Стивен Ликок - Pawn to King’s Four

I was glad when the waiter came with a second glass of Madeira. It warmed one up ...

“That man seems a wonderful waiter,” I said.

“Fred?” said Letherby. “Oh, yes, he certainly is ... He looks after everything — he’s devoted to the club.”

“Been here long?”

“Bishop to Bishop’s Four,” said Letherby ... He didn’t speak for a little while. Then he said, “Why practically all his life — except, poor fellow, he had a kind of tragic experience. He put in ten years in jail.”

“For what?” I asked, horrified.

“For murder,” said Letherby.

“For murder?”

“Yes,” repeated Letherby, shaking his head, “poor fellow, murder . . . Some sudden, strange impulse that seized him ... I shouldn’t say jail. He was in the Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Your move.”

“Criminal Asylum!” I said. “What did he do?”

“Killed a man; in a sudden rage . . . Struck him over the head with a poker.”

“Good Lord!” 1 exclaimed. “When was that? In this city?”

“Here in the club,” said Letherby, “in this room.”

“What?” I gasped. “He killed one of the members?”

“Oh, no!” Letherby said reassuringly. “Not a member. The man was a guest. Fred didn’t know him .. .just an insane impulse ... As soon as they let him out, the faithful fellow came right back here. That was last year. Your move.”

We played on. I didn’t feel so easy ... It must have been several moves after that that I saw Fred take the poker and stick its head into the coals and leave it there. I watched it gradually turning red. I must say I didn’t like it.

“Did you see that?” I said. “Did you see Fred stick the poker in the coals?”

“He does it every night,” said Letherby, “at ten; that means it must be ten o’clock ... You can’t move that; you’re in check.”

“What’s it for?” I asked.

“I take your Knight,” Letherby said. Then there was a long pause — Letherby kept his head bent over the board. Presently he murmured, “Mulled beer,” and then looked up and explained. “This is an old-fashioned place — some of the members like mulled beer — you dip the hot poker in the tankard. Fred gets it ready at ten — your move.”

I must say it was a relief ... I was able to turn to the game again and enjoy the place ... or I would have done so except for a sort of commotion that there was presently at the end of the room. Somebody seemed to have fallen down . .. others were trying to pick him up . .. Fred had hurried to them...

Letherby turned half round in his seat.

“It’s all right,” he said. “It’s only poor old Colonel McGann. He gets these fits . . . but Fred will look after him; he has a room in the building. Fred’s devoted to him; he got Fred out of the Criminal Asylum. But for him Fred wouldn’t be here tonight. Queen’s Rook to Bishop’s Square.”

I was not sure just how grateful I felt to Colonel McGann ...

A few moves after that another little incident bothered me, or perhaps it was just that my nerves were getting a little affected ... one fancied things . . . and the infernal room, at once after the little disturbance, settled down to the same terrible quiet... it felt like eternity ...

Anyway — there came in through the swinging doors a different kind of man, brisk alert, and with steel blue eyes and a firm mouth ... He stood looking up and down the room, as if looking for some one.

“Who is he?” I asked.

“Why that’s Dr. Allard.”

“What?” I said. “The alienist?”

“Yes, he’s the head of the Criminal Lunatic Asylum . . . He’s a member here; comes in every night; in fact, he goes back and forward between this and the Asylum. He says he’s making comparative studies. Check.”

The alienist caught sight of Letherby and came to our table. Letherby introduced me. Dr. Allard looked me hard and straight in the eyes; he paused before he spoke. “Your first visit here?” he said.

“Yes ...” I murmured, “that is, yes.”

“I hope it won’t be the last,” he said. Now what did he mean by that?

Then he turned to Letherby.

“Fred came over to see me today,” he said. “Came of his own volition ... I’m not quite sure ... We may not have been quite wise.” The doctor seemed thinking ... “However, no doubt he’s all right for awhile apart from sudden shock . . . just keep an eye . . . But what I really came to ask is, has Joel Linton been in tonight?”

“No ... ”

“I hope he doesn’t come. He’d better not ... If he does, get someone to telephone to me.” And with that the doctor was gone.

“Joel Linton.” I said, “Why he’s arrested.”

“Not yet... they’re looking for him. You’re in check.”

“I beg your pardon,” I said. Of course I’d read — everybody had — about the embezzlement. But I’d no idea that a man like Joel Linton could be a member of the Chess Club — I always thought, I mean people said, that he wfas the sort of desperado type.

“He’s a member?” I said, my hand on the pieces.

“You can’t move that, you’re still in check. Yes, he’s a member though he likes mostly to stand and watch. Comes every night. Somebody said he was coming here tonight just the same. He says he’s not going to be taken alive.

He comes round half past ten. It’s about his time ... that looks like mate in two moves.”

My hands shook on the pieces. I felt that I was done with the Chess Club . .. Anyway I like to get home early ... so I was just starting to say ... that I’d abandon the game, when what happened happened so quickly that I’d no more choice about it.

“That’s Joel Linton now,” said Letherby, and in he came through the swing doors, a hard-looking man, but mighty determined ... He hung his overcoat on a peg, and as he did so, I was sure I saw something bulging in his coat pocket — eh? He nodded casually about the room. And then started moving among the tables, edging his way toward ours.

“I guess, if you don’t mind,” I began . .. But that is as far as I got. That was when the police came in, two constables and an inspector.

I saw Linton dive his hand towards his pocket.

“Stand where you are, Linton,” the inspector called ... Then right at that moment I saw the waiter, Fred, seize the hand-grip of the poker ...

“Don’t move, Linton,” called the inspector; he never saw Fred moving toward him ...

Linton didn’t move. But I did. I made a quick back bolt for the little door behind me . . . down the little stairway . . . and down the other little staircase, and along the corridor and back into the brightly lighted hotel rotunda, just the same as when I left it — noise and light and bellboys, and girls at the newsstand selling tobacco and evening papers .. .just the same, but oh, how different! For peace of mind, for the joy of life — give me a rotunda, and make it as noisy as ever you like.

I read all about it next morning in the newspapers. Things always sound so different in the newspaper, beside a coffee pot and a boiled egg. Tumults, murders, floods — all smoothed out. So was this. Arrest Made Quietly at Chess Club, it said. Linton Offers No Resistance ... Members Continue Game Undisturbed. Yes, they would, the damned old gravestones ... Of Fred it said nothing...

A few days later I happened to meet Letherby. “Your application is all right,” he said. “They’re going to hurry it through. You’ll get in next year ..

But I’ve sent a resignation in advance; I’m joining the Badminton Club and I want to see if I can’t get into the Boy Scouts or be a Girl Guide.