Am I quite clear?"
Suddenly she cut short the nervous outbreak of suggestions and in the
same firm voice continued:
"Every one take his place about the table. That's it. That will do."
The women, with the exception of the inscrutable Maude Lille, gazed
hysterically from face to face while the men, compressing their fingers,
locking them or grasping their chins, looked straight ahead fixedly at
their hostess.
Mrs. Kildair, having calmly assured herself that all were ranged as she
wished, blew out two of the three candles.
"I shall count one hundred, no more, no less," she said. "Either I get
back that ring or every one in this room is to be searched, remember."
Leaning over, she blew out the remaining candle and snuffed it.
"One, two, three, four, five--"
She began to count with the inexorable regularity of a clock's ticking.
In the room every sound was distinct, the rustle of a dress, the
grinding of a shoe, the deep, slightly asthmatic breathing of a man.
"Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three--"
She continued to count, while in the methodic unvarying note of her
voice there was a rasping reiteration that began to affect the company.
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