"Acting?" Lanyard repeated, intrigued by the acuteness of this masterful woman"s mentality.
"Precisely--pretending you were a common thief. For a moment you actually made me think you afraid of me. But you"re neither the one nor the other. How do I know? Because you"re unarmed, your voice has changed in the last two minutes to that of a cultivated man, you"ve stopped cringing and started thinking, and the way you walked across the floor and handled that chair showed how powerfully you"re made. If I didn"t have this revolver, you could overpower me in an instant--and I"m no weakling, as women go. So--why the acting?"
Studying his captor with narrow interest, Lanyard smiled faintly and shrugged, but made no answer. He could do no more than this--no more than spare for time: the longer he indulged madame in her whim, the better Lucy"s chances of scot-free escape. By this time, he reckoned, she would have found her way through the service gate to the street.
But he was on edge with unending apprehension of mischance.
"Come, come!" Madame Omber insisted. "You"re hardly civil, my man.
Answer my question!"
"You don"t expect me to--do you?"
"Why not? You owe me at least satisfaction of my curiosity, in return for breaking into my house."
"But if, as you suggest, I am--or was--acting with a purpose, why expect me to give the show away?"
"That"s logic. I knew you could think. More"s the pity!"
"Pity I can think?"
"Pity you can get your own consent to waste yourself like this. I"m an old woman, and I know men better than most; I can see ability in you.
So I say, it"s a pity you won"t use yourself to better advantage. Don"t misunderstand me: this isn"t the conventional act; I don"t hold with encouraging a fool in his folly. You"re a fool, for all your intelligence, and the only cure I can see for you is drastic punishment."
"Meaning the Sante, madame?"
"Quite so. I tell you frankly, when I"m finished lecturing you, off you go to prison."
"If that"s the case I don"t see I stand to gain much by retailing the history of my life. This seems to be your cue to ring for servants to call the police."
A trace of anger shone in the woman"s eyes. "You"re right," she said shortly; "I dare say Sidonie isn"t asleep yet. I"ll get her to telephone while I keep an eye on you."
Bending over the desk, without removing her gaze from the adventurer, his captor groped for, found, and pressed a call-b.u.t.ton.
From some remote quarter of the house sounded the grumble of an electric bell.
"Pity you"re so brazen," she observed. "Just a little less side, and you"d be a rather engaging person!"
Lanyard made no reply. In fact he wasn"t listening.
Under the strain of that suspense, the iron control which had always been his was breaking down--since now it was for another he was concerned. And he wasted no strength trying to enforce it. The stress of his anxiety was both undisguised and undisguisable. Nor did Madame Omber overlook it.
"What"s the trouble, eh? Is it that already you hear the cell door clang in your ears?"
As she spoke, Lanyard left his chair with a movement in the execution of which all his wits co-operated, with a spring as lithe and sure and swift as an animal"s, that carried him like a shot across the two yards or so between them.
The slightest error in his reckoning would have finished him: for the other had been watching for just such a move, and the revolver was nearly level with Lanyard"s head when he grasped it by the barrel, turned that to the ceiling, imprisoned the woman"s wrist with his other hand, and in two movements had captured the weapon without injuring its owner.
"Don"t be alarmed," he said quietly. "I"m not going to do anything more violent than to put this weapon out of commission."
Breaking it smartly, he shot a shower of cartridges to the door, and tossed the now-useless weapon into a wastebasket beneath the desk.
"Hope I didn"t hurt you," he added abstractedly--"but your pistol was in my way!"
He took a stride toward the door, pulled up, and hung in hesitation, frowning absently at the woman; who, without moving, laughed quietly and watched him with a twinkle of malicious diversion.
He repaid this with a stare of thoughtful appraisal; from the first he had recognized in her a character of uncommon tolerance and amiability.
"Pardon, madame, but----" he began abruptly--and checked in constrained appreciation of his impudence.
"If that"s permission to interrupt your reverie," Madame Omber remarked, "I don"t mind telling you, you"re the most extraordinary burglar I ever heard of!"
Footfalls became audible on the staircase--the hasty scuffling of slippered feet.
"Is that you, Sidonie?" madame called.
The voice of the maid replied: "Yes, madame--coming!"
"Well--don"t, just yet--not till I call you."
"Very good, madame."
The woman returned complete attention to Lanyard.
"Now, monsieur-of-two-minds, what is it you wish to say to me?"
"Why did you do that?" the adventurer asked, with a jerk of his head toward the hall.
"Tell Sidonie to wait instead of calling for help? Because--well, because you interest me strangely. I"ve got a theory you"re in a desperate quandary and are about to throw yourself on my mercy."
"You are right," Lanyard admitted tersely.
"Ah! Now you do begin to grow interesting! Would you mind explaining why you think I"ll be merciful?"
"Because, madame, I"ve done you a great service, and feel I can count upon your grat.i.tude."
The Frenchwoman"s eyebrows lifted at this. "Doubtless, monsieur knows what he"s talking about----"
"Listen, madame: I am in love with a young woman, an American, a stranger and friendless in Paris. If anything happens to me tonight, if I am arrested or a.s.sa.s.sinated----"
"Is that likely?"
"Quite likely, madame: I have enemies among the Apaches, and in my own profession as well; and I have reason to believe that several of them are in this neighbourhood tonight. I may possibly not escape their attentions. In that event, this young lady of whom I speak will need a protector."
"And why must I interest myself in her fate, pray?"
"Because, madame, of this service I have done you ... Recently, in London, you were robbed----"
The woman started and coloured with excitement: "You know something of my jewels?"