The other made no answer; he swerved the car abruptly off the avenue,
into one of the nondescript side streets. He drove swiftly to the
corner, turned south again, and turned again on some street Pat failed
to identify--South Superior or Grand, she thought. They were scarcely
a block from the magnificence of Michigan Avenue and its skyscrapers,
its brilliant lights, and its teeming night traffic, yet here they
moved down a deserted dark thoroughfare, a street lined with ramshackle
wooden houses intermingled with mean little shops. "Nick!" Pat exclaimed. "Where are we going?" The low voice sounded. "Dancing," he said. He brought the car to the curb; in the silence as the motor died, the
faint strains of a mechanical piano sounded. He opened the car door,
stepped around to the sidewalk. "We're here," he said. Something metallic in his tone drew Pat's eyes to his face. The eyes
that returned her stare were the bloody orbs of the demon of last
Wednesday night! 8

Gateway to Evil


Pat stared curiously at the apparition but made no move to alight from
the vehicle. She was conscious of no fear, only a sense of wonder
and perplexity. After all, this was merely Nick, her own harmless,
adoring Nick, in some sort of mysterious masquerade, and she felt full
confidence in her ability to handle him under any circumstances. "Where's here?" she said, remaining motionless in her place. "A place to dance," came the toneless reply. Pat eyed him; a street car rumbled past, and the brief glow from its
lighted windows swept over his face. Suddenly the visage was that
of Nick; the crimson glare of the eyes was imperceptible, and the
features were the well-known appurtenances of Nicholas Devine, but
queerly tensed and strained. "A trick of the light," she thought, as the street car lumbered away,
and again a faint gleam of crimson appeared. She gazed curiously at the
youth, who stood impassively returning her survey as he held the door
of the car. But the face was the face of Nick, she perceived, probably
in one of his grim moods. She transferred her glance to the building opposite which they had
stopped. The strains of the mechanical piano had ceased; blank,
shaded windows faced them, around whose edges glowed a subdued light
from within. A drab, battered, paintless shack, she thought, dismal
and unpleasant; while she gazed, the sound of the discordant music
recommenced, adding, it seemed, the last unprepossessing item. "It doesn't look very attractive, Nick," she observed dubiously. "I find it so, however." "Then you've been here?" "Yes." "But I thought you said you didn't know any place to go." "This one hadn't occurred to me--then." "Well," she said crisply, "I could have done as well as this with my
eyes closed. It doesn't appeal to me at all, Nick." "Nevertheless, here's where we'll go. You're apt to find
it--interesting." "Look here, Nicholas Devine!" Pat snapped, "What makes you think you
can bully me? No one has ever succeeded yet!" "I said you'd find it interesting." His voice was unchanged; she stared
at him in complete bafflement. "Oh, Nick!" she exclaimed in suddenly softer tones. "What difference
does it make? Didn't I say anywhere would do, so we went together?" She
smiled at him. "This will do if you wish, though really, Honey, I'd
prefer not." "I do wish it," the other said. "All right, Honey," said Pat the faintest trace of reluctance in her
voice as she slipped from the car. "I stick to my bargains." She winced at the intensity of his grip as he took her arm to assist
her. His fingers were like taunt wires biting into her flesh. "Nick!" she cried. "You're hurting me! You're bruising my arm!" He released her; she rubbed the spot ruefully, then followed him to the
door of the mysterious establishment. The unharmonious jangle of the
piano dinned abruptly louder as he swung the door open. Pat entered and
glanced around her at the room revealed. Dull, smoky, dismal--not the least exciting or interesting as yet,
she thought. A short bar paralleled one wall, behind which lounged a
little, thin, nondescript individual with a small mustache. Half a
dozen tables filled the remainder of the room; four or five occupied
by the clientele of the place, as unsavory a group as the girl could
recall having encountered on the hither side of the motion picture
screen. Two women tittered as Nick entered; then with one accord, the
eyes of the entire group fixed on Pat, where she stood drawing her wrap
more closely about her, standing uncomfortably behind her escort. And
the piano tinkled its discords in the far corner. "Same place," said Nick shortly to the bartender, ignoring the glances
of the others. Pat followed him across the room to a door, into a hall,
thence into a smaller room furnished merely with a table and four
chairs. The nondescript man stood waiting in the doorway as Nick took
her wrap and seated her in one of the chairs. "Quart," he said laconically, and the bartender disappeared. Pat stared intently, studiously, into the face of her companion. Nick's
face, certainly; here in full light there was no trace of the red-eyed
horror she had fancied out there in the semi-darkness of the street. Or
was there? Now--when he turned, when the light struck his eyes at an
angle, was that a glint of crimson? Still, the features were Nick's,
only a certain grim intensity foreign to him lurked about the set of
his mouth, the narrowed eye-lids. "Well!" she said. "So this is Paris! What are you trying to do--teach
me capital L--life? And where do we dance?" "In here." "And what kind of quart was that you ordered? You know how little I
drink, and I'm darned particular about even that little." "You'll like this." "I doubt it." "I said you'll like it," he reiterated in flat tones. "I heard you say it." She regarded him with a puzzled frown. "Nick,"
she said suddenly, "I've decided I like you better in your gentle pose;
this masterful attitude isn't becoming, and you can forget what I said
about wishing you'd display it oftener." "You'll like that, too." "Again I doubt it. Nick, dear, don't spoil another evening like that
last one!" "This one won't be like the last one!" "But Honey--" she paused at the entrance of the bartender bearing a
tray, an opened bottle of ginger ale, two glasses of ice, and a flask
of oily amber liquid. He deposited the assortment on the red-checked
table cloth. "Two dollars," he said, pocketed the money and silently retired. "Nicholas," said the girl tartly, "there's enough of that poison for a
regiment." "I don't think so." "Well, I won't drink it, and I won't let you drink it! So now what?" "I think you'll do both." "I don't!" she snapped. "And I don't like this, Nick--the place, or the
liquor, or your attitude, or anything. We're going to leave!" Instead of answering, he pulled the cork from the bottle, pouring a
quantity of the amber fluid into each of the tumblers. To one he added
an equal quantity of ginger ale, and set it deliberately squarely in
front of Pat.