Part 18 (1/2)
”Dorothy, I am sure!” she thought.
”Well, what do you call the handsome mon?”
”Eesa note-a bees-a da hard. Eesa cheap at-a da twenty thous.”
”Twenty thous--what!”
”Bigg-a da round flat dollairs!”
”Twenty thousand dollars!” angrily exclaimed Virginia, for the moment forgetting herself, and then again her voice fell almost to a whisper.
”You dare ask that from me! Knowing that I have but to call and the police would hound you to prison.”
Jack swiftly wheeled about and rolled his eyes in alarm. The word police startled him, and for the moment he verily believed they were within call, a circ.u.mstance he at once set down to his lax watchfulness, but he soon felt rea.s.sured, and, turning upon her said, sarcastically:
”Oh, that-a beesa a lettle a da game-a. He, he, he, he,” he laughed low and gleefully, in strange contrast to the white of his eyeb.a.l.l.s, which shone with sinister effect as he leered at her.
”Two play-a dees-a da trick, Signora! Wouldn't yous-a look-a da well bees-a compan-e-on ove-a mine, in a da pen, eh, Signora. He, he, he, he,” he again laughed.
”Eesa don-a da know some-a da ting about eesa da Duc, eh! Eesa don-a da hear a da game between ee mand a da Signora da Virginia, eh!
Sacremento!” He fairly ground out the last word between his teeth.
Virginia shuddered and then involuntarily exclaimed: ”Villain!”
Jack turned upon her swiftly, ceremoniously bowed, and again leered at her. Then, with a most offensive smirk playing about his mouth, said: ”Tank-a da Signora, my a da pard.”
Her face burned with the red that flushed up. She felt that even the darkness could not conceal her flaming cheeks. She bent her head in humiliation and shame at the all too well merited rebuke.
For a moment there followed intense stillness. She thought of what he had possibly heard at the Harris reception. ”His disclosure would incriminate me with Rutley. Still, it matters not. My duty to my G.o.d, my home and Constance is to make reparation for the wrong I have done.”
She broke the silence in an a.s.sumed, haughty tone. ”Well, as you are poor and in need, I will give you five hundred dollars upon return of the child; but if you do not comply by noon tomorrow I shall inform the police.”
”Eesa bett-a note!” he replied, with an unmistakable menace in his voice. ”Eef yourse da squeal on a da ma, Signora--look-a da out!” And so saying, he slowly drew his finger across his throat.
The action was most significant. ”Eesa bett-a da keep a da mum!
Understand-a! Youse-a geeve a me a da twenty da thouse-a dollair, youse-a take a da kid--but youse-a da squeal!” and he drew close and hissed at her--”Bett-a da look a for her eesa mong a da weeds in a da Willamette.”
His att.i.tude was so threatening, and his speech uttered with such savage earnestness, that it drove all courage from her heart. Again she felt, as once before, at the Harris reception, how puny a thing she was in the presence of a strong, masculine rascal.
She, however, quickly mastered the momentary sickening alarm that had seized her, and a.s.suming a bold, threatening manner, in which she astonished herself, for she felt anything but defiant just then, said in a voice low and determined:
”Scoundrel! If you harm that child, I, myself, will weave the rope to hang you!”
Jack leered at her. ”So Signora”--laughed, laughed low and derisively.
”Ha, ha, ha, Signora lak-a da job, eh? Eesa mak-a da boss a hang-a man, eh?”
Jack could not repress a smile of admiration at her courage, and his lips quivered to exclaim: ”G.o.d, she is game!”
”An-a deesea lettle white-a da hands-a,” he sneered. ”Stain 'em all a da red, eh?” and he chuckled low, as though amused. ”Oh, ha, ha, ha.”