The White Moll | Page 8

Rhoda Gray's face. "Why didn't you call some
one? Why did you even hold me back a few minutes ago, when you
admit yourself that you need immediate medical assistance so badly?"
"Because," said Gypsy Nan, "if I've got a chance at all, I'd finish it for
keeps if a doctor came here. I - I'd rather go out this way than in that
horrible thing they call the 'chair.' Oh, my God, don't you understand
that! I've seen pictures of it! It's a horrible thing - a horrible thing -
horrible!"
"Nan" - Rhoda Gray steadied her voice - you re delirious. You do not
know what you are saying. There isn't any horrible thing to frighten
you. Now you just lie quietly here. I'll only be a few minutes, and -"
She stopped abruptly as her wrists were suddenly imprisoned in a
frantic grip.
"You swore it!" Gypsy Nan was whispering feverishly. "You swore it!
They say the White Moll never snitched. That's the one chance I've got,
and I'm going to take it. I'm not delirious - not yet. I wish to God it was
nothing more than that! Look!"
With a low, startled cry, Rhoda Gray was on her feet. Gypsy Nan was
gone. A sweep of the woman's hand, and the spectacles were off, the
gray-streaked hair a tangled wig upon the pillow - and Rhoda Gray
found herself staring in a numbed sort of way at a dark-haired woman

who could not have been more than thirty, but whose face, with its
streaks of grime and dirt, looked grotesquely and incongruously old.
II. SEVEN--THREE--NINE
For a moment neither spoke, then Gypsy Nan broke the silence with a
bitter laugh. She threw back the bedclothes, and, gripping at the edge of
the bed, sat up.
"The White Moll! The words rattled in her throat. A fleck of blood
showed on her lips. "Well, you know now! You're going to help me,
aren't you? I - I've got to get out of here - get to a hospital."
Rhoda Gray laid her hands firmly on the other's shoulders.
"Get back into bed," she said steadily. "Do you want to make yourself
worse? You'll kill yourself!"
Gypsy Nan pushed her away.
"Don't make me use up what little strength I've got left in talking," she
cried out piteously, and suddenly wrung her hands together. "I'm
wanted by the police. If I'm caught, it's - it's that 'chair.' I couldn't have
a doctor brought here, could I? How long would it be before he saw
that Gypsy Nan was a fake? I can't let you go and have an ambulance,
say, come and get me, can I, even with the disguise hidden away?
They'd say this is where Gypsy Nan lives. There's something queer here.
Where is Gypsy Nan? I've got to get away from here - away from
Gypsy Nan - don't you understand? It's death one way; maybe it is the
other, maybe it'll finish me to get out of here, but it's the only thing left
to do. I thought some one, some one that I could trust, never mind who,
would have come to-day, but-but no one came, and - and maybe now it
s too late, but there's just the one chance, and I've got to take it." Gypsy
Nan tore at the shawl around her throat as though it choked her, and
flung it from her shoulders. Her eyes were gleaming with an unhealthy,
feverish light. "Don't you see? We get out on the street. I collapse there.
You find me. I tell you my name is Charlotte Green. That's all you
know. There isn't much chance that anybody at the hospital would

recognize me. I've got money. I take a private room. Don't you
understand?"
Rhoda Gray's face had gone a little white. There was no doubt about
the woman's serious condition, and yet - and yet - She stood there
hesitant. There must be some other way! It was not likely even that the
woman had strength enough to walk down the stairs to begin with.
Strange things had come to her in this world of shadow, but none
before like this. If the law got the woman it would cost the woman her
life; if the woman did not receive immediate and adequate medical
assistance it would cost the woman her life. Over and over in her brain,
like a jangling refrain, that thought repeated itself. It was not like her to
stand hesitant before any emergency, no matter what that emergency
might be. She had never done it before, but now...
"For God's sake," Gypsy Nan implored, "don't stand there looking at
me! Can't you understand? If I'm caught, I go out. Do you think I'd
have lived in this