McCarty halted for an instant and Dennis crossed himself but Ching Lee darted forward and seizing Fu Moy dragged him away as though from the mouth of some unnameable peril. Then Orbit turned, his face white and set, and McCarty advanced to meet him.
“Thank Heaven, it is you!” The resonant, well-modulated voice was hoarse and shaken. “Ching Lee thought he caught a glimpse of you passing and I told him to rush after you! McCarty, look—look at this girl! What is this horror that has come to my house!”
“Is it—dead, she is?” McCarty’s own tones were reverently low. “How did it happen? What was she doing here?”
“Listening to the organ! She was to all appearances as bright and well as this little child but when I finished playing and turned, she was as you see her now! I feel as though I were going mad, as though I couldn’t credit the evidence of my own eyes! What can this fearful thing mean!”
“We’d better be finding out, Mr. Orbit!” McCarty was rapidly recovering from the first shock and his quick mind leaped to meet the exigencies of the tragic situation. “Denny, run next door to Goddard’s and get the inspector but not a word to anybody else!—Jean, take the little one home to the other house and tell Mrs. Bellamy that her nursemaid’s took sick here but will be over it in a little while and she’s not to bother; understand? Think you can put it so’s she won’t come tearing in here to make a scene?”
Jean straightened and nodded, not trusting himself to speak. His sensitive face was working but he controlled his emotions by a valiant effort and took the baby whom his employer held mechanically out to him. Little Maude broke into a low wail of dismay at the abrupt transition and stretched out wavering, dimpled arms to the familiar but strangely inattentive figure on the bench. Her sobs echoed back to them as she was borne quickly from the room.
“Now, Mr. Orbit, what did you do when you turned from the organ and saw Lucette stretched out like this on the bench?” McCarty began. “Where was the baby? How did Ching Lee and Jean know that something was wrong,—did you call them? Have you sent for anybody else?”
Orbit passed his hand across his forehead as if dazed and the other noticed that it came away glistening with moisture.
“For the doctor, of course!” He replied to the last question first. “Allonby, around on the next block. I haven’t had a physician for years myself, but some of my neighbors swear by him. I told Ching Lee to telephone to him as soon as I could make myself realize that—that she was gone!”
A slight shudder ran through him and he averted his gaze from the rounded, childish face, relaxed as though in sleep, save that the bright blue eyes were dull and staring widely at the lofty ceiling.