Part 15 (1/2)

She laughed happily as the carriage started on its way, and answered, ”Why, it is Mary!”

As the carriage rounded the first corner beyond the church, two breathless individuals hurried up from the other direction. One was short and baggy, and the sole of one rubber flopped dismally as he struggled to keep up with the alert strides of the other man, who was slim and angry. They had been detained by an altercation with the matron of the Y.W.C.A. Building, and puzzled by the story of the plainly dressed girl who had taken the room, and the fine lady who had left the building in company with a gentleman, until it was settled by the elevator boy, who declared the two women to be one and the same.

A moment later a man in citizen's clothing, who had keen eyes, and who was riding a motor-cycle, rounded the corner and puffed placidly along near the two. He appeared to be looking at the numbers on the other side of the street, but he heard every word that they said as they caught sight of the disappearing carriage and hurried after it. He had been standing in the entrance of the Y.W.C.A. Building, an apparently careless observer, while the elevator boy gave his evidence.

The motor-cycle shot ahead a few rods, pa.s.sed the carriage, and discovered by a keen glance who were the occupants. Then it rounded the block and came almost up to the two pursuers again.

When the carriage stopped at the side entrance of a hotel the man on the motor-cycle was ahead of the pursuers and discovered it first, long enough to see the two get out and go up the marble steps. The carriage was driving away when the thin man came in sight, with the baggy man struggling along half a block behind, his padded feet coming down in heavy, dragging thuds, like a St. Bernard dog in bedroom slippers.

One glimpse the pursuers had of their prey as the elevator shot upward.

They managed to evade the hotel authorities and get up the wide staircase without observation. By keeping on the alert, they discovered that the elevator had stopped at the second floor, so the people they were tracking must have apartments there. Lurking in the shadowy parts of the hall, they watched, and soon were rewarded by seeing Dunham come out of a room and hurry to the elevator. He had remembered his promise to his mother about the engravers. As soon as he was gone, they presented themselves boldly at the door.

Filled with the joy that had come to her and feeling entirely safe now in the protection of her husband, Mary Dunham opened the door. She supposed, of course, it was the bell-boy with a pitcher of ice-water, for which she had just rung.

”Ah, here you are at last, my pretty cousin!” It was the voice of Richard that menaced her, with all the stored-up wrath of his long-baffled search.

At that moment the man from the motor-cycle stepped softly up the top stair and slid unseen into the shadows of the hall.

For an instant it seemed to Mary Dunham that she was going to faint, and in one swift flash of thought she saw herself overpowered and carried into hiding before her husband should return. But with a supreme effort she controlled herself, and faced her tormentor with unflinching gaze. Though her strength had deserted her at first, every faculty was now keen and collected. As if nothing unusual were happening, she put out her cold, trembling fingers, and laid them firmly over the electric b.u.t.ton on the wall. Then with new strength coming from the certainty that some one would soon come to her aid, she opened her lips to speak.

”What are you doing here, Richard?”

”I've come after you, my lady. A nice chase you've led me, but you shall pay for it now.”

The cruelty in his face eclipsed any lines of beauty which might have been there. The girl's heart froze within her as she looked once more into those eyes, which had always seemed to her like sword-points.

”I shall never go anywhere with you,” she answered steadily.

He seized her delicate wrist roughly, twisting it with the old wrench with which he had tormented her in their childhood days. None of them saw the stranger who was quietly walking down the hall toward them.

”Will you go peaceably, or shall I have to gag and bind you?” said Richard. ”Choose quickly. I'm in no mood to trifle with you any longer.”

Although he hurt her wrist cruelly, she threw herself back from him and with her other hand pressed still harder against the electric b.u.t.ton. The bell was ringing furiously down in the office, but the walls were thick and the halls lofty. It could not be heard above.

”Catch that other hand, Mike,” commanded Richard, ”and stuff this in her mouth, while I tie her hands behind her back.”

It was then that Mary screamed. The man in the shadow stepped up behind and said in a low voice:

”What does all this mean?”

The two men, startled, dropped the girl's hands for the instant. Then Richard, white with anger at this interference, answered insolently: ”It means that this girl's an escaped lunatic, and we're sent to take her back. She's dangerous, so you'd better keep out of the way.”

Then Mary Dunham's voice, clear and penetrating, rang through the halls:

”Tryon, Tryon! Come quick! Help! Help!”

As if in answer to her call, the elevator shot up to the second floor, and Tryon Dunham stepped out in time to see the two men s.n.a.t.c.h Mary's hands again and attempt to bind them behind her back.

In an instant he had seized Richard by the collar and landed him on the hall carpet, while a well directed blow sent the flabby Irishman sprawling at the feet of the detective, who promptly sat on him and pinioned his arms behind him.