Mayo was certain in his soul that he knew her kind. His illusions were departing. Now that her tragic experience was behind her, now that she was back among her own, now that the fervor of romance was cool, she was thanking G.o.d, so he told himself, that she had not sacrificed herself for anybody. He was honestly glad that she was at home, glad of the hint which the paragraph gave--that her secret was still her own, so far as family and the social world were concerned.
That night Mayo took further counsel with himself. In the morning his final decision was made. He would endeavor once more to see Julius Maxston. He determined that he would march into the outer office, boldly announce his name, a.s.sert that he was there to expose a crime, and tell them that if Mr. Marston refused to hear him he should tell what he knew to the public through the newspapers; then he would ask them to send for the police, if the door of Marston"s office remained closed to him. He would call attention to himself and to his case by all the uproar he could make. When he went to jail he would go with plenty of folks looking on. Let Marston and his fellow-financiers see how they liked that!
It was a desperate and a crude plan, but Mayo was not a diplomat--he was a sailor.
He marched forth on his errand with his chin up and resolve flaming within him.
Other men, prosperous-looking and rotund men, rode up in the elevator with him and went into Marston & Waller"s office ahead of him, for he had modestly stepped to one side to allow them to pa.s.s.
He heard some talk of a "board meeting." It was plain that Mr. Marston was to be occupied for a time. This was not a favorable moment in which to project himself upon the attention of the financier; he needed a clear field. Therefore he tramped up and down the corridor of the office building, watching the elevator door, waiting to see the rotund gentlemen go on their way. And with attention thus focused he saw Miss Alma Marston arrive.
She waited until the elevator had pa.s.sed on, and then she came directly to him. Her expression did not reveal her mood except to hint that she was self-possessed.
"I am not especially surprised to find you here," she told him. "I believe you said to Captain Downs--so he informed me--that you were going to try to see my father. And men who try to see my father, without proper introduction, usually kick their heels outside his office for some days."
There was a bit of hauteur in her voice. She preserved much of the acerbity which had marked her demeanor when they had said good-by to each other. He would not acknowledge to himself that he hoped she would meet him on another plane; he meekly accepted her att.i.tude as the proper one. He was a sailor, and she was the daughter of Julius Marston.
"Do you blame me for being suspicious in regard to what you intend to say to my father?" she demanded. "I tell you frankly that I came here looking for you. We must settle our affair."
"I am trying to get word with him about my own business--simply my own business, Miss Marston."
"But as to me! What are you going to say to him about me? You remember I told you that I intended to protect myself," she declared, with some insolence.
"I thought you had a better opinion of me," he protested. "Miss Marston, as far as I am concerned, you never were on that schooner. I know nothing about you. I do not even know you. Do you understand?"
He started away hastily. "Don"t stay here. Don"t speak to me. Somebody may see you."
""Come back here!"
He stopped.
"I demand an explicit promise from you that if you are able to talk with my father you will never mention my name to him or try to take advantage of the dreadful mistake I made."
"I promise, on my honor," he said, straightening.
"Thank you, sir."
"And now that I have promised," he added, red in his tanned cheeks, "I want to say to you, Miss Marston, that you have insulted me gratuitously. I suppose I"m not much in the way of a gentleman as you meet them in society. I"m only a sailor. But I"m neither a tattler nor a blackmailer. I know the square thing to do where a woman is concerned, and I would have done it without being put under a pledge." He bowed and walked away.
She gazed after him, a queer sparkle in her eyes. "We"ll see about you, you big child!" she murmured.
She entered the waiting-room of the Marston & Waller suite, and was informed that her father was busy with a board meeting.
"But it"s merely a bit of routine business. It will soon be over, Miss Marston--if you will be so good as to wait."
After a time the gentlemen filed out, but she waited on.
"Tell my father that I"m here and will be in presently," she commanded the guardian.
Before the messenger returned Mayo came in, rather apprehensively. He tried to avoid her, but she met him face to face and accosted him with spirit.
"Now that I have put you on your honor, I"m not afraid to have you talk your business over with my father. Come with me. I will take you to him.
Then we will call accounts square between us."
"Very well," he consented. "After what I have been through here, I feel that one service matches the other." Mayo followed her and came into The Presence.
Julius Marston was alone, intrenched behind his desk, on his throne of business; the dark back of the chair, towering over his head, set off in contrast his gray garb and his cold face; to Mayo, who halted respectfully just inside the door, he appeared a sort of bas-relief against that background--something insensate, without ears to listen or heart to bestow compa.s.sion.
The girl, hurrying to him, engaged his attention until she had seated herself on the arm of his chair. Then he saw Mayo, recognized him, and tried to rise, but she pushed him back, urging him with eager appeal.
"You must listen to me, father! It is serious! It is important!"
He groped for the row of desk b.u.t.tons, but she held his hand from them.
Captain Mayo strode forward, determined to speak for himself, rendered bold by the courageous sacrifice the girl was making.
"Not a word! Not a word! The supreme impudence of it!" Marston repeated the last phrase several times with increasing violence. He pushed his daughter off the arm of the chair and struggled up. Only heroic measures could save that situation--and the girl knew her father! She forced herself between him and his desk.
"You"d better listen!" she warned him, hysterically. "A few days ago I ran away to be married!"
He stood there, stricken motionless, and she put her hands against his breast and pressed him back into his chair.
"But this is not the man, father!"
Marston had been gathering his voice for wild invective, but that last statement took away all his power of speech.
"I warned you that you"d better listen!"
In that moment she dominated the situation as completely as if she stood between the two men with a lighted bomb in her hand.
Mayo was overwhelmed even more completely than the financier. He realized that her extortion of a pledge from him had been subterfuge; her triumphant eyes flashed complete information on that point. Both anger and bewilderment made him incapable of any sane attempt to press his case with Marston at that time. He turned and started for the door.
"Stop that man, father. You"ll be sorry if you do not! He must stay!"
"Come back here!" shouted Marston.
Mayo looked behind.
The magnate stood with finger on the push-b.u.t.ton. "Come back, I say!"
"I protest. This is none of my business. I am here for something else than to listen to your daughter"s private affairs."
"You come back!" commanded the father in low tones of menace, "or I"ll have you held for the United States marshals the minute you step foot outside that door."
Raging within himself at the tactics of this incomprehensible girl, Captain Mayo walked slowly to the desk; it occurred to him that it was as hard to get out of Julius Marston"s office as it was to get in.
"I would never have come in here if I had dreamed that your daughter would tell you what she has. I am in a false position. I insist that you allow me to leave."