WINIFRED IS TRAPPED
Deane followed his guide up two flights of stairs,--on the landing of
the third she paused.
"I do not usually interfere with the comings and goings of my lodgers,"
she said. "They pay for their rooms. That is all I ask. You see the door
opposite you?"
"Yes!" Deane answered quickly.
"That room is tenanted by a young woman who called herself Montague, but
received letters under the name of Sinclair. She had a visitor this
afternoon who might be the young person of whom you are in search. You
had better go in and see."
Deane was across the landing in a moment. He tapped sharply upon the
door. There was no answer. He tried the handle. The door was locked!
"Open the door," he cried out, shaking it vigorously.
There was no answer. To Deane the silence was ominous. He turned to the
woman who stood silently by his side, with a fierce little exclamation.
"Where is the telephone?" he demanded.
"Inside there," she answered. "It used to be my sitting-room."
"The door is locked!" he exclaimed.
"I do not understand it," she admitted.
"Have you another key?"
"No!"
He flung himself at the door, tearing it half from its hinges. Another
assault, and with a tearing of splinters it fell inside. Deane stepped
over it into the room, and a low cry of anger broke from his lips. The
woman at his side fled shrieking downstairs. On the floor lay Winifred
Rowan, her limbs bound with cords, a gag in her mouth, her clothing all
dishevelled, her eyes shining with an almost painful intensity from her
ashen gray face. Deane fell on his knees by her side.
"Winifred!" he exclaimed. "My God!"
He snatched his knife from his pocket, removed the gag from her mouth,
and cut all her bonds. Her hands tried nervously to rearrange her dress
over her bosom. He tore off his own coat and threw it over her.
"Are you badly hurt?" he asked anxiously.
"I am not hurt much," she answered weakly, "but--"
"But what?" he demanded.
She commenced to cry softly but insistently. Black fear rose up to
torture him. "But what?" he repeated, with sinking heart.
"It has gone!" she murmured, crossing her hands upon her bosom.
"What has gone?" he asked. "Quick!"
"The deed!" she whispered. "Don't look at me like that. I couldn't help
it. It was a trap, of course, to get me here, and I was a fool. The
letter was from you, but I ought to have known that it was a forgery. I
was taken unawares. She was like a madwoman. She would have torn the
clothes from my body. I struggled. I called out. It was no use. She has
taken it away."
"But you are not hurt?" he exclaimed anxiously.
"I--no!" she answered, a little vacantly. "But it is gone! I was not fit
to be trusted with it. I ought to have given it up to you."
She was very pale, and he was afraid of her fainting. He summoned the
landlady once more. She was waiting on the stairs close by.
"Something very serious has happened here," he said, sternly. "This
young lady has been assaulted and robbed."
"I'm sure I'm very sorry," the woman declared. "You can't blame any of
us, though. I never heard a sound, no more did Hilda, and I can't
prevent my lodgers having visitors."
"We won't discuss it," Deane said sharply. "But if this is Miss
Montague's room,--"
"It isn't," the woman interrupted. "It's my sitting-room. Miss Montague
has only an attic, and she came to me and said that she couldn't receive
a visitor there, and asked me to lend her my room for a few minutes."
Deane nodded. "The other rooms on this floor are unoccupied, of course,"
he said. "Oh! it's quite easy to understand. I don't need to ask you any
more questions. I don't want any more explanations. If you want to keep
this out of the police court, you will do exactly as I tell you."
"Yes!" she exclaimed eagerly. "I will do anything."
"Send your servant for a cab," Deane said, "and arrange this young
lady's dress so that I can take her home."
"I will fetch her a bodice of my own," declared the woman, hurrying off.
Winifred had risen to her feet, and was sitting in an easy-chair. She
was leaning forward, with her face half buried in her hands. Deane
turned towards her.
"Winifred--"
She avoided his gaze. "Don't!" she begged. "Please don't talk to me. I
can't bear it."
"But I may say--" he began.
"No!" she interrupted, almost fiercely. "Please say nothing. I mean it.
I cannot bear to talk! I cannot bear to be talked to!"
A little throb of anger darkened his face. She had not even common
gratitude for her rescue! She had but one thought, one regret,--the loss
of that future of luxury to attain which she had bound herself to him. A
curious anger burned in his blood,--a pain which he could not analyze
shook his heart. Then there came the sound of voices on the stairs,
feminine voices raised in anger! The door was burst open. Ruby stood
there upon the threshold, looking in upon them, her lips curved in an
ugly smile of triumph, her eyes ablaze. Behind her stood the landlady, a
black bodice in her hand, her forehead wrinkled in a deprecating frown.
"So you've found her, have you?" Ruby exclaimed, her face turned towards
Deane, her finger outstretched to where Winifred sat shrinking back in
her chair. "Thieves, both of you! Thieves! Thieves!"
Deane pointed to Winifred's torn clothing. "And that?" he asked.
"It was restitution," the girl declared fiercely. "The deed was mine!
Your millions are mine! She stole it for you--her brother was a murderer
for you! How do you think the story will look in the newspapers, eh?
Inciting to murder and theft! Isn't that a crime? Swindlers, both of
you!" she cried passionately. "You'd have kept me a beggar, eh," she
cried to Winifred, "while you clad your poor body in silks and laces,
covered yourself with jewels and made him marry you? And I was to
starve!--to starve or worse! Well, we'll see! We'll see!"
"Young lady," Deane said calmly, "you are being led away by your
imagination. You have taken a paper away from Miss Rowan which you seem
to think is going to turn out a sort of El Dorado. It isn't worth the
paper it's written on."
"It's a lie!" the girl shrieked. "I've taken it to the lawyers. It is
genuine--they all say so."
Deane almost lifted Winifred from her chair. "That remains to be seen,"
he declared.
"In any case, it was stolen!" she cried. "That young woman there has got
to say how it came into her possession, and what she meant by going
around with it sewn into her bodice! Oh, you needn't try to dupe me!"
she cried. "I want my money--God knows how I want it! And I mean to make
her suffer, too!" she added, pointing to Winifred. "She's a thief! She's
lived in luxury while I've starved;--she's worn the clothes of a
princess while I've gone in rags! But she shall pay! My God, she shall
pay!"
Deane, with Winifred by his side, had reached the door. "I am afraid,"
he said turning to the girl, who was still regarding them with
breathless anger, "that you have let your imagination run away with you
a good deal. A dose of the law courts will do you no harm. If you care
for a word of warning from me, you can have it: don't build your hopes
too much upon that paper!"
"We shall see!" she cried fiercely. "You can't frighten me! If the paper
is of no value, why did she steal it, why did she carry it sewn in her
clothes? If you--"
She hesitated for a moment. Her eyes rested upon Deane, her expression
softened. "If you want to make terms--" she began.
He turned away. "Come, Winifred," he said.
* * * * *
In the cab they scarcely spoke. She had the air of a person utterly
exhausted,--indifferent to anything that might happen.
"Tell me," he asked, soon after they started, "what made you go to that
house?"
"The letter from you," she answered. "I was a fool, of course, but I
went. It doesn't matter, does it?"
"I suppose not," he answered.
The despair in her face nerved him to further speech. "I am afraid," he
said, "that you are worrying about that deed--or rather the loss of it.
I am sorry that I came too late, but it couldn't be helped. You did all
that you could! I am sure of that."
"Of course!" she interposed impatiently. "And I have failed! That is the
end of it!"
He looked out of the window, looked with stern, unseeing eyes upon the
passing people. The sun had ceased to shine, his heart was heavy as
lead. He seemed suddenly to realize the reason of her dejection. She
believed in the deed. She believed that he was indeed a pauper. It was
for the wreck of her hopes that she was lamenting. The rest went for
nothing. He was a poor man--no longer of any interest to her! His manner
unconsciously stiffened as the thought came rushing home to him. He drew
away from her, and he remained silent until the cab stopped in front of
her hotel. She stepped out quickly, and almost ran across the pavement.
"To-morrow," she said, holding out her hand as though to prevent his
following.
He bowed and turned away. Her deshabille was without doubt an
embarrassment Already he was beginning to find excuses for her.
Nevertheless, he watched the slim, swaying figure, as the doors closed
upon her, with something of apprehension. Was it ominous that she should
pass away without a backward glance? Was she indeed nothing but an
adventuress, deprived of her prey?...
He paid the cab and walked slowly back to his rooms. His solicitor had
already rung up. Two of his directors were waiting to see him, a
reporter buttonholed him upon the pavement. From all of which things
Deane knew that Ruby Sinclair had lost no time, that the first note of
battle had been sounded!