第36章

Ramsay says.She had slipped it under the fold of the spread at the top of the bed in the room where you took off your things in Mrs.Gates'presence,and put them on again when no one else was there.""And you mean to tell me that this is all?"I raged at him;"that every bit of evidence you have to warrant your treating an innocent girl like--""You didn't behave like a very innocent girl,if you'll remember,"he said dryly,"when I first came into the box.In fact,if that fellow hadn't just come in then I believe you'd 'a'confessed the whole job.'Tain't too late,"he added.

I didn't answer.I put my head back against the cushions and closed my eyes.I could feel the scrutiny of his blue eyes on my naked face--your face is so unprotected with the eyes closed;like a fort whose battery is withdrawn.But I was tired--it tires you when you care.A year ago,Mag,this sort of thing--the risk,the nearness to danger,the chances one way or the other--would have intoxicated me.I used to feel as though I was dancing on a volcano and daring it to explode.The more twistings and turnings there were to the labyrinth,the greater glory it was to get out.

Maggie darlin',you have before you a mournful spectacle--the degeneration of Nancy Olden.It isn't that she's lost courage.

It's only that she used to be able to think of only one thing,and now--What do you suppose it is,Mag?If you know,don't you dare to tell me.

When we got to the flat Obermuller was already there.At the door I pulled out my key and opened it with a flourish.

"Won't you come in,gentlemen,and spend the evening?"I asked.

They followed me in.First to the parlor.The two fellows threw off their coats and searched that through and through--not a drawer did they miss,not a bit of furniture did they fail to move.Obermuller and I sat there guying them as they pried about in their shirt-sleeves.That Trust business has taken the life out of him of late.All their tricks,all their squeezings,their cheatings,their bossing and bragging and bullying have got on to his nerves till he looks like a chained bear getting a drubbing.

And he swears that they're in a conspiracy to freeze him and a few others like him out;he believes there's actually a paper in existence that would prove it.But this affair of the purse seemed to excite him till he behaved like a bad school-boy.

And I?Well,Nance Olden was never far behind at the Cruelty when there was anything going on.We trailed after them,and when they'd finished with the bedrooms--yours and mine--I asked the big fellow to come into the kitchen with Mr.O.and me,while the blue-eyed detective tackled the dining-room,and I'd get up a lunch for us all.

Mag,you should have seen Fred Obermuller with a big apron on him,dressing the salad while I was making sandwiches.The Cruelty taught me how to cook,even if it did teach me other things.You wouldn't have believed that the Trust had got him by the throat,and was choking the last breath out of him.You wouldn't have believed that our salaries hadn't been paid for three weeks,that our houses were dwindling every night,that--I was thinking about it all there in the back of my head,trying to see a way out of it--you know if there is such an agreement as Obermuller swears there is,it's against the law--while we rattled on,the two of us,like a couple of children on a picnic,when I heard a crash behind me.

The salad bowl had slipped from Obermuller's fingers.He stood with his back turned to me,his eyes fixed upon that searching detective.

But he wasn't searching any more,Mag.He was standing still as a pointer that's scented game.He had moved the lounge out from the wall,and there on the floor,spread open where it had fallen,lay a handsome elephant-skin purse,with gold corners.

From where I stood,Mag,I could read the plain gold lettering on the dark leather.I didn't have to move.It was plain enough--quite plain.

Mrs.EDWARD RAMSAY

Hush,hush,Mag;if you take on so,how can I tell you the rest?

Obermuller got in front of me as I started to walk into the dining-room.I don't know what his idea was.I don't suppose he does exactly--if it wasn't to spare me the sight of that damned thing.

Oh,how I hated it,that purse!I hated it as if it had been something alive that could be glad of what it had done.I wished it was alive that I could tear and rend it and stamp on it and throw it in a fire,and drag it out again,with burned and bleeding nails,to tear it again and again.I wanted to fall on it and hide it;to push it far,far away out of sight;to stamp it down--down into the very bottom of the earth,where it could feel the hell it was making for me.

But I only stood there,stupidly looking at it,having pushed past Obermuller,as though I never wanted to see anything else.

And then I heard that blue-eyed fellow's words.

"Well,"he said,pulling on his coat as though he'd done a good day's work,"I guess you'd just better come along with me."