CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE
Up the stairs, across the landing, and down the passage opposite Dunn went in silence, shepherded by the little man behind whose pistol was still levelled and still steady.
His hands held high in the air, he pushed open with his knee the door of the girl's room and entered, and she looked up as he did so with an expression of pure astonishment at his attitude of upheld hands that changed to one of comprehension and of faint amusement as Deede Dawson followed, revolver in hand.
"Oh," she murmured."Captivity captive, it seems."At the fireplace Dunn turned and found her looking at him very intently, while from the doorway Deede Dawson surveyed them both, for once his eyes appearing to share in the smile that played about his lips as though he found much satisfaction in what he saw.
"Well, Ella," he said."You've been having adventures, it seems, but you don't look too comfortable like that.""Nor do I feel it," she retorted."So please set me free.""Yes, so I will," he answered, but he still hesitated, and Dunn had the idea that he was pleased to see the girl like this, and would leave her so if he could, and that he was wondering now if he could turn her predicament to his own advantage in any way.
"Yes, I will," he said again."Your mother - ?""She hasn't wakened," Ella answered."I don't think she has heard anything.I don't suppose she will, for she took two of those pills last night that Dr.Rawson gave her for when she couldn't sleep.""It's just as well she did," said Deede Dawson.
"Yes, but please undo my hands," she asked him."The cords are cutting my wrists dreadfully."As she spoke she glanced at Dunn, standing by the fireplace and listening gravely to what they said, and Deede Dawson exclaimed with an air of great indignation" -"The fellow deserves to be well thrashed for treating you like that.
I've a good mind to do it, too, before handing him over to the police.""But you haven 't released me yet," she remarked.
"Oh, yes, yes," he said, starting as if this were quite a new idea.
"I'll release you at once - but I must watch this scoundrel.He must have frightened you dreadfully.""Indeed he did not," she answered quickly, again looking at Dunn.
"No, he didn't," she said again with a touch of defiance in her manner and a certain slightly lifting her small, round chin."At least not much after just at first," she added.
"I'll loose you," Deede Dawson said once more, and coming up to her, he began to fumble in a feeble, ineffectual way at the cords that secured her wrists.
"Jove, he's tied you up pretty tight, Ella!" he said.
"He believes in doing his work thoroughly, I suppose," she remarked, lifting her eyes to Dunn's with a look in them that was partly questioning and partly puzzled and wholly elusive."I daresay he always likes to do everything thoroughly.""Seems so," said Deede Dawson, giving up his fumbling and ineffectual efforts to release her.
He stepped back and stood behind her chair, looking from her to Dunn and back again, and once more Dunn was conscious of an impression that he wished to make use for his own purposes of the girl's position, but that he did not know how to do so.
"You are a nice scoundrel," said Deede Dawson suddenly, with an indignation that seemed to Dunn largely assumed."Treating a girl like this.Ella, what would you like done to him? He deserves shooting.Shall I put a bullet through him for you?""He might have treated me worse, I suppose,"said Ella quietly."And if you would be less indignant with him, you might be more help to me.There are scissors on the table somewhere.
"I'll get them," Deede Dawson said."I'11 get them," he repeated, as though now at last finally making up his mind.
He took the scissors from the toilet-table where they lay before the looking-glass and cut the cords by which Ella was secured.
With a sigh of relief she straightened herself from the confined position in which she had been held and began to rub her wrists, which were slightly inflamed where the cords had bruised her soft skin.
"Like to tie him up that way now?" asked Deede Dawson."You shall if you like."She turned and looked full at Dunn and he looked back at her with eyes as steady and as calm as her own.
Again she showed that faint doubt and wonder which had flickered through her level gaze before as though she felt that there was more in all this than was apparent, and did not wish to condemn him utterly without a hearing.
But it was plain also that she did not wish to say too much before her stepfather and she answered carelessly "I don't think I could tie him tight enough, besides, he looks ridiculous enough like that with his hands up in the air."It was her revenge for what he had made her suffer.He felt himself flush and he knew that she knew that her little barbed shaft had struck home.
"Well, go and look through his pockets," Deede Dawson said."And see if he's got a revolver.Don't be frightened; if he lowers his hands he'll be a dead man before he knows it.""He has a pistol," she said."He showed it me, it's in his coat pocket.""Better get it then," Deede Dawson told her.She obeyed and brought him the weapon, and he nodded with satisfaction as he put it in his own pocket.
"I think we might let you put your hands down now," he remarked, and Dunn gladly availed himself of the permission, for every muscle in his arms was aching badly.
He remained standing by the wall while Deede Dawson, seating himself on the chair to which Ella had been bound, rested his chin on his left hand and, with the pistol still ready in his right, regarded Dunn with a steady questioning gaze.
