Part 37 (2/2)

So utterly unexpected was this attack, so completely aside from what seemed to be at stake, that Rivers concluded everything was known; that the very secrets of his innermost thoughts were in this man's knowledge. The quicksands all but engulfed him. With unblinking eyes he regarded Northrup as though hypnotized.

”I took it to her,” he gasped.

”Your wife?”

”Yes.”

”She does not suspect?”

”No.”

”What did your wife say when she read the letter?”

”She's going to help me out.”

”I see. All right, you're going to tell her that you want the Point and then you're going to sell it to me. Heathcote can fix this up in a few days--the money I pay you will get you out of Maclin's reach. If he makes a break for you, I'll grab him. I guess he's susceptible to scare, too, if the truth were known.”

”My G.o.d! I want a drink.” Larry looked as if he did; he rose and reeled over to the closet.

Northrup regarded his man closely and his fingers reached out and drew the scattered papers nearer.

”Take only enough to stiffen you up, a swallow or two, Rivers.”

Larry obeyed mechanically and when he returned to his chair he was firmer.

”Rivers, I'm going to give you a chance by way of the only decent course open to you--or to me. G.o.d knows, it's smudgy enough at the best and crooked, but it's all I can muster. I don't expect you to understand me, or my motives--I'm going to talk as man to man, stripped bare. In the future you can work it out any way you're able to. What I want at the present is to clear the rubbish away that's cluttering the soul of a woman. That's enough and you can draw what d.a.m.ned conclusions you want to.”

There was an ugly gleam in Larry's eyes. Men stripped bare show brutish traits, but he felt the straps that were binding him close.

”Go on!” he growled.

”You are to get your wife to give you this Point, Rivers. She may not want to, but you must force her a bit there by confessing to her the whole d.a.m.ned truth from start to finish about--these!”

Both men looked at the ma.s.s of papers.

”What all these things represent, you know.” Larry did not move; he believed that Northrup knew, too. Knew of that year back in the past when his trick had been his ruin. ”And your simply getting out of sight won't do. Your wife has got to be free--free, do you understand?

So long as she doesn't know the truth she'd have pity for you--women are like that--she's going to know all there is to know, and then she'll fling you off!”

In the hidden depths of Rivers's nature there heaved and roared something that, had Northrup not held the reins, would have meant battle to the death. It was not outraged honour, love, or justice that blinded and deafened Larry; it was simply the brutish resentment of the savage who, bound and gagged, watches a strong foe take all that he had believed was his by right of conquest. At that moment he hated Mary-Clare as he hated Northrup.

”You d.a.m.ned scoundrel!” he gasped. ”And if I do what you suggest, what then?” He meant to force Northrup as far as he dared.

A look that Rivers was never to forget spread over Northrup's face; it was the look of one who had lived through experiences he knew he could not make clear. The impossibility of making Rivers comprehend him presently overcame Northrup. He spread his hands wide and said hopelessly:

”Nothing!”

”Like h.e.l.l, nothing!” Larry was desperate and brutal. Under all his bravado rang the note of defeat; terror, and a barren hope of escape that he loathed while he clung to it. ”I don't know what Maclin's game is--I've played fair. Whatever you've got on him can't touch me, when the truth's out.” Rivers was breathing hard; the sweat stood on his forehead. ”But when it comes to selling your wife for hush money----”

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