"So--so I see!" said Billie.
Mr. Peters nursed the weapon affectionately in his hand. He was rather a shy man with women as a rule, but what Sam had told him about her being interested in his revolver had made his heart warm to this girl.
"I was just on my way to have a little practice at the range," he said.
"Then I thought I might as well look in here."
"I suppose--I suppose you"re a good shot?" quavered Billie.
"I seldom miss," said Jno. Peters.
Billie shuddered. Then, reflecting that the longer she engaged this maniac in conversation, the more hope there was of Sam coming back in time to save her, she essayed further small-talk.
"It"s--it"s very ugly!"
"Oh, no!" said Mr. Peters, hurt.
Billie perceived that she had said the wrong thing.
"Very deadly-looking, I meant," she corrected herself hastily.
"It may have deadly work to do, Miss Milliken," said Mr. Peters.
Conversation languished again. Billie had no further remarks to make of immediate interest, and Mr. Peters was struggling with a return of the deplorable shyness which so handicapped him in his dealings with the other s.e.x. After a few moments, he pulled himself together again, and, as his first act was to replace the pistol in the pocket of his coat, Billie became conscious of a faint stirring of relief.
"The great thing," said Jno. Peters, "is to learn to draw quickly. Like this!" he added producing the revolver with something of the smoothness and rapidity with which Billie, in happier moments, had seen Bream Mortimer take a bowl of gold fish out of a tall hat. "Everything depends on getting the first shot! The first shot, Miss Milliken, is vital."
Suddenly Billie had an inspiration. It was hopeless, she knew, to try to convince this poor demented creature, obsessed with his _idee fixe_, that she was not Miss Milliken. Denial would be a waste of time, and might even infuriate him into precipitating the tragedy. It was imperative that she should humour him. And, while she was humouring him, it suddenly occurred to her, why not do it thoroughly?
"Mr. Peters," she cried, "you are quite mistaken!"
"I beg your pardon," said Jno. Peters, with not a little asperity.
"Nothing of the kind!"
"You are!"
"I a.s.sure you I am not. Quickness in the draw is essential...."
"You have been misinformed."
"Well, I had it direct from the man at the Rupert Street range," said Mr. Peters stiffly. "And if you have ever seen a picture called "Two-Gun Thomas"...."
"Mr. Peters," cried Billie desperately. He was making her head swim with his meaningless ravings. "Mr. Peters, hear me! I am not married to a man at Ealing West!"
Mr. Peters betrayed no excitement at the information. This girl seemed for some reason to consider her situation an extraordinary one, but many women, he was aware, were in a similar position. In fact, he could not at the moment think of any of his feminine acquaintances who _were_ married to men at Ealing West.
"Indeed?" he said politely.
"Won"t you believe me?" exclaimed Billie wildly.
"Why, certainly, certainly," said Jno. Peters.
"Thank G.o.d!" said Billie. "I"m not even engaged! It"s all been a terrible mistake!"
When two people in a small room are speaking on two distinct and different subjects and neither knows what on earth the other is driving at, there is bound to be a certain amount of mental confusion; but at this point Jno. Peters, though still not wholly equal to the intellectual pressure of the conversation, began to see a faint shimmer of light behind the clouds. In a nebulous kind of way he began to understand that the girl had come to consult the firm about a breach-of-promise action. Some unknown man at Ealing West had been trifling with her heart--hardened lawyer"s clerk as he was, that poignant cry "I"m not even engaged!" had touched Mr. Peters--and she wished to start proceedings. Mr. Peters felt almost in his depth again.
He put the revolver in his pocket, and drew out a note-book.
"I should be glad to hear the facts," he said with professional courtesy. "In the absence of the guv"nor...."
"I have told you the facts!"
"This man at Ealing West," said Mr. Peters, moistening the point of his pencil, "he wrote you letters proposing marriage?"
"No, no, no!"
"At any rate," said Mr. Peters, disappointed but hopeful, "he made love to you before witnesses?"
"Never! Never! There is no man at Ealing West! There never was a man at Ealing West!"
It was at this point that Jno. Peters began for the first time to entertain serious doubts of the girl"s mental balance. The most elementary acquaintance with the latest census told him that there were any number of men at Ealing West. The place was full of them. Would a sane woman have made an a.s.sertion to the contrary? He thought not, and he was glad that he had the revolver with him. She had done nothing as yet actively violent, but it was nice to feel prepared. He took it out and laid it nonchalantly in his lap.
The sight of the weapon acted on Billie electrically. She flung out her hands, in a gesture of pa.s.sionate appeal, and played her last card.
"I love _you_!" she cried. She wished she could have remembered his first name. It would have rounded off the sentence neatly. In such a moment she could hardly call him "Mr. Peters." "You are the only man I love."
"My gracious goodness!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mr. Peters, and nearly fell over backwards. To a naturally shy man this sudden and wholly unexpected declaration was disconcerting; and the clerk was, moreover, engaged. He blushed violently. And yet, even in that moment of consternation, he could not check a certain thrill. No man thinks he is as plain as he really is, but Jno. Peters had always come fairly near to a correct estimate of his charms, and it had always seemed to him, that, in inducing his fiancee to accept him, he had gone some. He now began to wonder if he were not really rather a devil of a chap after all. There must be precious few men going about capable of inspiring devotion like this on the strength of about six and a half minutes casual conversation.
Calmer thoughts succeeded this little flicker of complacency. The girl was mad. That was the fact of the matter. He got up and began to edge towards the door. Mr. Samuel would be returning shortly, and he ought to be warned.
"So that"s all right, isn"t it!" said Billie.
"Oh, quite, quite!" said Mr. Peters. "Er--Thank you very much!"
"I thought you would be pleased," said Billie, relieved but puzzled. For a man of volcanic pa.s.sions, as Sam Marlowe had described him, he seemed to be taking the thing very calmly. She had antic.i.p.ated a strenuous scene.
"Oh, it"s a great compliment!" Mr. Peters a.s.sured her.
At this point Sam came in, interrupting the conversation at a moment when it had reached a somewhat difficult stage. He had finished the instalment of the serial story in _Home Whispers_, and, looking at his watch, he fancied that he had allowed sufficient time to elapse for events to have matured along the lines which his imagination had indicated.
The atmosphere of the room seemed to him, as he entered, a little strained. Billie looked pale and agitated. Mr. Peters looked rather agitated, too. Sam caught Billie"s eye. It had an unspoken appeal in it.
He gave an imperceptible nod, a rea.s.suring nod, the nod of a man who understood all and was prepared to handle the situation.
"Come, Peters," he said in a deep, firm, quiet voice, laying a hand on the clerk"s arm. "It"s time that you went."
"Yes, indeed, Mr. Samuel! Yes, yes, indeed!"
"I"ll see you out," said Sam soothingly, and led him through the outer office and on to the landing outside. "Well, good luck, Peters," he said, as they stood at the head of the stairs. "I hope you have a pleasant trip. Why, what"s the matter? You seem upset."
"That girl, Mr. Samuel! I really think--really, she cannot be quite right in her head."