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Why should you give them five hundred dollars, apparently as blackmail?" Clancy was exceedingly disappointed by the result of this thunderbolt. Any ordinary man would have shrivelled under its crushing impact. If the police knew so much that might reasonably be regarded as secret, of what avail was further concealment? Yet Senator Meiklejohn bore up wonderfully.
"My poor child!" she cried, with a break in her voice, "what you have undergone! Can you ever forgive me?" Carshaw, ignoring Meiklejohn, whispered to his mother that Winifred should be sent to bed. She was utterly worn out. One of the maids should sleep in her room in case she awoke in fright during the night. When left alone with Meiklejohn he intended to scarify the man's soul.
"There will be a row if Rex meets Meiklejohn," she communed. "Helen will be furious with me. What do I care? I have won back my son's love. I have not many years to live. What else have I to work for if not for his happiness?" So one woman in New York that night was fairly well content.
The tones in the voice perplexed him, but the preconcerted element in the affair seemed to offer proof positive that Senator Meiklejohn had kept his appointment. He was just in time to see Tower's legs disappearing, and a loud splash told what had happened. He was not armed. He never carried a revolver unless the quest of the hour threatened danger or called for a display of force.
Tower's drawing-room. There were several tables surrounded with people of various American and foreign types playing bridge. The whole atmosphere was that of Mammon; one might have fancied oneself in the halls of a Florentine money-changer. At the same table with Carshaw were Mrs. Tower, another society dame, and Senator Meiklejohn, who ought to have been making laws at Washington.
Suppose we dine together? That will help dissipate this queer story as to you being mixed up in an attack on me. Now, I must be off and play ghost in the club smoking-room." Meiklejohn heard his fluttering man-servant let Tower out. He tottered to a chair, and Ralph Voles came in noiselessly. "Well, what about it?" chuckled the reprobate. "We seem to have struck it lucky."
"Seems to me the chief may be interested. Five hundred dollars, too! I wonder!" It was no part of Detective Clancy's business to pry into the private affairs of Senator Meiklejohn. Senators are awkward fish to handle, being somewhat similar to whales caught in nets designed to capture mackerel. But the Bureau is no respecter of persons.
'Keep up your courage for a minute or two longer, Holly, and I'll come to you. Thank goodness I have plenty of rope. Jasper had an earnest and very rapid conversation with John Meiklejohn and Andy Mackenzie and Wallace. Quickly a rope was passed under his arms and round his waist, and before she could believe it possible, Hollyhock, weak, giddy, helpless, was caught in the boy's arms.
"I have no proof, but absolutely no doubt," he continued, "that this woman is now known as Rachel Craik. She fell into Ralph Meiklejohn's clutches then, and has remained his slave ever since. Two years later there was a terrific sensation here. A man named Marchbanks was found lying dead in a lakeside quarry, having fallen or been thrown into it. This quarry was situated near the Meiklejohn house.
Ronald Tower's trip to Barnegat won't amount to a row of beans against the trouble pretty Winifred can give you. Dios! It's a pity. She's a real beauty, and that's more than any one can say for you, Brother William." "You go to " "That's better! You're reviving. Well, good-by, Senator! Au revoir sans adieux!" The big man swaggered out. Meiklejohn drank no spirits.
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