Page:Frank Owen - Woman Without Love (1949 reprint).djvu/16

 "You mean you'll do what I want?" he asked eagerly.

"Certainly, why not? What right have I to complain? Now go over there and lie on the couch. Keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them. I want to surprise you."

As she spoke she kissed him fervently.

John Rott turned the key in the door but he did not withdraw it from the lock. Then he stretched himself at full length on the couch.

"If the dinner gets cold," he said, "we can order another one. There isn't any reason to hurry."

"No peeking," she said.

"I won't," he told her. "I want it to be a complete surprise." Had John Rott been able to see the cruel gleam in her eyes and the nasty expression on her face he would not have been so trusting. In one thing they were much akin. They were both on fire. He was burning with desire; she was burning with hatred. Suddenly she seized a large iron poker which stood beside the open hearth. She raised it high in the air and crashed it down on his forehead with all her strength. This rat had made a prostitute of her. Now he meant to make her his personal slave. He wasn't fit to live.

John Rott did not move. Blood was trickling down his face as Mary bent over him. From his pocket she drew a roll of bills. She would need lots of money now. It was no worse to rob him of his money than it had been for him to rob her of her decency and her self-respect. She deliberately drew the bills from the wallet and then tossed the empty case back into his face.

Then on tip-toe she walked across the room and unlocked the door. Near at hand was a flight of stairs that led directly to a side entrance. The roadhouse was a shady resort and it was so constructed that guests, wanting to, could escape quite easily. She still had on her hat and she had not even taken off her coat. In a few moments she was outside the house.

Then the full horror of what she had done dawned upon her. She had perhaps killed a man! True John Rott needed killing, but if they caught her she might be hanged. In a panic she commenced to run. She imagined that she was being pursued, but no one had noticed her leaving the house. She was quite alone.