"She bids me tell you," Vera cried; "Tell my brother--"
Gaylor swept toward her.
"What d.a.m.ned farce is this?" he shouted.
The effect of the interruption was instant and startling. Mr. Hallowell, who, in the last few minutes, had believed he was listening to a voice from the dead, collapsed upon the shoulder of Rainey, who sprang to support him. Like a somnambulist wrenched from sleep, Vera gave a scream of fright, half genuine, half a.s.sumed, and swayed as though about to fall. Vance caught her in his arms. He turned on Gaylor, his cunning red eyes flashing evilly.
"You brute!" he cried, "you might have killed her."
Between her sobs, Vera, her head upon the shoulder of Vance, whispered a question. As quickly, under cover of muttered sympathy, Vance answered: "Gaylor. The Judge."
Still slightly swaying, Vera stood upright. She pa.s.sed her hand vaguely before her eyes. "Where am I?" she asked feebly. "Where am I?"
Gaylor shook his fist at the girl.
"You know where you are!" he thundered; "and you know where you"re going--you"re going to jail!"
In the hush that followed Vera drew herself to her full height. She regarded Gaylor wonderingly, haughtily, as though he were some drunken intruder from the street.
"Are you speaking to me?" she asked.
"Yes, to you," shouted the lawyer. "You"re an imposter, and a swindler, and--and--"
Winthrop pushed between them.
"Yes, and she"s a woman," he said briskly. "If you want a row, talk to the man."
To this point the scene had brought to Vera no emotion save the excitement that is felt by the one who is struggling to escape. The appearance of a champion added a new interest. Through no fault of her own, she had learned by experience that to the one man who annoyed her there always were six to spring to her protection. So the glance she covertly turned upon Winthrop was one less of grat.i.tude than curiosity.
But at the first sight of him the girl started, her eyes lit with recognition, her face flushed. And then, although the man was in no way regarding her, her eyes filled, and in mortification and dismay she blushed crimson.
His anger still unsatisfied, Gaylor turned upon Vance.
"And you," he cried; "you"re going to jail too. I"ll drive--"
The voice of Mr. Hallowell, shaken with pain and distress, rose feebly, beseechingly. "Henry!" he begged. "I can"t stand it!"
"Judge Gaylor!" thundered Rainey, "I won"t be responsible if you keep this up."
With an exclamation of remorse, Vera ran to the side of the old man.
With Rainey on his other hand, she raised him upright upon his feet.
"Lean on me," begged the girl breathlessly. "I"m very strong. Lean on me."
Mr. Hallowell shook his head. "No, child," he protested, "not you." He turned to his old friend. "You help me, Henry," he begged.
With the authority of the medical man, Rainey waved Vance into the bedroom. "Close those windows," he ordered. "You help me!" he commanded of Gaylor. "Put your arm under him."
Mr. Hallowell, protesting feebly and leaning heavily upon the two men, stumbled into the bedroom, and the door was shut behind him.
For a moment the girl and the man stood in silence, and then, as though suddenly conscious of her presence, Winthrop turned and smiled.
The girl did not answer his smile. From under the shadow of the picture hat and the ostrich feathers her eyes regarded him searchingly, watchfully.
For the first time, Winthrop had the chance to observe her. He saw that she was very young, that her clothes cruelly disguised her, that she was only a child masquerading as a brigand, that her face was distractingly lovely. Having noted this, the fact that she had driven several grown men to abuse and vituperation struck him as being extremely humorous; nor did he try to conceal his amus.e.m.e.nt. But the watchfulness in the eyes of the girl did not relax.
"I"m afraid I interfered with your seance," said the District Attorney.
The girl regarded him warily, like a fencer fixing her eyes on those of her opponent. There was a pause which lasted so long that had the silence continued it would have been rude. "Well," the girl returned at last, timidly, "that"s what the city expects you to do, is it not?"
Winthrop laughed. "How did you know who I was?" he asked, and then added quickly, "Of course, you"re a mind reader."
For the first time the girl smiled. Winthrop found it a charming smile, wistful and confiding.
"I don"t have to ask the spirit world," she said, "to tell me who is District Attorney of New York."
"Yes," said the District Attorney; "yes, I suppose you have to be pretty well acquainted with some of the laws--those about mediums?"
"If you knew as much about other laws," began Vera, "as I do about the law--" She broke off and again smiled upon him.
"Then you probably know," said Winthrop, "that what our excited friend said to you just now is legally quite true?"
The smile pa.s.sed from the face of the girl. She looked at the young man with fine disdain, as a great lady might reprove with a glance the man who snapped a camera at her. "Yes?" she asked. "Well, what are you going to do about it--arrest me?" Mocking him, in a burlesque of melodrama, she held out her arms. "Don"t put the handcuffs on me," she begged.
Winthrop found her impudence amusing; and, with the charm of her novelty, he was conscious of a growing conviction that, somewhere, they had met before; that already at a crisis she had come into his life.
"I won"t arrest you," he said with a puzzled smile, "on one condition."
"Ah!" mocked Vera; "he is generous."
"And the condition is," Winthrop went on seriously, "that you tell me where we met before?"
The girl"s expression became instantly mask-like. To learn if he suspected where it was that they had met, she searched his face quickly.
She was rea.s.sured that of the event he had no real recollection.
"That"s rather difficult, isn"t it," she continued lightly, "when you consider I"ve been giving exhibitions of mind readings for the last six weeks on Broadway, and in the homes of people you probably know?"
"No," Winthrop exclaimed eagerly, "it wasn"t in a theatre, and it wasn"t in a private house. It was--" he shook his head helplessly, and looked at her for a.s.sistance. "You don"t know, do you?"
The girl regarded him steadily. "How should I?" she said. And then, as though decided upon a course of action of the wisdom of which she was uncertain, she laughed uneasily.
"But the spirits would know," she said. "I might ask them."
"Do!" cried Winthrop, delightedly. "How much would that be?"
As though to reprove his flippancy, the girl frowned. With a nervous tremor, which this time seemed genuine enough, she threw back her head, closed her eyes, and laid her arm across her forehead.
Winthrop, un.o.bserved, watched her with a smile, partly of amus.e.m.e.nt, partly on account of her beauty, of admiration.