But her face did not change nor the defiance of her eyes grow less. She moved a step forward, and, as if to make way for her, the builder, also, stepped aside. As he did so his hammer caught upon the little ledge of the chimney projection which he had been testing and whose hollow sound had aroused his curiosity. The small slab of marble slipped and fell, though it had seemingly been securely plastered in the wall. It left an aperture of a few inches, and the contractor ejaculated:
“Pshaw! That’s queer. Must have been loose, I never saw just such a hole in such a place. I’m sorry, sir, yet——” He turned to address the banker but paused, amazed. What had he done?
The effect of that trivial accident upon the owner of the building was marvelous. He sprang to his feet, clasped his head with his hands, and gazed upon that tiny opening with the fascination of horror. For a moment it seemed as if his staring eyes would start from their sockets and he gasped in his effort to breathe.
“Father! What is it? What ails you?”
But the distraught man tossed off his son’s arm like one who needed no support, and to whom each second of delay was unendurable.
“Look, look! What they told me—I believed—look, look!” then he swayed and Adrian caught him.
But Margot’s anxious love leaped to a swift comprehension of what merely amazed the others.
“That hole! The bonds—the bonds are in that hole! That’s what he means. Look, look!”
Incredulous, but impelled by her insistence, the builder peered into the opening. It was too small to admit his head and his gaze could pass no further than its opposite side.
“There’s nothing there, miss, but a hole, as he said.”