by Leroy Scott
CHAPTER X
A BAD PENNY TURNS UP
David found a keen pleasure in the business on which he was now engaged.For four years he had talked to no one, and for a year he had talked tobut four or five. Now he was actively thrown among men of theworld--Jordon, the general agent of the New Jersey Home Company, hisassistants, and the attorneys of the company. He instinctively measuredhimself beside them, and he exulted, for though they were the shrewderin business, he felt himself bigger, broader, than they.
The deal progressed hopefully. David discovered the five owners inRogers's syndicate to be five ordinary men, with no particular businesscourage and no courage of any other kind, and whose interest in theirown welfare was their only interest in life. However, they hadconfidence in Rogers's success, and stood solidly behind him--which wasall that could be desired of them. From his first meeting with Jordon,David, too, was confident of success. Jordon held off, talked aboutpreposterous prices--but David felt surrender beneath the grand air withwhich the general agent brushed Rogers's proposition aside. The companyhad to have the land, so it had to meet Rogers's terms. And after eachsubsequent meeting David felt that much nearer the day of surrender.
One morning, two weeks after he had entered upon his new duties, he waslooking through some papers in the living-room relating to the land,when Kate knocked and entered.
"There's a woman out there wants to see you," she said, with a sharpglance.
"What's she want?"
"She wouldn't tell me. She said you'd see her all right--she was an oldfriend. If she is, I think some of your friends had better sign thepledge!"
David followed Kate into the office. A tall woman rose from his chairand smiled at him. It was Lillian Drew. The life went out of him. Hestood with one hand against the door jamb and stared at her.
When he had seen her five years ago she had had grace, and lines, and ahardened sort of beauty--and she had worn silks and diamonds. Now theface was flushed, and coarsened, and lined with wrinkles--the hands weregemless, the hair carelessly done--and in place of the rich gown therewas an ill-fitting jacket and skirt. It was evident that for her thelast five years had been a dizzy incline.
"What a warm welcome!" she said, with a short laugh.
David did not answer her. Kate's quick eyes looked from one to theother.
"Wouldn't you just as soon our talk should be private?" Lillian Drewasked, with a smile of irony. "You'd better run out for awhile, littlegirl."
Kate glanced at her with instinctive hatred. Lillian Drew, whom the fiveyears had made more ready with vindictiveness, glared back. "Come, runalong, little girl!"
Kate turned to David. "You'd better leave us alone for a few minutes,"he said with an effort.
Kate jerked on her hat, jabbed in the pins, marched by Lillian Drew with"you old cat!" and passed out into the street.
"Well, now--what do you want?" David demanded.
"Oh, I've just come to return your call. May I sit down?--I'm tired."And smiling her baiting smile she sank back into David's chair.
David crossed to his desk and looked harshly down upon her. "How did youfind me?"
"Surely you thought I'd look you up when I got back to town! I asked atthe Mission. A girl in the office there wrote your address down on acard for me. And told me a few things." She narrowed her eyes--almostall their once remarkable brilliance was gone. "A few things, mister."
"Please say at once what you want," he asked, trying to speak withrestraint.
"Just to see an old acquaintance."
"Come to the point!" he said sharply.
"Well, then--I'm broke."
"I don't see why that brings you to me."
"Because you're going to give me money--that's why."
"I certainly will not!"
"Oh, yes, you will--when I get through with you. You wouldn't want meto tell all I know of Phil Morton, now would you?"
"Tell if you want to." Anger at her as the cause of his five hard yearswas rising rapidly. He pointed savagely to a mirror that Kate had put upbehind the door. "Look at yourself. Who'll believe your word?"
"But I won't ask 'em to believe my word," she said softly, her eyesgleaming triumph at him.
Her words and manner startled him. "What do you mean?"
"Why, I'll show the letters, of course."
"Letters! What letters?"
"Morton's letters."
"Morton's letters!" He stared at her. "You gave them to me."
"Part of them." She laughed quietly, and ran the tip of her tonguebetween her lips. "Oh, you were easy!"
David choked back an impulse to lay vengeful hands upon her. "You'relying!" he said fiercely.
"Oh, I am, am I?"
She slipped a hand into the pocket of her skirt, paused in the action,and her baiting smile turned to a look of threat. "If you try to grabthem, if you make a move toward me, I'll scream, people will rush inhere, and the whole thing will come out at once! You understand?"
The tormenting smile returned, and she slowly drew from her skirt apacket of yellow letters held together by an elastic band. She removedthe band, drew one sheet from its envelope, and held it up beforeDavid's eyes.
"You needn't bother about reading it. You've read one bunch--andthey're all alike. But look at the handwriting. I guess you know that,don't you? And look at the signature: 'Always with love--Phil.' That'sone letter--there are fourteen more. And look at this photograph of thetwo of us together, taken while he was in Harvard. And look at thisletter written five years ago, saying he'd send me five hundred the nextday--and at this letter, written two days before he died, saying hehadn't another cent and couldn't get it. I guess you're satisfied."
She coolly snapped the band over the bundle and returned the letters toher pocket. "I guess I'll get some money, won't I?"
"I see," David remarked steadily, "that I must again call your attentionto the fact that there are such things as laws against blackmailing."
She looked at him, amusedly. "That worked once--but it won't work twice.Arrest me for blackmail, and there'll be a trial, and at it the truthabout Morton will come out. You told me five years ago you didn't careif the truth did come out--but I know a lot better now!" She laughed."Please send for a policeman!"
He was helpless, and his face showed it.
"Oh, I've got you! But don't take it so hard. You scared me out oftown--but I've got nothing against you. I really like you; I'm sorryit's you I'm troubling. I've got to have money--that's all."
There was an instant of faint regret in her face--but only an instant."Yes, I've got you. But I haven't showed you all my cards yet. Mebbeyou'll tell me you won't pay anything to keep me still about PhilMorton, who's been dead for five years. All right. But you'll pay me tokeep still about yourself."
David looked at her blankly.
"You don't understand? I'll talk plainer then. I've been doing a littleputting one and one together. You didn't take that five thousand dollarsfrom the Mission. Phil Morton didn't have a cent of his own--he told methat when he was half crazy with trying to beg off; he said I wasdriving him into crime. He took that money, and I got it. Well, for somereason, I don't know why, you said you took it, and went to prison."
Wonderment succeeded to hardness and sarcasm. "You're a queer fellow,"she said slowly. "Why did you do it?"
"Go on!"
"I don't understand it--you're a queer lot!--but I know you've got yourreason for wanting to make the world think it was you that took themoney and not Phil Morton. And I know it's a mighty strong reason,too--strong enough to make you willing to go to prison and to keep stillwhile people are calling you thief. Well--and here's my ace of trumps,mister--if you don't hand out the cash I'll tell that _you didn't takethe money_!"
David sank slowly into Kate Morgan's chair, and gazed stunned at thewoman, whose look grew more and more triumphant as she noted the effectof her card. His mind comprehended her threat only by degrees, but atlength the threat's significance was plain to him.
"I guess I'll get the money--don't you think?" she asked.
He did not answer. Temptation closed round him. Temptation coming in itspresent form would have been stronger in his darker days, but even nowit was mighty in its strength. Why should he bear his disgrace longer?This woman could clear him; would clear him, if he did not pay. And hehad no money--almost none. He had merely to say "no"--that was all.
In these first dazed moments he really did not know which was the voiceof temptation and which the voice of right. One voice said, "To refusewill be to destroy hundreds of people." And the other voice said, "Topay blackmail is wrong." Desire took advantage of this moraldisagreement to order his reply.
"I shall not pay you a cent!"
"Oh, yes you will," she returned confidently.
"I shall not!--not a cent!" he said, with wild exultation.
"You know what'll happen if you don't?"
"Yes. You'll tell. All right--tell!"
She studied his flushed face and excited eyes. "You're in earnest?"
"Don't I look it! I shall not pay you a cent! Understand? Not a cent!"
He had risen, and she too now rose. "Oh, you'll pay something," she saidwith a note of coaxing. "I'm not as high as I once was. Fifty dollarswould help me a lot."
"Not a cent!"
"Twenty-five?"
"Not a cent, I said."
"Well, you'll wish you had!" she said vindictively, and turned andwalked out of the office.
He dropped back into his chair. So he was going to be righted before theworld!--at last! Vivid, thrilling dreams flashed through hisbrain--dreams of honour, of success, of love!... Then, slowly, his mindbegan to clear; he began to see the other results of Lillian Drew'sdisclosure. His five years would have been uselessly spent--lost. Andthe people of the Mission--Quick visions pictured the consequence tothem.
He sprang up, holding fast to just one idea among all that confused hisbrain. He must stick to his old plan; the people must keep Morton. Hemust find Lillian Drew and silence her. But where find her? He had notasked her address, he had not even watched which direction she had gone.Perhaps even now she might be telling someone.
He seized his hat, and hurried from the room. As he came out upon thesidewalk, a tall woman who had been standing across the street, startedover to meet him. At sight of her he stopped, and gave a great sigh ofrelief.
"You're looking for me, aren't you?" she asked, when she had come up.
"Yes."
"I knew you'd be changing your mind, so I waited," she said with a smileof triumph. "I knew you'd pay!"