THE distinguished visitors were bowed into the street. And
then S. Gedge Antiques, with the face of a man whose soul is in
torment, returned to contemplation of the picture, and also of M.
Duponnet’s cheque which he took out of his pocket book. It was clear
that his mind was the prey of a deep problem. The bird in the hand was
well enough so far as it went, but the bird in the bush was horribly
tempting.
At last with a heavy sigh the old man returned the cheque to his
pocket, and then cautiously lifting up the loose board, put back the
picture whence it came and drew the oak chest over the spot. He then
shambled off to the room next door, which was full of odds and ends
mingled with a powerful smell of oil and varnish.
June at once made an attempt to get out of prison. But she now found
her position to be as she had already surmised. To enter without help
had been no mean feat, to escape in the same fashion was impossible.
Wedged so tightly inside the Hoodoo, there was neither play nor
purchase for her hands; and frantic as her efforts were, they were yet
subordinated to the knowledge that it would be quite easy for the thing
to topple over. Should that happen the consequence would certainly be
alarming and possibly ghastly.
Frantically wriggling in the jaws of the Hoodoo, it did not matter
what she did, she was firmly held. And the fear of Uncle Si, who was
pottering about quite close at hand, while imposing silence upon her,
intensified the growing desperation of her case. She was a mouse in a
trap.
Too soon did she learn that only one course was open to her. She must
wait for William’s return. Irksome and humiliating as the position was,
it was clear that she could do nothing without help.
Would William never come? The minutes ticked on and her durance grew
exceedingly vile. She became conscious of pains in her shoulders and
feet, she felt as if she could hardly draw breath, her head throbbing
with excitement seemed as if it must burst. It was a horrible fix to be
in.
Suffering acutely now, she yielded as well as she could to the
inevitable. There was simply nothing to be done. She must wait. It was
imprisonment in a most unpleasant form and she was frightened by the
knowledge that it might continue many hours. Even when William did
return, and there was no saying when he would do so, he was quite as
likely to enter by the back door as by the shop. So terrible was the
thought that June felt ready to faint at the bare idea.
This was a matter, however, in which fate was not so relentless after
all. June was doing her best to bear up in the face of this new and
paralysing fear when the shop door opened and lo! William came in.
Great was her joy, and yet it had to be tempered by considerations of
prudence. She contrived to raise her lips to the mouth of the Hoodoo,
and to breathe his name in a tragic whisper.
As he heard her and turned, she urged in the same odd fashion: “For
Heaven’s sake--not a sound!”
“Why--Miss June!” he gasped. “Where are you?”
She checked him with wild whisperings that yet served to draw him to
her prison.
He was dumbfounded, quite as much as by her fiercely tragic voice as by
the amazing predicament in which he found her.
“Help me out!” she commanded him. “And don’t make the least sound.
Uncle Si is next door, and if he finds me here, something terrible will
happen.”
Such force and such anxiety had one at least of the results so much to
be desired. They forbade the asking of futile questions. Every moment
was precious if she was to make good her escape.
William in this crisis proved himself a right good fellow. His sense
of the ludicrous was keen, but he stifled it. Moreover, a legitimate
curiosity had been fully aroused, but he stifled that also as he
proceeded to carry out these imperious orders. But even with such ready
and stalwart help, June was to learn again that it was no easy matter
to escape from the Hoodoo.
Without venturing to speak again, William mounted the gate-legged table
and offered both hands to the prisoner. But the trouble was that she
was so tightly pinned that she could not raise hers to receive them.
And it was soon fatally clear that so long as the Hoodoo kept the
perpendicular it would be impossible for any external agent to secure a
hold upon the body wedged within its jaws.
After several attempts at dislodgement had miserably failed, June
gasped in a kind of anguish: “Do you think you can tip this thing
over--very gently--without making a sound?”
This was trying William highly indeed, but it seemed the only thing to
be done. Happily he was tall and strong; much was said, all the same,
for his power of muscle and the infinite tact with which it was applied
that he was able to tilt the Hoodoo on to its end. Keeping the vase
firmly under control, he then managed to regulate its descent to the
shop floor so skilfully as to avoid a crash.
Such a feat was really a triumph of applied dynamics. June, however,
was not in a position to render it all the homage it deserved, even
if she was deeply grateful for the address that William brought to
bear upon his task. Once the Hoodoo had been laid full length on the
shop floor she was able to wriggle her body and her shoulders with
what violence she pleased, without the fear of disaster. A series of
convulsive twists and writhings and she was free!
As soon as she knew that she was no longer pinned by the jaws of the
monster, the action of a strong mind was needed to ward off a threat
of hysteria. But she controlled herself sufficiently to help William
restore the Hoodoo to the perpendicular; and then she said in a whisper
of extreme urgency which was barely able to mask the sob of nerves
overstrung: “Not one word now. But go straight into the kitchen--just
as if you hadn’t seen me. And remember whatever happens”--the whisper
grew fiercer, the sob more imminent--“if Uncle Si asks the question
you _haven’t_ seen me. I’m supposed to be looking for a job. You
understand?”
To say that William did understand would have been to pay him a most
fulsome compliment; yet the stout fellow behaved as if the whole of
this amazing matter was as clear as daylight. Such was June’s fixity
of will, the sheer force of her personality, that he left the shop at
once like a man hypnotised. Excited questions trembled upon his lips,
but in the face of this imperiousness he did not venture to give them
play.
He made one attempt--one half-hearted attempt.
“But Miss June----!”
The only answer of Miss June was to cram one hand over his mouth, and
with the other to propel him towards the door which led to the back
premises.