The Crash
Now it was the turn of Beatrice to become rigid.
She did not even wink, those first few seconds. She looked straight at
Wilkins, searching his soul; and Wilkins, pleasantly conscious of having
done the right thing well, preserved his quiet, respectful smile and
wondered just which lady this newest might be.
He was telling the truth. He was telling the horrible, the incredible
truth--and although those eyes of Mrs. Boller's might have suggested
that she was capable of passionate murder if goaded far enough, they
belied her actions just now. One slim, white hand went to her throat for
a moment, as if to ease her breathing, but when she spoke her tone was
very low, very quiet indeed:
"Mrs. Boller was here?"
"Yes, madam!" Wilkins responded in round tones.
"All last night?"
"Er--yes, madam. She----"
Johnson Boller returned to life! Johnson Boller, with a thick, senseless
shout, bounded forward and landed directly between Wilkins and his
beloved as he snarled:
"Say, you--you lying dog! You----"
"Let him alone!" his wife said quickly. "Permit him to tell me the
truth!"
"He's not telling you the truth!" cried Johnson Boller. "He's lying!
He--why, Wilkins, I'll smash your face into so many nasty little pieces
that----"
"I beg pardon, sir!" Wilkins said hastily. "The--the lady was here----"
"There was no lady here!" Mr. Boller shouted.
Wilkins put up his hands.
"Well, the lady that was eating breakfast, sir, after a manner of
speaking," he stammered. "Her that was introduced as Mrs. Boller, which
caused me to take it, sir, that she----"
"Say! I said there was no lady here and there was no lady here! Get
that, you putty-faced idiot!" Johnson Boller cried frantically, for he
was beyond reason. "What do you mean by standing there and lying and
babbling about some woman----"
Again Wilkins's intelligence manifested itself. To be a perfect servant,
one's teeth must remain in place and one's face must be free from
bruises. Wilkins, after a brief, intent look at Johnson Boller's fists,
turned and fled!
"So this," said Mrs. Johnson Boller with deadly calm, "is what happens
when you think I've gone away!"
Her husband turned upon her and threw out his hands.
"Beatrice!" he cried. "I swear to you----"
"Don't touch me, you filthy creature!" said his Beatrice. "I--I couldn't
have thought it. You seemed different from other men!"
"This woman----" Johnson Boller floundered, and then caught Anthony's
cold eye. It was an amused eye, too, and the sneer was in it; and
Johnson Boller pointed at its owner suddenly and said: "If--if there was
a woman here, blame him!"
Beatrice Boller looked Anthony Fry up and down, and her lips curled.
"I do--a little!" she said bitterly. "I've never cared very much for
you, Mr. Fry, but--oh, why did you do that? You know as well as I know
that Johnson isn't that--that sort of a man! If he wanted to come here
and stay with you, couldn't you have been, just for once--_decent_?"
"_Madam!_" thundered Anthony Fry, when breath came to him.
There was no music in Beatrice's laugh; an ungreased saw goes through
hardwood more sweetly.
"Spare yourself the effort of that righteous rage," she said. "I know
your saintly type of man so well, and I've begged Johnson to have
nothing to do with you."
"And I give you my word----" Johnson Boller began.
"That he brought the woman here?" his wife asked.
"Yes!"
"And you remained!" finished Johnson Boller's better half. "Where is
she?"
"She isn't here now!" came almost automatically from Anthony.
Once more Beatrice laughed.
"Isn't she, though?" said she. "That sort doesn't leave a twenty-dollar
hat behind, Mr. Fry--nor a bag worth perhaps five times as much. She had
moved in quite cozily, hadn't she? If I hadn't appeared, her trunk would
have been along--or perhaps it is here now? If I hadn't----" Mrs. Boller
continued, and her voice broke as the unearthly calm splintered and
departed.
"_Where is she?_" And, her whole mien altering in an instant, Mrs.
Boller's hands clenched tightly and her face flamed with outraged fury.
"_Where is she?_"
Johnson Boller looked around wildly and helplessly.
"I tell you, she isn't here!" he began. "You see----"
"And I tell you that that's a lie!" said his wife. "I'll find her, and
when I _do_ find her, Johnson Boller, some one will pay on the spot for
the home I've lost! Do you hear? I'll suffer--suffer for it, perhaps!
_But she'll pay!_"
The Spanish grandmother had risen in Beatrice and declared herself!
Cold-blooded assassination shook the air of Anthony's apartment. His
head spun; he wondered hysterically if there would be much screaming
before it was all over--if the police and the Lasande employees would
break in before the ghastly finish of the affair. There would be just
one finish, and it was written in those flaming eyes, written more
clearly than any print!
And afterward? Well, there would be no afterward for Anthony. He
understood that perfectly, yet he was too numb to grieve just now.
Fifteen minutes after the worst had happened, the Lasande would present
him with a check covering the balance of his lease and would request him
to go: such was the procedure here and it had proved court-proof.
Although he could afford to laugh at them. He had merely to sit down and
wait until the news had traveled a bit; Mary's father or Robert Vining
would attend to the rest--and there would be the end of Anthony Fry's
stately, contented existence.
Beatrice was gone!
Flaming eyes, heaving bosom, pathetic little hat--all had vanished
together, but they had vanished down the corridor, and life leaped
suddenly through Anthony's veins. Even now there was a chance--faint and
forlorn, but still a chance to save Mary's life at least! He turned, did
Anthony Fry, just as Johnson Boller flew after his demented spouse, and
glided into Johnson Boller's bedroom.
Mary, very white indeed, was waiting for him.
"Where is she now?" she panted.
"You heard?"
"Of course I heard!"
"Miss Mary," said Anthony, "I'm afraid that the time has come when we'll
have to stop planning and act. The lady is--er--essentially crazy just
now. It is painful enough, but you'll have to leave as you are. Yes,
even without a hat, for she has that. Simply leave!"
"And if I'm recognized?"
"It is unavoidable."
Mary stamped her foot.
"Well, it isn't, and I think you're the stupidest old man I ever knew!"
she said flatteringly, as she sped to the closet. "Here! Give me a hand
with it!"
"With what?"
"The wardrobe trunk, of course. I've been looking at it and trying to
get it open, but I cannot do it in there. I'm going out in that trunk!"
"Eh?" said Anthony, tugging at it quite stupidly.
"Open it!" Mary commanded.
Anthony opened it.
"Yes, there's room and to spare, if you'll take out those drawers and
things!" the girl said quickly. "No! Pile them in the closet neatly;
she'll look in there! Now, about your man; is he strong?"
"Very, I believe."
"Get him here, quick!" said Mary.
She seemed to have taken matters into her own hand; more, she seemed to
know what she was about. Anthony, after an instant of blank staring,
pushed four times on the button of Johnson Boller's room, which signal
indicated that Wilkins was needed in a hurry.
Some four or five seconds they stood, breathing hard, both of them, and
listening for the sounds of disaster which might echo any minute from
the corridor. They had not echoed when Wilkins appeared.
"You! Wilkins is your name?" Mary said. "Wilkins, I'm going to get into
the trunk! Have you grasped that?"
"Why--yes, Miss!"
"And you, instantly, are going to take the trunk, with me in it, to my
home--you know where that is? You don't, of course. Well, load the trunk
into a taxi and tell the man to go across to West End Ave!"
"And the corner of Eighty--th Street!" Anthony supplied.
"Exactly!" said the girl. "Go to the side door and take in the trunk,
through the yard, of course, and say it is for Felice--Felice Moreau, my
maid? Have you the name, Wilkins?"
"Felice Moreau, miss. Yes, miss," said the blunderer.
"And then take it to her room and get out!" Mary concluded. "Don't lock
the thing. Load it into the back of the cab with yourself and try to get
it open a little so that I'll have air, when we've started!"
Saying which, Mary Dalton, who knew a really desperate situation when
she saw one, and who also inherited much of her father's superb
executive ability in a genuine emergency--Mary gathered her skirts and
stepped into the trunk, huddling down as prettily and gracefully as if
it had been rehearsed for weeks!
She looked at Wilkins, and Wilkins, with a sweep, had closed the lid;
and with a great emotional gulp Wilkins looked at his master and said:
"_My eye_, sir! A bit of all right, that, Mr. Fry!"
Anthony Fry nodded quickly and thrust several bills into his hand.
"Don't stand there talking about it!" he said. "Get your hat and hustle,
Wilkins! Take the first taxi you see and--and handle her gently! Felice
Moreau, Wilkins--remember that."
"I shall, indeed, sir!" said the faithful one; and, delicate
consideration in every finger, he lifted the trunk and walked into the
living-room, while Anthony Fry held his breath and followed every move
with fascinated eyes.
Through the room, then, went Wilkins and trunk together and to the door.
The sober black felt affair he had used these three years was on
Wilkins's head now, and he lugged the trunk onward--turned in the outer
hall and lugged it to the freight elevator--and now, as Anthony watched
from the doorway of his lately peaceful home, onto the freight elevator.
The door closed on the little car. The door closed on Anthony's
apartment, with Anthony inside--and again he was that stately,
dignified, reticent and austere being; the Anthony Fry of yesterday!
A trifle stiffly, perhaps, he moved to his pet armchair, and into it he
sank with an undeniable thud, grasping the arms fondly as one might
grasp a friend returned from a long and perilous journey, and staring
straight ahead.
Amazing! More than that, dumfounding!
Five minutes back he had been seriously resigned to ruin and death. Now
he was quite utterly all right once more!
Anthony looked about at all the familiar things; it seemed to him that
he had not seen them for a long, long time, and that they stretched out
welcoming hands to him. Weakly, he smiled and rested his head in the
well-worn spot on the back.
What a wonderfully capable little person she was! Why had none of them
thought of a trunk before? Or--what matter if none of them had, so that
Mary had gained the inspiration? She had saved herself and she had saved
Anthony--bless her little heart! She had saved everything, because she
was gone!
And she was perfectly safe in Wilkins's hands. Wilkins, faithful,
powerful soul, would carry her tidily into the room of the maid Felice,
wherever that might lie in Dalton's absurdly ornate pile, and between
Felice and Mary a story would be arranged to cover everything.
Momentarily, Anthony frowned, for he disapproved of mendacity in any
form--but there are some lies so much better than the truth that shortly
he smiled again and hoped from the bottom of his heart that Mary's lie
would be a winner.
And now that all was well--Anthony sat upright quite abruptly. All was
not exactly well as yet; Johnson Boller and his wife were coming down
the corridor and, almost as he heard them, the lady passed him.
She said nothing. Beatrice had passed the talking stage. Cheeks white
again and eyes blazing, she threw open the door of Anthony's chamber and
shot inward! One felt the pause as she looked around; one heard the door
of the closet open--and then the door of the other closet. Then one saw
the pleasing Beatrice again as she shot out, hat still in hand.
One lightning, searing glance whizzed over the calm Anthony and the
purple, perspiring Johnson Boller. Then Beatrice had turned and hurtled
into Johnson Boller's room itself, and Johnson Boller dropped into the
chair beside Anthony and whined.
"It's over!" said he. "It's over!"
"Oh, no," Anthony said.
"And you listen to this!" Johnson Boller thundered suddenly, sitting up
and pointing one pudgy finger at his friend. "The poor kid's crazy! I
can't stop her! She'll kill the little skirt as sure as there's a sky
overhead, and she'll go to the chair for it, laughing! And when she has
gone, Fry, when it's all over, _I'm_ going to shoot you full of holes
and then kill myself! Get me? This world isn't big enough for you to get
away from me, now! I swear to you----"
"You might better dry up," said Anthony with his incomprehensible calm.
Boller turned dully. Beatrice was with them again, and yet there had
been no scream, no crash. There was about Beatrice nothing at all to
suggest a woman who has tasted the sweet of revenge. White lips shut,
she sailed past them, on her way to Wilkins's pantry and his humble
bedroom beyond.
"Didn't she find her?" choked Boller.
"She didn't!"
"Why not?"
"She isn't there."
"Where'd she go?"
Anthony smiled cynical condescension.
"Once in a while I'm able to manage these things if I'm left alone," he
said, assuming much credit to which he had no title.
"Well, is she out of this flat?" Johnson Boller asked hopefully.
"She certainly is, you poor fool," said his host.
Beatrice had finished her unlovely hunt. Even again, she was with them,
and now she looked straight at Johnson Boller, ignoring the very
existence of Anthony Fry.
"I haven't found her," said Beatrice. "She's hidden somewhere, or else
she's with _other_ friends in this wretched, sanctimonious hole."
"Beatrice----" Johnson Boller began, with a great, hopeful gasp.
"But I _will_ find her!" the lady assured him, "and when I do--I'm going
now."
"Home?"
Momentarily, Beatrice's eyes swam. It seemed a good sign, and Johnson
Boller rose hurriedly. The eyes ceased swimming and blazed at him!
"I am never going there again," Beatrice informed him, with the old,
chilling calm. "I shall go to a hotel, and later, I hope, back to father
and mother. You will hear from my lawyers, Johnson, within a day or
two."
"But, Beatrice----" Johnson Boller protested. "That doesn't mean that
you're crazy enough to--to try divorcing me?"
"I am not crazy, and there will be very little trouble about it,
Johnson," the lady said gravely. "That is what it means. Good-by."
A moment she paused before Johnson Boller, looking him up and down with
a scorn so terrible that, innocent or otherwise, he cringed visibly.
Another moment her eyes seemed to soften a little, for they were deep
and wonderful, maddeningly beautiful, but millions of miles from the
unworthy creature who had once called them his own. This, apparently,
was Beatrice's fashion of saying an eternal good-by to one she had once
loved--for having looked and thrilled him, she moved on, and the door
closed behind her.
"She means it!" croaked Johnson Boller.
"She'll cool down," said Anthony.
"She will not, and--she means it!" cried his friend, wrath rising by
great leaps. "She's going to sue me for divorce--_me_, that never even
looked a chicken in the eye on the street. She's going to bust up our
happy little home, Anthony, and it's your fault!"
"Poppycock!" said his host.
"That be damned!" stated Johnson Boller, and this time he actually
howled the foul words. "That's what she wants to do, and I don't blame
her! But she'll never do it, Anthony! Your reputation's all right--it's
unfortunate for the girl, of course, but I'm going to stop her!"
"How?"
"I'm going to tell the cold truth and make the girl back it up!"
"Hey?"
"I owe something to myself and to Beatrice, and I don't owe anything to
you or the Dalton girl! Where's my hat?"
Anthony gripped him suddenly.
"Are you cur enough," said he, angrily, "to sacrifice Miss Dalton simply
to----"
"You bet I am!" said Johnson Boller. "If it comes down to that, _the
truth_ can't hurt her, and any little odds and ends of things that
happen before all hands understand the truth will happen to you--not
me!"
Anthony smiled wickedly.
"Just listen to me a moment before you start!" he said curtly.
"Listen to what?"
"Something I have to say which will interest you very much! This
trifling family affair of yours isn't nearly so serious as you fancy. In
a day or two or a week or two it will all blow over--and if it doesn't
you may thank your lucky stars to be rid of a woman so infernally
unreasonable," said Anthony. "But I'm hanged if I'll permit you to
sacrifice that girl!"
"Ho!" said Johnson Boller derisively. "How are you going to stop it?"
"In just this way!" Anthony continued suavely. "You breathe just one
word of the truth, Johnson, and _I_ will tell a story which involves
_you_ and, while there will not be a word of truth in it, it will get
over in great shape, because everybody knows that I'm a man whose word
is as good as his bond. I'll tell such a story about you as will raise
the very hair on your head and have an infuriated mob after you before
the papers have been on the street for twenty minutes! Do you
understand?
"The mysterious woman will be an innocent country girl, I think, who
came here to make a living and lift the mortgage on the old farm, and
whom you approached on the street and finally dazzled with a few lobster
palaces. She'll be beautiful and virtuous, Johnson, and I think she'll
tell me, in tears, how you fed her the first cocktail she ever tasted!
She'll----"
"Wait!" Johnson Boller said hoarsely.
"That is the merest outline of the story I shall tell, and when I've had
time to work out the details, I'll guarantee that Beatrice will never
even consent to live in the same city with you--even if you bring sworn
proofs of the story's falsity! I'll represent you to be a thing abhorred
by all half-way decent men and even shunned by self-respecting dogs!
Don't think I'm bluffing about it, either, Johnson! I mean to protect
Mary Dalton!"
There is a vast difference between the coarse, rough character, however
blusteringly impressive he may be, and the truly strong one. Frequently,
the one is mistaken for the other, but under the first real stress the
truth comes out.
Johnson Boller for example, looking into his friend's coldly shining
eye, did not draw himself up and freeze Anthony with his conscious
virtue. He did puff out his cheeks defiantly, to be sure, and mutter
incoherently, but that lasted for only a few seconds.
Then the eye won and Johnson Boller, dropping into his chair again,
likewise dropped his head into his hands and groaned queerly.
Anthony, looking contempt at him, fancied that he wept.
Anthony sneered and smiled.