"Good Lord!" she gasped.
Stumbling to her feet, she held it out, devouring it with her eyes. Then, fumbling in her dress, she drew forth the money Lawrence had just given her, and compared the two. Both were crisp and new and yellow; both were uncreased, as if they had lain together in the same long wallet or package. And Mrs. Kerr's eyes lit up with a horrible sort of cupidity.
"An' I let him go!" she muttered, through clenched teeth. "I let him step out of the house with his pockets full of dough, leaving a twenty behind he never knowed he'd lost! I'm a dope! But mebbe it ain't too late. Mebbe—— Jim! Jim!"
Her face flushed and mottled, her hands trembling, she flung herself into the hall and down the stairs, calling the name at intervals.
She had reached the second floor, and was panting toward a door in the rear, when it was jerked open, and a man appeared on the threshold.
"Shut your face, you fool!" he snarled. "What're you yowling round like that for? You'll bust yer pipes!"
She caught her breath with a queer gurgle, and, putting out both hands, pushed him back into the room.
"Wait till you see what I found," she gasped. "Wait till you hear——"
Then the door slammed shut, and the sound of her voice ceased abruptly, leaving the hall dark and silent, save only for the rapid, indistinct murmur rising and falling in the room beyond.
CHAPTER VI.