登陆注册
15314700000065

第65章 WITHIN THE TOILS(1)

The going of Garson left the room deathly still.Dick stared for a moment at the space of window left uncovered by the draperies now, since the man had hurried past them, without pausing to draw them after him.Then, presently, the young man turned again to Mary, and took her hand in his.The shock of the event had somehow steadied him, since it had drawn his thoughts from that other more engrossing mood of concern over the crisis in his own life.After all, what mattered the death of this crook? his fancy ran.The one thing of real worth in all the world was the life that remained to be lived between him and her....Then, violently, the selfishness of his mood was made plain to him.

For the hand he held was shaking like some slender-stalked lily in the clutch of the sirocco.Even as he first perceived the fact, he saw the girl stagger.His arm swept about her in a virile protecting embrace--just in time, or she would have fallen.

A whisper came from her quivering lips.Her face was close to his, else he could not have caught the uncertain murmuring.That face now was become ghastly pale.The violet eyes were widened and dull.The muscles of her face twitched.She rested supinely against him, as if bereft of any strength of body or of soul.

Yet, in the intensity of her utterance, the feeble whisper struck like a shriek of horror.

"I--I--never saw any one killed before!"

The simple, grisly truth of the words--words that he might have spoken as well--stirred the man to the deeps of his being.He shuddered, as he turned his eyes to avoid seeing the thing that lay so very near, mercifully merged within the shadows beyond the gentle radiance from the single lamp.With a pang of infinite pity for the woman in his arms, he apprehended in some degree the torture this event must have inflicted on her.Frightful to him, it must in truth be vastly worse to her.There was her womanly sensitiveness to enhance the innate hideousness of the thing that had been done here before their eyes.There was, too, the fact that the murderer himself had been the man to whom she owed her life.Yes, for him, Dick realized with poignant sympathy, the happening that night was terrible indeed: for her, as he guessed now at last, the torture must be something easily to overwhelm all her strength.His touch on her grew tender beyond the ordinary tenderness of love, made gentler by a great underlying compassion for her misery.

Dick drew Mary toward the couch, there let her sink down in a huddled attitude of despair.

"I never saw a man--killed before!" she said again.There was a note of half-hysterical, almost childish complaint in her voice.

She moved her head a little, as if to look into the shadows where IT lay, then checked herself violently, and looked up at her husband with the pathetic simplicity of terror.

"You know, Dick," she repeated dully, "I never saw a man killed before."Before he could utter the soothing words that rose to his lips, Dick was interrupted by a slight sound at the door.Instantly, he was all alert to meet the exigencies of the situation.He stood by the couch, bending forward a little, as if in a posture of intimate fondness.Then, with a new thought, he got out his cigarette-case and lighted a cigarette, after which he resumed his former leaning over the woman as would the ardent lover.He heard the noise again presently, now so near that he made sure of being overheard, so at once he spoke with a forced cheerfulness in his inflection.

"I tell you, Mary," he declared, "everything's going to be all right for you and me.It was bully of you to come here to me like this."The girl made no response.She lived still in the nightmare of murder--that nightmare wherein she had seen Griggs fall dead to the floor.

Dick, in nervous apprehension as to the issue, sought to bring her to realization of the new need that had come upon them.

"Talk to me," he commanded, very softly."They'll be here in a minute.When they come in, pretend you just came here in order to meet me.Try, Mary.You must, dearest!" Then, again, his voice rose to loudness, as he continued."Why, I've been trying all day to see you.And, now, here we are together, just as Iwas beginning to get really discouraged....I know my father will eventually----"He was interrupted by the swift swinging open of the hallway door.Burke stood just within the library, a revolver pointed menacingly.

"Hands up!--all of you!" The Inspector's voice fairly roared the command.

The belligerent expression of his face vanished abruptly, as his eyes fell on Dick standing by the couch and Mary reclining there in limp helplessness.His surprise would have been ludicrous but for the seriousness of the situation to all concerned.Burke's glance roved the room sharply, and he was quickly convinced that these two were in fact the only present spoil of his careful plotting.His face set grimly, for the disappointment of this minute surged fiercely within him.He started to speak, his eyes lowering as he regarded the two before him.

But Dick forestalled him.He spoke in a voice coldly repellent.

"What are you doing in this house at this time of night?" he demanded.His manner was one of stern disapproval."I recognize you, Inspector Burke.But you must understand that there are limits even to what you can do.It seems to me, sir, that you exceed your authority by such an intrusion as this."Burke, however, was not a whit dismayed by the rebuke and the air of rather contemptuous disdain with which it was uttered.He waved his revolver toward Mary, merely as a gesture of inquisitiveness, without any threat.

"What's she doing here?" he asked.There was wrath in his rough voice, for he could not avoid the surmise that his shrewdly concocted scheme to entrap this woman had somehow been set awry.

"What's she doing here, I say?" he repeated heavily.His keen eyes were darting once more about the room, questing some clue to this disturbing mystery, so hateful to his pride.

Dick's manner became that of the devoted husband offended by impertinent obtrusion.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 关系场玄机

    关系场玄机

    人际关系是世界上最复杂难懂的学问,营造完美的人际关系,与其他许多艰难而伟大的事业一样,是一个赢得人心、赢得合作的过程,是需要用心血去经营的。拓展人体、聚拢人气,需要耐心,更需要智慧;需要胆识,更需要谋略;需要做人的技巧,更需要收服人心的手段。
  • 婚令如山,契约娇妻请入局

    婚令如山,契约娇妻请入局

    沈木棉和许熙北是青梅竹马,可她从来没有想过他会坑她,一本鲜红的结婚证将二人捆绑在了一起。婚后的每一天都被男神宠上了天,白日里她是光芒万丈的许太太,黑夜里就被男神各种索取报酬。“沈秘书,进来一下。”“……”半天没人回应。“总裁,总裁夫人已经出国旅游,让我送给你4个字。”首席秘书严肃回答,不敢抬头看正一脸阴沉的总裁。“说。”首席秘书突然很尴尬:“衣冠禽兽。”总裁脸不红心不跳地反思,咳咳,前几日似乎太过“用力”了!某日旅游玩的正欢快的某人,手腕突然被人抓住,吓了一跳,回头就看到一张人神共愤的脸。”--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 吴子兵法

    吴子兵法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 潮州旅游导航

    潮州旅游导航

    本书介绍了潮州市的城市概貌、文物胜迹、自然景观、历史掌故,包括潮州民间节庆礼俗、国家级重点文物保护单位、省级重点及以下主要文物保护单位、历史口述与景点轶闻传说等内容。
  • 快穿之你肿么不去死

    快穿之你肿么不去死

    因为逗比二姐在古代寻找真爱,大姐又是座冻死人不偿命的冰山,于是我们的穆媛灵……华丽丽的没事做了。额,过了一天,两天……终于有一天,家族发明出了一个无良系统还赠送一只腹黑男,它是干嘛的呢?消除对小说影响最大的评论的,怎么消除?改变剧情咯!最后某灵踏上了这条不归路,还要,还要555~逃离这只腹黑男的魔掌,因为他是她的娃娃亲对象啊~~~
  • 相思谋:妃常难娶

    相思谋:妃常难娶

    某日某王府张灯结彩,婚礼进行时,突然不知从哪冒出来一个小孩,对着新郎道:“爹爹,今天您的大婚之喜,娘亲让我来还一样东西。”说完提着手中的玉佩在新郎面前晃悠。此话一出,一府宾客哗然,然当大家看清这小孩与新郎如一个模子刻出来的面容时,顿时石化。此时某屋顶,一个绝色女子不耐烦的声音响起:“儿子,事情办完了我们走,别在那磨矶,耽误时间。”新郎一看屋顶上的女子,当下怒火攻心,扔下新娘就往女子所在的方向扑去,吼道:“女人,你给本王站住。”一场爱与被爱的追逐正式开始、、、、、、、
  • 读心神探:下属,你别逃

    读心神探:下属,你别逃

    故事男主角是一名干探,父亲为一名骗子,为逃仇家追杀,诈死脱身。男主角随母嫁入饭店少东,却不为家人所喜,生活窘迫。直至遇到一个记忆超群少女,教会其记忆法,逐渐学会照顾自己并成为一名优秀的警察。男主角后来往美国读犯罪心理学,并将中国的观人术与犯罪心理学揉合,运用在查案上,屡破奇案,但因为男主角太敏感于真相,太懂看穿别人内心所想,所以在感情上,波折重重。
  • 那一天,阳光正灿烂

    那一天,阳光正灿烂

    萧默然,萧泽然一对孪生哥妹,同出生于豪门世家,面对不同的人生路他们怎么做。
  • 火影之为闻君名

    火影之为闻君名

    【简介无能啊亲,不要揍我】她,不是杀人无数的特工,不是有钱人家的孩子,只是一个努力打拼的小白领。她,拥有绝世容颜,家世显赫,情陷深海,嫁与七王爷步渊寂,为获他爱,斩草除根,杀了他所爱之人,深得他厌。一朝重生,她成了她。没有嚣张跋扈,清冷出尘,淡雅聪慧。日夜相伴,情愫暗生。敌国来犯,二人出行不料被俘,她替他身挡一剑,坠入悬崖。回到国家,他身边已多了一位娇妻,意外被拐,成为妖月楼头牌……
  • EXO之我会在你身边

    EXO之我会在你身边

    青春是什么样的?是虐恋吗?还是甜美?我,不敢想象!呵,林若奇,你单相思有什么用呢?想看更多,就观看本书吧!