Part 66 (1/2)

She rose from her chair, her face aflame with anger, and, taking a couple of paces towards him, replied with a vehemence which neither of the unseen onlookers suspected.

The battle of words continued. He was making some allegations, the truth of which she was denying. This girl, not yet out of her teens, was defiant of the man whose life had been one long struggle to grow rich, and whose gigantic wealth was now crus.h.i.+ng the very soul from his body. Surely they were an incongruous pair. His defiance of her was only a half-hearted one. His sarcasm had irritated her, and now, alleging something, which was a lie, he had goaded her into all the fierce ebullition of anger which a woman, however calm and level-headed she may be, cannot at times restrain.

”I wonder what the old blackguard has said?” whispered Max to the man at his side.

”It seems as though he has made some charge against her.”

”Or against her father,” Max suggested.

”You suspected me of being privy to the Doctor's disappearance, Max,”

Charlie said, still in a whisper. ”You said that you saw me at Cromwell Road that night. Are you still of that opinion?”

”No,” responded his friend. ”There was a plot--a cleverly devised plot.

Someone went there dressed exactly like you.”

”But you say you saw his face.”

”So I did. And I could have sworn it was you.”

”It is that conspiracy which we have to fathom,” Charlie said. ”At least, we have established the fact that Maud is alive. And having found Maud, we may also find Marion. Possibly she went to her into safe hiding from us.”

”More than possible, I think.”

But while they were whispering something occurred which made them both start. The girl, crimson with anger, suddenly dived her hand into her dress pocket, and, taking out a bundle of paper, flung it at the man before her.

They saw, to their amazement, that it was a bunch of crisp banknotes.

She had cast it at his feet in open defiance.

Perhaps the money was the price of her silence--money he had sent to her or to her father to purchase secrecy!

The old man gave a glance at the notes crushed into a bundle and lying upon the carpet, and then, turning to her, snapped his bony finger and thumb in defiance, and laughed in her face--a grim, evil laugh, which Charlie knew from experience meant retaliation and bitter vengeance.

CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT.

NOT COUNTING THE COST.

The girl turned to leave, but the old man placed himself between her and the door.

She stamped her little foot angrily in command to be allowed to pa.s.s.

He saw her determination, and hesitated. Then he seemed to commence to argue, to place before her the probable result of her action in casting aside the money, but she would hear nothing. Her mind seemed fully made up. She had spoken her last word, and wished to leave him.

He saw in her decision an att.i.tude antagonistic to himself. He was in deadly peril. Though his wealth could command all that was good and all that was bad, though it placed him above his fellow men and rendered him immune from much, yet it could not ensure her goodwill.

Both Max and Charlie realised plainly that Maud was in possession of some great secret, and that she had refused a bribe of silence. This man who had believed that his money could purchase anything had discovered, to his dismay, that it could not seal her lips. He saw himself facing an imminent peril, and was undecided how to act.

He argued. But she would not listen. He appealed. But she only smiled and shook her head.

Her mind was made up. She had decided to refuse the money. He picked it from the floor and handed it to her again, but she would not take it in her hand.