THE fog was thick at the center of the bridge where the man stood leaning
against the rail. Although the streets of New York were scarcely a hundred
yards away, he might have been in a little world of his own. For the only light
in the midst of that cloud of black night fog came from an arc light on the
bridge.
A taxicab, carrying a late passenger home, shot through the mist.
The man stepped away from the rail and crouched beside a post. He saw a
flash of the red tail light on the cab; a moment later it was lost in the fog.
As the noise of the motor died away, the man stood up again and placed his
hands upon the rail.
He listened, afraid that another cab might be coming across the bridge;
then, reassured, he leaned over the rail and stared downward.
Mist; thick, black mist - nothing but mist. It seemed to invite his
plunge. Yet he hesitated - as many wait when they are upon the brink of death -
until, with a mad impulse, he swung his body across the rail and loosened his
hands.
Something clamped upon his shoulder. An iron grip held him - balanced
between life and death. Then, as though his body possessed no weight whatever,
the man felt himself pulled around in a sweeping circle. He staggered as his
feet struck the sidewalk of the bridge.
He turned to confront the person who had interfered. He swung his fist
angrily, but a hand caught his wrist and twisted it behind his back with
irresistible power.
It was as though the man’s strength had been wrested from him when he
faced a tall, black-cloaked figure that might have represented death itself.
For he could not have sworn that he was looking at a human being.
The stranger’s face was entirely obscured by a broad-brimmed felt hat bent
downward over his features; and the long, black cloak looked like part of the
thickening fog.
The man who had attempted suicide was too startled to speak. Fear had come
upon him, and his only desire was to shrink from this grim and eerie master of
the night. But he felt himself pulled across the sidewalk, and at the curb he
stumbled through the open door of a large limousine, which he had not seen
until that moment. His arm was freed, and he shrank into the far corner of the
car.
The door closed and the car moved onward. Fear still clutched the man
whose life had been saved against his will. Rescued, he sensed that the grim
stranger was in the seat beside him. He expected new evidence of that weird
personage’s presence. The evidence came.
A voice spoke through the darkness. It was a weird, chilling voice -
scarcely more than a whisper, yet clear and penetrating.
“What is your name?”
It was not a question. Rather, it was a command to speak.
“Harry Vincent,” replied the man who had been deterred from
self-destruction. The words had come to his lips automatically.
“Why did you try suicide?”
It was another command.
“Melancholy,” said Vincent. He was speaking of his own accord now; somehow
he wanted to talk.
“Go on,” came the voice.
“It’s not much of a story,” replied Vincent. “Perhaps I was a fool. I’m
all alone here in New York. No job, no friends, nothing to live for. My folks
are all out in the Middle West, and I haven’t seen them for years. I don’t want
to see them. I guess they think I’m a success here, but I’m not.”
“You are well dressed,” the stranger’s voice remarked.
Vincent laughed nervously. “Yes,” he said, “I’m wearing a light overcoat,
and the weather hasn’t scarcely begun to be chilly. But that’s only appearance.
Everything else is in hock. I have one dollar and thirteen cents in actual cash.”
The mysterious stranger did not reply. The car was rolling along a side
street; the bridge was now far behind. Vincent, his nerves somewhat settled,
stared into the opposite corner of the limousine, vainly seeking to observe his
companion’s face. But the shade was drawn and he could not even detect a blotch
amid the darkness.
“What about the girl?” came the voice.
The penetrating whisper startled Vincent. The single, and most important,
item that he had omitted from his brief story had been fathomed by this
stranger whose cunning was the equal of his strength.
“The girl?” questioned Vincent. “The girl? My - my girl out home?”
“Yes.”
“She married another man,” said Vincent. “That was the reason I was on the
bridge to-night. I might have struggled on for a while if I hadn’t been so hard
up. But when the letter came that told me she was married - Well, that ended
it.”
He paused, and hearing no reply, added to his confession:
“The letter came two days ago,” he said. “I haven’t slept since. I was on
the bridge all last night, but I didn’t have nerve to jump - then. I guess it
was the fog that helped me this time.”
“Your life,” said the stranger’s voice slowly, “is no longer your own. It
belongs to me now. But you are still free to destroy it. Shall we return to the
bridge?”
“I don’t know,” blurted Vincent. “This is all like a dream; I don’t
understand it. Perhaps I did fall from the bridge, and this is death that I am
now experiencing. Yet it seems real, after all. What good is my life to any
one? What will you do with it?”
“I shall improve it,” replied the voice from the darkness. “I shall make
it useful. But I shall risk it, too. Perhaps I shall lose it, for I have lost
lives, just as I have saved them. This is my promise: life, with enjoyment,
with danger, with excitement, and - with money. Life, above all, with honor. If
I give it, I demand obedience. Absolute obedience. You may accept my terms, or
you may refuse. I shall wait for you to choose.”
The car rolled on comfortably through the side streets of upper New York.
The motor seemed noiseless; Harry Vincent began to understand how it had
approached him unheard upon the bridge.
He was wondering about his strange companion; this being who had whirled
him away from his fatal plunge as though his hundred and seventy pounds had
been nothing; this personage who could read his thoughts and whose questions
were commands.
Harry turned again toward the darkened corner, and hope returned to him.
After all, he wanted life. He had come to New York because he had desired to
live and to succeed. This was his opportunity. He pictured his lifeless body,
beneath the bridge, and he realized that he could make but one choice.
“I accept,” he said.
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