CHAPTER X--INTO BONDAGE
She continued to stare for some moments, while he stood frozen to thespot. Then the young lady's face changed. Fear, startled wonder, gaveway to an expression of growing comprehension and into her eyes camesuch an excited look.
"You!" said Miss Dolly in a thrilling whisper. And then--"Pick it up,please."
Instead of picking anything up--he didn't know what--Bob was about torush for the door, when-- "Stop! Or I'll scream," exclaimed Miss Dolly."I'll scream so loud I'll wake every one in the house."
Bob stopped. In his eyes was an agony of contrition and shame. MissDolly, however, seemed quite self-possessed. She might have beenfrightened at first, but she was no longer that. Her temperamental,somewhat childish face wore a thrill of pleasurable anticipation. "Nowpick it up," she repeated.
"What?" stammered Bob in a shrinking voice.
"The brooch, to be sure. Didn't you drop it?"
"I?" said Bob, drawing his dressing-gown closer about him. They werespeaking in stage whispers.
"Of course. Wasn't it what you came for?"
"Came for? Great heavens!--Do you think?--"
"Think?" said Miss Dolly. "I know."
Bob looked at her. Her face appeared elf-like, uncannily wise. But forall her outward calm, her eyes were great big, excited eyes. Hishorrified glance turned quickly from them to regard a gleaming diamondand pearl brooch on the rug. "Jumping Je-hoshaphat! You don't thinkI'm--"
"One of those thrilling society-highwaymen, or social buccaneers?" saidMiss Dolly. "Of course, and I'm so glad it happened like this. Iwouldn't have missed it for the world. Really, I've always wanted tomeet one of those popular heroes. And now to think my dream has cometrue! It's just like a play, isn't it?"
"It is not," replied Bob savagely. This was too much. It was just aboutthe last straw. "I--" Then he stopped. Suppose any one should hear him?Miss Dolly's temperamental and comprehensive eyes read his thought.
"I don't think there's any danger," she purred soothingly. "You seethere's a bathroom on one side of the room and a brick wall on theother. I wouldn't be surprised if all the rooms are separated by brickpartitions," she confided to him. "Mrs. Ralston likes everythingperfect--sound-proof, fire-proof, and all that."
"See here," said Bob. "I was just wandering around--couldn'tsleep--and--and I came in here, quite by mistake. Thought it was my ownroom!" With some vehemence.
Miss Dolly shook her head reprovingly, and her temperamental hair flowedall about her over the white counterpane. She knew it must look verybecoming, it was such wonderful hair--that is, for dark hair. Bobpreferred light. Not that he was thinking of hair, now! "Can't you dobetter than that?" asked the temperamental young thing.
"Better than what?" queried Bob ill-naturedly. He was beginning to feelreal snappy.
"Invent a better whopper, I mean?"
"It isn't a whopper, and--and I positively refuse to stay here anylonger. Positively!"
"Oh, no; not positively," said Miss Dolly, nodding a wise young head."You're going to stay, unless--you know the alternative. Since I'mdestined to be a heroine, I want a regular play-scene. I don't want mypart cut down to nothing. Don't you love thief-plays, Mr. Bennett? It'ssuch fun to see people running around, not knowing who _is_ the thief.I'm sure I feel quite privileged, in this instance."
Bob growled beneath his breath. He was handsome enough certainly for amatinee hero. He was tall and lithe and had such clean-cut features. Thetemperamental young thing regarded him with thrilling approval. Heentirely realized her ideal of a social burglar. It seemed almost toogood to be true.
"I knew you were different from other men," she said. "Something told mefrom the very first; perhaps it was the way you tangoed. I expected youwould ask me to trot, but you didn't." Reprovingly. "Suppose you wereotherwise engaged?" Glancing toward the brooch.
"Not the way you think!" said Bob gloomily, looking more striking thanever in that melancholy pose. It seemed to harmonize with acrime-stained career.
"Of course," murmured Dolly, "it was you who got Mrs. TempletonBlenfield's wonderful emeralds?"
"It was not," answered Bob curtly.
"You were at that costume ball where she lost them?"
"Suppose I was?" he snapped. Yes, snapped! There is a limit to humanendurance.
"And you were at Mrs. Benton Briscoe's when a tiara mysteriouslydisappeared?"
"Well, I'm hanged!" said Bob, staring at her.
"Oh, I hope not--that is, I hope you won't be, some day," answeredDolly. "Are you going to 'fess up?' You'd better. Maybe I won't betrayyou--yet. Maybe I won't at all, if you're real nice."
"Oh!" said Bob. Whereupon she smiled at him sweetly, just as if to sayit was nice and exciting to have a great, big, bold (and wildlyhandsome) society-highwayman in her power. Why, she could send him tojail, if she wanted to. She had but to lift a little finger and he wouldhave to jump. The consciousness of guilty knowledge and power shepossessed made her glow all over. She didn't really know though, yet,whether she would be kind or severe.
"Do you operate alone, or with accomplices?" she asked, after a fewmoments' pleasurable anticipations.
"I beg pardon?" Bob was again gazing uneasily toward the door.
"Got any pals?" She tried to talk the way they do in the thief-books.
"No, I haven't," snapped Bob. That truth pact made it necessary toanswer the most silly questions.
"Well, I didn't know but you had," murmured the temperamental youngthing. "I heard a dog barking and that made me think you might havethem. You're sure you didn't let anybody into the house?"
"I didn't."
Miss Dolly snuggled herself together more cozily. She seemed about toask some more questions. Perhaps she would want to know if he had letanybody out, and then he would have to tell her--
"Look here," said Bob desperately. "Maybe it hasn't occurred to you,but--this--this isn't exactly proper. Me here, like this, and you--"
"Oh, I'm not afraid," answered Miss Dolly with wonderful assurance. "Ican quite take care of myself."
"But--but--" more desperately--"if I should be discovered?--Can't yousee, for your own sake--?"
"My own sake?" The big innocent eyes opened wider. "In that case, ofcourse, I'd tell them the truth."
"The truth!" How he hated the word! "You mean that I--?" Glancing towardthe brooch.
"Of course!" Tranquilly.
Bob tried to consider. He could see what would happen to him, if theywere interrupted. It certainly was a most preposterous conversation,anyhow. Besides, it wasn't the place or the time for a conversation ofany kind. He had just about made up his mind that he would go, whethershe screamed or not, and take the consequences, however disagreeablethey might be, when--
"Well, trot along," said Miss Dolly graciously. "I suppose you've got alot of work to do to-night and it's rather unkind to detain you. Onlypick up the brooch before you go." He obeyed. "Now put it on the dresserand leave it there. Hard to do that, isn't it?"
"No, it isn't." Savagely.
"Well, you can go now. By the way, Mrs. Vanderpool has a bigbronze-colored diamond surrounded by wonderful pink pearls. It's anantique and--would adorn a connoisseur's collection."
"But I tell you I am not--"
"My! How stupid, to keep on saying that! But, of course, you must reallybe very clever. Society-highwaymen always are. Good night. So glad I wasthinking of something else and forgot to lock the door!"
Bob went to the door and she considerately waited until he had reachedit; then she put out a hand and pushed a convenient button which shutoff the light. Bob opened the door but closed it quickly again. Hefancied he saw some one out there in the hall, a shadowy form in thedistance, but was not absolutely sure.
"Aren't you gone?" said the temperamental young thing.
"S-sh!" said Bob.
For some moments there was silence, thrilling enough, even for her. ThenBob gently opened the door once more, though very slightly, and peeredo
ut of the tiniest crack, but he failed to see any one now, so concludedhe must have been mistaken. The shadows were most deceptive. Anyhow,there was more danger in staying than in going, so he slid out andclosed the door. At the same moment he heard a very faint click. Itseemed to come from the other side of the hall. He didn't like that, hetold himself, and waited to make sure no one was about. The ensuingsilence reassured him somewhat; and the "click," he argued, might havecome from the door he himself had closed.
The temperamental young thing, holding her breath, heard him now movesoftly but swiftly away. She listened, nothing happened. Then shestretched her young form luxuriously and pondered on the delirioussecret that was all hers. A secret that made Bob her slave! Abjectly herslave! Like the servant of the lamp! She could compel him to turnsomersaults if she wanted to.
Bob awoke with a slight headache, which, however, didn't surprise himany. He only wondered his head didn't ache more. People came down tobreakfast almost any time, and sometimes they didn't come down at allbut sipped coffee in their rooms, continental-fashion. It was late whenBob got up, so a goodly number of the guests--the exceptions includingMrs. Dan and Mrs. Clarence--were down by the time he sauntered into thebig sun-room, where breakfast was served to all with American appetites.
The temperamental little thing managed accidentally (?) to encounter himat the doorway before he got into the room with the others. He shiveredslightly when he saw her, though she looked most attractive in herrather bizarre way. Bob gazed beyond her, however, to a vision in thewindow. "Vision!" That just described what Miss Gwendoline looked like,with the sunlight on her and making an aureole of her glorious fairhair. Of course one could put an adjective or two, before the"vision"--such as "beautiful," or something even stronger--without beingaccused of extravagance.
The little dark thing, uttering some platitude, followed Bob's look, butshe didn't appear jealous. She hadn't quite decided how much latitude togive Bob. That young gentleman noticed that the hammer-thrower, lookinglike one of those stalwart, masculine tea-passers in an English novel,was not far from Miss Gwendoline. His big fingers could apparentlyhandle delicate china as well as mighty iron balls or sledges. Hecomported himself as if his college education had included a course atTuller's in Oxford Street, in London, where six-foot guardsmen aretaught to maneuver among spindle-legged tables and to perform almostimpossible feats without damage to crockery.
Miss Dolly now maneuvered so as to draw Bob aside in the hall to have aword or two before he got to bacon and eggs. What she said didn'timprove his appetite.
"I'm so disappointed in you," she began in a low voice.
He asked why, though not because he really cared to know.
"After that hint of mine!" she explained reproachfully. "About Mrs.Vanderpool's bronze diamond, I mean!"
"I fear I do not understand you," said Bob coldly.
She bent nearer. "Of course I thought it would disappear," she murmured."I expected you to execute one of those clever coups, and so I wentpurposely to Mrs. Vanderpool's room on some pretext this morning tolearn if it was gone. But it wasn't. I cleverly led the conversation upto it and she showed it to me."
"Great Scott!" he exclaimed. "Did you think she wouldn't have it to showyou? That it had found its way to my pockets?"
"Of course," she answered. "And you _are_ quite sure you haven't it,after all?" she asked suspiciously.
"How could I, when you saw--"
"Oh, you might have substituted a counterfeit brooch just like it for--"
Bob groaned. "You certainly have absorbed those plays," he remarked.
"I expected a whole lot of things would be gone," she went on, "and,apparently," with disappointment, "no one has missed anything. It'squite tame. Did you get discouraged because you failed to land the'loot'--is that the word?--in my case? And did you then just goprosaically to bed?"
"I certainly went to bed, though there was nothing prosaic about theprocedure."
"And yet what a dull night it must have been for you!"
"I shouldn't call it that."
"No?" She shifted the conversation. "Who do you suppose has come? DickieDonnelly. Said he had arrived in town on some business and tookadvantage of the opportunity to make a little call on me. Incidentally,he seems interested in you. Said he would make it a point to see youafter you got down. He's out on the veranda smoking now, I guess. Hewanted to talk to me but I made an excuse to shoo him away. He isn'thalf so exciting as you are, you know. I'm quite positive now I couldn'tmarry him and annex his old chimneys to ours, for all the world.Chimneys are such commonplace means to a livelihood, Mr. Bennett, don'tyou think? They are so ugly and dependable. Not at all romantic andprecarious! They just smoke and you get richer. There isn't a singlethrill in a whole forest of chimneys. But I mustn't really keep you fromyour breakfast any longer," she added with sudden sedulousness. "I'vequite planned what we're going to do to-day."
"You have?" With a slight accent on the first word.
"Yes," she assured him quietly. "So run along now."
The slave, glad to get away, started to obey, when--"One moment!" saidMiss Dolly as if seized with an afterthought. "Dickie asked about you soparticularly that it occurred to me that-- Well, do you think he harborsany suspicions?"
"Suspicions?"
"Yes; do you imagine he, too, by any chance, may have guessed--youknow?" And Dolly again drew closer, her eyes beaming with newexcitement.
Bob looked disagreeable, but he had to reply. "I'm sure he doesn't thinkwhat you do," he answered ill-humoredly.
Dolly looked relieved, but still slightly dubious. She didn't appear tonotice that lack of appreciation in Bob's manner for her interest in hiswelfare. "Well, you'd better see him," she said in the tone of one whohad already established herself to the post of secret adviser. "He'sbent on an interview with you. Says it's business. And speaking aboutbusiness, what business could he possibly have in that dinky littletown? Unless he wanted to buy the whole village! His conduct is, to saythe least, slightly mysterious. Dickie may prove a factor to be reckonedwith."
"That's true enough," assented Bob, and went in to breakfast.
The temperamental little thing gazed after him approvingly; she quitegloried in her big burglar. It was so nice to know something no one elseknew, to be a little wiser than all the rest of the world, including thepolice and the detective force! Bob must be terribly resourceful andsubtle, to have deceived them all so thoroughly. He only seemed a littledense at times, just to keep up the deception. It was a part of therole. He wouldn't even let her, who knew his secret, see under thesurface and she liked him all the better for his reticence. It lentpiquancy to the situation and added zest to the game. Dickie's mannerhad certainly seemed to her unduly sober. He appeared to have somethingon his mind, though of course he was awfully eager and joyous aboutseeing her.
At the breakfast-table Bob only dallied with his hot rolls and took buta few gulps of coffee. The monocle-man who sat near by noticed that wantof appetite.
"Don't seem very keen for your feed this morning," he observedjocularly.
"No, not over-peckish," answered Bob.
"Why not? You look--aw--fit enough!" Reaching for one of those racks forunbuttered toast which Mrs. Ralston had brought home with her fromLondon.
"Headache, for one thing," returned Bob. It was the truth, or part ofthe truth. No one looked sympathetic, however. In fact, with theexception of the monocle-man (Mrs. Ralston hadn't yet come down), everyone in there made it apparent he or she desired as little as possible ofMr. Bennett's society. Bob soon got up, casting a last bitter glance atMiss Gerald who seemed quite contented with her stalwart, honest-lookinghammer-thrower. And why not? His character, Bob reflected, wasunimpeachable. He looked so good and honest and so utterly wholesomethat Bob, who himself was tainted with suspicion, wanted to get out ofhis presence. So Bob went out to the porch, to hunt up Dickie andascertain what was the matter with him?
It didn't take Bob long to learn what was worrying Dickie.
He wascarrying the weight of a new and tremendous responsibility. He had nowbecome an emissary, a friend in need, to Clarence and the commodore, whocertainly needed one at this moment. It seemed that Mrs. Clarence andMrs. Dan had set detectives searching for Gee-gee and Gid-up and theyhad succeeded in locating one of the pair, partly by a freckle and aturned-up nose. The detectives must have worked fast. They were assistedby the fact that foolish Clarence had kept up an innocent and Platonicfriendship with "Gee-gee's" chum, after that momentous evening when Bobhad been along. Now when a young man begins to hang around the vicinityof a stage door in a big car, he is apt to make himself a subject forremark and to become known, especially to the door-keeper who takes afatherly interest in his Shetland herd. As Gid-up and Gee-gee wereinseparable, it was but a step to place one by the other.
Detectives, Dickie informed Bob, had already interviewed the ladies.They may have offered them money in exchange for information. Mrs. Danwas very rich in her own name. She could outbid the commodore. Gid-upmight hesitate or refuse to supply or manufacture information for filthylucre, but Gee-gee was known to be ambitious. She longed to soar. Andhere was a means to that end. Quite a legitimate and customary one!
"Why, that girl would do anything to get herself talked about," saidDickie sadly, thinking of Dan, and incidentally, too, of Clarence."She'd manufacture information by the car-load. Out of a little,teeny-weeny remnant of truth, she'd build a magnificent divorce case.Think of the glorious publicity! Why, Gee-gee and one of themanager-chaps would sit up nights to see how many columns they couldfill each day in the press. They'd make poor old Dan out worse thanNero. They'd picture him as a monster. They'd give him claws. AndClarence would come crawling after him like a slimy snake. Incidentally,they'd throw in a few weeps for Gee-gee. And then some more for Gid-up!Why, man, when I think of the mischief you've done--"
"Me?" said Bob miserably, almost overwhelmed by this pathetic pictureDickie had drawn. "But it wasn't! It was Truth." Dickie snorted. "Whatdo you want me to do? Commit suicide? Annihilate truth? That would beone way of doing it. I'm sure I shouldn't much mind. Shall I poisonTruth or blow its brains out? Or shall I take it down to the lake andjump in with it? Do you think it has made _me_ very happy? What am I?What have I become? Where is my good name?" He was thinking of what thetemperamental little thing considered him. "Say, do I look like acriminal?" he demanded, confronting Dickie. The latter stared, thenshrugged. Of course, if Bob wanted to rave--? "Or a crazy man? Do I lookcrazy?" he continued almost fiercely. "Well, there are people in there,"indicating the house, "who think I am." Dickie started slightly andlooked thoughtful. "You ask the judge, or the doctor, or--a lot ofothers. Ask Miss Gwendoline Gerald," he concluded bitterly.
Dickie shifted a leg. "It might not be a bad idea," he said in apeculiar tone, whose accent Bob didn't notice, however. For some momentsthe two young men sat moodily and silently side by side.
"Where are Dan and Clarence now?" asked Bob in a dull tone, after awhile.
"Gone to New York. Hustled there early this morning after some hurry-upmessages gave an inkling of what was going on. I'm to do my best at thisend. Keep my eyes on Mrs. Dan and Mrs. Clarence, and incidentally, learnand do what I can."
As he spoke Dickie tapped his leg with his cane; at the same time hebestowed another of those peculiar looks on Bob. Just then a young ladystepped from the house and came toward them. She was in the trimmestattire--for shooting or fishing--and looked extraordinarily trim,herself. A footman followed with two light rods and a basket.
"Come on," she said lightly to Bob. "Might as well get started. It'salmost noon."
"Started?" he stammered, staring at her.
"Yes, on that fishing excursion we planned."
"We?" he repeated in the same tone. And then-- "All right!" he said. Itoccurred to him, if he went off somewhere alone, with the temperamentalyoung thing, he wouldn't, at any rate, have to bob against a score or soof other people throughout the day. Better one than a crowd! "I'mready," he added, taking the rods and small basket.
"But, I say--" Dickie had arisen. There was a new look in his eyes--ofdisappointment, surprise--perhaps apprehension, too! "I say--" herepeated, looking darkly toward Bob.
The temperamental young thing threw him a smile. "Sorry, Dickie, but aprevious engagement.--You know how it is!"
"I can imagine," thought Dickie ominously, watching them disappear. Thenhis glance shifted viciously toward the house, and there was a look ofstern determination in his eyes. As he mingled with others of the guestsa few moments later, however, his expression had become one of studiedamiability. Dickie was deep. His grievance now was as great as Dan's orClarence's.