The Ely miner., 1943-12-16
CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VII
'It's early, Miss Haywood" Mr..
Taussig said as they came into the
lobby and Russell's car moved out
OF the drive. why don't we have
a night-cap together?"
"Oh, thanks a lot," Anne said.
but I've really"
"Id like to talk to you, Miss Hey
wood" Mr.. Taussig said quietly.
For an instant Anne hesitated. A
cold warning finger touched her
heart. 1t was coming now. Miguel
Valera had told him. "-I don't be-
ieve it." she thought quickly. mo
matter what, / don't believe it."
Mr.. Taussig was looking at her
intently.
IAN right" she said. ''In the
barr"
He waited for her to sit down,
and signalled the waiter. He might
be making a mistake, he thought.
II may as well come to the point
at once, Miss Haywood" he said
pleasantly.
Anne's throat tightened. II she
only had a face like Barbara
French's, she thought, where moth
ing ever showed. She leaned for
ward with a smile so that he
couldn't see her heart pounding un-
der the ilny folds of her dinner
dress.
''All right" she said. "What is
it?"
The waiter put their glasses down
on the table. Mr.. Taussig raised
his. TO our better understand
ing, Miss Haywood.
Anne raised hers. She was aware
of what Barbara had called the
veiled scrutiny behind his impreg-
nable lenses.
1T is your interest in me that
confuses me slightly, Miss Hey
wood"
Anne looked at him blankly.
what do you mean, Mr.. Taussig?"
"Oh, not interest d'amour, Miss
Haywood. I don't mean that. I
mean interest In my shall we
say, belongings? Last night, for ex-
ample?"
Anne sat perfectly calm and COM
pletely controlled while the whole
bottom of kind of lovely dream
inside her dropped out in shattered
fragments. Miguel had told him.
81 was just returning the compli-
ment, Mr.. Taussig," she said. Her
voice was calm and detached. She
thought she saw him start, but she
couldn't be sure.
May l ask what you mean by
that, Miss Heywood?" he asked quiz
etly.
You went through my bags yes
terday, didn't you, Mr.. Taussig?"
He was staring at her in open and
undisguised astonishment. Anne
misunderstood. What if she was
wrong? What if it hadn't been he at
all? She didn't know-she was only
guessing, actually.
He recovered his composure in an
instant. If she had lied, he wouldn't
have known
What makes you think I did
such an incredible thing?"
Your thumb prints, Mr.. Taus-
sig," Anne said. If she'd been
wrong, he could deny it, and she
would apologize.
He thought quickly. His hands
had been moist from the heat. He
smiled.
81 think you've jumped to a very
hasty conclusion, Miss Haywood.
You have a bag just like one of
mine. The porter put yours in my
room. opened it, but I closed it
at once, of course, and had the por-
ter take it to your room and bring
mine to me. You'll find there's usu-
ally a simple explanation for most
things, Miss Haywood.
''Then apologize profoundly, Mr..
Taussig," Anne said. "I'm glad we
talked about it."
She got up and held out her hand.
She could see the indecision in the
cold blue gleam of his eyes fastened
on hers. He wasn't sure whether
she was telling the truth OF not.
And she knew he had lied.
Anne lay in the luminous half-dark
under the oblong tent of cheesecloth
around her bed, trying to think with
out feeling i. trying to separate
the things she knew from the things
she suspected but did not actually
know, without coloring them with
her own emotions.
It was the first time in her life
she had ever been confronted with
fact she wanted desperately to be
blind to. 1t was also the first time
in her life she'd ever been achingly,
agonizingly unhappy. And it didn't
make any sense.
In fact it was Richard Taussig she
had to think about, not Miguel.
Somehow they had got mixed up in
her mind, so that it was hard to
keep them apart. They had been
separate enough on the ship. There
hadn't been the slightest connection
between them, either in her mind or
in fact. She was sure of that. It
had all happened since they'd come
ashore. It might be on account of
his uncle Diego Gongaro un-
less she was wrong about the letter.
''But I'm not wrong about it." she
told herself. 'I saw it. It's one
of the things know even if /
don't know what it's all about"
Actually there were only two 9TH
er things she really knew, when she
came down to it. One was that
Taussig had opened her bag and
gone through her letters and had not
told the truth about it. The other
was that Miguel had told him she
was in his room.
The rest of it was in that danger
Gus border line of intuition and sus-