Part 27 (1/2)
”Where do you want me to t-take you?” demanded Peter.
”Ah! That is of so little importance! To Nara--Nagoya--to Australia--America.”
She shrugged, as if to say, ”and little I care.”
”Now I am offering you only two rewards for that sacrifice--your safety against _them_--and money. You can name your price. I feel that you will come to love me; but that can come, if it cares, any time. When you want me--I will be waiting. I want you to consider this now. Now!
Will you? Tell me that you will!”
”I--I don't know what to say!” stammered Peter in a husky voice.
”Are--you are not joking, are you, Miss Borria? You can't be! But this is so serious! Shocking! Why, you never saw me before! Why should you pick me for such a thing when you never saw me? You don't know me. You don't know what a brute I might be. Why, I might be married for all you know----”
”I am reasonably sure,” said the girl with some of her former serenity.
”But this--this is unbelievable!” cried Peter. ”You never saw me before to-day. Why, you're a nice girl. You're not the kind of girl who runs away with a man at first sight. You're not in love with me at all. Not at all. Miss Borria----”
A flame of hot suspicion shot athwart Peter's mind. He seized her hands, glared into her eyes, dragged her to her feet.
”See here!” he clamored. ”Tell me what you really want. What's your game, eh? You're a wise little bird, you are. I may look stupid, I may not see all the way through this talk you've been giving me.
You're holding back. What is it? Come on! Out with it!”
She was not disturbed in the least at his harshness, nor did she seemingly disapprove of the rough way he handled her.
”I am married,” she said simply.
CHAPTER IV
To Peter this revelation was like the addition of a single grain to a bucket br.i.m.m.i.n.g with sand.
”Well, what of it?” he barked.
”To a man who is fat and untidy, a man old enough to be my father, who treats me as if I were a thief, or a dog. I loathe him. And he detests me. You see”--she smiled ironically--”we are not very happy.
I ran away from him a month ago, from Hong Kong. I ran as far as Singaraja, and now I have to go back because I have not the courage to stay away. A stronger will would make me give him up. Would make me go away, and stay. And I grabbed at you.”
”As a drowning man would grab at a straw.”
”Not at all! Perhaps, let us say, I had pictured such a man as you.
And then you came. He will beat me when I return.”
”No!”
”Yes!” She pressed down the gauzy stuff which came up almost to her throat in the form of a high ”V.” And across the rounded white curve of her chest were four angry red stripes, the marks of a whip.
He shuddered. ”This is terrible.”
”Will you help me--now?”
”What can I do? What can I do?” He was striving to adjust himself to this exceedingly difficult situation. ”But I don't understand how you can place all this confidence in me.”