Greenish white, jaw sagging, Robert looked from one to the other of them.
"You--you"re afraid to tell me!" said he. "She--there was an accident! I can see that by the hat. There was an accident and she was hurt and--where is she now? Where is she now? Good G.o.d! Is she--dead?"
"She isn"t dead," Anthony said queerly, because he had been looking at Beatrice and feeling his flesh crawl as he looked.
"Then where is Mary? Why don"t you tell me about it?" Robert stormed on.
"What"s the matter? Is she badly hurt? Doesn"t she want me? Hasn"t she tried to send for me?" And whirling upon Beatrice, the unfortunate young man threw out his hands and cried: "You tell me, if they will not! What has happened to her? Where did you get the hat?"
Normally, Beatrice Boller was the very last mortal in the world to inflict pain upon a fellow-being; but the normal Beatrice was far away just now.
As Anthony noted with failing heart, it was a big moment for the outraged creature before Robert Vining, for she was about to make another of the accursed s.e.x to suffer. It did not seem humanly possible that she could communicate her personal view of Mary to Robert; but certainly Beatrice was accomplishing a very dramatic pause, and in it her lips drew back and showed her beautiful teeth.
"The young lady is a friend of yours, too?" she asked very sweetly.
"Friend!" cried Robert cried. "She"s the girl I"m going to marry! Where is she, madam? Can"t you tell me what has happened?"
Beatrice"s laugh was blood-curdling.
"Mrs. Boller!" Anthony cried. "I protest----"
"Do you really?" Beatrice smiled and turned directly to Robert. "So you"re going to marry her?"
"What? Yes."
"Or perhaps you"re not!" Mrs. Boller mused, "You think her a very worthy young woman?"
Robert looked blankly at her.
"But she is not," Beatrice said softly. "And you look like a decent sort, and however much it may hurt for a little, you shall have the truth. You asked me where I found this hat. Well, it was in the bedroom at the end of that corridor--Mr. Boller"s room!"
She waited vainly for a little, because Robert simply did not comprehend. He frowned at Beatrice and then shook his head.
"What--what do you say?"
"It had been there all night, Mr. Vining," Beatrice purred on. "So had she!"
"Mary--_my Mary_? Mary Dalton?" Robert gasped.
"Mary Dalton!"
"But that--that"s all d.a.m.ned--pardon me!--nonsense! That----"
He turned on Anthony; and then, quickly as he had turned, he gasped and stared with burning eyes.
View him as one chose, there was nothing about Anthony to indicate that it was nonsense. He was biting his lips; his eyes were upon the floor; had he rehea.r.s.ed the thing for months he could not possibly have looked more guilty.
"Why--why----" choked Robert Vining.
Beatrice laid a slender hand on his arm.
"Come with me," she said quickly. "Come and see her bag and her little toilet case and several other of her things. Perhaps you"ll recognize them, too, and they"ll convince you that she really settled down here for a visit. Come!"
As a man in a dreadful dream, Robert Vining followed her blindly into the corridor and out of sight. Johnson Boller smiled a demon smile and thrust his hands into his trouser-pockets.
"Here"s where _he_ gets _his_!" he stated. Anthony could no more than speak.
"That--that woman!" he contrived. "What an absolutely merciless thing----"
"Huh? Bee?" the remarkable Boller said sharply. "She"s all right; she"s acting according to her own lights, isn"t she? Why the devil shouldn"t Vining suffer, too? D"ye think I"m the only man in the world that has to suffer?"
"I think you"re in luck if she divorces you!" Anthony stated feelingly.
"A woman capable of that is capable of anything!"
Johnson Boller stayed the angry words upon his lips and smiled grimly.
More, after a moment he thrust out his hand.
"I guess it doesn"t matter much what you think now, Anthony," said he.
"Good-by!"
"What?"
"Good-by, old man! You"re going to leave this world in about three minutes, you know--just as soon as he"s convinced and able to act again, Anthony. So long I"ll be sorry to think of you as missing--sometimes, I suppose, but not when I think what you"ve put over on me."
Anthony laughed viciously.
"Don"t use up all your sympathy," he said. "You may need a little for yourself, Johnson. The things are in what"s supposed to be _your_ room, you know."
"What?" gasped Johnson Boller. "That"s true! That----"
Out at the entrance, a key was sc.r.a.ping in the latch; and when it had sc.r.a.ped for the second time Anthony smiled forlornly.
"Wilkins," he said. "Back to report that the girl"s safe at home--whatever good that may do now. Is that you, Wilkins?"
"That"s--that"s me, sir!" Wilkins puffed.
And the door closed and in the foyer b.u.mp--b.u.mp--b.u.mp indicated that Wilkins was carrying something, a trunk one might almost have thought from the sound. Rather red, gleaming perspiration that had not all come from exertion, Wilkins appeared, moved into the room, gazed feelingly at his master, was about to speak and then caught the sound of voices from David"s room.
"The--the parties couldn"t attend to the trunk to-day!" said Wilkins.
"_She_--isn"t in there?" Anthony whispered.
"I have no reason to think otherwise, sir," said the faithful one.
"You didn"t leave her?"
"There was no one to leave her with, sir, and I was ordered out with the trunk," Wilkins said, smiling wanly. "There wasn"t nowhere to come but here, sir, with the police after me."
From down the corridor issued--