There were a few preliminary remarks on both sides which need not be repeated here. And then I put a question.
“Peggy, dear, did they treat you pretty well? Are you all right again?”
“Oh, yes, Jack.” Margaret nodded brightly. “They frightened me a good deal, and once they beat me, as I told you, but that was all. They didn’t mistreat us much because they said that we had to keep our looks.”
I groaned, and in spite of myself my eyes sought Natalie’s face. She met my glance frankly. “I’m all right too, Jack,” she answered, and with that answer a great content settled over my heart. They had been through a terrible experience. But they would both forget!
When the first excitement of our meeting had worn off a little, which it speedily did under the watchful and reproving eye of the nurse, I begged the two of them to sit down and tell me some of the news that I wanted to hear.
So they drew up chairs, possessed themselves of one of my hands apiece and prepared to be interrogated.
“First of all, I want to know how they captured you in the first place, Margaret?”
My little sister made a face, wrinkling up her little nose until she looked entirely adorable. “Why, I went into that store, you know, to buy you a present. I had only been there a minute when that Mr. Vining came up to me and said that Mrs. Furneau had sent him for me. He said that Mrs. Furneau had had to move her car away from the front of the store and that she would have trouble with the police unless she went away very soon. He had been passing and she had sent him in, after describing me to him.
“Of course I didn’t suspect anything, and when he led me out the side door into a side street, I looked around for Mrs. Furneau’s car. But he was talking all the time and he led me up to the door of a car before I ever looked. Then before I could turn back or ask any questions, he pushed me into the car, another man grabbed me and put his hand over my mouth and the car started. They kept me bound and gagged and blindfolded all the time until finally they untied me in that terrible house. Ever since then I’ve been dancing for them at their parties. But they treated me pretty well, except for that one night. And I knew you’d come for me sooner or later.”
I turned to Natalie. “Will you ever forgive me for sending you off in that taxi?” I asked her.