The Fighting Shepherdess Part 62

The banker went to meet Kate with an outstretched hand.

"You've been gone a long time; I've been wondering when we'd see you back."

"I've been east," she replied, casually.

"The trip's did wonders for you. You look--well, bloomin' isn't hardly strong enough. Miss Prentice, I want you to meet my wife--you must."

"Thanks--so much." A certain dryness momentarily disconcerted Mr. Wentz.

With a shade of chagrin Mr. Wentz returned to his desk, telling himself inelegantly that she was "feeling her oats."

Kate filled out a check in a deliberate and careful way and pa.s.sed it in to the cas.h.i.+er, who had been noting the details of her appearance with unqualified interest. Her eyes had an increased brilliancy and there was a faint flush on her cheeks, but otherwise there was nothing in her impa.s.sive face to show how fast her heart was beating as she waited in the silence to learn if the blow she meant to strike had been well-timed or not.

She was not kept long in suspense. The swift consternation which made the cas.h.i.+er's color fade when he grasped the fact that the check was for the full amount of her deposit told her all she wished to know. The shadow of her enigmatic smile rested on her lips.

She was curiously aware of every sound--the ticking of the flat clock against the wall, the scratching of Wentz's pen, the steps of pa.s.sersby on the sidewalk--as she waited for what seemed an unconscionable time for the cas.h.i.+er to speak. Panic was in his eyes when he finally raised them from the check. He stood uncertainly for a moment, then turned and walked quickly to the president's desk.

Wentz read it without lifting his head as it lay before him. He continued to stare at it as though he had been stunned, while Kate with her eyes fixed upon his face thrummed lightly on the counter with her finger tips. He had pictured something like this a thousand times, yet now that it actually had come he seemed as little prepared to meet it as if it were a crus.h.i.+ng and complete surprise.

He lifted his head as though with an effort.

"Will you step here, please?" His voice sounded thick.

The cas.h.i.+er quickly withdrew while Wentz arose slowly and opened the gate.

As Kate sank slowly into the depths of a leather covered chair, the much-discussed coat, a fitting garment for a princess, with its ample cut and voluminous unstinted hem, swirled gracefully about her feet. Her gloves, her close-fitting hat with its well-adjusted veil drawn over her carefully-dressed hair--everything, to the smallest detail of the subdued elegance of her toilette--suggested not only discriminating taste but unlimited means with which to indulge it.

The Sheep Queen toyed idly with a gold mesh-bag suspended by a chain about her neck, and her face was sphinx-like as she waited for Wentz to speak.

The check fluttered as the banker picked it up at last and held it between his two trembling hands.

"Is it necessary, Miss Prentice, that you have this money at once?"

Kate replied evenly:

"No--I can't say that. Why?"

He hesitated and the color swept hotly over his face.

"It will be an accommodation to us if you will wait a few days."

"In what way?"

Her calmness rea.s.sured him and he replied with a little less constraint:

"This is a large sum for a small bank, and I don't mind telling you confidentially that the payment of this check will leave us a little--er--short."

Kate raised her beautifully arched eyebrows and questioned:

"Yes?"

Wentz drew a deep breath of relief.

"You see, I inferred that you would be leaving this with us for a considerable length of time and, anyway, I was sure that you would be considerate if it was not quite--not quite convenient to pay the full amount at once."

"What made you think that?" she asked softly.

"Oh, our friendly relations, and all that," he replied more easily.

"Aren't you taking a great deal for granted, Mr. Wentz?"

The timbre of her voice--the deadly coldness of it--made him start. He had the sensation of an icicle being drawn slowly the length of his back.

"Why, I--I don't know," he stammered. "Am I?"

"Do you recall any reason, as you look back, why I should grant this favor that you ask?"

Mr. Wentz distinctly squirmed.

"N-no."

"Quite the contrary, if you'll recollect."

"I hope," with a deprecatory gesture of his white hand, "you are not laying that up against us, Miss Prentice? Surely you can understand that a bank must protect itself."

Kate's eyes which had been violet were gray now.

"But not to the extent that you did when you tried to put the screws on me for Neifkins' benefit. With every means at your command you endeavored to take advantage of my necessity. And yet"--she gripped the fat arms of the leather chair as she threw off her mask of impa.s.sivity and cried in a voice that was hoa.r.s.e with the emotion with which she shook--"that's not the real reason that I'm going to close your doors, that I'm going to wreck you and your bank and give the finis.h.i.+ng blow to this already bankrupt town! It's for a woman's reason that I am going to take my revenge.

"You weren't content to make a pauper of me. No, you couldn't be satisfied with that, but you must hurt my woman's pride--you must cut me to the quick with your studied insolence, the disrespect of your eyes, your manner, your tone, your speech, every time that business brought me here!

"You couldn't resist the temptation to hit me when I was down. It was so easy, and there was so little chance of being hit back. Besides, it gave you an agreeable feeling of importance, after having been so long ignored or patronized yourself. That's why, Mr. Wentz," the words sounded sibilant through her shut teeth, "you're going to honor my check to-day--_now_--or suspend."

Wentz listened dumbfounded. The slight question which once had been in his mind as to whether or not she harbored resentment had long since been removed by her continued patronage and her even courtesy. He never had dreamed of such a vindictive, deep-rooted animosity as this.

When he could speak he half started from his chair and cried sharply:

"Miss Prentice! Kate! You won't do that!"

"Won't I?" Her short laugh was hard as with a nervous movement she got up, and walking behind it, laid her folded arms on the back of the big leather chair. "Do you think I've been planning and working to this end all these years to weaken at your first outcry? To watch you squirm is a part of the reward I promised myself, Mr. Wentz."

He thrust out a supplicating hand:

"Give us time--just a little time--that's all I ask! We'll tide over somehow if you'll--"

Kate interrupted bitterly:

"There's a familiar ring to that. My own words exactly, if you will recollect--and you sneered in my face." She looked at him with narrowed eyes and her voice was flint: "The time you'll get is the time it will require for me to go before a notary and swear that your bank is insolvent--twenty minutes--a half hour at most."