"I don"t wonder. A man looking like that...."
"It wasn"t that so much," said Sam. "The thing that annoyed father was that he tried to shoot Miss Milliken."
Billie uttered a cry of horror.
"He tried to shoot Miss Milliken!"
"He _did_ shoot her--the third time," said Sam, warming to his work.
"Only in the arm, fortunately," he added. "But my father is rather a stern disciplinarian and he had to go. I mean, we couldn"t keep him after that."
"Good gracious!"
"She used to be my father"s stenographer, and she was thrown a good deal with Peters. It was quite natural that he should fall in love with her.
She was a beautiful girl, with rather your own shade of hair. Peters is a man of volcanic pa.s.sions, and, when, after she had given him to understand that his love was returned, she informed him one day that she was engaged to a fellow at Ealing West, he went right off his onion--I mean, he became completely distraught. I must say that he concealed it very effectively at first. We had no inkling of his condition till he came in with the pistol. And, after that ... well, as I say, we had to dismiss him. A great pity, for he was a good clerk. Still, it wouldn"t do. It wasn"t only that he tried to shoot Miss Milliken. The thing became an obsession with him, and we found that he had a fixed idea that every red-haired woman who came into the office was the girl who had deceived him. You can see how awkward that made it. Red hair is so fashionable now-a-days."
"My hair is red!" whispered Billie pallidly.
"Yes, I noticed it myself. I told you it was much the same shade as Miss Milliken"s. It"s rather fortunate that I happened to be here with you when he came."
"But he may be lurking out there still!"
"I expect he is," said Sam carelessly. "Yes, I suppose he is. Would you like me to go and send him away? All right."
"But--but is it safe?"
Sam uttered a light laugh.
"I don"t mind taking a risk or two for your sake," he said, and sauntered from the room, closing the door behind him. Billie followed him with worshipping eyes.
Jno. Peters rose politely from the chair in which he had seated himself for the more comfortable perusal of the copy of _Home Whispers_ which he had brought with him to refresh his mind in the event of the firm being too busy to see him immediately. He was particularly interested in the series of chats with Young Mothers.
"Hullo, Peters," said Sam. "Want anything?"
"Very sorry to have disturbed you, Mr. Samuel. I just looked in to say good-bye. I sail on Sat.u.r.day, and my time will be pretty fully taken up all the week. I have to go down to the country to get some final instructions from the client whose important papers I am taking over.
I"m sorry to have missed your father, Mr. Samuel."
"Yes, this is his golf day. I"ll tell him you looked in."
"Is there anything I can do before I go?"
"Do?"
"Well--"--Jno. Peters coughed tactfully--"I see that you are engaged with a client, Mr. Samuel, and I was wondering if any little point of law had arisen with which you did not feel yourself quite capable of coping, in which case I might perhaps be of a.s.sistance."
"Oh, that lady," said Sam. "That was Miss Milliken"s sister."
"Indeed? I didn"t know Miss Milliken had a sister."
"No?" said Sam.
"She is not very like her in appearance."
"No. This one is the beauty of the family, I believe. A very bright, intelligent girl. I was telling her about your revolver just before you came in, and she was most interested. It"s a pity you haven"t got it with you now, to show to her."
"Oh, but I have it! I have, Mr. Samuel!" said Peters, opening a small handbag and taking out a hymn-book, half a pound of mixed chocolates, a tongue sandwich, and the pistol, in the order named. "I was on my way to the Rupert Street range for a little practice. I should be glad to show it to her."
"Well, wait here a minute or two," said Sam. "I"ll have finished talking business in a moment."
He returned to the inner office.
"Well?" cried Billie.
"Eh? Oh, he"s gone," said Sam. "I persuaded him to go away. He was a little excited, poor fellow. And now let us return to what we were talking about. You say...." He broke off with an exclamation, and glanced at his watch. "Good Heavens! I had no idea of the time. I promised to run up and see a man in one of the offices in the next court. He wants to consult me on some difficulty which has arisen with one of his clients. Rightly or wrongly he values my advice. Can you spare me for a short while? I shan"t be more than ten minutes."
"Certainly."
"Here is something you may care to look at while I"m gone. I don"t know if you have read it? Widgery on Nisi Prius Evidence. Most interesting."
He went out. Jno. Peters looked up from his _Home Whispers_.
"You can go in now," said Sam.
"Certainly, Mr. Samuel, certainly."
Sam took up the copy of _Home Whispers_ and sat down with his feet on the desk. He turned to the serial story and began to read the synopsis.
In the inner room Billie, who had rejected the mental refreshment offered by Widgery and was engaged on making a tour of the office, looking at the portraits of whiskered men whom she took correctly to be the Thorpes, Prescotts, Winslows, and Applebys mentioned on the contents-bill outside, was surprised to hear the door open at her back.
She had not expected Sam to return so instantaneously.
Nor had he done so. It was not Sam who entered. It was a man of repellent aspect whom she recognised instantly, for Jno. Peters was one of those men who, once seen, are not easily forgotten. He was smiling a cruel, cunning smile--at least, she thought he was; Mr. Peters himself was under the impression that his face was wreathed in a benevolent simper; and in his hand he bore the largest pistol ever seen outside a motion-picture studio.
"How do you do, Miss Milliken?" he said.
CHAPTER XIII
SHOCKS ALL ROUND
Billie had been standing near the wall, inspecting a portrait of the late Mr. Josiah Appleby, of which the kindest thing one can say is that one hopes it did not do him justice. She now shrank back against this wall, as if she were trying to get through it. The edge of the portrait"s frame tilted her hat out of the straight, but in this supreme moment she did not even notice it.
"Er--how do you do?" she said.
If she had not been an exceedingly pretty girl, one would have said that she spoke squeakily. The fighting spirit of the Bennetts, though it was considerable fighting spirit, had not risen to this emergency. It had ebbed out of her, leaving in its place a cold panic. She had seen this sort of thing in the movies--there was one series of pictures, "The Dangers of Diana," where something of the kind had happened to the heroine in every reel--but she had not antic.i.p.ated that it would ever happen to her; and consequently she had not thought out any plan for coping with such a situation. A grave error. In this world one should be prepared for everything, or where is one?
"I"ve brought the revolver," said Mr. Peters.