny exclaimed, after watching him for five minutes."What he doesn't know about boxing would fill an encyclopedia, and if hedidn't have a good natured bear, he'd get his head knocked off. All he'sgood for is to dance with a bear on the street and hold out a tin cup fornickels. Nevertheless, Allegretti, old boy, I've got to scrape up anacquaintance with you someway, for that's on the road to the heart ofGwen, though how she can stand the garlic and the look of your ugly muglong enough to box a round with you is more than I can understand."
* * * * * * * *
While Johnny Thompson was watching the performance, two little girls,sitting bolt upright in their beds in the big house of Major MacDonald infar-away Amaraza, were planning wild things for the future. Through theaid of their maid they had succeeded in securing for themselves suitsthat would do with the circus--pink tights, exceedingly short blueskirts, red slippers and green caps. All that bright afternoon they hadspent in the back yard practicing on their ponies. Standing up on theback of one of them had been easy after the first few attempts, but whenMarjory had tried standing with one foot on each pony she had slippeddown between them and had come near to being crushed.
"We'll do that, too, some day," she had exclaimed resolutely.
And now, before they went to sleep, they were planning.
"Yes, sir," Marjory was saying, "that old circus will come back here sometime; I just know it will! Maybe next week."
"And Johnny Thompson will be with it," broke in Margaret. "I just know hewill, and we'll get on our ponies when the parade is started. We'll rideright in the parade, and Johnny will see us and say, 'There are myfriends, Marjory and Margaret.' Won't he be proud of us!"
"Won't he, though!" The other twin clapped her hands in high glee.
They went to sleep finally, still thinking of Johnny and the circus, butlittle dreaming of the remarkable and thrilling adventures in store forthem.
* * * * * * * *
That same night, after the circus tents had been darkened, two strangethings happened. The first was never made public; the second was the talkof the circus people the next morning.
Scarcely had the last straggling sight-seer wandered from the grounds,than two figures emerged from the side entrance to a small tent. Theywere followed at a distance by a third. Darting directly for the wallthat lined the railway tracks, which at this point run some twelve feetbelow the surface, but open to the air, they scaled the wall, and, by theaid of a rope, let themselves down to the track.
The third person, having followed them to the wall and noted thedirection they had taken, contented himself with following along thewall. Coming presently to some stairs, he crept silently down, thenhaving listened for a moment, possibly for the sound of footsteps, hepeered down the track. For an instant a pale crimson light flashed downthe track. It might easily have been mistaken for the glow of a switchlantern. Then he pushed on after the pair.
The two men left the tracks at Randolph street and, taking a zigzagcourse, headed for the river. Into a long, low-lying building facing thestream they went. Not five minutes later the individual who had followedthem was braced against a wall, peering in through a crack in a brokenwindow pane. What he saw within was a low-ceilinged, dimly lighted room,furnished only with a small table, four chairs and a dilapidated chest ofdrawers. Four men were bent over the table. The lines of their facesdrawn in eagerness, they were staring at some flat object on the table.Soon one of them, with the tips of his thumb and forefinger lifted thecorner of a sheet of paper. He had lifted it half off from the flatobject, to which it appeared to cling, when a startling thinghappened--the room was suddenly illuminated with a brilliant blood redlight. This lasted only a fraction of a second. The room was then left indarkness, black as ink; for even the candle had been overturned andsnuffed out. From the darkness there came the sound of overturned chairs,as the four men made good their escape. By the time they reached the openair their tracker had vanished utte
He was, at that very moment, flattened against the corner of a dark wall,and was quite as unhappy over the turn of events as they were. At thevery instant when he was about to discover a secret of vast importance,his foot had slipped, his face bumped against the glass, and theunexpected happened.
The second occurrence, the one which caused much talk among the circuspeople, happened a short time later. As the attendants reported it, itwould seem that their attention was first attracted to the strangephenomenon by the growl of a lion, whose cage was in the corner of thetent. To their surprise, the cage, the lion, and even the straw uponwhich he lay had turned blood red. Hardly had they finished staring atthis than the snarl of a Siberian tiger at the opposite corner had calledthem to note that the red light, for light it must have been, had shiftedto the tiger's cage. The red glare had continued to play hide and seekwith the distracted animals for fully five minutes and, during all thattime, not one of the attendants could detect its source. At times itappeared to stream down from the canvas top, then to shoot from a corner,or to leap up from the floor.
One notable fact was reported: In every instance save one, the animalswhose cages were illuminated with crimson light cowered in a corner insnarling fear. The single instance in which this was not true was that ofthe black leopard. That beast leaped, clawing and snarling, at the barsof its cage, as if it would tear the originator of the crimson flash limbfrom limb.
As the report spread, the negroes of the troupe were panic stricken. Theyquit in numbers. The owners and managers were hard pressed to keep enoughmen to do the menial work about the tents, and sent the employment agentto search the city for recruits. One of these recruits chanced to beSnowball, the bullet-headed friend of the strange hanger-on, Pant.