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"I'll come too," began Belwether, who had been listening, loose-mouthed and intent; "we're all in it Howard, Kemp Ferrall, and I " "And Stephen Siward," observed Plank, so quietly that Quarrier never even raised his eyes to read the stolid face opposite. Presently he said: "Do you know anybody who can deliver you any considerable block of Amalgamated Electric at the market figures?"
She released his hand, turning partly around: "Kemp, dinner's been announced, so cut that dog story in two! Will you give me your arm Major Belwether? Howard!" to her cousin, Mr. Quarrier, who turned from Miss Landis to listen "will you please try to recollect whom you are to take in and do it?"
And now, slowly, minutely, methodically, he was going over and over Plank's words, and his manner of saying them, and their surface import, and the hidden one, if any. If Plank had spoken the truth and there was no reason to doubt it Plank had quietly acquired a controlling interest in Amalgamated Electric. That meant treachery in somebody. Who? Probably Siward, perhaps Belwether.
I'm not dead you know." "'Not dead, you know'," repeated Major Belwether coming up behind them with his sprightly step; "that reminds me of a good one " He sat down and lighted a cigar, then, vainly attempting to control his countenance as though roguishly anticipating the treat awaiting them, he began another endless story.
But who let her loose?" "It was your dinner; you ought to know," said Voucher bluntly. "I do know. He brought her" nodding toward the billiard-room. "Belwether?" "No," yawned Fleetwood. Somebody said presently: "Isn't he one of the Governors? Oh, I say, that was rather rough on Siward though." "Yes, rough.
The death of her mother abroad had made little impression upon her her uncle, Major Belwether, having cared for her since her father's death when she was ten years old.
Marion caught it, but her brother Gordon got it away; then Ferrall secured it and dived toward the red goal; but Rena Bonnesdel caught him under water; the ball bobbed up, and Sylvia flung both arms around it with a little warning shout and hurled it back at Siward, who shot forward like an arrow, his opponents gathering about him in full cry, amid laughter and excited applause from the gallery, where Grace Ferrall and Captain Voucher were wildly offering odds on the blue, and Alderdene and Major Belwether were thriftily booking them.
Plank's under lip had begun to protrude again; he swung his massive head, looking from Belwether back to Quarrier: "Pool or no pool," he continued, "you Amalgamated people will want to see the stock climb back into the branches from which somebody shook it out; and I propose to put it there. That is all I had meant to say to you, Mr. Quarrier. I'm not averse to saying it here to you, and I do.
"It's had one effect already," replied Fleetwood, as Plank came up, ready for the street. "Ferrall says he looks sick, and Belwether says he's going to the devil; but that's the sort of thing the major is likely to say. By the way, wasn't there something between that pretty Landis girl and Siward? Somebody some damned gossiping somebody talked about it somewhere, recently."
And all through dinner an indefinitely unpleasant remembrance of the conversation lingered with Sylvia, and she sat silent for minutes at a time, returning to actualities with a long, curious side-glance across at Siward, and an uncomprehending smile of assent for whatever Quarrier or Major Belwether had been saying to her.
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