"You must not go," I said with desperate firmness. "He--he is probably
in a very dangerous state just now. We--I--locked him in."
The Harbison man grinned and then became serious.
"Why don't you tell me the whole thing?" he demanded. "You've been in
trouble all evening, and--you can trust me, you know, because I am a
stranger; because the minute this crazy quarantine is raised I am off
to the Argentine Republic," (perhaps he said Chili) "and because I don't
know anything at all about you. You see, I have to believe what you
tell me, having no personal knowledge of any of you to go on. Now tell
me--whom have you hidden in the cellar, besides the policeman?"
There was no use trying to deceive him; he was looking straight into my
eyes. So I decided to make the best of a bad thing. Anyhow, it was going
to require strength to get Bella through the coal hole with one arm and
restrain the policeman with the other.
"Come," I said, making a sudden resolution, and led the way down the
stairs.
He said nothing when he saw Bella, for which I was grateful. She was
sitting at the table, with her arms in front of her, and her head buried
in them. And then I saw she was asleep. Her hat and veil were laid
beside her, and she had taken off her coat and draped it around her. She
had rummaged out a cold pheasant and some salad, and had evidently had
a little supper. Supper and a nap, while I worried myself gray-headed
about her!
"She--she came in unexpectedly--something about the butler," I explained
under my breath. "And--she doesn't want to stay. She is on bad terms
with--with some of the people upstairs. You can see how impossible the
situation is."
"I doubt if we can get her out," he said, as if the situation were quite
ordinary. "However, we can try. She seems very comfortable. It's a pity
to rouse her."
Here the prisoner in the furnace room broke out afresh. It sounded
as though he had taken a lump of coal and was attacking the lock. Mr.
Harbison followed the noise, and I could hear him arguing, not gently.
"Another sound," he finished, "and you won't get out of here at all,
unless you crawl up the furnace pipe!"
When he came back, Bella was rousing. She lifted her head with her eyes
shut and then opened them one at a time, blinked, and sat up. She didn't
see him at first.
"You wretch!" she said ungratefully, after she had yawned. "Do you know
what time it is? And that--" Then she saw Mr. Harbison and sat staring
at him.
"This is Mr. Harbison," I said to her hastily. "He--he came with Anne
and Dal and--he is shut in, too."