Officer 666 Part 34

He took her hand and caressed it, adding with the true lover's frown of perplexity, "But are you going to be happy, dear? That's what you must think of now--before it is too late."

It was a magnificent bluff and carried with deadly aim. The girl stopped him pa.s.sionately:

"We must not stop to talk about that now--there isn't time. We must hurry, dear, and get away before auntie finds out and comes after me."

"Do you think she'll come here?" he asked slowly, while his forehead wrinkled.

"I am afraid Sadie will tell her!"

"Sadie--your cousin? H'm."

He made no effort to conceal that he was thinking rapidly.

"Perhaps you'd rather postpone it after all, Travers?" she said quickly, while the color rushed to her cheeks and her lips trembled.

"If you only thought it best I'd like to tell auntie what I'm going to do."

"No"; he retorted. "We can't do that--we've gone over all this before.

It must be this way, or not at all. Which is it to be?"

"I've given you my word, you know," she said under her breath.

"That's my brave little girl!" he cried with a burst of feeling, reaching out his arm to embrace her.

Cras.h.!.+ Bang! Biff! Slam! Bam!

There burst into the room Officer 666, entangled in the lid and straps of an empty trunk. It was a steamer trunk and not very heavy, but Travers Gladwin was far from adept in baggage smas.h.i.+ng.

He had wasted so much time in hunting for the trunk that he had sought to make up for the delay by executing what resembled an aeroplane descent.

At the final twist of the staircase the trunk had mastered him and charged with him into the room. As he lay sprawled on the floor with a foolish grin on his face, the discomfited lover turned on him with a voice of fury.

"Officer, what the deuce is the matter with you?"

The intense savagery of his tone made the girl shrink away from him and turn pale. He managed to cover his break so quickly with a forced laugh and an effort to a.s.sist Gladwin to his feet that her fear was only momentary.

In the last stage of his downward flight Gladwin glimpsed that he had dropped in barely in time to spoil another touching scene. With a grin of sheer delight, he asked:

"Where'll I put the trunk, sorr?"

"Put it there."

The self-styled Gladwin pointed to the right of the chest and set to work to gather up his few hundred thousand dollars' worth of pelf. He was about to place the flat packages in the trunk when he turned to Helen and asked:

"Do you see any others that you'd like me to take, dear?"

"Oh, you know best," she replied. "Only I should think that you would take some of the miniatures."

"The miniatures?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yes," said the girl. "They are the loveliest I've ever seen and they'll hardly take up any room at all. If we are going to be away such a long time I think it would be safer to take them."

It was palpable to Travers Gladwin that the big chap had received a psychic jolt, for his hand trembled a little as he laid down the canvases on the top of the chest and addressed the girl:

"I didn't know you'd seen the miniatures."

"Oh, yes, when I was here this afternoon."

He took this between the eyes without flinching. His voice was marvellously steady as he said:

"I didn't know you were here this afternoon."

"You didn't?" she asked in a puzzled tone. "How funny! You'd just gone out when I called, but two of your friends were here and one of them showed me the miniatures, and china, and plate and lots of things.

Why, I left a message for you about the opera--didn't they tell you?"

The girl stood with her back to Gladwin and the man she addressed slowly turned his head and glanced over her head with a keen, flas.h.i.+ng look of inquiry. Gladwin lifted his chin a little and met the look without change of expression.

"Didn't they tell you, Travers?" the girl repeated.

"Yes, yes; they told me," he said hastily, still maintaining his fixed gaze upon Gladwin. There was barely an instant's pause before he spoke:

"Officer, kindly go up to my room and see if you can find a bag and pack enough things to last a week or two."

"Yes, sorr." Gladwin flung out of the room.

He started noisily up the stairs until he saw that the thief had turned his back to him, whereat he vaulted the banister and dropped lightly upon a divan in a recessed niche that could not be seen from the room he left.

The moment Gladwin vanished the thief turned to Helen and asked sharply:

"What time did you see my friends here?"

"A little after five," replied the girl, recoiling slightly with a look of dismay, for there was a new raw edge to the sharpness of his tone.

"Did you tell them about the elopement?" he said less harshly, but with a scarcely veiled eagerness.

"Why, they knew all about it," Helen hastened to reply, searching his face apprehensively.

"Knew about it?" he mused, fairly grinding his brows together under the pressure of his agitated thoughts.

"What did you tell them?" he queried steadily, measuring her fresh, young beauty and vowing to himself that whatever struggle impended he was going through with it to the limit of his resources.

"That we were to meet here," she answered with increasing fear.

"That we were to meet _here_?" he repeated.

"Yes, at half-past ten--oh, was it something I shouldn't have told them?" she cried, coming toward him.

Once more Officer 666 snapped the tension. He had wriggled around the staircase and found the suitcase Bateato had packed and left for him.

Hating to play the role of an eavesdropper any longer than necessary he made a flying start and burst into the room.