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Page 50
She may have detected this device; I know not; but as if in
answer to its challenge, she raised her gloved hands and
unfastened the heavy veil which had concealed her features.
Thereupon I found myself looking into a pair of lustrous black
eyes whose almond shape was that of the Orient; I found myself
looking at a woman who, since she was evidently a Jewess, was
probably no older than eighteen or nineteen, but whose beauty was
ripely voluptuous, who might fittingly have posed for Salome,
who, despite her modern fashionable garments, at once suggested
to my mind the wanton beauty of the daughter of Herodias.
I stared at her silently for a time, and presently her full lips
parted in a slow smile. My ideas were diverted into another
channel.
"You have yet to tell me what alarmed you," I said in a low
voice, but as courteously as possible, "and if I can be of any
assistance in the matter."
My visitor seemed to recollect her fright--or the necessity for
simulation. The pupils of her fine eyes seemed to grow larger
and darker; she pressed her white teeth into her lower lips, and
resting her hands upon the table leaned toward me.
"I am a stranger to London," she began, now exhibiting a certain
diffidence, "and to-night I was looking for the chambers of Mr.
Raphael Philips of Figtree Court."
"This is Figtree Court," I said, "but I know of no Mr. Raphael
Philips who has chambers here."
The black eyes met mine despairingly.
"But I am positive of the address!" protested my beautiful but
strange caller--from her left glove she drew out a scrap of
paper, "here it is."
I glanced at the fragment, upon which, in a woman's hand the
words were pencilled: "Mr. Raphael Philips, 36-b Figtree Court,
London."
I stared at my visitor, deeply mystified.
"These chambers are 36-b!" I said. "But I am not Raphael
Philips, nor have I ever heard of him. My name is Malcolm Knox.
There is evidently some mistake, but"--returning the slip of
paper--"pardon me if I remind you, I have yet to learn the cause
of your alarm."
"I was followed across the court and up the stairs."
"Followed! By whom?"
"By a dreadful-looking man, chattering in some tongue I did not
understand!"
My amazement was momentarily growing greater.
"What kind of a man?" I demanded rather abruptly.
"A yellow-faced man--remember I could only just distinguish him
in the darkness on the stairway, and see little more of him than
his eyes at that, and his ugly gleaming teeth--oh! it was
horrible!"
"You astound me," I said; "the thing is utterly
incomprehensible." I switched off the light of the lamp. "I'll
see if there's any sign of him in the court below."
"Oh, don't leave me! For heaven's sake don't leave me alone!"
She clutched my arm in the darkness.
"Have no fear; I merely propose to look out from this window."
Suiting the action to the word, I peered down into the court
below. It was quite deserted. The night was a very dark one,
and there were many patches of shadow in which a man might have
lain concealed.
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