Gangsters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction; Mystery fiction
Her heart seemed to stand still. Suppose they had found it! They would
certainly recognize it as belonging to Gypsy Nan! They were not fools.
The deduction would be obvious--the identity of the White Moll would
be solved. Was that why no one had apparently come near her? Were they
playing at cat-and-mouse, watching her before they struck, so that she
would lead them to those jewels under the flooring here that were worth
a king's ransom? They certainly believed that the White Moll had them.
The Adventurer's note, so ironically true, that he had intended as an
alibi for himself, and which he had exchanged for the package in old
Luertz's place, would have left no doubt in their minds but that the
stones were in her possession. Was that it? Were they--She held her
breath. It seemed as though suddenly her limbs were refusing to support
her weight. In the soft earth outside she had heard no step, but she saw
now a shadow fall athwart the half-open door-way. There was no time to
move, even had she been capable of action. It seemed as though even
her soul had turned to stone, and, with the White Moll's clothes in her
hands, she stood there staring at the doorway, and something that was
greater than fear, because it mingled horror, ugly and forbidding,
fell upon her. It was still just light enough to see. The shadow moved
forward and came inside. She wanted to scream, to rush madly in retreat
to the farthest corner of the shed; but she could not move. It was
Danglar who was standing there. He seemed to sway a little on his feet,
and the dark, sinister face seemed blotched, and he seemed to smile as
though possessed of some unholy and perverted sense of humor.
She was helpless, at his mercy, unarmed, saved for her wits. Her wits!
Were wits any longer of avail? She could believe nothing else now except
that he had been watching her--before he struck.
“What are you doing here, and what are those clothes you've got in your
hands?” he rasped out.
She could only fence for time in the meager hope that some loophole
would present itself. She forced an assumed defiance into her tones and
manner, that was in keeping with the sort of armed truce, which, from
her first meeting with Danglar, she had inaugurated as a barrier between
them.
“You have asked me two questions,” she said tartly. “Which one do you
want me to answer first?”
“Look here,” he snapped, “you cut that out! There's one or two things
need explaining--see? What are those clothes?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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