At a little after ten o’clock I heard some of the inmates going past my door, probably on their way to their rooms for the night.
At five minutes past eleven I heard Gabrielle’s door open. I opened mine. Minnie Hershey was going down the corridor toward the rear of the building. I was tempted to call her, but didn’t. My last attempt to get anything out of her had been a flop, and I wasn’t feeling tactful enough now to stand much chance of having better luck.
By this time I had given up hopes of seeing Riese before the following day.
I switched off my lights, left my door open, and sat there in the dark, looking at the girl’s door and cursing the world. I thought of Tad’s blind man in a dark room hunting for a black hat that wasn’t there, and knew how he felt.
At a little before midnight Minnie Hershey, in hat and coat as if she had just come in from the street, returned to Gabrielle’s room. She didn’t seem to see me. I stood up silently and tried to peep past her when she opened the door, but didn’t have any luck.
Minnie remained there until nearly one o’clock, and when she came out she closed the door very softly, walking tiptoe. That was an unnecessary precaution on the thick carpet. Because it was unnecessary it made me nervous. I went to my door and called in a low voice:
“Minnie.”
Maybe she didn’t hear me. She went on tiptoeing down the corridor. That increased my jumpiness. I went after her quickly and stopped her by catching one of her wiry wrists.
Her Indian face was expressionless.
“How is she?” I asked.
“Miss Gabrielle’s all right, sir. You just leave her alone,” she mumbled.
“She’s not all right. What’s she doing now?”
“She’s sleeping.”
“Coked?”
She raised angry maroon eyes and let them drop again, saying nothing.
“She sent you out to get dope?” I demanded, tightening my grip on her wrist.
“She sent me out to get some–some medicine–yes, sir.”
“And took some and went to sleep?”
“Y-yes, sir.”
“We’ll go back and take a look at her,” I said.
The mulatto tried to jerk her wrist free. I held it. She said:
“You leave me alone, Mister, or else I’ll yell.”
“I’ll leave you alone after we’ve had our look, maybe,” I said, turning her around with my other hand on her shoulder. “So if you’re going to yell you can get started right now.”
She wasn’t willing to go back to her mistress’s room, but she didn’t make me drag her. Gabrielle Leggett was lying on her side in bed, sleeping quietly, the bedclothes stirring gently with her breathing. Her small white face, at rest, with brown curls falling over it, looked like a sick child’s.
I turned Minnie loose and went back to my room. Sitting there in the dark I understood why people hit their fingernails. I sat there for an hour or more, and then, God-damning myself for an old woman, I took off my shoes, picked the most comfortable chair, put my feet on another, hung a blanket over me, and went to sleep facing Gabrielle Leggett’s door through my open doorway.
X. Dead Flowers
I opened my eyes drowsily, decided that I had dozed off for only a moment, closed my eyes, drifted back into slumber, and then roused myself sluggishly again. Something wasn’t right.
I forced my eyes open, then closed them, and opened them again. Whatever wasn’t right had to do with that. Blackness was there when they were open and when they were closed. That should have been reasonable enough: the night was dark, and my windows were out of the street lights’ range. That should have been reasonable enough, but it wasn’t: I remembered that I had left my door open, and the corridor lights had been on. Facing me was no pale rectangle of light framed by my doorway, with Gabrielle’s door showing through.
I was too awake by now to jump up suddenly. I held my breath and listened, hearing nothing but the tick of my wrist-watch. Cautiously moving my hand, I looked at the luminous dial–3:17. I had been asleep longer than I had supposed, and the corridor light had been put out.