Karen hurried out, came back in a moment with some pillowcases over her arm. She tore strips and tied Mrs. Havermann’s arms and then, at Skip’s orders, her ankles.

“Any cotton in the bathroom?” Skip demanded. “That fuzzy stuff.”

“I guess so,” Karen stammered, her eyes full of dread.

“Go see.”

Karen backed around the edge of the bed, and Mrs. Havermann said in a low tone, “Please don’t put a gag in my mouth. I promise I won’t call out.”

“Who’s running this thing?” Skip inquired of the room. He went into the bathroom and came out with a blue box of absorbent cotton. He threw it on the bed. “Stuff her mouth with it. A rag over it to hold it.” He looked at Karen, who hadn’t moved.

“Please!” Mrs. Havermann gasped from where she lay. She had turned her eyes so that she could glimpse Skip. “I promise not to make a bit of trouble.”

“You’ve got a choice,” Skip said, unconcerned. “A gag. Or I’ll clip you behind the ear and you won’t see or hear anything for a while. Would you like that better?” He stepped forward, as if thinking she might really want him to knock her out, and she cringed on the counterpane, trying to inch her head away.

“No. No, I wouldn’t want that.”

“Okay. Karen, you’d better get busy.” Skip regarded the shaking girl with a wry amusement. “Time’s wasting.”

Karen moved tremblingly nearer the older woman and said uncertainly, “Will you open your mouth, Aunt Maude?”

“I’m not your aunt,” Mrs. Havermann said, looking directly into Karen’s eyes. “I wonder why I asked you to call me that. I wonder why I sheltered and fed you—now you’ve brought these two into my home.”

Karen looked at Mrs. Havermann as if in an agony of regret.

“I don’t know how you became acquainted with these two, the kind of creatures they seem to be. You’ve never been sly and secretive, slipping out at night, or acting in any way delinquent. You’ve seemed a straightforward girl. And now you’ve done this.”

“Gag her, for Chrissakes,” Skip said, his temper rising.

“The other one never says anything, does he?” Mrs. Havermann remarked harshly, looking at Eddie. Eddie knew that he was sweating through the silk mesh. It did not occur to him that his features were as distorted, as unreadable as Skip’s.

Now Mrs. Havermann spoke directly to Eddie. “If you are sensible, young man, you’ll leave now before a serious crime is committed.”

An indignant growl escaped from Skip. He grabbed up a wad of cotton, and as Mrs. Havermann finished speaking he jabbed it between her teeth. Mrs. Havermann worked her jaws, trying to spit the cotton out, and then Karen rushed to pull it away and Skip straight-armed the girl back into the wall. He looked at Eddie.