One Wonderful Night | Page 6

life by the good wines of France.
Be that as it may, at twenty minutes to eight he paid what he owed,
lighted a cigar, donned his hat, and, still carrying the overcoat, was
walking to the office to leave word about the key, when his attention
was attracted by the peculiar behavior of the man who had pushed
against him at the cigar counter.
This person, apparently obeying a signal from another man of his own
type who had just emerged from the elevator, hastened from the café,
and the two ran to the door. Now, the weather had been mild during the
afternoon, and the revolving shutters of the doorway were folded back
to allow of the overheated hall being cooled. A porter stood there, and
it was ascertained afterwards that, noticing a certain air of flurry and

confusion about the foreigners, he asked if they wanted a taxi. They
gave no heed, but continued to gaze up and down the street, as though
they awaited someone. Equally did they seem to expect, or dread, an
apparition from the hotel. It would have been hard to pick out, at that
instant, two persons more singularly ill at ease in all New York.
Curtis saw that the clerk, now at his desk, was engaged with a lady, so
he strolled to the door, being rather interested in the excited antics of
the pair on the sidewalk. He had just passed through the door when an
automobile dashed up, and he fancied, though he could not be quite
sure in the half-light, that the chauffeur nodded to the waiting men. The
porter opened the door of the automobile, and a young man in evening
dress, and carrying an overcoat, leaped out. Obviously, he was in a
desperate hurry, and Curtis heard him say in French:
"Don't stop the engine, Anatole. I shall be but one moment."
At that instant the two foreigners sprang at him. One, swinging the
porter off his feet, seized the newcomer's right arm, and, helped by his
comrade, endeavored to force him back into the vehicle. The effort
failed, however, so the second desperado drew a knife and plunged it
deliberately into the unfortunate man's neck. It was a fearsome stroke,
intended both to silence and to kill, and, with a gurgling cry, its victim
collapsed in the grip of his assailants.
Curtis, though almost stupefied by the suddenness of the crime, did not
hesitate a second when he caught the venomous gleam of the knife.
Throwing aside his coat, he rushed forward, but he had to cross the
whole width of the pavement, and the murderers, realizing that the
capture of one or both was imminent, thrust the inert body in his way.
The chauffeur, who must have seen all that happened, had already
started the car, the two men scrambled into it, and all that Curtis could
do was to run after it and shout frantically to the driver of a taxi coming
in the opposite direction to turn his vehicle and block the roadway.
The man understood, but was naturally slow to risk a sharp collision
merely at the order of an excited gentleman in evening dress. He
stopped quickly enough, but, by the time his help was available, pursuit

was hopeless; the one thing Curtis could do he had done--while running
up the street he had deciphered the number of the car, X24-305.
Before Curtis rejoined the dazed hall-porter a small crowd had gathered,
and it was difficult to get near the body lying on the curb. A man
picked up an overcoat, and Curtis, cool and clear-headed now, took it,
and appealed to him, if he knew where the nearest doctor lived, to run
thither at top speed. The man obeyed him instantly.
"Meanwhile, let me see to the poor fellow," he said. "I am not a doctor,
but I know enough about wounds to say whether those scoundrels have
killed him or not."
The throng yielded to an authoritative voice, and some of the more
sensible bystanders formed a ring, thus securing a semblance of light
and air around the prostrate man. Curtis struck a match, and it needed
no second glance to learn that the stranger's lung had been pierced by
an almost vertical thrust; indeed, he was already dying. The poor lips,
from which blood and froth were bubbling, strove vainly to articulate
words which, in the prevalent hubbub of alarm and excitement, it was
impossible to distinguish. A policeman came, and, as a traffic station
for the precinct happened to lie within a couple of doors, the moribund
form was carried in, and placed on a stretcher kept there for use in
emergency.
A doctor was soon on the spot, but he arrived just in time to record the