Complete Story. A Taleof a Cigarette Case.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVIII, Issue II, 11 January 1902, Page 56

Complete Story. A Taleof a Cigarette Case.

King and 1 had been dining early at the Girondins, a small restaurant in the purlieus of Soho, known only to a select few. We had dined early for the simple reason that, when one attempts to regard breakfast as a needless luxury of the effete moneyed classes and luncheon as a meal only suitable to people of debased and vitiated tastes, there is ample time between, say, seven o’clock on Tuesday and half-past six on Wednesday evening to become conscious of at least a due appreciation of the flesh pots of Egypt, or more particularly of the Girondins. King had had three passes for the Lyric Theatre given him by a journalistic friend, or at least so he chose to account for their existence; one we had bartered for a packet of cigarettes, the other two we reserved for use. It was a bitterly cold night, and King had no overcoat; as a matter of fact he had parted with it early in the week, and we had lived riotously for three days on the proceeds. Mine was still dragging out a shabby genteel existence, and contained in the side pocket a battered leather cigarette case of common design, in which were the remnants of the packet It hung behind King as we sat, so I asked him to band over the case. He rummaged first in one pocket, then in the other, and finally produced it. We lighted up, and having paid our bill, strolled off to the theatre. We had not, however, gone more than twenty paces when a man darted out of the restaurant and came running up the street after us. calling to us to stop. The light of the street lamp shone on his face, and I recognised him as

the swarthy, rather unwashed individual who had occupied the next table to us. "Senor, you have got my cigarette case.” he' began, excitedly. . “You have got it in your coat pocket.” "I am sure I’ve got nothing of the sort,” said I. The man’s manner was aggressive, not to say threatening, so T didn’t feel over civilly inclined towards him. "Senor. 1 insist,” he said. "You can insist till you’re blue in the face,” 1 retorted, with. 1 admit, but scant courtesy; "but you 11 find it more comfortable to insist at the other end of the street. I've no use for the word.” "Give to me my case." He was working himself up into a perfect fury, and probably forgetting what he was doing laid his hand forcibly on my arm. There is one obvious reply to a movement of that sort, when the scene is an ill lit Soho slum, where knives are by no means invariably of the usual pocket dimensions. I gave a twist and an upward jerk wit if my elbow. Tt caught my gentleman fairly under the chin and he subsided into the gutter. His face was not a pleasant sight as he rose, rubbing himself, for the fall had been a heavy one; but when King so far forgot himself as to laugh the fellow became an incarnate, livid demon. "Now." said I. "if you feel able to speak quietly and civilly. I don’t mind showing you my cigarette case to prove to you that you are in the wrong.” I produced the thing as I spoke in all the glory of its shabby, black

leather and cheap nickel frame. “There,” said I, triumphantly, conscious of a pleasing, virtuous glow at being for once in the right. The man’s only answer was an inarticulate, hoarse cry, and a quick grab at the case as it lay in my open palm. “Steady.” said I, closing my hand on the thing. "The kerbstone is pretty hard; do you want to try it again?’’' “Git.” said King abruptly, and suiting the action to the word, he took the fellow by the shoulders, ran him briskly down the street for a yard or so, and shot him forward with a powerful upward swing of the right boot. After that we proceeded leisurely on our way. “Now. why.” said I, “why should that individual take so much trouble to annex a cigarette case, which in its more aristocratic day cost but 1/3? The desire to steal I can understand, and a good big diamond, with a few priceless rubies thrown in. might tempt even me from the narrow path of rectitude; but a shabby old ease that the most friendly relation wouldn’t lend you twopence on !” The evening was still in its infancy when we arrived at the theatre and went to our places in the upper boxes. The place was crowded and very hot, so after much deliberation as to ways and means, we determined to expend the rest of our available capital in a mueh-needed drink. While we were standing in the bar King touched my elbow. I looked up. and three yards from us stood our irascible gentleman of the Girondins. He was evidently keeping his eye on our movements, although he made no further attempt to speak to us or even acknowledge our presence in any way. Just to see what the man’s game really was we moved off into the corridor. as if to leave the building; we had not gone ten yards, however, before the fellow came slinking out after us. I remembered noticing in the restaurant that he was accompanied by

a young woman, also dark-complex-ioned, but dressed with a certain air of distinction. I reminded King of this, and we determined to try and discover her among the audience. Waiting till we were about half-way down the passage, the man being ten paces behind us, we suddenly wheeled round and faced him as he turned the corner. He made no at‘rmpt to stop us as we retraced our steps. but seemed rather to try and avoid observation by holding his head well down and making way for us. The curtain rose on the second act as we resumed our places; but look where we would, neither the man nor the girl was visible. When the piece was over we started for a walk home to our rooms in Great Ormond-street. I was struggling into my coat. and. as I did so. T felt something hard in my breastpocket. Wondering what it might be. I pulled it out. It was my cigarette case! With an exclamation I fumbled in the other pocket, and lo and behold there was its twin brother, identical in every way. The same worn black leather, the same cheap metal frame with the brass showing through where it had been rubbed. “Well. I’m blest!” ejaculated King. “How the deuce!” said I. “Why. I’ve got that unfortunate blackguard’s case, after all. and I knocked him down.” I added, ruefully. “But how. in the name of all that’s beautiful. did the beastly thing get into my pocket ?” “I’ve got it.” said King. “You know when you asked me to get the cigarettes at dinner?” “Yes.” “Well, that other fellow’s coat was hanging on the peg next to yours. I remember noticing it. I expect that when I turned round—we were talking at the time, if you remember—T must have dived my hand into the wrong coat, and the case being exactly like yours we never noticed “No wonder the chap was annoyed. Still, it’s rather an absurd fuss to have made about such a trumpery thing. If we find him. or. rather, if

Be loMewß ua, I suppose I steal! hare to apulnyT -aaß hand it back.” “Ycv, either that or give it to the man at the Glrondins next time we dine.” • We went along Long Acre, turneel up northwards across Hol born, and were well into Southampton Row, smoking my own cigarettes, be it understood, this time, when we saw a woman, who was walking quickly a little way ahead of us, raise her hand to her breast and stagger as if about to fall. Bhe swayed to and fro, and made a desperate effort to reach the railings. We ran up, but before we could •atch hold of her she had slipped to the ground. King bent over her to lift her up. “Hullo!” said he, “it’s the lady of the Girondins, 1 expect "Jump!" I yelled, before he eould say any more, and hit out with all my strength. What had happened was this, that as we bent over the woman, I heard a footstep behind me and instinctively turned round, just in time to see the owner of the cigarette case with his arm upraised and something glittering in the lamplight. I hit up at his descending wrist and he dropped the knife with a groan of pain, but not before the point of it had got well home into the upper muscle of my fore-arm. “Collar him,” I said, clapping my hand to my arm. King has played football for a erack team before now, and the work was mere child’s play to him. “Where shall we go?” he asked, panting a little, for the foreigner was a heavy built man. “Let’s take them back to our rooms and see what they've got to say for themselves. I don t want to go to a beastly police station.” I assented, and turned to the woman, who had now risen to her feet and was regarding us with a scared, white face, though with a certain look of sullen defiance in her eyes. “Will you accompany us to the house?” I asked. “It’s not far from here. Or shall we leave you and take this man by himself?” “I will come,” she said, shortly. Accordingly we all set off. King and the man leading, I, in virtue of my damaged arm, escorting the woman, but keeping a keen look-out for trouble ahead. Once in our rooms, with the gas turned up, King locked the door. We annexed the sitting-room of an affluent friend, who occupied the draw-ing-room floor, for the occasion, by the way. “Now,” said I, having placed a chair for the girl, who, as I saw by the better light of the room, was by no means ill-looKing, “now, perhaps, you'll be good enough to explain yourself. First of all, you chase me out of a restaurant and practically assault me in the street; then you follow me to the theatre; and last, but by no means least, you, with your accomplice, deliberately lay a trap, in the hopes of knifing myself and my friend. Be good enough to remember that you are in London, and that there are policemen in cad; not in Barcelona or Naples, or whereever you hail from. “It is perfectly true that I have discovered in my; possession a cigarette case similar to my own, which may or may’ not be your property; but a man doesn’t run the risk of being hung for the sake of a wretched thing like that”—and I laid the case on the table. “I only’ discovered that I had made a mistake on leaving the theatre. That case there is exactly similar to my own, and I confess that at first I thought it was my property. However, I think that any further explanation should come from you. Since you have let a considerable quantity of blood out of my arm, and so far I have only deprived you of three cigarettes, which I and my friend smoked on ” “Merciful Heavens!” The cry seemed to tear the heart of the man, and his swarthy skin turned ashen. “Senor, Senor, for the love of Grace, tell me truly, you have not smoked any of the little cigarettes? Say yon jest at me. I will give you ten, twenty, thirty of your golden sovereigns here—now, on the spot, if yon will return me that case and itg contents complete.”

King ewore under hw breath. “What the dewoe are eigarettes for it not to smoke ?“-ne askeu. “You have smoked them!” aereamed the Spaniard. “You have wasted these cigarettes for a mere momentary pleasure. Bo you know what you have done? You hate burnt the work of months, the labour of weeks and weeks of toil and struggle night and day. You have ruined the greatest scheme——” “Silence,” hissed the girl in French. “Humph!” said King. “There seems to be something at the back of this. Thirty pounds for a handful of cigarettes and a case worth half nothing, an attempt at murder for its recovery, and tne result of months of work spoilt by smoking two or three of them. “I think I'll have a look at one of them,” he continued, opening the ease. He selected one haphazard and held it elose to the uncovered gas jet, turning it about to inspect it more closely. He rolled it round and round very slowly between his fingers, to all appearance a very ordinary cigarette of one of the cheaper brands, without so much as the maker's stamp upon it. Suddenly he gave an exclamation of surprise. The outside of the paper had almost instantaneously become covered with writing in palish blue characters, which darkened as the heat of the gas flame affected them. I leant across to have a look for myself. There was the crash of an overturned ehair, the click of a lock, and before we eould either of us recall our presence of mind, the Spaniard had grabbed the case containing the few remaining cigarettes and was leaping down the stairs half a flight at a time. He had dashed out of the front door and slammed it behind him before I could reach the first landing. The brute had fled, leaving his accomplice behind him. Rather crestfallen, we returned to the room. The girl was still sitting as we had left her. Senors,” she said, raising her white faee. “Senors. let me go, and I will tell you the truth. Garcia—he who has just gone—and myself, we are of Southern Spain. We are not loved, as you say. by the authorities in our home. We, with many others, wish to alter affairs. To this end there are many societies. We are here in your city to carry out the instructions of our society, to which we are bound by ties of life and death, and whose commands we are bound to obey. Communication with our leaders is, as you may imagine, Senors, both difficult and dangerous. “We had just determined on a new, and. as we thought, safe plan. Those cigarettes in that case eaeh bore a portion of a message written in invisible ink. When you. Senor,” turning to King, “held one to the heat of tlie gas the writing became plain. One or two alone could not do much harm; it is only the contents of the whole case that would render the message clear. That you have rendered “Now, Senors, you will let me go. I am doing no harm to your country. It is against people in my own land that I work.” I looked at King, and King looked at me. I crossed the room and held the door open. “And you will burn that? indicating the cigarette. King threw it into the fire. She bowed gracefully to each of ue, with a little pathetic smile. “I am much obliged. Good-night, Senors,” and passed out.