“You can’t get away with that,” Taylor said threateningly. “I’m not going to listen to this.”
“Wait a minute,” Denby advised him. “You’ve been in the service long enough to know that the rough stuff won’t go. You’d only get the worst of it; so take things easily.”
He smiled pleasantly at the other men. “I’m glad to find you boys weren’t in on this. Take him along with you, and this, too.” He tossed the necklace on the table from which it slid to the floor at Gibbs’ feet.
Gibbs made a quick step forward to recover it, but trod on part of the string and crushed many of the stones. Poor Gibbs looked at the damage he had done aghast. If the thing were worth two hundred thousand dollars, a ponderous calculation forced the dreadful knowledge upon him that he had destroyed possibly a quarter of them. Fifty thousand dollars! Tears came to his eyes. “Honest to goodness,” he groaned, looking imploringly at the august R. J., “I couldn’t help it.”
“Don’t worry,” Denby laughed. “They’re fakes. Take what’s left as Exhibit A.”
Gibbs recovered his ease of manner quickly and took a few steps nearer the fallen Chief. “And to think I’ve been working for a crook two years and never knew it,” he said, with a childlike air of wonder.
Taylor looked at Denby with rage and despair.
“Damn you,” he exploded, “you’ve got me all right, but I’ll send that girl and her sister up the river. You’re stuck on her and I’ll get even that way.”
Even in his fury he remarked that this threat did not disturb the man in the least. He saw the girl blanch and hide her face, but this cursed meddling R. J., as he called himself, only smiled.
“I think not,” Denby returned. “You forget that Mr. Harrington is vice-president of the New York Burglar Insurance Company and a friend of the late Mr. Vernon Cartwright. I hardly think he will allow a little matter like that to come into public notice. In fact, I’ve seen him about it already.”
“Oh, get me out of this,” Taylor cried in disgust.
“Just a minute,” Denby commanded. “I’ll trouble you for that thirty thousand dollars.”
“You think of everything, don’t you?” Taylor snarled, handing it back. “Is that a fake, too?”
“Oh, no,” he was told, “I borrowed that from Monty, who’s been a great help to me in this little scheme as an amateur partner.”
He put the bills in his pocket and took out the cigar Taylor had given him.
“Here’s your cigar,” he said.
Taylor snatched it from him, and biting off the end, stuck it in his mouth. He assumed a brazen air of bravado. “Well,” he cried bragging, “it took the biggest man in the secret service to land me, Mr. R. J., but I’ve got some mighty good pals, in some mighty good places, and they’ll come across for me, and don’t you forget it. After all, you’re not the jury, and all the smart lawyers aren’t dead yet.”
“I don’t think they’ll help you this time,” Denby said. “I believe you’ll still enjoy that winter climate.”
“Aw, come on, you dirty grafter,” Gibbs cried contemptuously, and with his partner led the broken man away.
Ethel came to his side when they were alone. “Did you really mean it about arranging with Mr. Harrington?” she cried.
He looked down at her tenderly. “Yes,” he said. “We’ve saved her.”
“And you are really R. J.?” she exclaimed wonderingly.
“I really am,” he returned. “Can’t you guess how much I wanted to tell you before? But I couldn’t you know, at first, because I thought you might be Taylor’s accomplice. And later, I still dared not, because I was under orders with my duty toward my Government. Can you forgive me for making you suffer like that?”
“Forgive you?” she whispered tenderly. “Haven’t I said I love you?”
He took her in his arms and kissed her.
“And everything’s all right now, isn’t it?” she sighed happily.
He looked at her whimsically.
“Except that I’m hungry—are you hungry?”
“Starved,” she cried.
“Let’s ask for some food,” he suggested. “Nothing would gratify Lambart so much. But I don’t think I’ve been so hungry since I was in Paris.”
“I wish it were Paris,” she said. “Dear Paris, where I first found R. J.”
“It shall be, whenever you say,” he answered, “and I’ll tell you all about R. J. and the lonely life he led till he saw you.”
“And to think I could believe for a moment you were a criminal!” she said, self-reproach in her voice, “and even try to trap you!”
“But you’ve caught me,” he said proudly.
“Have I really got you, Steve?” she asked, softly, holding out her arms to him.
CORT THEATRE
NEW YORK
BEGINNING AUGUST 24th
———
COHAN’S GRAND OPERA
HOUSE, CHICAGO
BEGINNING AUGUST 31st
———
SELWYN AND COMPANY
PRESENT
UNDER COVER
A melodrama of love, mystery
and thrills
BY ROI COOPER MEGRUE
| Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: |
|---|
| Ambassadeurs waiters corraled=> Ambassadeurs waiters corralled {pg 39} |
| wrung his hand again and again=> wrung his hands again and again {pg 156} |
| How women do gamble nowaday=> How women do gamble nowadays {pg 165} |