Slaves of Sleep Page 5

  As Jan made no move to answer the invitation, Diver philo足sophically conveyed the second portion to his own plate and, with the usual appetite of the very thin, put them easily down and finally, having cleared the tray, looked mournfully under the nap足kins to locate more. His search unavailing, he slid it back into the corridor and fell into a conversation with a counterfeiter across the block. With great leisure, as men do when they know they have lots of time to pass, they discussed the latest inmate with great thoroughness and Diver, after fishing for coaxing, finally laid aside an air of mystery and divulged Jan's story.

  "Hophead, huh?" said the counterfeiter.

  "Yeah, guess so. He don't eat nothin' and that's another reason. He evidently is feelin' the mornin' after no doubt."

  "I know where I can get him some," said the counterfeiter confidentially.

  "Yeah? When he gets over his fit I'll ask him if he wants it. He had nightmares last night fit to shake the place down."

  "Yes, I heard him."

  "Snow's pretty awful stuff."

  "Ain't it," said the counterfeiter. "Why oncet I had a sniffer in my outfit-Goo-goo, the boys called'm-and this here Goo-goo..."

  Jan tried not to listen, even stuffing his ears with the edge of the blanket, but one story led to another and finally they got on the subject of being hanged.

  "So they sprung the trap three times on this gent," said the counterfeiter, "and it wouldn't sag with him. They'd take him off and put him back and try her again and still she wouldn't work. Well, the guy fainted finally, but they brought him around and put him on the trap once more. Well, sir, this time she sure worked. He dropped like a rock and the rope snapped his spine like you'd crack walnuts. But how do you like that, huh? Three times and it don't work."

  "Leave it to the Law," said Diver. "They can't even hang a man straight."

  "Somebody coming," said the counterfeiter.

  The block fell silent, watching the approach of the visitors. All but Jan clung to the bars for he was in a state of coma induced by the late conversations.

  "Hiyah, Babe," said a jailbird down the row.

  "Geez, some looker," said Diver, now that he could see the party.

  A series of such comments and calls ran the length of the place and then the party stopped before Jan's door while a jailer, with much important key rattling, got the lock open.

  Diver backed up and gave the prostrate Jan a wicked kick to wake him. Resentfully, Jan sat up, about to protest, but all such thought left him when he found that Alice Hall stood before him.

  She had carried herself like a sentry through the block just as though the jailbirds did not exist and now, with a tinge of pity upon her lovely face she stood taking off her gloves and studying Jan just as though she were about to begin an operation to change his luck.

  "Well, well, well, my boy," said a very, very, very, very hearty voice- one which the owner fondly thought capable of carrying him, someday, to the Senate. "What are they doing to you?"

  Jan dragged his eyes away from Alice and woke up to the presence of two others in his cell- Shannon, Bering Steam's legal department head, and Nathaniel Green. Shannon was very plump and so fitted his manner to the recognized one for all plump men. He was very hearty, very well met and very reassuring, though there were those (who had no doubt lost cases to him) who said it was all sham. The fellow's mouth, in its absence of a sufficient chin and nose, looked like nothing if not a shark's. One supposed he had to turn over on his back to eat, so tightly and immobilely did his fat neck sit in his collar.

  Jan looked nervous and was not at all sure that he wanted to talk to these two gentlemen. He resented their presence all the more because Alice Hall was there and how badly he wanted to have her sit on that small stool and hear his flood of grief and then give him very sound advice in return. Didn't her brave face have a tinge of pity in it?

  "Have you out in no time," said Shannon, sitting down on Diver's bunk so that Diver had to hastily get out of his way.

  "Don't mind me," said Diver resentfully.

  Shannon twirled his hat and paid no attention to anything save the crown of the bowler. He was getting serious now, evi足dently opening up a whole weighty library of immense legal tomes in his head. "Yes, my boy, serious as this is, we should have no difficulty in getting you freed, eh, Mr. Green?"

  "Of course," said Green swiftly. He hadn't seated himself at all, and looked as though he was about to hurry off on some important errand or other. "Must be done. The company, you understand, is in no such position that it can bear this publicity. Look," and he jerked a sheaf of papers out of his pocket and tossed them to the bunk beside Jan where they fanned out into blazing headlines, "MILLIONAIRE SHIPOWNER SLAYS PROFESSOR" and the like.

  Jan shuddered when he saw them and drew back.

  "Ha, ha, I don't blame you," said Shannon. "But people forget. Never mind that sort of thing. The point is, we want your version of this ... er ... crime. Then, we'll demand a bail to be set and take you home." He got serious once more. "Now, to begin, just how did this thing happen?"

  It was Alice Hall's cue. She sat down at the rickety table and spread her notebooks to take down the discourse. Jan looked hope足lessly at her, hating to have her take his words so cold-bloodedly.

  "We haven't much time," said Nathaniel impatiently glanc足ing at his watch.

  "I ... I don't know how to begin," said Jan.

  "Why, at the beginning, of course," said Shannon. "Nothing simpler. When was the first time that you saw this Frobish fellow?"

  Jan told them and then, with much prompting, managed to get the story out in its entirety. Very wisely he refrained from following it up with the events of the night just passed. And all the while he spoke Alice Hall inscribed his words as emotionlessly as though she listened to a dictaphone record. Not so the other two. With increasing frequency Shannon glanced knowingly at Green, and Green stared impatiently at Jan as though about to accuse him of lying.

  Then, when Jan was through, Shannon's tone was very dif足ferent from his first. Shannon patted Jan on the knee consolingly as one will a sick animal or perhaps an angry child. "There, there, my boy, we'll do what we can. But... er... don't you think you might... ah... modify these statements somewhat. After all, if I wish to have bail set for you, I have to have something I can tell the judge. It's not that we don't believe you... but... well, courts are strange things and you'll have to trust to my advice and experience in the matter. I shall enter a plea at my discretion. Perhaps," he added to Nathaniel, "I can think of something logical."

  Green glanced at his watch. "I've got to be getting back to the office. I've a million things to do before noon."

  "Could I speak with you a moment?" said Shannon.

  Green irritably acquiesced and they stepped out into the hall where they spoke in low whispers, looking toward the cell now and then. Alice Hall kept her eyes on her notes.

  "They don't believe me," said Jan.

  The girl looked searchingly at him. "You wonder about it?"

  "Why... but what happened, happened. I wouldn't lie!"

  The shadow of a smile went across her features. "Of course not."

  "But it did happen that way!" wailed Jan. "And I'll tell you something else. Last night..." But there he stopped and nothing could persuade him to finish.

  "You shouldn't keep any of it back," said Alice. "Those gentlemen, presumably, mean to get you out of here and if you know anything else you should tell them..."

  "I don't know anything else."

  She shrugged. "All right, have it your own way."

  "Don't be angry."

  "I'm not. Why should I be?"

  "But you were."

  "Maybe I was. What of it?"

  "But why should you be angry?"

  "No reason at all," she said with sudden bitterness. "You have a story and you'll stick to it. If you're going to act that way I can tell you truthfully, though it's none of my business, that you'll hang. I don't know-and I don't care, I'm sure!-whether you committed this murder or not. But I do know that you'll have to get yourself out of it the best you can."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I suppose Green hasn't been waiting...!" She suddenly cooled her heat and gave her attention to her notes.

  "You mean you think they won't help me?"

  "I have nothing to say."

  "But you were saying something," pleaded Jan. "If you know anything that might help me..."

  "Help you! Nobody can help you! Nobody will ever be able to solve your problems but yourself. I've worked with your com足pany long enough to know that you know nothing about it and care less. You keep yourself locked up in your room, scared to death by an aunt, a secretary and the head of your father's firm. You let Nathaniel Green do what he pleases with accounts-but why am I talking this way? It can do you no good now. I should have spoken months ago. Maybe I was hoping you'd wake up by yourself and find out that you were a man instead of an infant. But you haven't and now, unless a miracle happens, you'll never have the chance. There! I've said it."

  Jan was stunned and scarcely heard Green and Shannon come back until Shannon cleared his throat noisily.

  "My boy," said Shannon, "Green and I have talked this thing over. It is quite apparent that you mean to stick to your story."

  "It's the truth!"

  "Of course it's the truth!" cried Shannon. "But the law is a strange thing. Now, my advice is for you to plead self-defense."

  "That would be lying," said Jan.

  "Yes, perhaps," said Shannon. And then he gave Green a look which plainly said that he had done what he could. "Very well, young fellow, I shall tell the court your story and ask that you be released on bail. Is that according to your wishes?"

  "Certainly!" said J
an.

  Green almost smiled but checked himself in time. He glanced at his watch. "I must be getting back. Come along, Miss Hall. Jan, if anything can be done, Mr. Shannon will do it. Don't despair. We're with you to the end."

  So saying, Green walked out, followed by the lawyer and Alice Hall and the door was locked once more.

  Diver came out of the corner and looked at the departing backs and then at Jan. "Geez, fellah, how do you do it?"

  "Do what?" said Jan dully.

  "The dame," said Diver. "Boy, is she a looker! How do you do it, huh?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about."

  "Oh boy, are you a deep one. Why man, if I had a gal like that in love with me ..."

  "She's not in love with me!"

  "No?" and then Diver laughed. "No, sure not. Innocent, that's you. No, sure she ain't in love with you. Why she was near cryin' when she came in that door and she almost bawled while she was writin' at the table there and you was spielin' that awful lie of yours."

  "She despises me, I know she does."

  "Sure. Sure she does or she thinks she does. But all you'd have to do, feller, is to square up your spine and act like a man and she'd fall in your lap. I'm telling you."

  "I'm sure," said Jan with abrupt heat, "that I'm not inter足ested in what you think of Miss Hall!"

  Diver was taken aback, more with surprise than anything else. But presently he began to chuckle. "What a pack of wolves," he said.

  "Who?"

  "Why that short fellow and that lawyer."

  "I don't know what you mean."

  "If you don't you're blind as a bat, buddy. Friends of yours?"

  "Mr. Green is the head of my ... that is, the Bering Sea Steam足ship Corporation."

  "Oh boy, I know why those longshoremen go on strike now! Pal, you got three strikes on you and don't know it."

  "I fail . . ."

  "You're fanned, feller, fanned. How come you ever got your足self into such a spot seein' the way that Green wants to do you in."

  "I am sure . . ."

  "So am I. I watched him lickin' his chops all the time he was here. What'd you ever do to him?"

  "He was my father's best friend."

  "And your dearest enemy," said Diver. "Oh, well, what's done is done. But I sure wish I'd had your chance."

  "My chance!"

  "The gal," said Diver with a deep sigh, lying back on his bunk. "Man, I'd almost enjoy bein' accused of murder if I had her feelin' that way about me." And he closed his eyes so languor足ously that Jan, contrary to all his regular emotions, wanted very badly to kick the guts out of him.

  Lunch came and Jan ate a few mouthfuls without any relish. The hours began their slow march down the afternoon and still no word came from Shannon. Dinner time found Diver at the tail end of a long discussion with the counterfeiter over the looks of Alice Hall.

  At about seven the cell block was brought to the bars again by an opening door. Ignoring all of them, Alice marched down the concrete to Jan's cell but the jailer did not offer to open the door for her.

  Jan stood up, blinking and suddenly tongue-tied.

  She was very cool and efficient. "Mr. Green asked me to stop by on my way home and tell you that Shannon was unable to have bail set for you."

  "You mean," said the jolted Jan, "that I've got to stay here?"

  Slowly she nodded and then found sudden interest in a pack足age she had under her arm. She thrust it through the bars. "It's all right," she told the officer. "They inspected it at the desk. Your Aunt Ethel... er... sent this to you."

  Jan took it mechanically, trying to think of something to say which might detain her a moment. But he thought of nothing and they stood in an awkward silence.

  "I hope you aren't too uncomfortable," she said at last.

  "I... I'm all right."

  "Well... I had better be going."

  "Th-thank you for the package from Aunt Ethel and th-thank you for coming."

  "I have to pass the jail to get home anyway," said Alice. "Good night."

  She was gone and Jan stood staring at the place where she had been.

  "Well!" said Diver. "Open it, you dummy."

  "What?"

  "The package!"

  "It's probably flannel pajamas," said Jan dolefully.

  "You don't know, do you? Open it."

  Jan opened it and, wonder of wonders, it appeared that Aunt Ethel had broken down for the first time in her life. Here was a box of tea biscuits, a box of candy, three of the latest books, a toothbrush and paste and razor and shaving cream, a new shirt, tobacco, and, at the very bottom, Houdini's textbook.

  "Geez, cookies," said Diver.

  "Aunt Ethel?" said Jan. "But she would have sent one of my shirts and some of my own books if she sent anything at all."

  "The dame!" cried Diver. "She done it but wouldn't admit it. Your Aunt Ethel be damned, buddy. Boy, are these cookies good!"

  Jan nibbled on one and looked at the books. For a while he thumbed through Houdini but, at last, gave it up as a bad job.

  "If she's just a steno, buddy, she must've spent a week's pay on them things," said Diver, looking at the price marks in the books. "Gosh, you can never tell about dames. A looker like her takin' up for a scared rabbit like you... huh!" And so saying he began to read.

  The night grew through its childhood and, suddenly, Jan remembered that there was a chance... the barest, barest chance ... that he might be elsewhere the instant he closed his eyes. He might be deep, down in the brig of a sailing ship plowing through an unknown sea, waiting with terror for what the port might bring. He shuddered as the thought became very real. He was revolted by the thought of becoming Tiger once again.

  And yet he was tired. He had had no sleep for an age, it seemed. He was weary until he ached.

  But, if the Ifrit had spoken the truth, then...

  Then...

  And by midnight he lost the fight.

  He went down into the abyss of sleep, awakened instantly by the howl of winches and the cannonading of sails and then the grinding roar of chain racing through a hawsepipe. He opened his eyes.

  the queen!

  Jan Palmer was afraid to open his eyes. When Diver had said that he had rolled and tossed the whole night through he had been perfectly willing to believe that it had all been a night足mare brought about by his excessive mental perturbation. But right now it didn't at all appear that he was rolling and tossing upon the sagging bunk in the jail. In fact it was quite plain that he was lying on blankets and that he had no bunk but floor under him.

  Cautiously he pried open one eyelid and found that he looked through a grilled window upon the back of a Marid. It was not the same Marid at all, but another one who was much uglier-if such could be possible-than the first. This fellow had a ferocious cast to his single eye and he was girt about with a sword which must have weighed thirty pounds and he leaned upon a pike pole so sharp that it tapered to nothingness rather than a point.

  "Now I'm for it," moaned Jan.

  And he startled himself.

  "Now I'll get the galleys."

  He blinked and said it over again. "Now I'll get the galleys."

  Well, what galleys? And how did he know that there would be any galleys in the neighborhood? Further, what reason did he have to think that galleys would be in use?

  But, just the same he was convinced and he sat up, already experiencing an ache in his back and sinewy arms.

  "This is a hell of a note," he uttered. "I'm damned if I'll take it, so help me. Let'm flog. Let'm string me up by the thumbs. But I'll see 'em all in hell before I'll haul an oar."

  Plainly, he thought, such a speech showed that he was delirious. But no, his head wasn't hot.

  He stood up. "Hey, you one-eyed farmer, where are we?" Certainly, he shouldn't take such a tone with this vicious-looking Marid. He frightened himself.