The situation became a little embarrassing. Was it my place to speak first? I wondered. At last I could endure the silence no longer.
"Quite an unpleasant evening," I remarked politely.
There was a rustle of movement, the sound of a short gasp, and a soft, mournful voice broke on my ear.
The astonishment I felt to hear my own name once more--the name that seemed now to belong to a former state of existence--was swallowed up as the magnetic tones carried their revelation to my mind.
I was stricken dumb for a moment at the discovery they had brought. Then I gasped:
"Yes, Mrs. Knapp," she said with a mournful laugh. "Did you never suspect?"
I was lost in wonder and confusion, and even yet could not understand.
"What brings you out in this storm?" I asked, completely mystified. "I thought I was to meet another person."
"Indeed?" said Mrs. Knapp with a spark of animation. "Well, I am the other person."
I was paralyzed in mind and nerve for a moment with the astonishment of the disclosure. Even yet I could not believe.
"You!" I exclaimed at last. "Are you the protector of the boy? The employer--" Then I stopped, the tangle in my mind beginning to straighten out.
"Then," I cried, "who is he? what is he? what is the whole dreadful affair about? and what--"
"First tell me what has become of Henry Wilton?" she said with sorrow in her voice.
The dreadful scene in the alley flashed before my mind.
"I feared so--I was certain, or he would have let me know. You have much to tell me. But first, did he leave no papers in your hands?"
I brought out the slip that bore the blind diagram and the blinder description that accompanied it. Nothing could be made of it in the darkness, so I described it as well as I could.
"We are on the right track," said Mrs. Knapp. "Oh, why didn't I have that yesterday? But here--we are at the wharf."
The hack had stopped, and a hand was fumbling at the door.
The darkness, the dash of water, the wind whistling about the crazy wooden buildings and through the rigging of ships, made the water-front vocal with the shouting of the storm demons as we alighted.
My guide was before us, and we followed him down the pier, struggling against the gusts.
"Do we cross the bay?" I asked, as Mrs. Knapp clung to my arm. "It's not safe for you in a small boat."