The silent gesture chilled me with sudden dread. My confidence and the sense of victory fell away from me like a dropped cloak. I was too late after all. A frenzy of rage seized upon me; I rushed upon him and seizing him by the throat, shook him till his teeth chattered, and flung him away, and sent him asprawl to the ground.
"You shall pay with your life for this," I cried fiercely. "Go for the police, Lander," I said turning to my companion. "Here, take this card to Herr Feldermann;" and I scribbled a message to Feldermann to come.
"No, no, wait," said von Felsen in a weak voice as he struggled to his feet. "Wait till we have talked together."
"We've passed the time for talk," I answered with an oath. "Where is Fräulein Althea?"
"Send him away;" and he motioned toward Lander.
"Where is she?" I asked again. "I'm not safe to fool in this mood." I was beside myself with the lust for revenge, and could have found it in me to tear the life out of him there and then. "This is the end of things for you."
"I will tell you all. Send him away. She is safe and well."
"Wait in the hall there till I call you," I told Lander; and I unlocked the door, let him out, and relocked it.
"Now you treacherous devil, out with the truth," I thundered. "Have you forced her to marry you? If you have, I swear on my soul that you shall pay for it with your life."
He fell back before me, grey and sweat-dappled with terror.