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But I would scarcely have stooped to the method employed by the man of whom I speak." "Starr Wiley?" The question was wrung from Willa's lips. He stared at her. "You know, then?" "I I guessed," she countered hurriedly. "I knew that you two were enemies, of course, and it came to me that if anyone had played a false trick upon you it must have been he. You say you found the Pool by following him.
You must have had some great experiences down there." It was Willa's turn to glance curiously at him, for Vernon's tone was oddly constrained and hesitant as if he were endeavoring, awkwardly enough, to lead up to some point in his own mind. "Yes," she assented quietly, and waited. "Starr Wiley was disappointed last night at not seeing you," he pursued. "I never knew you had met him down there."
"No, the government troops came; the Carranzistas. But they were only just in time." "Phew! No wonder you spoke of the movies! It sounds like a melodrama, doesn't it?" "It was a tragedy." Willa's voice was very low. "We would all have been wiped out, if it had not been for one man.
"I have a good deal of respect for her clear-headed ability to take care of herself; nevertheless, I sha'n't feel easy until she is found. I've taken more comfort in her than in my own daughter, Mason. My wife doesn't need Willa's share of the Murdaugh money and I wish young Wiley had never unearthed the truth!" The attorney had picked up the little note. "'My dear Mrs. Halstead, he read.
"Not wholly because he had taken a liking to Willa Murdaugh, however. Why blink the facts, Mr. Halstead? It is plain on the face of it that he must have looked up the real Willa's parentage and connections, and realized that the storm had robbed him of a potential heiress in whose probable inheritance he would sometime have shared " "That is a lie."
Willa's secret anxiety as to forks being allayed by the discovery that service was laid for but one course at a time, she was able to give herself up during the meal to a frank study of her new-found relatives. She was going to like Ripley Halstead; already liked him, and each passing moment confirmed her first opinion. Concerning the others, she was not so sure.
Weak without being absolutely vicious, crafty without initiative, he would be a mere tool in dominant unscrupulous hands or an average, decent fellow if his better instincts were aroused. Dinner over, they repaired to the drawing-room, but the little family gathering soon disintegrated, to Willa's profound relief. Angelica flitted away to a dance, Vernon betook himself to his club and Mr.
The voices reached her, now raised as the intruders called to each other, now lowered in an earnest monotone, but to Willa's disappointment the registers did not carry the sound to her as she had hoped and the tones alone reached her ear in a confused rumble.
Willa's voice rang out above the amazed gasp which ran around the table. "I saw you running up the hands before when you cleaned Mr. Follinsbee on four planted jacks. That's why I eased myself into the game." Shirley obeyed, with a sickly smile. "Really, this is most extraordinary!" he drawled. "Is your charming cousin about to entertain us with a bit of wild-West melodrama, Vernie?"
He recalled Vernon's swift, unaccountable championship of his cousin at the club an hour before. That was the answer, of course! The young cub had double-crossed him and placed himself in Willa's hands and incidentally landed his erstwhile tyrant in the same position. So be it. He would carry the game into the enemy's camp and then, if necessary, arbitrate.
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