Part 23 (2/2)
”You will get out,” she cried. ”I'm doing everything possible to get you free. I've been trying to get the best lawyer in the country--Richard Brewster.”
”Richard Brewster!” exclaimed Howard. ”He's my father's lawyer.”
”I saw your father yesterday afternoon,” she said quietly.
”You did!” he exclaimed, surprised. ”Was he willing to receive you?”
”He had to,” she replied. ”I gave him a piece of my mind.”
Howard looked at her in mingled amazement and admiration. That she should have dared to confront a man as proud and obstinate as his father astounded him.
”What did he say?” he asked eagerly.
”I asked him to come publicly to your support and to give you legal a.s.sistance. He refused, saying he could not be placed in a position of condoning such a crime and that your behavior and your marriage had made him wash his hands of you forever.”
Tears filled Howard's eyes and his mouth quivered.
”Then my father believes me guilty of this horrible crime?” he exclaimed.
”He insisted that you must be guilty as you had confessed. He offered, though, to give you legal a.s.sistance, but only on one condition.”
”What was that condition?” he demanded.
”That I consent to a divorce,” replied Annie quietly.
”What did you say?”
”I said I'd consent to anything if it would help you, but when he told me that even then he would not come personally to your support I told him we would worry along without his a.s.sistance. On that I left him.”
”You're a brave little woman!” cried Howard. Noticing her pale, anxious face, he said:
”You, too, must have suffered.”
”Oh, never mind me,” she rejoined quickly. ”What we must do now is to get you out of this horrid place and clear your name before the world.
We must show that your alleged confession is untrue; that it was dragged from you involuntarily. We must find that mysterious woman who came to Underwood's rooms while you lay on the couch asleep. Do you know what my theory is, Howard?”
”What?” demanded her husband.
”I believe you were hypnotized into making that confession. I've read of such things before. You know the boys in college often hypnotized you.
You told me they made you do all kinds of things against your will. That big brute, Captain Clinton, simply forced his will on yours.”
”By Jove--I never thought of that!” he exclaimed. ”I know my head ached terribly after he got through all that questioning. When he made me look at that pistol I couldn't resist any more. But how are we going to break through the net which the police have thrown around me?”
”By getting the best lawyer we can procure. I shall insist on Judge Brewster taking the case. He declines, but I shall go to his office again this afternoon. He must----”
Howard shook his head.
”You'll not be able to get Brewster. He would never dare offend my father by taking up my case without his permission. He won't even see you.”
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