"
"As you please."
"Very well. The music has stopped; we'd better go in."
As they rose she laid her hand upon his arm and he felt it tremble
as she exclaimed:
"Believe me, Kirk, this isn't at all easy for me, but--I can't
bear to lose."
XXV
CHECKMATE!
Anthony had no partner for the eighth dance, and was very glad of
it, for he could not have carried off the necessary small talk. As
it was, he felt that his excitement must be patent to those around
him. His mind was filled with tormenting doubts, his chance for
success seemed so infinitely small, his plan so extravagantly
impracticable, now that the time had come!
As the music ceased and the dancers came pouring out into the cool
night air, Runnels approached with his wife.
"Well, are you equal to it?" he asked.
Kirk nodded; he could not speak.
"Why, you look as cold as ice," exclaimed the woman, half-
resentfully. "I'm the only one who seems to feel it. I--I'm
positively delirious. My partners look at me in the strangest way,
as if they thought I were liable to become dangerous at any
moment."
"Not too loud!" her husband cautioned, then to Kirk: "Good-luck,
old man. Lord! I need a bracer." His words stuck in his throat,
and Kirk realized that he was himself the calmest of the three.
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