"You imagined it, Zoie," she declared, "look for yourself."
Zoie's small face peeped cautiously around the edge of the doorway.
"Well, perhaps I did," she admitted; then she slipped gingerly into the
room, "my nerves are jumping like fizzy water."
They were soon to "jump" more, for at this instant, Alfred, burning with
anger at the indignity of having been locked in the bathroom, entered
the room, demanding to know the whereabouts of the lunatic mother, who
had dared to make him a captive in his own house.
"Where is she?" he called to Zoie and Aggie, and his eye roved wildly
about the room. Then his mind reverted with anxiety to his newly
acquired offspring. "My boys!" he cried, and he rushed toward the crib.
"They're gone!" he declared tragically.
"Gone?" echoed Aggie.
"Not ALL of them," said Zoie.
"All," insisted Alfred, and his hands went distractedly toward his head.
"She's taken them all."
Zoie and Aggie looked at each other in a dazed way. They had a hazy
recollection of having seen one babe disappear with the Italian woman,
but what had become of the other two?
"Where did they go?" asked Aggie.
"I don't know," said Zoie, with the first truth she had spoken that
night, "I left them with Jimmy."
"Jimmy!" shrieked Alfred, and a diabolical light lit his features.
"Jimmy!" he snorted, with sudden comprehension, "then he's at it again.
He's crazy as she is. This is inhuman. This joke has got to stop!" And
with that decision he started toward the outer door.
"But Allie!" protested Zoie, really alarmed by the look that she saw on
his face.
Alfred turned to his trembling wife with suppressed excitement, and
patted her shoulder condescendingly.
"Control yourself, my dear," he said. "Control yourself; I'll get
your babies for you--trust me, I'll get them. And then," he added with
parting emphasis from the doorway, "I'll SETTLE WITH JIMMY!"
By uncovering one eye, Jimmy could now perceive that Zoie and Aggie
were engaged in a heated argument at the opposite side of the room. By
uncovering one ear he learned that they were arranging a line of action
for him immediately upon his reappearance. He determined not to wait for
the details.
Fixing himself cautiously on all fours, and making sure that he was
well covered by the pink comforter, he began to crawl slowly toward the
bedroom door.