HE was looking at the jewels, appraising1 them, making sure they were real and marketable. She was looking at them, too, with a wild longing2 and a bitter disappointment, which he, turning at that moment to mark her looks, saw and rated at its full value.
"Well, I guess they'll do," he exclaimed, pausing in his task of thrusting the gems3 in his pocket to hand her a bracelet4 ornamented5 with one small diamond. "But I expected more from all this fuss and feathers. Was it to guard these——"
"Yes," she murmured, thrusting the bracelet into the neck of her dress and[132] stepping quickly back. "They are priceless to the owner. Associations you know. Mrs. Stoughton is dead—There! that will do. Now for my part of the bargain," and bethinking her at last of the pistol, she raised it and pointed7 it full in his face. "You will close that door now and send the telephone you promised."
He rose and banged to the door.
"All right," he cried. "You've behaved well. Now hide that pistol in your waist and we'll step into the outer office."
She did as she was bid, and in a moment more they were crossing the floor outside. As they did so, she noticed that the two clerks had been sent out to luncheon8, leaving them alone with Mr. Fellows. This was not encouraging, nor did she like the click which at this moment Beau Johnson[133] made with his tongue. It sounded like a preconcerted signal. Whether so or not, it brought Mr. Fellows from his room, and in another instant he was standing9 with them before the telephone. There was a clock over the safe-room door. It stood at just twenty-five minutes after eleven.
"Hurry!" she whispered as the other took up the receiver.
She did not need to say it. His own anxiety seemed to be as great as hers, but his anxiety was to be gone. The nerve which sustained him while the issue was doubtful gave some slight tokens of failing, now that his efforts had brought success and only this small obligation lay between him and the enjoyment10 of the booty he had won at such a risk. She was sure that his voice trembled as he uttered the familiar. "Hello!" and during the inte change of words which followed, the strain was perhaps as great on him as on her.
"Hello! how's the old man?"
She could hear the answer. It swept her fears away in a moment.
"Well, but anxious about the girl."
"She's all right, everything's all right. Take the sick man home and tell him that his daughter will be there almost as soon as he is."
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