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I managed to delay it yesterday, but they intended getting you before we reach port. Now I have a plan. I earnestly beg you to listen and work with me." The Simonidean had given a slight start when he heard Hanlon's first words, but he had been well-trained in a hard school, and in no other way had even shown that he heard. Now, however, he spoke as guardedly as Hanlon. "Who is trying to kill me?"
There was a sinking feeling in George Hanlon's mind. Did that mean what he was afraid it meant? He sent out a tentative feeler of thought toward the mind behind that expressionless face. He expected to find it difficult to do, because of long disuse of the faculty.
"Any special way you want it done?" "No ... I think I would like to see how you work. Plan it yourself. But if it isn't done, you had better not let me or my men see you again." "Fair enough. If I can't do a simple job like that I sure can't be of enough value to you to do myself any real good." They were silent again, but Hanlon's mind was bleak with what was to come.
They paused a short distance away, and held a brief but animated conversation. Eunice laughed gleefully, and it was plain to be seen her charming smiles played havoc with Hanlon's reserved demeanor. Soon he was willingly agreeing to something she was proposing and finally they shook hands on it. They returned to the car; he assisted Eunice in, and then he told Mr.
As the latter turned to look, Hanlon's hand flashed out and hovered an instant over the other's cup. A few moments later the Simonidean played his part to perfection. He took a drink, then another, and almost before he had set his cup down, gave a groan, and clutched at his stomach and throat. He rose shakily, and tottered away heavily on the arm of an anxious steward who had come running up.
He turned back to Hanlon's body as though disgusted with himself for entertaining such a fantastic notion. Hands behind his back, that scowl of concentration engraving deep lines on his face, the Leader paced forth and back across the floor of the little room, his glance ever and again returning to stare in exasperation at that slumped-over, dead-but-alive body. Who was this amazing young man?
He knew he had only made a bare start at learning what had to be known to do it swiftly and easily. The kennel steward must have noticed the strange antics of the bull and then, seeing Hanlon's intent concentration, figured there might be some connection between the two. For he came up to the bench and looked down somewhat hostilely at the man sitting there.
"I want you to consider this very seriously," he said slowly, grimly, and Hanlon's probing mind caught the aura of importance in his manner. "Take your time, and figure carefully all the angles and connotations inherent in it, for it will not be an easy decision to make." He paused impressively. "Here it is, cold! You'll have to be, apparently, dismissed from the Corps in disgrace.
A brighter man would have wondered about the source of Hanlon's knowledge of his homicidal plans; and how it happened that Hanlon carried a supply of poison. There had been no indication that either question had occurred to Panek. The moment he got off the ship and went into the city of New Athens he could feel it.
Hanlon said that he noticed the child, a boy, as he helped the little fellow down the car steps, because of an open jack-knife which the youngster carried, and which he good-naturedly advised him to close before he stumbled with it. To the best of Hanlon's recollection the little fellow wore a mackinaw jacket, but he did not notice this in particular.
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