Vona had been waiting for her cue to join the hero and pledge their vows beside the babbling stream. After one horrified gasp of amazement, she led off the hilarity back-stage. Frank was in her mind at that moment, as he had been all the evening; her zestful enjoyment of the affair was heightened by the thought that she could help him forget his troubles for a little while by the story she would carry to him. Then she and the others in the group heard the piercing squeals of a man's voice.
“Somebody has got hystierucks out of it, and I don't blame him,” stated the manager of the show. He grabbed the handle of the winch and began to let down the curtain. “I reckon the only sensible thing to do is to let Brook Number One and Brook Number Two take the curtain call.”
Then Dorsey's shrill insistence prevailed over the roars of laughter in front; the young folks on the stage heard his bloodcurdling bulletin.
The manager let slip the whirling handle and the pole of the hurrying curtain thumped the platform. Vona had leaped, risking her life, and was able to dodge under the descending pole. For a moment, sick with horror and unutterable woe, she stood there alone against the tawdry curtain, as wide-eyed and white-faced as Tragedy's muse.
Men, women, and children, all the folks of Egypt, were struggling to their feet; the sliding settees squawked and clattered.
She saw Tasper Britt, fighting a path for himself, Starr following. Britt's face, above his blackened beard, was yellow-pale.
Panic was piling the people at the narrow rear doors; the weight of those who were rushing forward wedged all the mass at the exits.
“Vona!” called the manager, pulling at the edge of the curtain to give her passage. “This way! The side door.”
The summons helped to put away her faintness; her strength came back to her. Her goal was the bank! In the frenzy of her solicitude for her lover she took no thought of herself.
The others stopped to find their wraps. Vona ran down the street as she was, bareheaded, the ribbons of her stage finery fluttering. She was close behind the first arrivals at the open door of Britt Block. All the other portals were wide open, bank door and grille door. But the door of the vault was closed.