That very natural gesture told Gus more plainly than words that "Princess Lalla" was in danger and asked him to use his ingenuity to rescue her. There was no need for her to lift her eyes to him. Jerkily her hands came down, hovered over the crystal, and before Mrs. Stone could voice another harsh complaint, the sing-song voice which "Princess Lalla" used was requesting "ze ladee" to sit down in the chair opposite.
But what should she tell Mrs. Stone, with whose personality and history she had been familiar for twelve years? If she dared to read "past, present and future" with any degree of accuracy, the matron would be startled into observing the "seeress" with those gimlet eyes of hers. If she went too wide of the mark in generalities, Mrs. Stone was entirely capable of raising a disturbance which would ruin business for the rest of the day.
"Well, what do you see--if anything?" Mrs. Stone demanded angrily.
That gave Sally her cue. Bending low over the crystal, so that her face was within a few inches of that of the woman who sat opposite her, with only the crystal stand between them, she pretended to peer into the depths of the glass ball. Then slowly she began to shake her head regretfully.
"Princess Lalla is so-o-o sor-ree"--the small, sing-song voice was raised a bit, so that Gus, who had strolled leisurely across the platform to take his stand behind Sally's chair, might hear perfectly--"but ze creeystal she ees dark. She tell me nossing about ze nice-tall la-dee. Sometimes it ees so. Ze gen-tle-man weel give ze money back."
The thin little shoulders under the green satin jacket shrugged eloquently, the little brown hands spread themselves with a gesture of helplessness and regret.
"Glad to refund your money, lady!" Gus sang out loudly. "Here you are! Better luck next time! Princess Lalla is the gen-u-ine article! If she don't see nothing in the crystal for you, she don't string you along--right here, lady! Here's your money back--"
Sally leaned back in her chair, weak with relief, her eyes closed, as Gus tried to urge her nemesis from the platform. In a moment the danger would be over--
Then, so quickly was it done that Sally had not the slightest chance to shield her eyes, a hand had snatched the little black lace veil from her face. Terror-widened sapphire eyes stared, with betraying recognition, into narrowed, angry gray ones. Mrs. Stone nodded with grim satisfaction.