Part 66 (2/2)

”No need to bother with that part of it now. I know.”

”But she did not give you authority to come to me about them? Don't pretend she did; I know better.”

”I'm not goin' to pretend--that. She didn't.”

”Humph!” with a sneer; ”perhaps your authority comes from some one else.

Her daughter, maybe? You and she are--or shall we say _were_--quite touchingly confidential at one time, I believe.”

The tone and the remark were mistakes; it would have been much better for the Phillips cause if the speaker had continued to be loftily condescending. Sears kept a grip on his temper, but his own tone changed as he replied.

”Egbert,” he said sharply, ”look here. The facts, as far as a man without a spygla.s.s can sight 'em through the fog, are just these: You got George Kent into a stock trade. He put up money--real money. You put up two thousand dollars in bonds and, because that was more than your share, he paid you four hundred dollars in cash. The last anybody knew the two bonds you put up were the property of Cordelia Berry. I want to know how you got hold of 'em.”

”Am I to understand that you are accusing me of _stealing_ those bonds?”

”I'm not accusin' you of anything in particular. George has put this affair of his in my hands; I've got what amounts to his signed power of attorney in my pocket. If those bonds are yours, and you can prove it, then I shan't say any more about 'em. If they still belong to Cordelia--well, that's another question, one I mean to have the answer to before you and I part company.”

”Kendrick, I---- Do you realize that I can have you arrested for this?”

”I don't know. But it does seem to me that if those bonds aren't your property then you had no right to pledge 'em in that stock deal. And that your takin' Kent's four hundred dollars in part payment for 'em comes pretty nigh to what a lawyer would call gettin' money under false pretenses. So the arrests might be even-Stephen, so far as that goes.”

This was the sheerest ”bluff,” but it was delivered with all the a.s.surance in the world. It had not precisely the effect Sears had hoped for. Egbert did not seem so much frightened as annoyed by it. He frowned, walked across the room and back, looked at the clock, then out of the window, and finally turned to his opponent.

”Recognizing, of course,” he sneered, ”the fact that all this is absolutely none of your business, Kendrick; may I ask why you didn't come to me in Bayport instead of here?”

The captain's smile returned. ”I did try to come, Egbert,” he answered.

”But you had gone and so had the things in your room. You told Sarah and the stable folks you were goin' to Trumet. When I found you hadn't gone there, but were bound for here--after hidin' your valises over night in Tabby Crosby's shed--I decided you might be goin' even farther than Denboro, and that if I wanted to see you pretty soon--or ever, maybe--I'd better hoist sail and travel fast. When the depot folks told me you were askin' about the three-fifteen I felt confirmed in my judgments, as the fellow said. Now if you'll tell me about those bonds?”

Another turn by Phillips across the parlor and back. Then he asked, with sarcasm, ”If I were to tell you that those bonds were given me by Mrs.

Berry, you wouldn't believe it, I presume?”

”We-ll, I'd like to hear a little testimony from Cordelia first.”

”May I ask why you did not go to her instead of to me?”

”I didn't have a chance. You got away too soon.”

”Possibly you may have thought that she, too, would consider it none of your business. And, since you won't take my word, how do you expect me to prove--here in Denboro that those bonds are mine?”

”I don't know. But if it can't be proved in Denboro, then I'm afraid, Egbert, that you'll have to go back to Bayport with me and prove it there.... Oh, I know you'd hate to go, but----”

”Go! I flatly refuse to go, of course.”

”I was afraid you would. Well, then I'd have to call in the constable to help get you under way. Jim Baker, the depot master, is constable here in Denboro. He and I were s.h.i.+pmates. He'd arrest the prophet Elijah if I asked him to, and not ask why, either.”

”Kendrick----”

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