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Page 63
"I should rather think so," Billy laughed. "And there's a gun in my
pocket that says so.... And so you sent me that message to-day by
that little native girl? How in the world did that happen?"
"That girl is one who will do a little for money, you understand,"
said the Viennese, "and I have told her to look sharp out for a
foreign gentleman who come to save me. You see I have sent for a
friend, and I think that he--but never mind. That girl she come
running this afternoon to where I am shut in way back in the palace,
and she say that a foreign gentleman is painting a picture out in
the street, and he stare very cunning at her. So I tell her to find
out if he is the one for me, and to tell him to come quick this
night. She was afraid to take note--afraid the eunuch catch her. So
she went to you. She told afterwards that you ask her if there is
any strange lady there anxious to get away, and she give you the
message and my handkerchief and you say you will come--and my, how
you give me one great surprise!"
"And a great disappointment," said Billy grinning.
"Oh, no, no," she denied, eyes and lips all mischievous smiles. "I
say to myself, 'My God! That is a fine-looking young man! He and I
will have something to say to each other'--h'm?"
"Now who in the world are you?" demanded Billy bluntly. "And how did
you happen to get into all this?"
Volubly she told. She dwelt at picturesque length upon her shining
place upon the Viennese stage; she recounted her triumphs, she
prophesied the joy of the playgoers at her return to them. Darkly
she expatiated upon the villainy of the Turkish Captain, who had
lured her to such incarceration. Gleefully she displayed the
diamonds upon her small person which she was extracting from that
affair.
"Not so bad, after all--h'm?" she demanded, in a brazen little
content. "Maybe that prison time make good for me," and Billy shook
his head and chuckled outright at the little baggage.
But through his amusement a prick of uneasiness was felt. The
picture she had painted of the Captain corroborated his wildest
imaginings.
"You're dead sure you know all that was going on in that palace?" he
demanded. "There wasn't any American girl coaxed into it on some
pretext?"
He wanted merely the reassurance of her answer, but to his surprise
and growing alarm she hesitated, looking at him half fearfully and
half ashamedly. "Oh, I--I don't know about that," she murmured, with
evasive eyes. "An American girl--very light hair--yes?"
"Very light hair--Oh, good God!" He leaned forward, gripping her
wrist as if afraid she would spring out of the carriage. "You said
she wasn't there," he thrust at her in a voice that rasped.
"I said I don't know--don't know any such name you say. I never hear
it. You hurt me--take your hand away."
"Not till you tell me." But he loosened his harsh grip. "Now tell me
all you know--_please_ tell me all you know," he besought with a
sudden melting into desperate entreaty. Worriedly he stared at this
curious little kitten-thing beside him on whose truth now that other
girl's life was resting.
"Well, I tell you true I do not know that name," began Fritzi
Baroff, with a little sullen dignity over her shame. "And I saved
your life, for it was death for you to go back to that palace. You
heard them coming for us. You would have got yourself killed and
that little girl would be no better. Now I can tell you how to help
her."
"All right--tell me," said the young American in a tense voice.
"Tell me everything you know about it," and Fritzi told him,
throwing aside all pretense of her uncertainty about Arlee,
revealing every detail of the situation that she knew.
And from the heights of his gay relief Billy Hill was flung back
into the deeps of desperate indignation. The anger that had surged
up in him that afternoon when he had felt his fears confirmed flamed
up in him now in a fire of fury. His blood was boiling.... Arlee
Beecher in the power of that Turkish devil! Arlee Beecher prisoned
within that ghastly palace! It was unreal. It was monstrous.... That
radiant girl he had danced with, that teasing little sprite, half
flouting, half flirting. Why, the thing was unthinkable!
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