blotter correctly. She held her ground,
aggressively, between Miss Rexhill and the door.

"You must hear what I have to say to you," she declared quietly. "I have
not come here to make a social call."

"Isn't it enough for me to tell you that I do not wish to talk to you?"
Helen lifted her brows and shrugged her shoulders. "Surely, it should be
enough. Will you please stand aside so that I may go to my room?"

"No, I won't! You can't go until you've heard what I've got to say."
Stung by the other woman's contemptuous tone, and realizing that the
situation put her at a social disadvantage, Dorothy forced an aggressive
tone into her voice, ugly to the ear.

"Very well!" Miss Rexhill shrugged her shoulders disdainfully, and
resumed her seat. "We must not engage in a vulgar row. Since I must
listen to you, I must, but at least I need not talk to you, and I
won't."

"You know that Gordon Wade has disappeared?" Helen made no response to
this, and Dorothy bit her lip in anger. "I know that you know it," she
continued. "I know that you know where he is. Perhaps, however, you
don't know that his life is in danger. If you will tell me where he is,
I can save him. Will you tell me?" The low throaty note of suffering in
her voice brought a stiletto-like flash into the eyes of the other
woman, but no response.

"Miss Rexhill," Dorothy went on, after a short pause. "You and Mr. Wade
were friends once, if you are not now. Perhaps you don't realize just
how serious the situation is here in this town, where nearly everybody
likes him, and what would happen to you and your father, if I told what
I know about you. I don't believe he would want it to happen, even after
the way you've treated him. If you will only tell me...."

Helen turned abruptly in her chair, her face white with anger.

"I said that I would not talk to you," she burst out, "but your
impertinence is so--so insufferable--so absolutely insufferable, that I
must speak. You say you will tell people what you know about me. What _do_
you know about me?" She arose to face Dorothy, with blazing eyes.

"I am sure that you know where Gordon is."

"You are sure of nothing of the kind. I do not know where Mr. Wade is,
and why should I tell you if I did? Suppose I were to tell what I know
about you? I don't believe the whole of it is known in Crawling Water
yet. You--you must be insane."

"About me?" Dorothy's surprise was genuine. "There is nothing you could
tell any on