She ran toward the door, for the moment forgetting it was locked. Then, as it resisted, memory awoke. He was beside her and tried to take her in his arms, but she turned and struck him, with all her force, a blow on the face. She saw the skin redden under it.
“Open the door!” she gasped; “open the door!”
For the moment the blow so stunned and enraged him that he drew back from her, his hand instinctively rising to the smarting skin. An oath burst from his compressed mouth.
“I’d like to kill you for that,” he said.
“Open the door,” she almost shrieked, rattling the handle.
“I’ll pay you for this. You seem to forget that I know all the disreputable secrets of your beginnings. I can tell all the world how your mother was sold to Dan Moreau, and how—”
Mariposa heard the click of the gate and a step on the outside stairs. She drowned the sound of Essex’s voice in a sudden furious pounding on the door, while she cried with the full force of her lungs:
“Benito! Miguel! Mrs. Garcia!—Come and open this door! Come and let me out! I’m locked in! Come!”
Essex was at the door in an instant, the key in the lock. As he turned it he gave her a murderous look.
“You fool!” he said under his breath.