Grey Face/Chapter 21

HE door had scarcely closed upon Michael's exit when another at the end of the large office opened and a strange figure entered unceremoniously. This was a short, squat, thick-set man, his legs bowed like those of a gorilla and his arms inhumanly long. His hair, which was profuse and apparently uncombed, as well as his bristling beard and moustache were of that intense black which is sometimes called blue-black. He had small, fierce animal eyes and his voice when he spoke was hoarse, rasping, and marked by a positively uncouth accent.

Twitching his fingers, which, as well as the backs of his hands, were covered with dark hair, he stared across the room at Doctor Weissler seated behind the big table, and:

"That man is a spy!" he said harshly, "he must not leave the place."

Doctor Weissler, who had taken up a house telephone and was about to press one of the buttons on the indicator, paused and turned his eyes in the direction of the speaker.

"Krauss," he said angrily, "you have been spying upon me again. It shall be the last time. You understand me?"

"Understand me also," the man addressed as Krauss retorted; "he shall not leave here, that impostor. You call me a spy. I say he is a spy, an agent sent to trap us."

Doctor Weissler took his hand from the telephone and abruptly rose from his chair. He extended one finger in a curiously compelling gesture.

"Krauss," he said, "be good enough to return to your own room. This is my office and you have entered it uninvited."

The other clenched his hairy fists, and his ape-like face was contorted with a rage almost incredible to witness.

" You are playing with fire!" he cried, his harsh voice shaking with emotion. "You play with my life with your own life. Already the police are watching, and always there is that other."

"Also" added Doctor Weissler, his arm remaining outstretched, "there is myself, in whose room you stand and in whose presence you forget your position. Krauss, leave my office. Presently I shall talk with you, but not now."

The speaker's voice remained subdued. It possessed a curious bell note, suggesting that, had he chosen to raise it, there was reserve enough to have made it echo about the room. The appearance of Krauss must have alarmed any ordinary man. That his anger was maniacal none could have doubted; that he possessed the strength of a gorilla was manifested by his uncouth but powerful build. He now clenched his hands tightly together in an effort to obtain control of himself.

"Professor," he said, "I will be heard."

Doctor Weissler suddenly removed his tortoise-shell-rimmed spectacles and fixed upon Krauss a look which silenced him, utterly, completely.

"I have warned you. Address me but once more in that way—it does not matter that we are alone—and you know the consequences. I will talk to you later." The powerful guttural voice, now suddenly raised, boomed imperiously. "You forget yourself. Leave my room."

Something—an imprecation, an apology, none could have determined which—escaped from the lips of Krauss, and then, as if still distrustful of himself, he turned and retired hurriedly through the doorway by which he had entered. Doctor Weissler raised the house telephone, pressing a button.

"Is that you. Teak?" he asked. "Is the matter settled?" He became silent for a while, listening to Teak's reply. "Very good," he said. "Will you please come up?"

Almost immediately Teak came in, and:

"What's the next move, Doctor?" he asked.

He looked about him suspiciously as if he had expected to find someone else in the room.

"No, Teak," said Doctor Weissler. "Mr. Krauss has gone."

"Oh! I see," Teak muttered. "I suppose he has been listening again."

"He has, Teak. But it is no part of your duty to refer to it."

Doctor Weissler had not replaced his spectacles, and the gaze of his singular eyes had a perceptible effect upon the truculent Teak.

"I am sorry," the latter said, almost deferentially. "But you know what I think. I don't know that, in this case, he is not right."

"Respecting Mr. Michael?"

"Yes. I have never believed in Mr. Michael. I believe in him less than ever now."

"Has he said anything?" Doctor Weissler's eyes turned to right and left in a curiously furtive way, and:

"Not a word," Teak replied.

"What have you done?"

His glance had betrayed momentary weakness, and the watchful Teak, a human thermometer, immediately took advantage of the change of temperature.

"As arranged," he replied nonchalantly.

"Successful?" Doctor Weissler enquired.

"Quite."

"Very regrettable, and very compromising at such a time as this. We must be careful. Teak, very careful. Mr. Krauss has strange ideas. In regard to one thing, I rely upon you."

"I know. Doctor," Teak replied. "I won't let Mr. Krauss get at him."

"Is he?" Doctor Weissler hesitated.

"No, I think he would have suffocated. He passed his word not to shout, so I took it. Did I do right?"

"Quite right. Teak. But observe every precaution. By the way, you might open the door yonder and see if the passage is clear."

Teak nodded, lurched rapidly across the room, and opened the door by which Krauss had gone out. He shrugged his shoulders and shut it again.

"No one there," he reported.

"Good," said Doctor Weissler. "By the way, Teak, I am told that two men are now on duty at the corner of Pennyfields and West India Dock Road. Formerly there was only one."

"Yes, there were two last night."

"Do you attach any significance to this?"

"It's early to say."

"And you have seen nothing and heard nothing to suggest" Doctor Weissler left the sentence unfinished, but Teak obviously understood his meaning, for:

"Thank goodness," he replied, a look of apprehension appearing upon his weather-beaten face. "No! I think it's a nightmare of Mr. Krauss's, but"—he made a perceptible effort to renew the armour of truculence which was his worldly habit—" for once, I am with Mr. Krauss. This gentleman assistant of yours, Doctor, knows too much. He was beating it this morning. Oh! there's no shying the fact! Now"—he bent forward—"what had he got with him? He'd got nothing on him when I picked him up. He's doubling on us! I don't care a damn for his gentility. He's a liar, and"

Doctor Weissler stood up and raised his hand imperiously.

"Silence!" he cried. "I have warned you already. Teak. You exceed your duties grossly. Keep your place or we shall quarrel."

But now, Teak sustained the gaze of Doctor Weissler's eyes.

"It might not suit us to quarrel," he said. "I mean it might not suit either of us."

"I see."

The Doctor's voice, which had been raised, was lowered again to a soothing murmur.

"We are together in this thing," Teak began, and then stopped as if electrified.

Even the self-control of Doctor Weissler was shaken, and he clutched the edge of the table convulsively.

Coming from somewhere in the depths of the big building, muffled, dim, but horrifying, arose a sound like a stifled scream, the scream of a man in sudden agony!

It died away, and Teak stared across the room into the fixed eyes of Doctor Weissler. The latter moved rapidly around the big table.

"Teak," he said, and his guttural voice was perfectly calm, "what was that?"

"Well, it could only have been"

"Was the door unlocked?"

"No."

"Does Mr. Krauss hold a key to it?"

"Not that I know of."

"Come with me," said Doctor Weissler.

The two went out and descended a wooden staircase to a dark, stone-paved passage in the cellars of the premises. Here they paused for a moment, listening. But except for vague rumbling of distant traffic in the streets above there was no sound to disturb the subterranean silence. Doctor Weissler advanced. Teak following. Before a heavy door, apparently that of a storeroom, they stopped. Doctor Weissler tried the door, but it was apparently locked; and, turning to Teak:

"The key," he said.

Teak selected a key from a number which he carried upon a ring, and inserted it in the lock of the door. At that:

"Go away," a voice moaned from the room within. "Oh God!—you fiend! Go away—leave me alone."

Doctor Weissler turned his eyes upon his companion.

"You heard that, Teak?"

"I did," Teak replied grimly.

"Krauss has been here. This must be stopped. I have gone far enough. I will go no farther."