4

Such of them as

worked lived mostly as dockhands and unlicensed pedlars, though

frequently serving in Greek restaurants and tending corner news

stands. Most of them, however, had no visible means of support; and

were obviously connected with underworld pursuits, of which smug￾gling and 'boot-legging' were the least indescribable. They had come

in steamships, apparently tramp freighters, and had been unloaded

by stealth on moonless nights in rowboats which stole under a certain

wharf and followed a hidden canal to a secret subterranean pool

beneath a house. This wharf, canal and house Malone could not

locate, for the memories of his informants were exceedingly confused,

while their speech was to a great extent beyond even the ablest inter￾preters; nor could he gain any real data on the reasons for their sys￾tematic importation. They were reticent about the exact spot from

which they had come, and were never sufficiently off guard to reveal

the agencies which had sought them out and directed their course.

Indeed, they developed something like acute fright when asked the

reasons for their presence. Gangsters of other breeds were equally

taciturn, and the most that could be gathered was that some god or

great priesthood had promised them unheard-of powers and super￾natural glories and rulerships in a strange land.

The attendance of both newcomers and old gangsters at Suydam's

closely guarded nocturnal meetings was very regular, and the police

soon learned that the erstwhile recluse had leased additional flats

to accommodate such guests as knew his password; at last occupy￾ing three entire houses and permanently harbouring many of his

queer companions. He spent but little time now at his Flatbush

home, apparently going and coming only to obtain and return books;

and his face and manner had attained an appalling pitch of wildness.

Malone twice interviewed him, but was each time brusquely repulsed.

He knew nothing, he said, of any mysterious plots or movements;

and had no idea how the Kurds could have entered or what they

wanted. His business was to study undisturbed the folklore of all the

immigrants of the district; a business with which policemen had no

legitimate concern. Malone mentioned his admiration for Suydam's

old brochure on the Kabbalah and other myths, but the old man's

softening was only momentary. He sensed an intrusion, and rebuffed

his visitor in no uncertain way; till Malone withdrew disgusted, and

turned to other channels of information.

What Malone would have unearthed could he have worked con￾tinuously on the case, we shall never know. As it was, a stupid conflict

between city and Federal authority suspended the investigations for

several months, during which the detective was busy with other

assignments. But at no time did he lose interest, or fail to stand

amazed at what began to happen to Robert Suydam. Just at the time

when a wave of kidnappings and disappearances spread its excite￾ment over New York, the unkempt scholar embarked upon a meta￾morphosis as startling as it was absurd. One day he was seen near

Borough Hall with clean-shaven face, well-trimmed hair, and taste￾fully immaculate attire, and on every day thereafter some obscure

improvement was noticed in him. He maintained his new fastidious￾ness without interruption, added to it an unwonted sparkle of eye and

crispness of speech, and began little by little to shed the corpulence

which had so long deformed him. Now frequently taken for less than

his age, he acquired an elasticity of step and buoyancy of demeanour

to match the new tradition, and showed a curious darkening of the

hair which somehow did not suggest dye. As the months passed, !)e

commenced to dress less and less conservatively, and finally aston￾ished his new friends by renovating and redecorating his Flatbush

mansion, which he threw open in a series of receptions, summoning

all the acquaintances he could remember, and extending a special

welcome to the fully forgiven relatives who had so lately sought his

restraint. Some attended through curiosity, others through duty; but

all were suddenly charmed by the dawning grace and urbanity of the

former hermit. He had, he asserted, accomplished most of his allot￾ted work; and having just inherited some property from a half￾forgotten European friend, was about to spend his remaining years in

a brighter second youth which ease, care, and diet had made possible to him. Less and less was he seen at Red Hook, and more and more

did he move in the society to which he was born. Policemen noted a

tendency of the gangsters to congregate at the old stone church and

dance-hall instead of at the basement flat in Parker Place, though the

latter and its recent annexes still overflowed with noxious life.

Then two incidents occurred-wide enough apart, but both of

intense interest in the case as Malone envisaged it. One was a quiet

announcement in the Eagle of Robert Suydam's engagement to Miss

Cornelia Gerritsen of Bayside, a young woman of excellent position,

and distantly related to the elderly bridegroom-elect; whilst the other

was a raid on the dance-hall church by city police, after a report that

the face of a kidnapped child had been seen for a second at one of the

basement windows. Malone had participated in this raid, and studied

the place with much care when inside. Nothing was found-in fact,

the building was entirely deserted when visited-but the sensitive

Celt was vaguely disturbed by many things about the interior. There

were crudely painted panels he did not like-panels which depicted

sacred faces with peculiarly worldly and sardonic expressions, and

which occasionally took liberties that even a layman's sense of decorum

could scarcely countenance. Then, too, he did not relish the Greek

inscription on the wall above the pulpit, an ancient incantation which

he had once stumbled upon in Dublin college days, and which read,

literally translated,

o Fiend and mmpanion oInight, thou Jpho rejoicest in the baying oIdogs and

spill blood, who wanderest in Ihe midst oIshades among the tombs, who longest

.Ii)r blood and bringest lerror to morlals, Corgo, Mormo, thousand-Jaced moon,

look ItlVourab~y on our sacrifices!*

.....

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