Dick drew Mary toward the couch, there let her sink down in a huddled attitude of despair.
“I never saw a man—killed before!” she said again. There was a note of half-hysterical, almost childish complaint in her voice. She moved her head a little, as if to look into the shadows where it lay, then checked herself violently, and looked up at her husband with the pathetic simplicity of terror.
“You know, Dick,” she repeated dully, “I never saw a man killed before.”
Before he could utter the soothing words that rose to his lips, Dick was interrupted by a slight sound at the door. Instantly, he was all alert to meet the exigencies of the situation. He stood by the couch, bending forward a little, as if in a posture of intimate fondness. Then, with a new thought, he got out his cigarette-case and lighted a cigarette, after which he resumed his former leaning over the woman as would the ardent lover. He heard the noise again presently, now so near that he made sure of being overheard, so at once he spoke with a forced cheerfulness in his inflection.
“I tell you, Mary,” he declared, “everything's going to be all right for you and me. It was bully of you to come here to me like this.”
The girl made no response. She lived still in the nightmare of murder—that nightmare wherein she had seen Griggs fall dead to the floor.
Dick, in nervous apprehension as to the issue, sought to bring her to realization of the new need that had come upon them.
“Talk to me,” he commanded, very softly. “They'll be here in a minute. When they come in, pretend you just came here in order to meet me. Try, Mary. You must, dearest!” Then, again, his voice rose to loudness, as he continued. “Why, I've been trying all day to see you. And, now, here we are together, just as I was beginning to get really discouraged.... I know my father will eventually——”
He was interrupted by the swift swinging open of the hallway door. Burke stood just within the library, a revolver pointed menacingly.
“Hands up!—all of you!” The Inspector's voice fairly roared the command.