He was glaring at her now. "Oh, I see. You don't trust me," he
exclaimed bitterly. He put out his hand to steady himself against the
library table. "I can't say that I blame you, either. But I won't stay
here. I would, if it would do any good, but how can it? The police are
likely to pile in here any minute with a warrant for me. That would be
fine, wouldn't it?" He strode to the window and tried to look through
the passage into the street. "I don't want to be pinched now. Go and
look out of the front windows--go on! See if there's any one out there."
She did not move.
"Ain't you going to look?" he demanded.
"The police?" dropped from her lips dully. She had overlooked the
danger from that direction, although her mind had been so full of it a
little while before. "He won't send them here, Tom--"
"Of course, he will," he broke in irascibly. "He's crazy mad, and he'll
act quickly to head off Jenison's warrant. I can't stay here--not
another minute. Can't I get out the back way? They may be laying for me
in front. Don't look like that, Mary! I can give 'em the slip. It won't
do to have them nab me here. Just think of the newspapers! Wake up!
Don't you see? And listen: I'll do what I said I would--to-night. I
swear it. You can trust me, Mary. Now, quick, show me the way out--and
don't let me bump into Christine. I--I couldn't stand that. I don't
want to lose my nerve."
She left him and ran into the next room to look out into the avenue. He
followed rapidly.
"There are two men standing at the corner," she whispered in alarm. He
would have looked out if she had not dragged him away.
"It would be terrible if they were to come in here," she was saying
distractedly. "Yes, you must go." She grasped his arm. "Tom, you may go
if you'll promise to come back tonight."
"What's that for?"
"Because I insist. At ten o'clock--or any time you may choose. Only you
_must_ come back."
He studied her face curiously. Something stirred in his heart, but it
had been so long since anything had touched that organ that he failed
to credit himself with an emotion. Whatever it was, it impelled him to
submit to her demand.
"I'll come," he said uneasily. "I don't see any use in it, though. We
can say goodby now."
"No!" she exclaimed. "It must be to-night."
"All right, then. I'll come at ten,--_the back way_."
Without another word she hurried him through the intervening rooms to
the servants' entrance. They passed Brooks in the rear hall. He bowed
stiffly to Braddock. Brooks had been listening at a keyhole.
She opened the door and pointed the way with a trembling hand.
"There is the alley, Tom,--through the little gate. Be very careful."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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