CHAPTER XXIII

For once Diana was silenced. It was absurd that she should attempt to justify herself to a woman of this character. Yet she did.

“Mr. Dempsi is--is a very dear friend. To compare your--oh, it’s horrible!”

She was sickened--the realisation of her own hypocrisy did not lessen the nausea. There was no comparison. Of the two men, Double Dan was the more appealing.

No index of her mind went unread by the shrewd watcher.

“I gotta stick by this anyhow. It’s no vacation for me,” said Heloise with a sigh.

The effect was magical--the frown vanished from Diana’s face and a soft light came to her eyes.

“I’m sorry for you sometimes,” she said.

Heloise raised her left shoulder.

“Why, I’m sorry most times. Gee! It’s a helluva life,” she said bitterly.

Diana’s heart went out to the woman. Her loneliness, the atmosphere of tragedy which now enveloped her, called for tenderness and help.

“I ought to have realised that,” she said gently. “I’m sorry I was sharp.”

The great strategist is he who recognises the moment when his enemy is wavering. Heloise brought up her heavy guns.

“I was a good woman before I met him,” she said with a little sob. Gordon, a horrified listener, came gasping into the kitchen.

“You--you----!”

“Silence!”

Under the flashing eyes of Diana Ford his courage failed. Like the fisherman’s wife, he could only stand and watch and suffer.

“He just naturally dragged me down.” Heloise was playing for safety and freedom, and she was a champion player.

Diana’s voice quivered as she turned on the shrinking man.

“You brute! To think that a man like you should be allowed to prey upon humanity! I suspected something like this! You are a human tiger, unfit to live--Why don’t you leave him, Heloise?” she asked tenderly.

Heloise wiped her eyes and sniffed.

“He’s got me--so.” She put down her thumb suggestively. “That kind of man doesn’t let up on a woman once she’s in his power. She’s his till doom.”

Gordon shuffled his feet and she stepped back, fear in her face.

“Don’t let him touch me!” she cried in terror.

In another second Diana’s arm was about her.

“Stand back,” she said sternly. “Does he--does he strike you?”

Heloise nodded with just that show of reluctance that was so convincing.

“I’m just black and blue sometimes,” she wept. “He’ll beat me for this, sure. Don’t trouble about me, Miss Ford--I’m naturally worthless. I must stand by Dan to the end of the chapter--heaven help me!”

“You villain!” The girl was in tears too. Gordon was beyond weeping. “But why can’t you leave him?” Diana’s voice was low and vibrant. “Are you married?”

The slow smile that dawned on the sad face told its own black story.

“That kinder man doesn’t marry,” said Heloise quietly.

The basilisk glare of Diana’s eyes turned to Gordon, dumb and motionless.

“But he shall!” she said slowly.

Heloise went swiftly past her and fell on her knees at Gordon’s feet. He did not even attempt to draw his hands away when she clutched them. This nightmare would pass--he was sure of that. Monstrous things like this did not happen in a well-ordered world. He had only to keep quiet and calm and presently Trenter’s voice would say: “Eight o’clock, sir; I’m afraid it is raining.” Trenter always apologised for the weather. And he would open his eyes....

Through the haze of his dream came the moaning sound of Heloise pleading.

“Dan, you heard what the good young lady said. Marry me, Dan--won’t you marry me?”

Gordon smiled foolishly. To Diana it was devilish.

“Make me like I was when you took me from my li’l Connecticut home,” sobbed Heloise. Not for nothing had she played a small town tour with that masterpiece _Rich Men and Poor Women_. “Don’t you see it, Dan? The old farm an’ the old cows comin’ along the boardwalk, an’ can’t you hear the cracked bell of the chapel, an’ don’t you remember my old mother sittin’ right there on the porch read’n’ the good old Book? Make it come back again, Dan.”

Her voice rose to a thin, agonized wail. For a second Gordon returned to near normal.

“What do you mean by this tomfoolery?” he squeaked, trying to disengage his hand.

“Man!” Diana was unconscious of the plagiarism. “Be careful!”

He shook his head.

“I tell you----”

“You shall marry her!”

“I--I can’t--I won’t.... I’ll see you all to the devil.”

Heloise cowered under the stroke of fate.

“You promised me, Dan! You promised me! You’re not going back on your word? Dan, say it ain’t true--it’s not true, Dan?”

It was terrible, thought Diana, her heart broken by the woman’s woe.

“You don’t mean it, Dan, do you? It’s only your joking way?” Gordon showed his teeth in a fiendish grimace. “Ah, I can see you smiling. I can see the li’l twinkle in your eye! We’ll quit this business like this pretty young lady says an’ shake the whole outfit, won’t we, Dan? And I’ll be just your li’l wife sittin’ on the back porch, whilst you’re mixin’ the hen-feed in the garden.”

“Damn the hen-feed!” he yelled. “Curse you and your back porch! I won’t marry you. Diana, can’t you see that she’s a fake? She’s acting! I’m nothing to her!”

“He spurns me,” groaned Heloise, and fell prostrate to the floor. Instantly Diana was beside her and had raised the bowed head.

“Come with me, my dear. Appeal is wasted on a man like that. Ah, you can laugh!”

“I’m not laughing,” said Gordon indignantly. “What the devil is there to laugh at? If I laughed at anybody I would laugh at you, you ... you booby!”

She cast upon him one harrowing glance of contempt, and then devoted her attention to the girl.

“If I gave you the money to get to your home, would you go?”

Heloise nodded weakly.

“You shall have it to-morrow. Come with me.”

Heloise gently freed herself of the detaining arm.

“No--no, I’ll stay,” she said brokenly. “I guess there’s something I want to say to Dan, something that I want no other woman to hear.”

Diana went pale.

“I think I understand,” she said quietly, and went out, closing the door softly behind her.

Heloise waited, crept to the door and listened before she spun round, joy in her face.

“Whoop-ee!” She danced round the kitchen. “I got my fare! I got my fare! Oh boy, some leading woman! Heloise, your salary is raised and your name’s in lights.”

“You, you wicked woman!” gasped Gordon. “How dare you--how dare you!”

“Aw, listen!” Hand on hip, she faced him, looking from under her curling lashes. “I gotta get somethin’ on the side. Be reasonable, Man. I’m broke--I couldn’t raise two dollars. Suppose Dan does pay up--where’s my transportation coming from? Have a heart, birdie.”

“You’ve deceived Miss Ford.”

“Now listen to Holy Mike! Haven’t you deceived her? Anyway, you don’t deserve a nice li’l girl like that. Don’t think I despise her because she’s easy. That’s a real nice girl. You lied when you said you were married--you may be, but it is not to Diana. And never will be. She’s got brains.”

He strode up and down the kitchen with furious strides, muttering under his breath. Presently he confronted her.

“You take away my character--you accuse me of the most abominable acts. You swear away my reputation in a most disgraceful manner. I am Double Dan in her eyes.”

She had found and lit another cigarette and was sitting on the table, her feet swinging.

“Gee, you’ve gotta get a sense of humour, boy,” she said good-naturedly. “You’re too serious, that’s what’s wrong with you! She’s a good dresser too--that gown she was wearing this afternoon certainly made me feel old.”

He was cooling down now. The uselessness of argument or appeal was so apparent that he fell into her mood.

“I shall finish in a lunatic asylum,” he said, “just as surely as Double Dan will finish in jail.”

“Don’t you worry. The li’l game is going to end very soon. I’m through. John’s due home in a fortnight, and I’m just longing for the smell of rubber an’ oil an’ breakfast. That’s what a ship smells like to me. I’m going to have it out with Dan.”

“You mean, he is coming--that we shall meet?” asked Gordon eagerly.

“We shall meet and he shall part,” she said cryptically, “that’s what. The poor Limburger! And he’s going to split fair. Did he think I’d sit down an’ take his twen’y-eighty? No, sir. As a woman the idea revolts me. I was brought up in a strict fifty-fifty school!”

Gordon was himself again.

“Now I warn you this matter has gone as far as it is going,” he said impressively. “There are fifty thousand dollars in The Study safe, and I’ve no doubt in my mind that that is his objective, though how he came to know this----”

“Fifty thousand!” she breathed. “That explains everything! You told me in one of your heart-to-heart talks that you always kept a thousand pounds, but not----”

“This money was drawn to pay an American,” said Gordon impatiently. “There is no reason why I should explain why it is here. It is in the safe--that is sufficient.”

Heloise had become very thoughtful.

“Then he knew!” she said. “The piker! Wouldn’t that make you sore! Fifty thousand dollars--ten thousand pounds--seven hundred thousand francs--every mark in the world--and all to be cleaned up on his lonesome!”

She was apparently oblivious of Gordon’s presence. The immensity of Dan’s treachery was all-absorbing.

“So that’s why he wanted to work alone! ‘Get him to Ostend,’ he said, ‘and leave the rest to me!’ And the rest was fifty thousand dollars! That fellow couldn’t go straight if he was fired from a gun. Not a word to me either--he expected to get a thousand pounds, he said--it is the most unprofessional thing I’ve ever heard about in my life!”

“My dear woman,” said Gordon testily, “the ethics of the case do not interest me----”

“But he’s gonna split this two ways,” said Heloise grimly, “or my name is Johanna Dub. He’s going to act honest even if it hurts him. Yes, sir. There’s going to be honour amongst Double Dan and Heloise Chowster. Shame on you, Dan, you great big yegg!”

The perfidy of the man had changed her whole outlook on life. Her very ideals were tottering.

“He’ll split it no-ways, understand that!” Gordon was firm. “I will not see myself robbed. Do you think I’m a fool?”

She searched his face for rebutting evidence.

“Why, that idea certainly did occur to me,” she said mildly; and then her tone changed. Diana’s step was on the stair. “I won’t plead with you any more, Dan, there’s nothin’ to be gained. I--I wish you luck! Won’t you take my hand for the last time?”

Bewildered, Gordon stared at her, then he saw Diana and understood.

“Don’t let us part this way, Dan. I forgive you everything you’ve done. Good-bye, Dan, old friend.”

She put out her hand timidly. Gordon could have smacked her.

“Good-bye!”

“You brute--take her hand at once!” hissed Diana.

He took it limply.

“All right--good-evening.”

Diana knew that the criminal classes were callous, but she had never realised how brutal they could be.

“Come with me, my dear,” she said. “You need not see him any more.”

“Thank you,” said Gordon; “that’s the first kind thing you’ve said.”

Diana treated him with the scorn he deserved.

“Miss Ford”--Heloise was looking wistfully at her benefactress--“dare I ask you sump’n?”

“Why, surely.”

Heloise touched her skirt disparagingly.

“Somehow these clothes don’t seem right in my state of mind. I know you’ll think I’m crazy, but clothes mean an awful lot, even to a woman like me, and these are kind of too gay for a broken-hearted girl. If you’ve got sump’n quiet and sorrowful----”

Diana smiled. How well she understood!

“I know just how you’re feeling. Come to my room, Heloise. You need have no fear. I will send Superbus to look after this--this man.”

Gordon thrust out a warning finger.

“Diana, I beg of you not to help this wretched female. And for heaven’s sake don’t give her any of your new clothes--if you do, she’ll impersonate you----”

Diana’s glance would have withered a waterlily.

“You despicable brute! Go to your bed and sleep--if you can!”