Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
At first it was plain to be seen that they were refusing to do her bidding, but Meg made a movement as though she were counting money. After that it was equally plain that they agreed. Meg sidled over to Balcom and he unwrapped a few bills of large denomination and handed them to her. She immediately hid them in her dress, with many a furtive look toward her accomplices.
For, although they had scored against their adversaries in misleading them as to their intentions, both realized that Balcom was a tremendously clever man, astute and wise beyond the average in the ways of the world, and that the slightest lack of caution, the smallest flaw in the acting of the parts they had elected to play, would inevitably lose for them the advantage they had gained.
"What do you mean to insinuate by that question?" demanded Balcom. Without reply Locke shrugged nonchalantly and smiled. Not ten feet away, in the conservatory door, Paul listened, and his face darkened as he clenched his fists.
Locke and I are at a loss to account for Mr. Flint's disappearance! I told the gardeners, and they have hunted for him all over the estate and beyond, but he has disappeared as completely as though the ground had swallowed him." Balcom expressed his utmost astonishment and at once insisted on going to Flint's room to solve the mystery himself.
"Get Eva to the hypnotist's on River Street," instructed Doctor Q. "Tell her that I have been hypnotized and that under the spell I will tell all." It was a desperate thing for Zita to attempt, after treating the Brents so shamelessly. But there was no alternative. For she knew well that, with Balcom, only a success would offset her miserable failure earlier in the evening.
He picked it up and examined it minutely as Balcom strolled in. Balcom's quick gaze caught what Locke was looking at, and he approached the young chemist and sauvely said: "It seems almost unbelievable, Mr. Locke, that a giant form like that could be endowed with a human brain." As he spoke he pointed toward the miniature automaton in Locke's hands.
Balcom went to the door and opened it. There, bobbing her head and smirking mechanically, stood that loathsome creature, Old Meg. In these rich surroundings her frightful squalor was all the more accentuated. Those at the table drew back in utter disgust as she tottered into the room. As she passed Zita she paused. "I held you in these arms when you were but a wee baby," she muttered, hideously.
"Balcom and Zita are listening on the dictagraph. Pretend to quarrel with me." Eva read in amazement as he wrote. Quickly she comprehended. Then they walked silently until they were almost under the chandelier which held the transmitter of the dictagraph. "I have something I want to say to you, Mr. Locke," began Eva, with a wink and a smile at him, "and it grieves me to say it."
"Send Locke word that you will give yourself up," he was saying, "but tell him that he must come to your apartment to get you. I will do the rest." Balcom left hurriedly and was driven directly home, where he got Locke on the telephone and repeated the instructions that Doctor Q had suggested. "Am I to understand that you intend to turn state's evidence?" questioned Locke, doubtfully.
As Paul and his father planned, it seemed that here was power unlimited, wealth beyond all counting and without the possibility of discovery. For, like most men of his caliber, the approbation of the community was dear to Balcom. "Good, Paul!" approved Balcom. "Go to it at once." Paul looked keenly at his father. "Haven't you anything to add?" "No, I have nothing to advise.
Word Of The Day