"It's mine," she began. "I dropped it out of the window. I--"
"You threw it out of the window. I saw you."
It was Rudolph.
"You--" He snarled, and stood with menacing eyes fixed on her bare neck.
"Rudolph!"
"Get into the house," he said roughly. "You're half-naked."
"Give me my watch."
"I'll give it to you, all right. What's left of it. When we get in."
He followed her into the hail, but when she turned there and held out
her hand, he only snarled again.
"We'll talk up-stairs."
"I can't take you up. The landlady don't allow it."
"She don't, eh? You had that Spencer skunk up there."
His face frightened her, and she lied vehemently.
"That's not so, and you know it, Rudolph Klein. He came inside, just
like this, and we stood and talked. Then he went away. He wasn't inside
ten minutes." Her voice rose hysterically, but Rudolph caught her by the
arm, and pushing her ahead of him, forced her up the stairs.
"We're going to have this out," he muttered, viciously.
Half way up she stopped.
"You're hurting my arm."
"You be glad I'm not breaking it for you."
He climbed in a mounting fury. He almost threw her into her room, and
closing the door, he turned the key in it. His face reminded her of
her father's the night he had beaten her, and her instinct of
self-preservation made her put the little table between them.
"You lay a hand on me," she panted, "and I'll yell out the window. The
police would be glad enough to have something on you, Rudolph Klein, and
you know it."
"They arrest women like you, too."
"Don't you dare say that." And as he took a step or two toward her
she retreated to the window. "You stay there, or I'll jump out of the
window."
She looked desperate enough to do it, and Rudolph hesitated.
"He was up here. I saw him at the window. I've been trailing you all
evening. Keep off that window-sill, you little fool! I'm not going to
kill you. But I'm going to get him, all right, and don't you forget it."
His milder tone and the threat frightened her more than ever. He would
get Graham; he was like that. Get him in some cruel, helpless way;
that was the German blood in him. She began to play for time, with
instinctive cunning.