Notwithstanding the danger of her position, she managed to suppress her terror, and she exclaimed defiantly, “Never!” and with one concentrated desperate effort in which all the suppleness, strength and agility of youth were called into action, succeeded in breaking his grasp, and sprang to her feet.
Deprived of her revolver, yet she had foreseen such a contingency, and had provided a last means of defense. She produced a small dagger from her corsage. Her fingers tightened convulsively around the handle, and she said in a trembling voice:
“Back, you ruffian! The point is poisoned! Beware!”
The action was so quick, and the blade glittered aloft with such deadly intent, that Jack leaped back.
Meanwhile Rutley’s attention had been absorbed by the struggle going on between Jack and Virginia, but when he heard the footsteps on the roof his alarm became manifest. “I must get the child at once, or all will be lost,” he muttered.
Hastily taking a handkerchief from his pocket, he tied it about the lower part of his face, then he swung open the partition door and entered, the same instant that Jack had forced Virginia to her knees.
Without a pause, he promptly made for Constance, grasped the child and tried to tear her from her mother.
Constance, too affrighted to scream, resisted with all her might.
“Let go, damn you—let go, or I’ll drown her!” and with savage hands he wrenched Dorothy away from her. Trying to escape with Dorothy in his arms, Rutley confronted Virginia.
“Release her!” she demanded.