Page:Caroline Lockhart--The Fighting Shepherdess.djvu/357

 never had dreamed of such a vindictive, deep-rooted animosity as this.

When he could speak he half started from his chair and cried sharply:

"Miss Prentice! Kate! You won't do that!"

"Won't I? "Her short laugh was hard as with a nervous movement she got up, and walking behind it, laid her folded arms on the back of the big leather chair. "Do you think I've been planning and working to this end all these years to weaken at your first outcry? To watch you squirm is a part of the reward I promised myself, Mr. Wentz."

He thrust out a supplicating hand:

" Give us time — just a little time — that's all I ask! We"ll tide over somehow if you'll — "

Kate interrupted bitterly:

" There's a familiar ring to that. My own words exactly, if you will recollect — and you sneered in my face." She looked at him with narrowed eyes and her voice was flint: "The time you'll get is the time it will require for me to go before a notary and swear that your bank is insolvent — twenty minutes — a half hour at most."

" For God's sake " His face was chalky when he sprang out of his chair as though to stop her forcibly when she laid her hand upon the gate. " Isn't there some other way — some concession that we can make?"

Wentz did not breathe, in the tense moment that she seemed to hesitate.

"Yes," she flashed, "there is one way to save your bank; turn over to me your and Neifkins' stock, which will give me the control."

Wentz stood mute.

She demanded imperiously:

"Yes or no?"