An Old Friend of the Family

THIRTEEN

Again Judy was not alone in her own warm bedroom, though it was the middle of the night. Her waking was gradual and without fear, but she knew he was there even as she woke.

Judy turned over in bed and looked. This time his dark figure was standing beside the dressing-table chair.

“Have I alarmed you?” Dr. Corday’s normal voice inquired softly.

“No.” She sat up in bed, and was irritated to find herself involuntarily fingering the top button of her nightgown again. “What is it?”

“The truth is that I feel a need to talk. And I much prefer your company to that of anyone else I can talk with tonight.”

“Won’t you sit down?”

“Thank you.” The chair in his hand moved with ghostly silence. He settled into it without a sound.

“I wanted to thank you,” Judy said, “for what you did today.”

“It was my pleasure, as well as my duty, to be of service.” And her visitor made her a little seated bow.

“Can you tell me anything more about Kate?” When her question had gone unanswered for a moment Judy added: “I’m certain now that she’s still alive. Don’t ask me how I know. But I was right about Johnny, wasn’t I? It’s the same feeling.”

“Indeed, you were right. You have a talent in such matters.”

“But you don’t want to talk about Kate yet. All right, I trust you.”

He was silent for a time, and motionless in his chair. At last he said: “It is long, I think, since anyone has trusted me in such a way. Strange, it had not occurred to me for a long time, that I was never any longer trusted . . . ah, Judy, I am tired tonight.”

“Can’t you get any rest?”

“That is one thing I wished to discuss with you tonight. In the morning you will hear that I have disappeared from my motel. The police, as they believe, have put me in storage there, so they may check up on me with the authorities in London before they begin to question me intensively.”

“Are you in trouble?”

He almost laughed, though not at her, she saw with relief. Perhaps at himself. “My dear! I am never out of trouble, one might say. Tomorrow the police will not find me available for questioning. But tomorrow night I shall be active again, and perhaps you will see me then. The task for which you so justly summoned me will be completed—if I can do it. The truth is, the enemy has proven to be rather more powerful than I at first suspected. Still, I believe I can succeed, if I am given occasional help as effective as your help was today.”

“Oh yes! Anything. Of course. Do you have a place where you can rest?”

“Fortunately I long go made preparations for a visit to the New World. You see, real rest is not always easy for me to obtain, particularly when I am this far from home. My enemies no doubt have counted on that fact. Oh, yes, it is my enemies that we are here concerned with.”

“I don’t understand.”

“What is it about the Southerland family, I have asked myself, that could provoke such seemingly senseless attacks as those you have endured? The unique thing about the Southerlands, I say in answer to my own question, is their special relationship with a very unusual protector, an old friend no one else in America can claim. Ergo, the purpose of the seemingly purposeless onslaught is to lure this old friend of theirs here from across the sea. In America, his foes calculate, their chances of attacking him successfully will be much improved. Here, it will be hard for him to find a place to rest, and perhaps they can locate it when he does.”

“And I called you here. I’m sorry. I never—”

“No! Do not be sorry for calling me. Even if I should be destroyed—which I do not for a moment mean to be.”

“If you know who these enemies of yours are, we ought to let the police know too.”

“It would not be easy to impress the truth upon the police. Nor would it be wise. This is a private feud, best settled privately. We have made a start, one of our enemies is dead already.”

“You mean the young man out at the house where Johnny was. I heard the police talking about all that. They were guessing about some strange kind of cult.”

“I tried to explain something of the situation to Joe. He did not understand. But I believe you do. At least in part.”

“That guy deserved to be killed!” Judy burst out. “When I think about my brother . . . you know we took Johnny to the hospital, under guard and all, and he still cried when I left him. Didn’t want me to go. Was afraid they were going to get their hands on him again. Whatever happened to that fellow with the gun, he had it all coming to him.”

Showing a little of his former energy, Corday got up to pace the floor. “We have at least three more foes who must be eliminated. And two of them are infinitely more dangerous than the one now dead, who was only their tool. I warn you, you who will at least begin to understand, that they have powers beyond anything you will expect a human being to possess.”

“Not beyond yours.”

He stopped in his pacing and they looked at each other silently. She could no longer see him as an old man. She felt torn between an impulse to jump out of bed and run to him, and a deeper urge, an inner warning even, to stay were she was.

He said: “In you I see . . . a fragment of my earlier self. And a young love.”

“A young love? Is she still alive?”

“She? . . . ah yes, very much alive. In England.” His teeth flashed in a smile, and the starlight or moonlight made it appear for a moment that something had gone wrong with their shape. “Will you know your own great love, when he appears?”

“At first sight, you mean? Oh, I’m not so foolish as to think that.”

A little silence fell between them once again. The instinct that had warned Judy earlier now seemed to be signaling that the crisis, whatever it had been, was past. Under the covers she could feel her legs relaxing now, trembling slightly at the knees.

“I beg your pardon, Judy. I should not have spoken so patronizingly.”

“I think you’re a gentleman, Dr. Corday. You know, what people used to mean when they said someone was a gentleman. I don’t know if I’m saying it right.”

“I think I understand. I thank you.”

“I’m glad I called you here. I don’t understand how it worked, but I’m very glad I did.”

“I also am glad.” The tall figure in the gloom moved just a little closer. “Be brave, and we will win. I do not tell you not to be afraid.”

“Are you ever afraid?” Then Judy shook her head. “I suppose that when fear ends, life is over.”

In the dimness the expression on the tall man’s face showed great tiredness, and now for a moment infinite sadness as well, so that for a moment Judy was frightened after all. And in the next moment, her visitor was gone.