Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/160

me, Hilair. Don’t you see what it means? - - -” Her subdued voice was panicky.

The next moment George Bandas, holding Kabel’s coat in his left hand, stood in the doorway. His cool, grey eyes rested first on the girl, and his jaw dropped. The circumstances rendered the girl speechless, and perhaps better so, for George was vexed, and had reason to be To find her here at this time, and in the company of this pretentious stranger. That was unthinkable, what with their troth as good as pledged . . . She rose and brushed the saw-dust from her skirt.

Then his steely eyes shifted to the man in the tan shirt and to the golden cups beside him. This was all so strange, yet so simple. But the girl, her call on the telephone, and then her presence here with the burglar and the loot! That was the puzzle. But duty called for action.

“Mr. Kabel, this is your coat, isn’t it?” he sternly questioned the seemingly amused poet. The other nodded and opened his outstretched hand to receive the garment.

“Oh no! It’s mine for the time being”, he snapped. “And you’re arrested. Here, Rod, take this man into custody”. This to the man outside.

“I’m to go with you. Is that it?” said the man in the tan shirt, slowly arising. “I hope you are not arrested, Miss Gordon. They are liable to get as serious as they appear”. And the expression her read in the girl’s face, as he departed with the deputy, interested him more than anything else he had seen that evening.

It is needless to relate all that passed between George and Claire after the other two had left. To be sure, George felt very much offended, and Claire heard about it, too. He had expected to see her repentant, and, while she lingered over the chalices in wrapping them, believed that she was actually crying. But when she faced the beam of his flashlight there was more defiance in her eyes than ever. She told him something about his tardiness in coming—about her regard for the grieved Sisters—and about her right to personal freedom. And for a rejoinder he displayed so much arrogance and preachment that it was evident to Claire what element in his character made her so hesitant during his two-year courtship. Of course Bandas was now confronted with a very serious complication and this only angered him the more.

He placed the coat and the chalices into his car beside the other two men and escorted the girl to where the Gordon sedan stood.

“I can clear you out of this, Claire,” he told her when she got in. “I can keep your name out of court provided you cooperate with me. Remember that you just came along with me, and that you don’t know anything more than what happened after I got there, and that will never go to court. It’s not needed. But I’ll tell you what. I’ll be over at the hotel tonight and we can arrange the details”.