Show varl 4 by LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE a DA DARK ia the x v 10 X author of a ia A the false faces the lone y b wolf 1 I etc MIRROR nr 0 I 1 illustrated by IRWIN MYERS SO copyright 1320 by the th author fr RED SENT FOR ME Synopsis Vaguely con conscious niclous of a double persona personality ity but without iny any idea of its lt meaning mean lne the girl leonora makes tier her accustomed way into the street of 0 strange faces on in the underworld of new york ala dilarlo do joins her greatly in lote lop and seeing the ane qualities which the girl erl really possesses mario seeks to turn her from the path or inevitable destruction she promises to marry him at cafe gathering place of criminals leonora meets tier her partner red carnethan Carn chan ehan and ins his associates and Is accused of betraying a fellow criminal to the police she savagely defends defend herself P police 0 lice crash into inlo the room and t two w 0 are killed by Car carnaban leonora and the rest escape in eer h er studio priscilla maine wealthy artist awakes from troubled sleep with a distinct feeling of having her life iffe linked with leonora leondras Leo noras a priscilla has painted a picture of herself in fancy dress a gipsy which has a strange effect on n her unnerved and tearful fearful that Z her er mind Is affected priscilla calls to her aid a dear friend dr philip ros fosdick dick who la is in love with her lie he la 13 stunned to find that her dream story of the police right fight Is confirmed by the newspapers priscilla tells epil about the mystery of her mother who died when s she lie was born ile he sees th the e effect of the pain painting ling and pronounces it a me case of auto hypnosis priscilla makes him promise not to go to the potice and he begins investigating for or himself IV MERE PAINT AND CANVAS 7 after ane one week of gadding about of at shopping and th theaters enters and dances and motoring priscilla felt quite fed up with nith distractions she wanted to get back to her work and be happy till she did and why not she demanded when she elie failed to get philip on the tele phone and secure his professional permission to return to her studio A few days of trifling was all he had stipulated and those few had served she dreamed no more of leonora or red lied carneyhan Carn Car ehan or marlo mario today all that indeed seemed remote and unimportant por tant what though she had dreamed a nightmare which coincided so mysteriously with actual events as to scare tier her nearly out ot of her wits after all it wr was at worst a dream and irl in this delightfully substantial and matter of fact world coincide dont count with anybody except novelists hard up for a plot she found ada moyer lottering pottering pott ering with a hopeless daub of still life spent most of the morning giggling and gossiping carried hea he air on to the ritz rit z for luncheon and left her there with some friends ahu needed a fourth at bridge an arrangement perfectly agreeable to priscilla it was hard enough at any time to settle down to work after a spell of idling it was the next thin thing to an impossibility with ada on the premises the quiet of the empty studio was soothing and grateful priscilla llla sighed contentedly wheeled the heavy easel over to its stand beside th the pier glass shrugged into a paint smeared amea red smock and in the next fifteen minutes did nothing whatever but sit in a chair before the self portrait in intent study of her work again it seemed good in ili tier lier sight decidedly the best thing she had ever done and yet she was dissatisfied the mead asne ne must nox louch something was wrong something was missing without which it could pot not prove convincing the head bead she must not touch lest one misjudged stroke mar the excellence of 0 its spirited gesture Nett neither lier could she see any way to improve tier her Da painting lating of pe he figure the folds of 0 the skirt needed some little attention not much possibly halt half an hours work orfa NO the fault was in a jack background ground treated ln lna ina a fashion too toe academic and tame to lo suit that b brilliant ril counterfeit of life at length rising took up her palette and from fat tubes squirted ted upon its satiny surface kleeli coils of color I 1 for hours site she worked ste steadily willy absorbed till a pe ture chanse change in the light broke till lie spell with a slight fron of nt annoyance she mi looked up ili to ro lind tile lie frosted of nf the with pile pale hline shadow sli adow no uin milt tier fer her tas was ended and sonner slip had thon elit alit it would he be A few days more and she could varnish she put aside brushes and palette shut the windows through which now a cold strong draught draus lit was blowing drew the draperies close and returned to the chair before the he portrait reverie led her insensibly back to memories ot of the street of strange faces whose dim readies reaches stretched away indefinitely behind that painted shape of dream the effect of return to old associations grew strong she elie could veritably see she could almost smell and hear the street site she knew a period of mental uncertainty ol of daze and wonder out of which crew the sensation slie she had once before experienced of confusion of identity with the woman in the portrait inexplicably something sm impalpable yet essential seemed to go out from her to the other with whose spiritual essence 1 11 blended intimate ly so that for the moment she had no true exle existence tence save upon that painted surf ace where she paused hesitant doubtful confused as on some dark strange threshold before passing on and away into a vague tague halt half world a place of vast and shapeless spaces where there was neither light nor darkness wherein consciousness grew faint and the sense of self was blotted out entirely V BEYOND THE THRESHOLD out of nothingness out of a sort of inert chaos spectral walls like veils tells of mist took shape closed in added unto themselves a floor and ceiling assumed a semblance of stability became a boxlike adom room wherein her spirit was pent in a mood of sluggish and melancholy mutiny a roommate fully fa familiar millar to tier her in its every hideous detail its poisonous wall paper stained ceiling and threadbare linoleum its iron sink in the corner its rude hairs chairs and common table cluttered with soiled crockery and a gas stove linked t to an overhead jet by frayed tubing its shelf from which hung articles of dejected clothing its shaky iron beC bedstead stead with sag sagging ing springs and the lumpy mattress upon which her er self lay half dressed and halt half conscious too bored to care whether she waked or slept weariness and were eloquent in her posture as she rested on her side a hand between her head bead and the emaciated pillow and written legibly in bluish sha dofA under listless eyes in sallow cheeks whose normal line hue was clearest pallor barely warmed by glowing health in ID the unstudied disarray of her masses of fine black hair in the sullen cast of her firm lipped mouth A mutter of for far thunder swelled and died the girl moved only her eyes looking up to a window that revealed the storm black sky what mattered it to her whether or not it rallied rained slie site was condemned apparently to endless imprisonment in this dismal place whose threshold her foot had not crossed in so many days slie she had lost count of them the alie room grew dark the sky more savage A sword of lightning slashed the gloom and again agnan distant thunder boomed and grumbled into silence by the pert tin clock whose hose lation was the only voice her hiding place had heard in days the hour was barely five she wondered why she had taken the trouble to look what was the use of it this keeping count of time almet what was vias time indeed but waste one long drawn torment of waiting in idleness and impotence for the sign that never came to set her tree free sly site could have shrieked for sheer exasperation of ennui without alloy she told herself that anything were better than such a fate as this why no not t shriek till her cries fetched the police or better still arise go forth and court arrest A bell cell in the tombs bere preferable to this place of dubious security was she less a prisoner here than she boulis he there but she did bof i lirlea she did not move she he lid did nothing but remained at she had been on n awakening from the desolating stupidity of unneeded sleep so still she scarcely seemed a living breathing being more lurid lightning a deeper dla pason of thunder again that breathless hush of a sudden she left the bed aud and in one soundless bound gained the middle middie of 0 the floor where she paused in the crouch of a hunted thing at bay her wide gaze fastened to the door through a wait so long that she concluded her hearing must have been at fault she heard nothing she relaxed drew a deep breath and grew frigid with alarm nheu aio heard the tha noise repeated a stealthy knocking on lie panels with an ear to the crack between door and frame she seemed to detect a panting mui murmur mur noral nora I 1 noral nora I 1 she called guardedly chos there A voice of greater confidence replied me charlie charile te le me binl sho she drew a bolt and turned the knob distrustfully 4 opening the door a few inches with a shoulder to it prepared to slam slain it shut with all tier her might should she find cause to think slie she was being tricked in tile the outer murk tile the pale contour of a fate face slie she knew was just discernible she stood aside and let its owner enter well what to do you want the coke returned a twisted placating grimace 1 I dont want red sent me to tell yuh lie he wants yuh red she caught her breath sharply where ill 1 I dassett tell lie ile made me take me oat but lie he wants yuh when hw how lie he says its all right als toris kep his trap shut th bulls J P honest V t bawd nora yuh yoh got mo me wrong 1 the atie coke col protested aint wise to red and leos leoa hangout hang out ile he wants yuh yub shoud come to him lie ile does there was a trace of challenge in her tone that was less disguised when after brief deliberation she demanded suppose I 1 dont what it if the bulls pipe me in the street SlIP supper POW I 1 dont come the dope save shuttled shuffled spasmodically red says to so you say rut but how do I 1 know ho does how do I 1 know red sent you here to tell ne me that how do I 1 know this aint some dodge the nut put yot yon up to or inez Il hones allones t bawd nora yuh got mv me wrong the coke protested 1 I aint seen the nut nor inez either that night red sent me prove it I 1 gonna do that go back to red and bring roe me something to prove he sent you that silver ring he be wears any anything thin g 1 I would nora the protestation was convincingly earnest but I 1 das sent radii half kill me if I 1 go back without yuh besides it aint safe goin there too often the bulls might see and follow me well what about me what it if they see and follow me I 1 suppose its all right it if I 1 get pinched along with pd and leo the girl gave a gesture half impatient halt half defiant doing you tell red I 1 said so red says tell yuh yub if yuli yuh i don dont t come yuh yub wont inkell happen to that stuck on yuh marlo mariol I 1 her lips framed without uttering the name she retreated a pace convulsively tightening the ost that clutched tile hie folds over the kimono above her bosom what what are you talking about what whar red said to tell yuh take it from me nora yuh better to do like lie says been givan him tin an hartull about yuh an that Sparil sh guy spanish guy she echoed shrilly 1 I dont know what youre talking about maybe so maybe not the coke licked his lips with a furtive tongue anyhow lies sore II if I 1 was yuh and dian didn want no more trouble id do like rod lied says after a while tile the girl said sullenly ilow how am I 1 going to find him tf if you wont tell me where he is ill taken take yuh there red said I 1 should its all right nora yuh dont be afraid what time ten tea cielock oci oct tonight cherell Wh erell I 1 meet you in the room upstairs ups bairs at A lurid flame of lightning dried speech upon its his lips terrified he cowered back to the wall darkness fell thunders shook the tenement on its foundations crush crash upon rippling crash halt stunned the girl felt the leash upon her senses slipping her hands caught wildly at nothingness VI THE STORM body and soul seemed welded into one taut string vibrating in agonized response to the fury of the tempest she found herself standing far from the chair in front of the easel la in quivering affright gazing over der it it the hie featureless long rectangle of the portrait in the shadows rain sluiced the skylight in wind whipped waves with a crisp tearing noise thunder rocked the skies ripped and raved rumbled away in lessening reverberations then without warning the gloom was abolished by a ghastly lilac glare and the face on on the canvas calva started out of its dark background with an uncanny look of life the gay mockery of its smile distorted into grinning malice she was fain to switch cc z the lights to lay that ghostly leer even then she elie dared not look again with head averted she swung the easel round so that the painting faced the wall still she was III at ease in the company of the thing she could not forget how that cold electric blaze had seemed to wale wake the painting into goblin life transient but terrible the memory of its jeering smile persisted like a specter unseen but importunate at tier her shoulder round a corner of her consciousness denied but insistent the notion lurked of the work of her own bands turned monster preternaturally ter inspired with a spirit of fa I 1 animus she had bad a crawling shiver of superstitious ious dread commonsense Common Commons sense erise was powerless to comfort her with its assurance that she had merely had one more hypnotic hallucination induced by autosuggestion auto suggestion instinct insisted common commonsense sense tor for once was wrong that there was more in this than the human mind fettered to the claims of natural laws could comprehend or 0 cope with surely supernatural forces were here at work slie she strove without success to cast out that thought comparing her wrist watch with memory of the hour marked by the clock in leondras Leo noras refuge she reckoned tier her lapse from full waking consciousness ness had not lasted longer than five minutes in that scant spell her soul had journeyed far tarried a while in communion with another and returned with a freight of fears of doubts and cares c a res that threatened the stability of he reason in those few moments the work of a week had been undone she stood now where she had been immediately after the last preceding dream poised perilously near the verge of derangement haunted by a shape of tear fear no whit less awful if it were after all only the creature of tier her imagination within five hours tier her other self must go to keep an assignation with a murderer fancy pictured elevnora leonora stealing jing through streets of sinister shadow to that rendezvous with a fate inscrutable cut but not for leonora was all tills this torture of solicitude through unhappy mischance mario had bad been marked for reds enmity and where red hated tenure of life was treacherous now it was revealed to her that however inexplicable the affinity of their souls however dissimilar their circumstances and irreconcilable their ways of thought and standard dl in this leonora and priscilla prescilla maine were one in love with marto mario acknowledging this incredible fact without protest priscilla told herself she had loved mario always ever since that time long on past when he had first figured in tier her life of dreams and contemplating the prospect of 0 living through the night to come under boe impenetrable cover |