"He has instructions to watch the front entrance and windows. There"s another man watching the rear."
"He didn"t watch very closely," he reminded her. "See how easily I got in." He studied the moving figure. "Doris," he said slowly, "I"d bet a thousand dollars against one doughnut that if I walked out of the house and up to that fellow, he"d run like a rabbit. I don"t know why I think so, but I do."
She shook her head.
"Oh, no, he wouldn"t!"
"What makes you think he wouldn"t?"
"Because I heard Shaw give him his orders for just that contingency."
Her companion took this in silence.
"May I ask what they were?" he said at last.
"No, I can"t tell you."
"I hope he hasn"t a nice little bottle of chloroform in his overcoat pocket, or vitriol," murmured Laurie, reflectively. "By the way," he turned to her with quickened interest, "something tells me it"s long after lunch-time. Is there any reason why we shouldn"t eat?"
She smiled.
"None whatever. The ice-box contains all the things a well regulated ice-box is supposed to hold. I overheard Shaw and his secretary discussing their supplies."
"Good! Then we"ll release Mother f.a.gin long enough to let her cook some of them."
He strolled to the bedroom door. On a chair facing it the woman sat and gazed at him with her fierce eyes.
"Would you like a little exercise?" he politely inquired. There was no change of expression in the hostile face. "Because if you would," he went on, "and if you"ll give me your word not to cry out, give any kind of alarm or signal, or start anything whatever, I"ll take that bandage off your mouth, and let you cook lunch for us and for yourself."
The fierce eyes set, then wavered. He waited patiently. At last the head nodded, and he expeditiously untied the bandage.
"The very best you"ve got, please," he instructed. "And I _hope_ you can cook. If you can"t, I"ll have to do it myself. I"m rather gifted that way."
"I can cook," avowed the old woman, sullenly.
"Good work! Then go on your joyous way. But if you feel an impulse to invite into your kitchen any of the gentlemen out in the grounds, or to release the secretary, restrain it. They wouldn"t like it in here. They wouldn"t like it at all."
A strange grimace twisted the woman"s sardonic features. He interpreted it rightly.
"I"m glad you agree with me," he said. "Now, brook-trout, please, and broiled chickens, and early strawberries and clotted cream."
She looked at him with a return of the stoic expression that was her habitual one.
"We ain"t got any of those things," she declared.
"We ain"t?" Her guest was pained. "What have we got?"
"We got ham and eggs and lettuce and milk and coffee and squash pie."
He sighed.
"They will do," he said resignedly. "Do you think you could have them ready in five minutes?"
The luncheon was a cheerful meal, for Laurie made it so. When it was finished he went to the kitchen window, opened it, and carefully arranged several hot ham sandwiches in a row.
"For the birdies," he explained. "For the cold little birdies out in the grounds."
He even chirped invitingly to the "birdies," but these latter, throughout his visit, showed a coy reluctance to approach the house. He caught another odd grimace on the features of the old woman, who was now washing the dishes.
"We won"t confine you to any one room this afternoon," he told her.
"Wander where your heart leads you. But remember, you"re on parole. Like ourselves, you must forego all communication with the glad outer world.
And leave the secretary where he is, unless you want him hurt."
"This storm will be a good thing for us," he mentioned to Doris, when they had returned to the up-stairs sitting-room. "It will be dark soon after four, and the snow will cover our footsteps. But I"m inclined to think," he added, reflectively, "that before we start I"d better go out and truss up those two birds in the grounds."
She showed an immediate apprehension.
"No, no! you mustn"t think of that!" she cried. "Promise me you won"t."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"As you wish, of course. But if they interfere when we"re getting started, surely you"ll let me rock them to sleep, won"t you?"
"I--I don"t know. Something may happen! Oh, I wish you hadn"t come!" She was clearly in a panic, a genuine one. It seemed equally clear that her nerves, under the recent strain put upon them, were in a bad way. All this was Shaw"s work, and as he realized it Laurie"s expression changed so suddenly that the girl cried out: "What is it? What"s the matter?"
He answered, still under the influence of the feeling that had shaken him.
"I was just thinking of our friend Bertie and of a little bill he"s running up against the future. Sooner or later, and I rather think it will be sooner, Bertie"s going to pay that bill."
She did not move, but gave him a look that made him thoughtful. It was an odd, sidelong look, frightened, yet watchful. He remembered that once or twice before she had given him such a look. More than anything else that had happened, this glance chilled him. It was not thus that the woman he loved should look at him.
Suddenly he heard her gasp, and the next instant the silence of the room was broken by another voice, a voice of concentrated rage with a snarl running through it.
"So you"re here, are you?" it jerked. "By G.o.d, I"m sick of you and of your d.a.m.ned interference!"
He turned. Shaw was standing just inside the door. But he was not the sleek, familiar, torpid figure of recent encounter. He seemed mad clean through, fighting mad. His jaws were set; his sleek head and heavy shoulders were thrust forward as if he were ready to spring, and his protuberant eyes had lost their haze and held a new and unpleasant light.
But, angry though he appeared, Herbert Ransome Shaw was taking no chances in this encounter with his undesired guest. Behind him shone the now smug countenance of the blond secretary, and on each side he was flanked by another man. Powerful fellows these two seemed, evidently Italian laborers, gazing at the scene uncomprehendingly, but ready for any work their master set them. In stupefaction, Laurie stared at the tableau, while eight eyes unwinkingly stared back at him. Then he nodded.
"Well, Bertie," he said pleasantly, "you"re outdoing even yourself in the size of this delegation. Four to one. Quite some odds." His voice changed. "You contemptible coward! Why don"t you take me on alone? Have you got your chloroform cone?"
The complexion of Shaw, red with cold, darkened to an apoplectic purple.
"You"ll soon find out what we"ve got," he barked, "and what"s coming to you. Now, are you going to put up a fight against four, or will you go quietly?"
"I think," said Laurie thoughtfully, "I"d rather go quietly. But just where is it I"m going?"
"You"ll soon know." Shaw was carrying a coil of rope, light but strong, and now he tossed it to one of the Italians.