"Keep that thing in your pocket!" commanded Fairfax, huskily, without removing his gaze from the arm that controlled the hidden hand.
Harvey gloated. He waved the hand that held his hat. "Don"t be alarmed, ladies," he said. "You are quite safe. I can hit a silver dollar at twenty paces, so there"s no chance of anything going wild."
"For G.o.d"s sake!" gasped Fairfax. Suddenly he disappeared beneath the edge of the table. His knees struck the floor with a resounding thump.
"Get away from me!" shrieked the corpulent lady, kicking at him as she fled the danger spot.
Harvey stooped and peered under the table at his enemy, a broad grin on his face. Fairfax took it for a grin of malevolence.
"Peek-a-boo!" called Harvey.
"Don"t shoot! For the love of Heaven, don"t shoot!" yelled Fairfax.
Then to the men who were edging away in quest of safety behind the sideboard, china closet, and serving table:--"Why don"t you grab him, you idiots?"
Harvey suddenly realised the danger of his position. He straightened up and jerked the revolver from his pocket, brandishing it in full view of them all.
"Keep back!" he shouted--a most unnecessary command.
Those who could not crowd behind the sideboard made a rush for the butler"s pantry. Feminine shrieks and masculine howls filled the air.
Chairs were overturned in the wild rush for safety. No less than three well-dressed women were crawling on their hands and knees toward the only means of exit from the room.
"Telephone for the police!" yelled Fairfax, backing away on all-fours, suggesting a crawfish.
"Stay where you are!" cried Harvey, now thoroughly alarmed by the turn of affairs.
They stopped as if petrified. The three men who were wedged in the pantry door gave over struggling for the right of precedence and turned to face the peril.
Once more he brandished the weapon, and once more there were shrieks and groans, this time in a higher key.
Nellie alone stood her ground. She was desperate. Death was staring her in the face, and she was staring back as if fascinated.
"Harvey! Harvey!" she cried, through bloodless lips. "Don"t do it!
Think of Phoebe! Think of your child!"
Rachel was stealing down the hall. The little Napoleon suddenly realised her purpose and thwarted it.
"Come back here!" he shouted. The trembling maid could not obey for a very excellent reason. She dropped to the floor as if shot, and, failing in the effort to crawl under a low hall-seat, remained there, prostrate and motionless.
He then addressed himself to Nellie, first c.o.c.king the pistol in a most cold-blooded manner. Paying no heed to the commands and exhortations of the men, or the whines of the women, he announced:--
"That"s just what I"ve come here to ask you to do, Nellie; think of Phoebe. Will you promise me to----"
"I"ll promise nothing!" cried Nellie, exasperated. She was beginning to feel ridiculous, which was much worse than feeling terrified. "You can"t bluff me, Harvey, not for a minute."
"I"m not trying to bluff you," he protested. "I"m simply asking you to think. You can think, can"t you? If you can"t think here with all this noise going on, come into the parlour. We can talk it all over quietly and--why, great Scott, I don"t want to kill anybody!" Noting an abrupt change in the att.i.tude of the men, who found some encouragement in his manner, he added hastily, "Unless I have to, of course. Here, you!
Don"t get up!" The command was addressed to Fairfax. "I"d kind of like to take a shot at you, just for fun."
"Harvey," said his wife, quite calmly, "if you don"t put that thing in your pocket and go away I will have you locked up as sure as I"m standing here."
"I ask you once more to come into the parlour and talk it over with me," said he, wavering.
"And I refuse," she cried, furiously.
"Go and have it out with him, Nellie," groaned Fairfax, lifting his head above the edge of the table, only to lower it instantly as Harvey"s hand wabbled unsteadily in a sort of attempt to draw a bead on him.
"Well, why don"t you shoot?" demanded Nellie, curtly.
"No! No!" roared Fairfax.
"No! No!" shrieked the women.
"For two cents I would," stammered Harvey, quite carried away by the renewed turmoil.
"You would do anything for two cents," said Nellie, sarcastically.
"I"d shoot myself for two cents," he wailed, dismally. "I"m no use, anyway. I"d be better off dead."
"For G.o.d"s sake let him do it, Nellie," hissed Fairfax. "That"s the thing; the very thing."
Poor Harvey suddenly came to a full realisation of the position he was in. He had not counted on all this. Now he was in for it, and there was no way out of it. A vast sense of shame and humiliation mastered him. Everything before him turned gray and bleak, and then a hideous red.
He had not meant to do a single thing he had already done. Events had shaped themselves for him. He was surprised, dumfounded, overwhelmed.
The only thought that now ran through his addled brain was that he simply had to do something. He couldn"t stand there forever, like a fool, waving a pistol. In a minute or two they would all be laughing at him. It was ghastly. The wave of self-pity, of self-commiseration submerged him completely. Why, oh why, had he got himself into this dreadful pickle? He had merely come to talk it over with Nellie, that and nothing more. And now, see what he was in for!
"By jingo," he gasped, in the depth of despair, "I"ll do it! I"ll make you sorry, Nellie; you"ll be sorry when you see me lying here all shot to pieces. I"ve been a good husband to you. I don"t deserve to die like this, but----" His watery blue eyes took in the horrified expressions on the faces of his hearers. An innate sense of delicacy arose within him. "I"ll do it in the hall."
"Be careful of the rug," cried Nellie, gayly, not for an instant believing that he would carry out the threat.
"Shall I do it here?" he asked, feebly.
"No!" shrieked the women, putting their fingers in their ears.
"By all means!" cried Fairfax, with a loud laugh of positive relief.
To his own as well as to their amazement, Harvey turned the muzzle of the pistol toward his face. It wabbled aimlessly. Even at such short range he had the feeling that he would miss altogether and looked over his shoulder to see if there was a picture or anything else on the wall that might be damaged by the stray bullet. Then he inserted the muzzle in his mouth.
Stupefaction held his audience. Not a hand was lifted, not a breath was drawn. For half a second his finger clung to the trigger without pressing it. Then he lowered the weapon.
"I guess I better go out in the hall, where the elevator is," he said. "Don"t follow me. Stay where you are. You needn"t worry."
"I"ll bet you ten dollars you don"t do it," said Fairfax, loudly, as he came to his feet.
"I don"t want your dirty money, blast you," exclaimed Harvey, without thinking. "Good-by, Nellie. Be good to Phoebe. Tell "em out in Blakeville that I--oh, tell "em anything you like. I don"t give a rap!"
He turned and went shambling down the hall, his back very stiff, his ears very red.
It was necessary to step over Rachel"s prostrate form. He got one foot across, when she, crazed with fear, emitted a piercing shriek and arose so abruptly that he was caught unawares. What with the start the shriek gave him and the uprising of a supposedly inanimate ma.s.s, his personal equilibrium was put to the severest test. Indeed, he quite lost it, going first into the air with all the sprawl of a bronco buster, and then landing solidly on his left ear where there wasn"t a shred of rug to ease the impact. In a twinkling, however, he was on his feet, apologising to Rachel. But she was crawling away as fast as her hands and knees would carry her. From the dining-room came violent shouts, the hated word "police" dominating the clamour.
He slid through the door and closed it after him. A moment later he was plunging down the steps, disdaining the elevator, which, however fast it may have been, could not have been swift enough for him in his present mood. The police! They would be clanging up to the building in a jiffy, and then what? To the station house!