E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, Mary Meehan, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
Author of "THE CRIMSON ALIBI," "GRAY DUSK," ETC.
1921
Taxicab No. 92,381 skidded crazily on the icy pavement of AtlanticAvenue. Spike Walters, its driver, cursed roundly as he applied thebrakes and with difficulty obtained control of the little closed car.Depressing the clutch pedal, he negotiated the frozen thoroughfare andparked his car in the lee of the enormous Union Station, which bulkedforbiddingly in the December midnight.
Atlantic Avenue was deserted. The lights at the main entrance of theUnion Station glowed frigidly. Opposite, a single arc-lamp on the cornerof Cypress Street cast a white, cheerless light on the gelid pavement.The few stores along the avenue were dark, with the exception of thewarmly lighted White Star restaurant directly opposite the Stygian spotwhere Spike's car was parked.
The city was in the grip of the first cold wave of the year. For two daysthe rain had fallen—a nasty, drizzling rain which made the going soggyand caused people to greet one another with frowns. Late that afternoonthe mercury had started a rapid downward journey. Fires were piled highin the furnaces, automobile-owners poured alcohol into their radiators.The streets were deserted early, and the citizens, for the most part, hadretired shiveringly under mountains of blankets and down quilts stillredolent of moth-balls.
Winter had come with freezing blasts which swept around corners andchilled to the bone. The rain of two days became a driving sleet, whichformed a mirror of ice over the city.
On the seat of his yellow taxicab, Spike Walters drew a heavy lap-robemore closely about his husky figure and shivered miserably. Fortunately,the huge bulk of the station to his right protected him in a largemeasure from the shrieking wintry winds. Mechanically Spike kept his eyesfocused upon the station entrance, half a block ahead.
But no one was there. Nowhere was there a sign of life, nowhere anindication of warmth or cheer or comfort. With fingers so numb that theywere almost powerless to do the bidding of his mind, Spike drew forth hiswatch and glanced at it. Midnight!
Spike