Page:Frank Packard - The Miracle Man.djvu/245

 Madison gave a short laugh—that was like a curse. His hands at his sides knotted into lumps.

Then Madison spoke.

"Why don't you say, 'you!—you!'—and scream it out and clutch at your bosom the way they do in story books!" he flung out raucously. "Why don't you do your little stunt—go on, you're on for the turn—you can put anything over me, I'm only a complacent, blind-eyed fool! Anything goes! Why don't you start your act?"

"You don't know what you are saying," she said in a low voice. "If there's anything you want to talk about, we'd better wait until you're cooler."

"Oh, hell!" he roared, his passion full to the surface now. "Cut out the bunk—cut it out! Anything! No, it isn't much of anything—for you—out all night with Thornton. Do you think I'm going to stand for it! Do you think I'm going to sit and suck my thumb and share you, and—"

"You lie!" She was away from the door now, close before him, her breath coming fast, white to the lips, and in a frenzy her little fists pummelled upon him. "It's a lie—a lie—a lie! It's a lie—and you know it!"

He pushed her roughly from him.

"It is, eh?"—his words came in a sort of wild laugh. "And I know it—do I? Why should I know it? What do you think you are? Say, you'd think you were trying to kid yourself