Old John McNabb had not been long at his desk when the telephone bell
rang and he picked up the receiver.
"Hello--who? Hicks? He--what? Where is he now? Got away! Well, you
get him! Get him, or I'll get you! If he ain't back in jail to-day,
off comes your buttons to-morrow--do you get that?" Old John banged
the receiver onto the hook, and launched what would undoubtedly have
been a classic of denunciatory profanity, had it not been interrupted
in its inception by Jean, who had slipped into the office unnoticed at
the beginning of the telephone conversation.
"Why, Dad!" exclaimed the girl laughing, as the red-faced man whirled
upon her in surprise. "What a beastly temper you are in this morning!
Who got away, and why are you so anxious to have him caught?"
"Oskar got away," he growled, apparently somewhat mollified by his
daughter's tone. "Hicks started for jail with him an' Oskar knocked
him down in the alley an' got away."
"Oskar! Jail! What do you mean?"
"I mean just what I say," answered McNabb, meeting the girl's startled
gaze squarely. "A thirty thousand dollar sable coat is missing from
the store, and no one except Oskar and I had access to the fur safe.
He made up a cock-an'-bull story about letting you wear it Saturday to
show up Mrs. Orcutt. He claims he went to the theatre to enjoy the
effect on Mrs. Orcutt, when he discovered that you were wearing, not
the Russian sable that you had worn from the store, but a baum marten
coat. He hurried to the store to find that both the sable and the
marten coats were gone----"
Old John noticed that as he talked the color receded slowly from the
girl's face, leaving it almost chalk white, and then suddenly the color
returned with a rush that flamed red to her hair roots. But he was
totally unprepared for the sudden fury with which she faced him.
"And you had him arrested! Oskar arrested like a common thief! Are
you crazy? You know as well as I do that he never stole a pin----"
"No, he never stole a pin, but there's some little difference in value
between a pin and a thirty thousand dollar coat. They say every man's
got his price."
"It's a lie!" cried the girl, stamping her foot. "But even if it were
true, his price would be so big that there isn't money enough in this
world to even tempt him! You ought to be ashamed of yourself! Think
what people will say!"
"I don't care what they say. He's got that coat, an' I'm right here to
see that he gets just what's comin' to him."
"Well, what people will say won't hurt Oskar!" cried the girl.
"They'll all know he didn't steal your coat! They'll say you're a
fool! That's what they'll say--and they'll be right, too! It won't
take him long to prove his innocence, and then what will people think
of you?"
"He ain't got a show to prove his innocence," retorted McNabb. "Your
own testimony will convict him. Didn't ye tell me right here in this
room within the hour that the coat ye brought in was the one ye wore
from the store, an' the one ye wore to the theatre?"
"And I thought it was," flared the girl. "But if Oskar says it wasn't
then it wasn't. And let me tell you this--if you're depending on my
testimony to convict him, you might as well have him turned loose right
this minute! Because I won't say a word at their old trial. They can
put me in jail, too, but they can't make me talk. The whole thing is
an outrage, and I'm going right straight down to the jail and tell them
to let him out this minute----"
"He's out all right," retorted McNabb. "He knocked Hicks down and
escaped on the way to jail."
"I'm glad of it! I hope he broke that nasty old Hicks's head! And if
they catch Oskar you had better see that they let him go at
once--unless you want to see your own daughter married to a jailbird!"