Her eyes flashed a reproach at him--and he smiled. He was wholly at ease now.
"For nothing. She's done nothing. She went to see Archie, and the police, stupid and brutal as usual, detained her. That's all; they placed the charge of suspicion against her to satisfy the law. The law!"
He sneered out the word.
Elizabeth had fallen back in her chair with an expression of pain.
"Oh, Gordon!" she said with a shudder. "Isn't it horrible, horrible!"
"Horrible!" he echoed.
"That poor Koerner family! What can the fates be about? You know--you know it all seems to come so near. Such things happen in the world, of course, every day the newspapers, the dreadful newspapers, are filled with them. But they never were real at all, because they never happened to people I knew. But this comes so near. Just think. I've seen that Archie Koerner, and he has spoken to me, and to think of him now, a murderer! Will--they hang him?"
She leaned forward earnestly.
"No," he said slowly. "They may electrocute him though--to use their barbarous word."
"And now Gusta's in prison!" Elizabeth went on, forgetting Archie. "But her message! You haven't given me her message!"