"Too bad. It must be terrible to--to have
everyone suspect you--and hunt you--as I suppose they're hunting
that poor cashier."
"Well," said Miss Cornelia, "a man who wrecks a bank deserves very
little sympathy to my way of thinking. But then I'm old-fashioned.
Well, dear, I won't keep you. Run along--and if you want an
aspirin, there's a box in my top bureau-drawer."
"Thanks, darling. Maybe I'll take one and maybe I won't--all I
really need is to lie down for a while."
She moved on up the staircase and disappeared from the range of
Miss Cornelia's vision, leaving Miss Cornelia to ponder many things.
Her trip to the city had done Dale no good, of a certainty. If not
actually ill, she was obviously under some considerable mental
strain. And why this sudden interest, first in the Bat, then in
the failure of the Union Bank? Was it possible that Dale, too, had
been receiving threatening letters?
I'll be glad when that gardener comes, she thought to herself.
He'll make a MAN in the house at any rate.
When Lizzie at last came in with the lemonade she found her mistress
shaking her head.
"Cornelia, Cornelia," she was murmuring to herself, "you should have
taken to pistol practice when you were younger; it just shows how
children waste their opportunities."
CHAPTER FOUR
THE STORM GATHERS
The long summer afternoon wore away, sunset came, red and angry,
a sunset presaging storm. A chill crept into the air with the
twilight.
Pages:
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60