Part 10 (2/2)
”I will!” she flamed. ”Let me alone!”
”You'll ruin everything,” he pleaded earnestly. ”Don't you know that they get every number I call? Don't you know that within fifteen minutes they will have that number, and their men will start for there?”
She faced him with blazing eyes.
”I don't care,” she said deliberately, and the white face was relieved by an angry flush. ”I will know what has happened out there! I must! Gene, don't you see that I'm frantic with anxiety?
The money means nothing to me. I want to know if he is safe.”
His hand was still gripped over the transmitter. Suddenly she turned and tugged at it fiercely. Her sharp little nails bit into the flesh of his fingers. In a last desperate effort she placed the receiver to her lips.
”Give me long distance, Coaldale Number--”
With a quick movement he snapped the connecting wire from the instrument, and the receiver was free in her hand.
”Doris, you are mad!” he protested. ”Wait a minute, my dear girl-- just a minute.”
”I don't care! I _will_ know!”
Mr. Wynne turned and picked up a heavy cane from the hall-stand, and brought it down on the transmitter with all his strength. The delicate mechanism jangled and tingled, then the front fell off at their feet. The diaphragm dropped and rolled away.
”Doris, you must not!” he commanded again gravely. ”We will find another way, dear.”
”How dare you?” she demanded violently. ”It was cowardly.”
”You don't understand--”
”I understand it all,” she broke in. ”I understand that this might lead to the failure of the thing you are trying to do. But I don't care. I understand that already I have lost my father and my brother in this; that my grandmother and my mother were nearly starved to death while it was all being planned; all for these hideous diamonds. Diamonds! Diamonds! Diamonds! I've heard nothing all my life but that. As a child it was dinned into me, and now I am sick and weary of it all. I know--I _know_ something has happened to him now. I hate them! I hate them!”
She stopped, glared at him with scornful eyes for an instant, then ran up the stairs again. Mr. Wynne touched a b.u.t.ton in the wall, and the maid appeared.
”Go lock the back door, and bring me the key,” he commanded.
The maid went away, and a moment later returned to hand him the key.
He still stood in the hall, waiting.
After a little there came a rush of skirts, and Miss Kellner ran down the steps, dressed for the street.
”Doris,” he pleaded, ”you must not go out now. Wait just a moment-- we'll find a way, and then I'll go with you.”
She tried to pa.s.s him, but his outstretched arms made her a prisoner.
”Do I understand that you refuse to let me go?” she asked tensely.
”Not like this,” he replied. ”If you'll give me just a little while then perhaps--perhaps I may go with you. Even if something had happened there you could do nothing alone. I, too, am afraid now.
Just half an hour--fifteen minutes! Perhaps I may be able to find a plan.”
Suddenly she sank down on the stairs, with her face in her hands. He caressed her hair tenderly, then raised her to her feet.
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