In the Fog Read online

as out of place as a tidal wave onBroadway.

  "As I felt my way along the wall, I encountered other men who werecoming from the opposite direction, and each time when we hailed eachother I stepped away from the wall to make room for them to pass. Butthe third time I did this, when I reached out my hand, the wall haddisappeared, and the further I moved to find it the further I seemedto be sinking into space. I had the unpleasant conviction that at anymoment I might step over a precipice. Since I had set out I had heardno traffic in the street, and now, although I listened some minutes, Icould only distinguish the occasional footfalls of pedestrians. Severaltimes I called aloud, and once a jocular gentleman answered me, but onlyto ask me where I thought he was, and then even he was swallowed up inthe silence. Just above me I could make out a jet of gas which I guessedcame from a street lamp, and I moved over to that, and, while I triedto recover my bearings, kept my hand on the iron post. Except for thisflicker of gas, no larger than the tip of my finger, I could distinguishnothing about me. For the rest, the mist hung between me and the worldlike a damp and heavy blanket.

  "I could hear voices, but I could not tell from whence they came, andthe scrape of a foot moving cautiously, or a muffled cry as some onestumbled, were the only sounds that reached me.

  "I decided that until some one took me in tow I had best remain whereI was, and it must have been for ten minutes that I waited by the lamp,straining my ears and hailing distant footfalls. In a house near me somepeople were dancing to the music of a Hungarian band. I even fancied Icould hear the windows shake to the rhythm of their feet, but I couldnot make out from which part of the compass the sounds came. Andsometimes, as the music rose, it seemed close at my hand, and again, tobe floating high in the air above my head. Although I was surrounded bythousands of householders--13--I was as completely lost as though Ihad been set down by night in the Sahara Desert. There seemed to be noreason in waiting longer for an escort, so I again set out, and at oncebumped against a low iron fence. At first I believed this to be anarea railing, but on following it I found that it stretched for a longdistance, and that it was pierced at regular intervals with gates. I wasstanding uncertainly with my hand on one of these when a square of lightsuddenly opened in the night, and in it I saw, as you see a picturethrown by a biograph in a darkened theatre, a young gentleman inevening dress, and back of him the lights of a hall. I guessed from itselevation and distance from the side-walk that this light must comefrom the door of a house set back from the street, and I determinedto approach it and ask the young man to tell me where I was. But infumbling with the lock of the gate I instinctively bent my head, andwhen I raised it again the door had partly closed, leaving only a narrowshaft of light. Whether the young man had re-entered the house, or hadleft it I could not tell, but I hastened to open the gate, and as Istepped forward I found myself upon an asphalt walk. At the same instantthere was the sound of quick steps upon the path, and some one rushedpast me. I called to him, but he made no reply, and I heard the gateclick and the footsteps hurrying away upon the sidewalk.

  06 A square of light suddenly opened in the night]

  "Under other circumstances the young man's rudeness, and hisrecklessness in dashing so hurriedly through the mist, would have struckme as peculiar, but everything was so distorted by the fog that at themoment I did not consider it. The door was still as he had left it,partly open. I went up the path, and, after much fumbling, found theknob of the door-bell and gave it a sharp pull. The bell answered mefrom a great depth and distance, but no movement followed from insidethe house, and although I pulled the bell again and again I could hearnothing save the dripping of the mist about me. I was anxious to be onmy way, but unless I knew where I was going there was little chanceof my making any speed, and I was determined that until I learned mybearings I would not venture back into the fog. So I pushed the dooropen and stepped into the house.

  "I found myself in a long and narrow hall, upon which doors opened fromeither side. At the end of the hall was a staircase with a balustradewhich ended in a sweeping curve. The balustrade was covered with heavyPersian rugs, and the walls of the hall were also hung with them. Thedoor on my left was closed, but the one nearer me on the right was open,and as I stepped opposite to it I saw that it was a sort of receptionor waiting-room, and that it was empty. The door below it was also open,and with the idea that I would surely find some one there, I walked onup the hall. I was in evening dress, and I felt I did not look likea burglar, so I had no great fear that, should I encounter one of theinmates of the house, he would shoot me on sight. The second door in thehall opened into a dining-room. This was also empty. One person hadbeen dining at the table, but the cloth had not been cleared away, anda nickering candle showed half-filled wineglasses and the ashes ofcigarettes. The greater part of the room was in complete darkness.

  "By this time I had grown conscious of the fact that I was wanderingabout in a strange house, and that, apparently, I was alone in it.The silence of the place began to try my nerves, and in a sudden,unexplainable panic I started for the open street. But as I turned,I saw a man sitting on a bench, which the curve of the balustrade hadhidden from me. His eyes were shut, and he was sleeping soundly.

  "The moment before I had been bewildered because I could see no one, butat sight of this man I was much more bewildered.

  "He was a very large man, a giant in height, with long yellow hair whichhung below his shoulders. He was dressed in a red silk shirt that wasbelted at the waist and hung outside black velvet trousers which, inturn, were stuffed into high black boots. I recognized the costume atonce as that of a Russian servant, but what a Russian servant in hisnative livery could be doing in a private house in Knightsbridge wasincomprehensible.

  "I advanced and touched the man on the shoulder, and after an effort heawoke, and, on seeing me, sprang to his feet and began bowing rapidlyand making deprecatory gestures. I had picked up enough Russian inPetersburg to make out that the man was apologizing for having fallenasleep, and I also was able to explain to him that I desired to see hismaster.

  "He nodded vigorously, and said, 'Will the Excellency come this way? ThePrincess is here.'

  "I distinctly made out the word 'princess,' and I was a good dealembarrassed. I had thought it would be easy enough to explain myintrusion to a man, but how a woman would look at it was another matter,and as I followed him down the hall I was somewhat puzzled.

  "As we advanced, he noticed that the front door was standing open, andwith an exclamation of surprise, hastened toward it and closed it. Thenhe rapped twice on the door of what was apparently the drawing-room.There was no reply to his knock, and he tapped again, and then timidly,and cringing subserviently, opened the door and stepped inside. Hewithdrew himself at once and stared stupidly at me, shaking his head.

  "'She is not there,' he said. He stood for a moment gazing blanklythrough the open door, and then hastened toward the dining-room. Thesolitary candle which still burned there seemed to assure him that theroom also was empty. He came back and bowed me toward the drawing-room.'She is above,' he said; 'I will inform the Princess of the Excellency'spresence.'

  "Before I could stop him he had turned and was running up the staircase,leaving me alone at the open door of the drawing-room. I decided thatthe adventure had gone quite far enough, and if I had been able toexplain to the Russian that I had lost my way in the fog, and onlywanted to get back into the street again, I would have left the house onthe instant.

  "Of course, when I first rang the bell of the house I had no otherexpectation than that it would be answered by a parlor-maid who woulddirect me on my way. I certainly could not then foresee that I woulddisturb a Russian princess in her boudoir, or that I might be thrown outby her athletic bodyguard. Still, I thought I ought not now to leavethe house without making some apology, and, if the worst should come,I could show my card. They could hardly believe that a member of anEmbassy had any designs upon the hat-rack.

  "The room in which I stood was dimly lighted, but I could
see that, likethe hall, it was hung with heavy Persian rugs. The corners were filledwith palms, and there was the unmistakable odor in the air of Russiancigarettes, and strange, dry scents that carried me back to the bazaarsof Vladivostock. Near the front windows was a grand piano, and at theother end of the room a heavily carved screen of some black wood,picked out with ivory. The screen was overhung with a canopy of silkendraperies, and formed a sort of alcove. In front of the alcove wasspread the white skin of a polar bear, and set on that was one of thoselow Turkish coffee tables. It held a lighted spirit-lamp and two goldcoffee cups. I had heard no movement from above stairs, and it must havebeen fully three minutes that I stood waiting, noting these details ofthe room and wondering at the delay, and at the strange silence.

  "And then, suddenly, as my eye grew more used to the half-light, I saw,projecting from behind the