"Kit has only been a little keener than the rest of us," Lollie said.
"She found him out yesterday."
"Upon my word," said Anne indignantly, preparing to go, "if I didn"t know you girls so well, I would think you were crazy. And now, just to offset this, I can tell you something. Flannigan told me this morning not to worry; that he has my pearl collar spotted, and that YOUNG LADIES WILL HAVE THEIR JOKES!"
Yes, as I said before, it was a cheerful, joy-producing situation.
I sat and thought it over after Anne"s parting shot, when Leila had flounced downstairs. Things were closing in; I gave the situation twenty-four hours to develop. At the end of that time Flannigan would accuse me openly of knowing where the pearls were; I would explain my silly remark to him and the mine would explode--under Aunt Selina.
I was sunk in dejected reverie when some one came on the roof. When he was opposite the opening in the tent, I saw Mr. Harbison, and at that moment he saw me. He paused uncertainly, then he made an evident effort and came over to me.
"You are--better today?"
"Quite well, thank you."
"I am glad you find the tent useful. Does it keep off the wind?"
"It is quite a shelter"--frigidly.
He still stood, struggling for something to say. Evidently nothing came to his mind, for he lifted the cap he was wearing, and turning away, began to work with the wiring of the roof. He was clever with tools; one could see that. If he was a professional gentleman-burglar, no doubt he needed to be. After a bit, finding it necessary to climb to the parapet, he took off his coat, without even a glance in my direction, and fell to work vigorously.
One does not need to like a man to admire him physically, any more than one needs to like a race horse or any other splendid animal. No one could deny that the man on the parapet was a splendid animal; he looked quite big enough and strong enough to have tossed his slender bridge across the gulf to the next roof, without any difficulty, and coordinate enough to have crossed on it with a flourish to safety.
Just then there was a rending, tearing sound from the corner and a muttered e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n. I looked up in time to see Mr. Harbison throw up his arms, make a futile attempt to regain his balance, and disappear over the edge of the roof. One instant he was standing there, splendid, superb; the next, the corner of the parapet was empty, all that stood there was a broken, splintered post and a tangle of wires.
I could not have moved at first; at least, it seemed hours before the full significance of the thing penetrated my dazed brain. When I got up I seemed to walk, to crawl, with leaden weights holding back my feet.
When I got to the corner I had to catch the post for support. I knew somebody was saying, "Oh, how terrible!" over and over. It was only afterward that I knew it had been myself. And then some other voice was saying, "Don"t be alarmed. Please don"t be frightened. I"m all right."
I dared to look over the parapet, finally, and instead of a crushed and unspeakable body, there was Mr. Harbison, sitting about eight feet below me, with his feet swinging into s.p.a.ce and a long red scratch from the corner of his eye across his cheek. There was a sort of mansard there, with windows, and just enough coping to keep him from rolling off.
"I thought you had fallen--all the way," I gasped, trying to keep my lips from trembling. "I--oh, don"t dangle your feet like that!"
He did not seem at all glad of his escape. He sat there gloomily, peering into the gulf beneath.
"If it wasn"t so--er--messy and generally unpleasant," he replied without looking up, "I would slide off and go the rest of the way."
"You are childish," I said severely. "See if you can get through the window behind you. If you can not, I"ll come down and unfasten it." But the window was open, and I had a chance to sit down and gather up the scattered ends of my nerves. To my surprise, however, when he came back he made no effort to renew our conversation. He ignored me completely, and went to work at once to repair the damage to his wires, with his back to me.
"I think you are very rude," I said at last. "You fell over there and I thought you were killed. The nervous shock I experienced is just as bad as if you had gone--all the way."
He put down the hammer and came over to me without speaking. Then, when he was quite close, he said:
"I am very sorry if I startled you. I did not flatter myself that you would be profoundly affected, in any event."
"Oh, as to that," I said lightly, "it makes me ill for days if my car runs over a dog." He looked at me in silence. "You are not going to get up on that parapet again?"
"Mrs. Wilson," he said, without paying the slightest attention to my question, "will you tell me what I have done?"
"Done?"
"Or have not done? I have racked my brains--stayed awake all of last night. At first I hoped it was impersonal, that, womanlike you were merely venting general disfavor on one particular individual. But--your hostility is to me, personally."
I raised my eyebrows, coldly interrogative.
"Perhaps," he went on calmly--"perhaps I was a fool here on the roof--the night before last. If I said anything that I should not, I ask your pardon. If it is not that, I think you ought to ask mine!"
I was angry enough then.
"There can be only one opinion about your conduct," I retorted warmly.
"It was worse than brutal. It--it was unspeakable. I have no words for it--except that I loathe it--and you."
He was very grim by this time. "I have heard you say something like that before--only I was not the unfortunate in that case."
"Oh!" I was choking.
"Under different circ.u.mstances I should be the last person to recall anything so--personal. But the circ.u.mstances are unusual." He took an angry step toward me. "Will you tell me what I have done? Or shall I go down and ask the others?"
"You wouldn"t dare," I cried, "or I will tell them what you did! How you waylaid me on those stairs there, and forced your caresses, your kisses, on me! Oh, I could die with shame!"
The silence that followed was as unexpected as it was ominous. I knew he was staring at me, and I was furious to find myself so emotional, so much more the excited of the two. Finally, I looked up.
"You can not deny it," I said, a sort of anti-climax.
"No." He was very quiet, very grim, quite composed. "No," he repeated judicially. "I do not deny it."
He did not? Or he would not? Which?
Chapter XIV. ALMOST, BUT NOT QUITE
Dal had been acting strangely all day. Once, early in the evening, when I had doubled no trump, he led me a club without apology, and later on, during his dummy, I saw him writing our names on the back of an envelope, and putting numbers after them. At my earliest opportunity I went to Max.
"There is something the matter with Dal, Max," I volunteered. "He has been acting strangely all day, and just now he was making out a list--names and numbers."
"You"re to blame for that, Kit," Max said seriously. "You put washing soda instead of baking soda in those biscuits today, and he thinks he is a steam laundry. Those are laundry lists he"s making out. He asked me a little while ago if I wanted a domestic finish."
Yes, I had put washing soda in the biscuits. The book said soda, and how is one to know which is meant?
"I do not think you are calculated for a domestic finish," I said coldly as I turned away. "In any case I disclaim any such responsibility.
But--there is SOMETHING on Dal"s mind."
Max came after me. "Don"t be cross, Kit. You haven"t said a nice word to me today, and you go around bristling with your chin up and two red spots on your cheeks--like whatever-her-name-was with the snakes instead of hair. I don"t know why I"m so crazy about you; I always meant to love a girl with a nice disposition."
I left him then. Dal had gone into the reception room and closed the doors. And because he had been acting so strangely, and partly to escape from Max, whose eyes looked threatening, I followed him. Just as I opened the door quietly and looked in, Dallas switched off the lights, and I could hear him groping his way across the room. Then somebody--not Dal--spoke from the corner, cautiously.
"Is that you, Mr. Brown, sir?" It was Flannigan.