Part 47 (1/2)
”Molly,” began Wise, ”we've found that some one has been--prowling round in here, just as you said,--and you are to tell us who it was.”
”That I don't know, sir,” the girl replied, speaking with a flippancy that was careless and almost impertinent.
”Then tell us all you do know. Was it a man or a woman?”
”A woman, sir.”
”Why, Molly!” Zizi cried, ”you told me it was a man, and that he was up to no good. Those were your very words.”
”Oh, no, you don't remember correctly. I said it was a woman.”
”That is an untruth,” Zizi stated, calmly. ”So, now we know you are telling us falsehoods, we must find out why. Has some one paid you for it? We will pay you more for the truth. Might as well, Penny. This girl only sells her statements, true or false.”
”All right, Molly. But we only want to buy the true ones. Now, what'll you take for all you really know about the matter, and guarantee to be the strict truth?”
”I don't want any pay. And the truth is that the person I saw was a lady--I mean a woman.”
”Care to mention names?”
”I don't know who it was. I just saw a veiled figure----”
”Cut out the veiled figure!” cried Zizi. ”You're making it up. There never was any veiled figure,--you saw a man hunting around here, while you were hidden in the bathroom. You know he was looking for something of value hidden in these rooms. And----” Zizi's black eyes fairly seemed to bore into Molly's own as she went on, ”you know he got it. Also, you know who the man was,--and you won't tell, and you say it was a woman, because--because what, Molly?”
”I don't--I mean----” Molly blushed scarlet and dropped her eyes; then, with a revived bravado she cried, ”It _was_ a woman,--I tell you it was a woman!”
”Stop lying!” said Zizi sternly, ”she's doing that, Pen, because the man she saw has ordered her to.”
”No, he hasn't,” Molly declared, but Zizi said:
”Yes, he has, and what's more, he has bribed you by----”
Zizi's penetrating glance overcame Molly's boldness and she trembled in silence as Zizi said, ”by marriage!”
Even Wise looked up in amazement; ”What _do_ you mean, Zizi?”
”Just what I say. Molly is wearing a very bright, new wedding ring. She didn't have it yesterday. Molly knows the truth we're looking for, and she won't tell because it implicates a man who has married her to keep her quiet! Is it Bob Moore, Molly.”
”Yes, ma'am,” said the girl, in a low tone, and with a very apparent look of relief.
”Then it isn't,” said Zizi triumphantly; ”I know by the way you speak!
Who is it?”
”It isn't anybody,” Molly said, but she said it with a furtive glance at their faces in turn; with a hesitating air of uncertainty as to what course to take; with a futile attempt at her old impudent manner. ”I'm not really married; lots of us girls wear a wedding ring to fool people.”
”Rubbis.h.!.+” said Zizi, contemptuously. ”There's no sense in that! You are married,--or, you think you are--aha, I thought so!”
For Molly's scared glance betokened that Zizi had struck on the truth.
Quite evidently she was apprehensive lest the aspersion should prove a correct one. ”He married you in an extremity of fear,--fear that you would tell of his visit to the room,--now, who could it be, Penny? It's easy enough to judge if we guess right,--but I can't think of any one.